Eat When Not Hungry? Yes OR No?

JustynaJustice

If meal time comes along, do you still eat if you're not hungry? Yes or no? Why or why not?

Reaverie

No. Why would I eat if I feel sated? That can lead to problems with food addiction down the road. Now, if you are SERIOUSLY malnourished and dont feel hungry, therapy is needed. Its one thing to not eat back your exercise calories or just have a day where you arent as hungry, but its another all together if this is an ongoing issue and you are severely underweight. I can eat 2000 calories one day, 1200 another, 1800, then have like 600 and ans skip the rest of the day. So long as the overall trend is healthy, who cares? If you arent a morning person and breakfast just makes you feel bloated and uncomfortable (it does me) then skip it, unless you need to eat before a test.

cwolfman13

I've never experienced such a thing...

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WickAndArtoo

Yes, because I know that if I don't eat then I will become ravenous very soon after. I also have low blood sugar so it's best if I can keep my blood sugar stable.

goldthistime

I still eat to hunger levels and track alongside. Often when I'm full but have calories left I wake up in the middle of the night remembering some snack I'd forgotten to log. IOW, my appetite is often better than my memory.

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dwulet130

I don't. I prefer to have two large meals that I enjoy, and maybe a snack or some wine if I have calories left over. I'm not going to waste those sweet sweet calories eating if I'm not in the mood: if you don't enjoy your meal plan it won't stick.

zyxst

Yes.

lost_work7

I do. Often toward the end of the day I'm not so hungry, but if I don't eat I wake up ravenous and breakfast won't satisfy.

Alatariel75

I tend not to eat when I'm not hungry, but I think if you are finding that you are sated and not hungry, but well under your calorie goal, you need to look at the make-up of your meals and start adding in some more calorie dense foods. Not necessarily more food by volume, but more calories per meal.

gmallan

This is very rare for me so no but if it were happening all the time I would probably say yes. If it's an occasional thing then just bank the calories for a splurge on a weekend or a meal out or when you are feeling a little hungrier. Consistently under eating isn't a good idea though and will lead to issues long term. If you're struggling to get calories in then try incorporating more calorie and nutrient dense foods into your diet is a good idea.

Annie_01

Eating when I wasn't hungry is what put the weight on for me. I am trying to learn the hunger cue again. So I try not to eat unless I feel hunger...sometimes it even works.

brittalexmoore

I find myself eating when I'm not hungry just because I pre-log things. So I'll see that its lunch time so I'll eat the lunch I planned even if I'm not hungry. I try not to though. I've got a lot of weight to lose so not eating when I'm not hungry every now and then is no big deal.

endlessfall16

Reaverie wrote: »

No. Why would I eat if I feel sated? That can lead to problems with food addiction down the road. Now, if you are SERIOUSLY malnourished and dont feel hungry, therapy is needed. Its one thing to not eat back your exercise calories or just have a day where you arent as hungry, but its another all together if this is an ongoing issue and you are severely underweight. I can eat 2000 calories one day, 1200 another, 1800, then have like 600 and ans skip the rest of the day. So long as the overall trend is healthy, who cares? If you arent a morning person and breakfast just makes you feel bloated and uncomfortable (it does me) then skip it, unless you need to eat before a test.

Awesome.

I don't eat or eat very little when I'm not hungry and I feel fine. Most people should be able to tell if their body feels fine. It's doubly assuring if you have eaten in the last 8 hours. In fact on my fasting day I like to leave my body a bit empty or neutral.

The whole darn challenge of losing weight comes from keeping from not eating too much. It's never eating too little anyway.

snickerscharlie

I rarely eat breakfast, simply because I'm never hungry then. It seemed silly (not to mention counterproductive) to eat when I wasn't hungry.

I usually have my first meal of the day around 1 or 2 pm. By skipping a breakfast I didn't want anyway, this leaves me lots of room in my 'budget' for a good lunch and dinner, plus a few snacks in the evening when I really *do* feel like eating.

Thank goodness the whole "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" thing was debunked years ago.

TimothyFish

Depends. If I know I'm about to go torch a bunch of calories, I'll eat before hand even if I'm not hungry. If I'm not doing much and I'm not hungry I'll hold off eating. But it is unusual for me to reach mealtime and not be hungry.

mactaffy428

I don't see the point in eating if you are not hungry. Doesn't make too much sense to me. But you know your body better than anyone. Go with your instincts.

