Extreme Hunger In Eating Disorder Recovery

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Last updated on June 27th, 2024 at 08:06 pm

Extreme hunger is a normal and often necessary part of eating disorder recovery. While the experience is normal, extreme hunger can often feel very traumatic if you are in recovery. You might wonder if you’ve “gone too far” in recovery, and have a deep fear that you will never stop gaining weight.

you might wonder how long the extreme hunger will last. You might have the desire to restrict your food to an amount that your eating disorder voice agrees with. Don’t do this! This will only cause the seemingly insatiable hunger to last longer.

Extreme hunger in eating disorder recovery often results from:

  • Hormonal changes in recovery
  • High energy demands for tissue and organ repair
  • Hypermetabolism
  • The digestive system regains function
  • Changes in the gut microbiome

While extreme hunger is a common symptom of ed recovery, it can also be a warning sign of an eating disorder as restriction will lead us to feel out of control when food is available. 

Let’s dig into some of the signs of extreme hunger and how to work through it.

Extreme Hunger In Anorexia Recovery

Insatiable hunger following extreme food restriction is normal. You might even feel hungry right after you finish eating.

This is your body’s way of trying to protect you from future food insecurity.  

When someone is malnourished, it is a form of trauma. The body kicks into hyper-drive when it comes to digestion to prepare to get all of the nutrients it possibly can when the foods are available. This is also known as starvation syndrome.

Some reasons why we experience extreme hunger after an eating disorder include: 

  • Preoccupation with food out of fear it won’t be available in the future
  • Salivation increases the longer someone is deprived of food heightening our desire for food 
  • Neuropeptide-Y, the hormone that makes us crave carbs is kicked up a notch.  This is to help the body get glucose, its preferred fuel source.
  • We start to see changes in thyroid hormones, which alter the rate of metabolism and hunger in an attempt to achieve weight homeostasis
  • We are normalizing insulin dosing (for those with type 1 diabetes)

In other words, extreme hunger is literally your body’s way of trying to keep you alive and avoid the future stress and famine that it has experienced.   

We see examples of extreme hunger in many types of famine throughout history including: 

It’s important to know that feeling extremely hungry is not a sign of an eating disorder relapse. It is also an eating disorder myth that extreme hunger means we’ve gone “too far in the other direction” in recovery.

What Are The Signs of Extreme Hunger

infographic with extreme hunger symptoms

Signs of extreme hunger include: 

  • Being preoccupied with thoughts of food 
  • Having many types of hunger happening simultaneously 
  • Seeking out food in place of other activities 
  • Having difficulty with fullness cues 
  • Physical pain in the belly, dizziness, headaches, or sweating 
  • Food fatigue: nothing sounds good enough to eat

While these signs may feel scary to you, they are cues that we need to nourish the body. It is important you honor your hunger, even if it feels overwhelming. 

You are also likely to notice extreme hunger the more you diet, have a diet pill addiction or have an intense fear of gaining weight.

How Insatiable Hunger Impacts Us 

If you are in the mechanical eating stage of eating disorder recovery, you are probably feeling many emotions when it comes to your high hunger levels. 

You might be feeling like you are failing at your eating disorder and at recovery if you want to eat more than what is on your recovery meal plan.

This can lead you to be tempted to go to extreme measures to try to restrict food including: 

  • Not engaging in social situations with food
  • Giving away money to avoid buying food
  • Leaving your cash or credit cards at home or asking someone to take them away
  • Not keeping tempting items in the house 
  • Becoming extremely fearful, angry, sad, or resentful when you feel like you’ve gone over your designated amount of food. 

These behaviors will not help to eliminate extreme hunger which can be a normal but difficult part of the recovery process. 

Instead, these behaviors are likely to exacerbate the hunger even further and prolong its duration.

The reason is that all of how we try to shy away from extreme hunger includes restriction- which is exactly what leads to extreme hunger in the first place. 

Managing Extreme Hunger

Don’t Label it as a binge

  • Labeling excessive hunger as a binge will bring up negative feelings and thoughts you commonly hear with binging. It can bring on guilt and shame. 
  • Try calling your large appetite things like “nurturing,” “fueling,” or “recovery hunger.” 

Use A hunger fullness scale

  • Map out hunger and fullness on an intuitive eating scale
  • Be a gentle observer of what different levels of hunger and fullness feel like
  • Experiment with starting and stopping eating at various points between 3-10 on the hunger/fullness scale if possible

Keep all food options in the house

  • Challenge food rules and fear foods by keeping a fully stocked pantry
  • Give the foods that give you anxiety a spot in the kitchen (instead of just on the counter) just like any other food 

Know your triggers 

  • Food and hunger can be associated with people, places, or things.  
  • Recognize the associates you have with food.  If it’s a triggering environment, make a plan to eat before you go, meditate, or pace yourself at the event
  • The goal is not to get rid of extreme hunger but to ensure you have a variety of coping tools 

Recognize your mental food restrictions

  • Be honest if you’re restricting calories in your head
  • Don’t make any foods off limits
  • Be clear if you’re stopping eating before you’re satisfied because of fear

Don’t fill hunger with safe foods 

  • Eating only “healthy” foods to the point of fullness is a restriction
  • Replacing fear foods with healthy foods is a restriction 

Eat dessert first 

  • Eating dessert first can help you challenge your meal pattern rules
  • Be honest about if you’re eating what you want when you want, or if you’re eating according to social norms
  • Eating dessert first can help with satiety

Pay attention to what times of the day you feel satisfied 

  • Is there a time of day when you don’t feel extreme hunger? What is that experience like
  • Be mindful of different levels of fullness and what these feel like in the body 

Practice food neutrality 

Honor all types of hunger

  • Try urge surfing for hunger that is not physical
  • Eat for both emotional and physical satisfaction
  • Honor eating in response to stress, fear, grief, and other emotions 

Move Your Body

  • Movement can help with digestion and hunger/fullness cues
  • Practice joyful movement that isn’t focused on changing your body 
  • Discontinue ALL excessive exercise

Coping Tools For Anxiety Around Hunger 

While you should always honor both your physical and emotional hunger, there are other ways to make this part of the recovery journey feel more peaceful for you  

To cope emotionally with extreme hunger: 

  • Practice journaling using body-positive journal prompts
  • Discontinue body checking including weighing yourself or mirror-checking 
  • Practice meditation or breathing strategies
  • Keep positive mantras or eating disorder recovery quotes in mind or in physical spaces
  • Explore eating disorder recovery books to find inspiring recovery stories from others 
  • Get a message, go shopping, or take a hot bath 
  • Play a game (strategy games like Tetris are excellent)
  • Call a friend
  • Work with a therapist 
its just a potato eating disorder recovery pdf

How Long Will Extreme Hunger Last

The extreme hunger phase of recovery can feel discouraging. It might feel like you may never eat normally again.

How long intense hunger lasts will depend on: 

  • The length of time we were restricting our food
  • The current level of mental restriction 
  • The current level of physical restriction 
  • Weighing routine (weighing regularly can lead to mental and physical restriction)
  • How often are you incorporating fear foods 

The average time frame for extreme hunger is between 2 weeks and 6 months. 

Whatever you do, do not restrict yourself after you find yourself giving in to extreme hunger! This will cause a perpetual binge-restrict cycle which will prolong the experience of very high hunger levels. 


You are not alone in your journey. Check out my anorexia story where I share my experiences with what it feels like to be out of control with hunger from my perspective.

Shena Jaramillo. Registered Dietitian
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