Let's say you're not hungry...

rosiez321

I wont eat if I'm not hungry. Sometimes I will eat a few baby carrots and celery.

pcastagner

On a rest day I might be fine with not eating all my cals, but I'll make up for it after my next workout. On a workout day, no way! A calorie deficit is a recovery deficit!

smalls9686

Wow, glad to see the overwhelming majority posts are normally screaming for you to eat all your calories...its back at all costs never mind the time of day or if you are hungry. I used to have this problem a lot when i first started, but then i learned how to reconfigure what i ate to get higher calorie intake in the earlier part of my day without really changing the volume per say. I still don't eat all of my exercise calories back but I eat some back, i never go hungry, and i never eat force myself to eat. I am losing steadily, gaining muscle, and losing fat. The key is to be balanced and develop healthy habits and as many said eating when you aren't hungry is a habit many are trying to break not develop.

morticia16

... and it's the end of the day, and you haven't eaten all the calories you're "supposed" to. Do you force something down to meet your goal, or just chalk it up to a light day and go to sleep?

Does your answer change depending on how many calories we're talking?

I never force myself to eat if I cannot eat. I might boost up my potential deficit with some nuts and dried fruits but not if I have a significant fall out. Having said that, I take care I don't have a situation where I would have this problem in the evenings. In my case, when I started to monitor my calories intake, I actually had a problem with taking it up to my goal level. But that had to do with my lifestyle that I try to change. For example, I never had breakfast before, just coffee, I sometimes skipped lunch and while I might have done heavy dinners they didn't really take me all the way up to my goal. So now I make sure I have all my main meals and the goal calories are not a problem (quite the opposite sometimes). But if by any chance I am in deficit and I cannot eat (rarely happens these days), I won't force it down my throat...

Ophidion

Lots of people hiding Eating Disorders behind posts like this looking for approval for not eating. With that out of the way, it happens periodically, and there's no reason to eat if your not hungry.

THIS.