How to Retrain Your Appetite for Sustainable Weight Loss That Lasts, Without Using Medication
- Dec 30, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 1
Claire Jones is an award-winning weight loss coach, helping people build a healthy relationship with food and themselves. She is the author of How to Eat Less, and the founder of YourOneLife. Claire empowers clients to break free from diets, create effective habits, and build confidence in new challenges, guiding them towards lasting success.
Why does eating less feel so hard, even when we want to lose weight? This article reveals how your appetite actually works, why dieting often backfires, and how to retrain your hunger signals gently and sustainably, without relying on willpower or medication.
I haven’t always had a calm or regulated appetite. For decades, my eating felt inconsistent. Some days I could eat “normally.” Other days, I felt constantly hungry, snacky, or out of control around food. I could lose weight, but I never believed I could keep it off. Eventually, I did, and for the last 15 years, I have been able to live at a healthy weight while feeling relaxed around food.
What changed everything for me wasn’t stricter rules or more willpower. It was understanding what was actually going on and learning how to work with my body instead of fighting it.
The simplest way I’ve found to explain that process, both for myself and for the clients I’ve been coaching since 2020, is what I call the balloon analogy. It has become one of the most powerful tools in my practice to help people understand their appetite, let go of blame, and finally create sustainable change.
It is by no means a scientific explanation. The real science is far more complex. But it is clear, practical, and easy to apply in real life, and that matters more.
What is the balloon analogy, and how does it make appetite easier to understand?
Picture your actual stomach organ as a balloon.
A small balloon fills quickly.
A stretched balloon can take much more in before it feels full.
Your body adjusts the size of that balloon based on how you eat over time. Once you see that, many past dieting experiences suddenly make sense.
That moment of clarity is what I aim to give my clients early in our work together. When they begin to see their eating patterns through this lens, it shifts the conversation from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What’s happening in my body, and how can I work with it?”
A brand-new balloon versus one that has already been blown up
Think about blowing up a brand-new balloon for the first time. The first breath is hard work. It feels resistant. Your cheeks ache. It feels like nothing is happening.
Then suddenly it gives a little, and after that it becomes easier.
Now compare that to a balloon that has already been blown up before. The air goes in easily. It expands quickly. There is very little resistance.
That difference is exactly how appetite feels.
If your appetite balloon is small, eating less feels manageable.
If it is stretched, stopping earlier feels uncomfortable, and hunger feels loud.
That isn’t a character flaw. It is an adaptation.
How this showed up in my own life
When my eating was more chaotic, my balloon was stretched.
Portions were bigger.
Snacking was frequent.
Eating past fullness was normal.
Dieting meant trying to tolerate intense hunger.
When I tried to clamp down hard, the balloon pushed back.
Hunger increased.
Food obsession crept in.
Rebounds followed.
At the time, I thought that meant I was bad at dieting. What it actually meant was that I was trying to shrink a stretched balloon too quickly.
Because I’ve lived this, I’m able to guide clients through the same shift, helping them recognize the signs of a stretched balloon and understand that their struggles with hunger or portion control are not personal failures, but biological adaptations.
Why dieting feels so hard for many people
Most diets assume everyone starts with the same appetite. They don’t.
If you eat for a small balloon while yours is stretched, it feels genuinely hard. Not inconvenient. Not mildly uncomfortable. Hard.
This is why people say:
I’m hungry all the time.
I think about food constantly.
I’m fine all day, then lose control at night.
I can’t stick to it even though I want to.
I’m stuck in a weight loss plateau.
That isn’t a motivation problem. It’s a capacity problem.
How balloons get stretched in the first place
Balloon stretching happens slowly through very normal behaviours:
Regularly eating past comfortable fullness
Portion sizes creeping up
Grazing instead of eating meals
Using food to manage stress or exhaustion
Drinking calories without noticing
Repeated diet and regain cycles
That was my experience too. Each time, my body adapted. The balloon stretched. Appetite recalibrated upwards. That’s biology doing its job, not failure.
We’re hardwired to eat when food is available, even when we’re not hungry. That’s part of how the human body has survived for thousands of years. It’s also why we’re able to store body fat in the first place. Hunger is a biological cue to seek food, not a moral failing.
So it makes perfect sense that deliberately eating less, especially after a period of abundance, can feel like a threat to the system. Voluntary restriction doesn’t always go down well with a body that’s evolved to protect us from scarcity. Hunger is going to kick in at some point and derail us.
What actually helped me regulate my appetite
The biggest shift for me came when I stopped trying to force the balloon smaller and focused instead on gentle deflation.
That meant:
Eating to satisfied rather than stuffed
Leaving food when I was full, even when it felt uncomfortable at first
Eating proper meals instead of constant picking
Allowing mild hunger without panicking
Making small, consistent portion changes
At first, this felt hard. But over time, something important happened. My appetite adapted. What once felt like “not enough” started to feel normal. Food stopped dominating my thoughts. Hunger became quieter and more predictable. That’s what appetite regulation actually feels like.
