Do you recognize when you are slightly hungry or full?

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I have difficulties recognizing whether or not I am hungry or full until it is too late and I feel bloated from eating too much or end up sugar crashing from not knowing I should have eaten. I only seem to feel extreme symptoms. It can be problematic.

My only idea on how to manage this not knowing is by eating several small meals at specific times each day. I try to be mindful of my caloric intake in relation to my activity level. It would be nice if there was a way to learn how to know if I was moderately hungry or full though. How to actually feel it. I dunno... maybe I am wanting to feel something I just cannot feel.

I am curious if anyone else here can relate to not knowing if they are hungry or full until it is too late. If yes, how do you deal with it?

I generally know when I am hungry except for situations when my hyperfocus ticks. I can start doing something then and "wake up" 8 hours later realizing that I am about to collapse of hunger.

And I don't have a problem knowing I am full unless I am really hungry. In that case I will have no idea how much I am supposed to eat because no matter how much I would eat I am still hungry but I have a method for this: after eating my usual portion I wait like 20 mins. If I am still hungry then - I eat some more. I regain the ability to know when I am getting full as soon as I give my "hunger receptors" the 20 minutes of "calibration time".

I'm always hungry, or at least i think i am. There's some connection between me being hungry and me being bored. Something to do with Dopamine levels.

I also can't tell if i'm hungry or thirsty, it's always best to get a drink first i guess.

Symptoms of being hungry...
Feeling of emptiness in stomach.
Gurgling, rumbling or growling in stomach.
Dizziness, faintness or light-headedness.
Headache.
Irritability, easily agitated.
Lack of concentration.
Nausea.

I get a headache if i skip a meal sometimes, so that part is true. But my stomach rumbles all the time, probably because i never stop feeding it.

I suck at this, too. I set timers or otherwise schedule meals. My husband is type-1 diabetic so he's grown up eating on a schedule and monitoring his carb intake his whole life. If you plan out your day's meals in the morning, with correct portions, and set timers to remind you to eat, then you will be OK. I use Chron-o-meter (Google it for the site) to plan my meals, but you could use other tools, like Weight Watchers' points system.

I basically eat the same thing every day now, with slight variations, and it generally works a lot better than when I was winging it. Having snacks near me when I'm focused on something makes it more likely I'll eat then, too. But I still usually miss my set lunch time if I don't set a timer -- and then wonder why I'm not focusing as well as I could.

Thank you all for responding and for giving helpful suggestions.

This has been a problem for me throughout my life. I have mostly been underweight. Since last summer I put on some weight and increased my activity level. It was hard to do. Now I am concerned that I will not be able to maintain this weight. I know this is not productive to my well being, but I have not been concerned about overeating due to needing to gain weight. The only real problem I have had lately is that of feeling bloated. Now I want to find balance with this. I do not want my progress to be undone and I do not want to keep gaining.

I really like the idea of drinking water first as well as setting timers. The SO was telling me the other day how it is common for people to mix up hungry and thirsty. I also tend to not notice if I am thirsty, more often than not... but I will drink large amounts of water as long as I have a cup of it nearby. I think I will start setting the kitchen timer for meals and snacks. I have been forgetting to eat breakfast and dinner at regular times lately and it has been messing me up. That makes me think I should eat larger meals and I seem to be most agreeable about eating if I eat five little meals throughout the day. I do not like having to be mindful of so much, but I feel better overall when I can manage to do that.

This sums me up quite well . Not sure whether it's to do with high or low dopamine levels. Have heard that thirst can be mistaken for hunger, but having a drink seldom ,for me,reduces the hunger pangs.
On the rare occasion I have company I eat less.

I'm underweight and bloated a lot, too. I hear it could be malabsorption and it could be not drinking enough. You could go on an elimination diet to see if certain foods are causing you problems -- that got a lot of my bloating down. One thing it didn't catch for me was dairy, which gives me constipation that takes over a week to disappear once I'm off it. Insoluble fiber also messes me up.

When I stay away from those things, I have a much better appetite. Everyone's different, so there may be foods that work best for you.

Now if only I could gain weight so I could go back to ultrarunning