Can't finish more than 50% of your meals at a time? Does eating food cause frequent indigestion? Do you find it hard to eat after a long run? You may be experiencing early satiety or feeling full sooner than you'd like.
Many people deal with early satiety for different reasons. For some, their stomach hurts after a good exercise. For others, they battle having an upset stomach due to conditions like GERD or acid reflux that leads to a poor appetite at meals. There are even more reasons, like gastric motility disorders and acute illnesses and infections, but I don't think I need to explain anymore that some people get full sooner than others!
In order to get the required energy and nutrients we need in one day, dietitians recommend eating 3 moderate sized meals with variation in food items. When eating three meals is so traditional in eating patterns around the world, it can be difficult to arrange comfortable eating times when they are different from the usual breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. Instead of changing timing of meals, change the size of meals and spread them out.
Eating 5-6 small meals per day can be very beneficial to an appetite that struggles to get enough food. At the normal meals, make less food, or purchase less food, and plan to eat more in 2-3 hours. These smaller meals do not need to attempt to cover all food groups. For example, a lunch that consists of a grilled chicken breast, a side of half a cup of steamed green beans, and a glass of milk could be a perfect small meal. Another smaller meal in about 2-3 hours could be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple. The key here is to spread out the meals, or split them in half, in order to still obtain a balanced day of food intake.
Eating more spread out can take some practice. It helps to have non-perishable foods on hand often. Put a bunch of bananas in the car and have one as a snack. Putting trail mix or granola bars in your backpack or work bag can work perfectly, just take a handful out and only go for another handful if your appetite allows. Packing work lunches to be accessible throughout the day at any time is very beneficial. Try packing things like individual bags of chips, single serving yogurts, sandwiches cut in half, and baby carrots. Packing things like microwavable meals can be too much at once and cannot be saved for later.
There are some foods to avoid when early satiety is a problem. These include greasy, fried, or rich foods. These foods take longer to digest and can feel like a lump in your stomach. Fiber can become problematic too as this can slow down digestion as well. The plethora of fruits and vegetables contain not only beneficial vitamins and minerals, but are typically high in fiber. I don’t want you to miss out on these foods! Just be careful in having too many at one time. Don’t eat a salad, an apple, and lentil soup for lunch; the very high fiber content could result in bloating, long term satiety, and uncomfortable gas. Some of the worst offenders in the fiber category are broccoli, cauliflower and beans as these vegetables tend to create more gas than others in digestion.
So try it out! Spreading out meals and eating food throughout the day can be very beneficial to those fighting consistent poor appetite at meals and problems feeling full quickly. By using 5-6 small meals per day, carrying around snacks, and avoiding greasy and fibrous, gassy foods, you’ll be able to get your nutrition needs and avoid early satiety.
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