These are also the foundational strategies I help clients implement, one small step at a time. Together, we practice tuning into real fullness, slowing down meals, and normalising mild hunger. Just like my own process, it’s not about perfection. It’s about gentle, consistent change.
How improving nutrition quality reduced pressure
One crucial piece that made this easier was improving the quality of what went into the balloon, not just the quantity.
When I tried to eat less without changing food quality, it felt brutal. Smaller portions of energy-dense foods meant:
Hunger returned quickly
Satisfaction didn’t last
Everything relied on willpower
What changed things was focusing on lower-calorie, higher-nutrition, satisfying but less energy-dense foods. High protein. High fibre.
That’s why I teach clients how to build meals that are both satisfying and lower in calorie density, so they can eat sufficient food without overstimulating appetite or relying on willpower.
Energy density and appetite
Some foods take up a lot of space for relatively few calories. Others deliver a lot of calories in very little volume. Some foods are easy and quick to digest, so we can feel hungry again soon. Other foods take longer to digest, enabling us to feel full for longer.
When you’re gently shrinking a stretched balloon, this matters. By prioritising foods that were:
Higher in protein
Higher in fibre
Higher in water content
Lower in calorie density
I could eat meals that physically filled the balloon without overloading it with energy, and that would sustain me for longer. The pressure I put on myself dropped. And when this boom and bust type pressure drops, appetite starts to regulate. Everything starts to feel calmer. Food becomes less of a focus.
How this looked in real life
This wasn’t about eating perfectly or cutting foods out. It was about making sure most meals:
Actually filled me up
Lasted more than an hour
Didn’t trigger constant snacking
Didn’t rely on coping with hunger
That meant:
Protein anchored meals
Plenty of vegetables and volume foods
Fewer meals and snacks containing refined carbs and fats
Treat foods eaten deliberately, not as the base of every meal
As nutrition quality improved, portion control became easier rather than harder. The balloon shrank with less resistance.
The science behind appetite regulation
Appetite isn’t just about willpower. It’s a complex system regulated by hormones and the brain.
Ghrelin, made in the stomach, increases before meals and signals hunger to the brain.
Leptin, made by fat cells, signals satiety and reduces appetite over time.
These hormones interact with the hypothalamus in the brain, which integrates information from the gut and fat stores to regulate eating behaviour.
When people lose weight, ghrelin tends to rise and leptin falls, increasing hunger and making it harder to maintain weight loss long term.
Understanding this science helps remove the shame. It explains why appetite can feel overwhelming after dieting and reinforces the need for sustainable, gradual change.
For my clients, the balloon analogy becomes a practical framework they can return to anytime they feel off track, without needing to remember the science. It helps them make sense of their experiences and stay calm in the face of setbacks, because they now understand what’s really going on behind the scenes.
Why maintenance mattered more than weight loss
One of the most important lessons I learned was the value of maintenance. Maintenance is where the balloon learns that this level of intake is safe. Rush past it, and the balloon stretches again.
This is why people often lose weight, hit a target, then regain it.
Portions creep
Awareness drops
Old habits return
The balloon never gets the opportunity to stabilise.
Learning to hold steady was what finally made my weight feel settled rather than constantly managed. I physically cannot eat the volumes of food I used to eat. I know if I continued to consistently push the boundaries over time, I would. But I don’t want to, so I actively choose not to.
This is also why I work closely with clients on the skill of maintenance, holding steady instead of rushing forward. It’s the part most diets skip, but it’s where the real transformation happens.
Holidays and real life still apply
Life stretches balloons. Holidays. Stress. Disrupted routines. Alcohol. The goal isn’t to keep the balloon tiny all the time. It’s to notice when it’s stretching and respond early with awareness, not punishment.
That’s why skills like portion awareness, nutrition quality, and regular check-ins matter far more than rigid rules.
Long term weight loss is balloon management
For me, and for the clients I work with now, sustainable weight loss comes down to:
Understanding how your balloon got stretched
Filling it with the right kind of food
Reducing pressure gradually
Letting appetite recalibrate
Maintaining long enough for it to stick
Weight loss becomes calmer. Food stops feeling like a constant battle. Appetite feels predictable and manageable. And over time, something surprising happens. Joy returns to eating.
Joy in feeling satisfied but not stuffed. Joy in being able to eat just enough and feel good afterward. Joy in clearer thinking, more energy, and less fixation on food.
That’s the outcome I help my clients work toward, not just weight loss, but a more peaceful, empowered relationship with food and body.
When eating feels calm and aligned, sustainable progress doesn’t feel like a fight. It feels like freedom. If you’re ready to find freedom from overeating and retrain your balloon, visit my website to find out the ways to work with me in 2026.
Read more from Claire Jones
Claire Jones, Weight Loss and Confidence Coach
Claire Jones is an award-winning weight loss coach and author of How to Eat Less. After struggling with her own weight and relationship with food, she transformed her mindset and developed a sustainable approach to lasting health. Now, she helps others break free from dieting cycles, build confidence, and create healthier habits. With a background in coaching and behavioural change, Claire empowers clients to embrace a positive, long-term lifestyle. Her mission is to inspire sustainable health and self-belief.
