for me satisfied == full

stuffed == bloated and pain in stomach eating too much

I can't give you a definition except that when I eat until I'm stuffed it's
a very uncomfortable feeling. The trick is to know when o stop before you
get to that point.

I find it easier to know when I'm full if I eat slowly. If I eat quickly,
many times I'll be stuffed before realizing I was full. It takes awhile for
the brain to get the signal that the stomach is full.

Yes. A very good question, because I think it is at the heart of being
overweight. It is my belief that many overweight people do not have a
good mechanism to tell them when they "should" be full. This may be
partly evolutionary..you know, our ancient ancestors needing to eat as
much as possible when they had the opportunity cause they never knew
when the next meal might stumble accross their paths.

You know how thin people eat, right? They eat like birds! Just a few
bites and they say they are full, and I have no reason to doubt them.
But people who have ever been overweight recognize that they cannot
depend on their bodies telling them when they have had enough. When I
was overweight, I could eat 2X what I needed, and still want
more...and eat more. Was I stuffed? Yes, but I didn't mind the
feeling. The flip side of this is that I am never really starved. At
nighttime, I do crave food and even dream about it, but by the time
morning comes, I am often less hungry than I was 6 or so hours
earlier. What all this tells me is that I have to take control of my
caloric intake and forget about being hungry, full, half-full,
satisfied or whatever. In fact, that is exactly what I do and did. I
eat EXACTLY 1800 cal. per day...then I STOP. My weight stays at a slim
and trim 135. dkw

Sometimes it takes a 10 minute pause for my body to tell me what I have
done.

Are you a clean your plate person?

I guess if you have been used to overeating you could start a new
regime by setting the table for your meal with your plate full of
recommended portions.  Make it your goal to get used to that amount.
You'll probably get hungry again in a short period of time but its a
start.  Perhaps your feelings will change.  One can only hope.  Just
remember that starving people do not feel hungry.  Satisfied, full and
stuffed feelings are up to you.

Welcome to how I got fat in the first place.  While I know that Atkins
(and any diet system) is about long term right-sizing my portions it
has taken me years to figure out what reasonable portions *mean*.
Weighing, carb counting, calorie counting helped.  Eventually I
learned what size was right.

As to full, when I was a carb eater I over-stuffed so I had no idea
what regular-full was.  It's something I learned slow but sure.  It
sounds like that's what you're doing now.  Keep with it.