Jules_farmgirl

Yes for two reasons:

1. I may not get another chance for a few hours between work and young kids
2. Because of #1 I don't want to have the opportunity come to eat and be so hungry I make poor choices

Lounmoun

JustynaJustice wrote: »

If meal time comes along, do you still eat if you're not hungry? Yes or no? Why or why not?

It has never happened that I was not hungry at a meal time unless I was sick. I eat to my calorie goal every day.

I think the question is have you eaten enough calories for the day? Have you met your nutritional needs? Is your calorie goal correct or have you overestimated your activity level? Do you have something going on like an illness, a medication or a history of eating disorders that is impacting your hunger cues?

spiriteagle99

I don't usually wake up hungry, but when I was working, I had to eat breakfast or not eat anything for 5-6 hours. By then, I'd be so hungry I'd eat too much. So I ate breakfast whether I was hungry or not.

I don't live alone, so having meals on a semi-regular schedule is a courtesy to my husband, who shouldn't have to wait for meals until I feel the urge to eat. Sometimes he'll fix himself lunch, if I'm out, but mostly he waits for me to get hungry and do something about it. Dinner he never fixes on his own, so I try to have meals at a predictable time. Usually I'm hungry, but sometimes I just fix a meal to get it over with so I don't have to think about it later.

tmoneyag99

no. I actually wait until my stomach growls.

Machka9

If I ever experienced a situation where I wasn't hungry, I'd seize the opportunity to not eat!

But unless I'm seriously not well, I'm ravenous all the time. I can eat a whole pizza ... and an hour later I'm prowling around the kitchen trying to talk myself out of eating something else.

cmtigger

It depends. I sometimes forget to eat because I get busy and then I pay with grumpiness later. And at work I need to eat at lunch or I won't have time to eat for several hours.

But on a lazy off work day, I eat when hungry and don't follow a strict meal schedule. It's a little harder to count calories that way.

USAMcK

I do. Otherwise, I get too hungry later and make bad decisions. I'm trying to regulate my inability to regulate my appetite, here, after all. lol But, seriously, consistency is key. I should've learned that when I lost 85 lbs 5 years ago.

Chunkahlunkah

I prefer waiting until I'm hungry to eat and usually do.

The exception is when I know I'll be hungry in a couple hours but won't have an opportunity to eat at that time.
Another exception is eating for social reasons.

dominique_paul

If I'm eating when I'm not hungry it probably means I'm eating somthing I should be eating.

I usually only eat when I'm hungry. There is no need for me to do otherwise because I don't starve myself and I'm usually hungry by lunch and dinner.

CattOfTheGarage

endlessfall16 wrote: »

The whole darn challenge of losing weight comes from keeping from not eating too much. It's never eating too little anyway.

That isn't true. The number of posts we see on here saying "help me, I keep binging and I don't know why!" and on questioning, we find the person is consistently undereating which is triggering a binge cycle - there are just so many of these.

Many people - so many - are stuck in an unhealthy cycle of restriction and binging and cannot lose weight effectively until they learn to feed themselves adequately and consistently. In those cases, eating too little is absolutely a problem.

And when I see a post about "do I have to eat if I'm not hungry?" I see someone who is consistently underfeeding themselves and has a jacked up appetite, looking for others to validate their self-starving ways.

Sure, very occasionally that will be someone who averages a good amount of calories and wants to go under once in a while (which is of course fine, it's the average that matters) - but usually it's not.

If you need to lose weight, you know your appetite is not 100% reliable as a guide. So if your numbers say you need to eat, eat.

AlabasterVerve

Nope, almost never. Eating when I wasn't hungry led to obesity, which led to a screwed up appetite where I was always hungry. I'm thankful to have resolved those issues and I'm thrilled to have days where I'm not really hungry again.

If I don't eat when I'm not hungry I don't have to limit myself when I am hungry - it all balances out like it should.

amusedmonkey

Depends. If it's an important meal (ex. planned family meal) or something I really like, I eat it. If it's not something important or I don't feel like having something particular (this is often breakfast) I just skip it and eat later when I'm hungry or feel like eating something. If I skip a meal and have calories left over at the end of the day, I either bank for another day or have something higher in calories if I feel like it.

I basically don't sweat it and go with the flow of what life/personal desires throw at me. I feel that stressing over the minutia isn't worth it if I'm going to be doing this for life, so I don't. As long as my general calorie balance is in a good place and is going as planned (be it loss, maintenance or planned gain) I'm happy.

jennypapage

no. there have been times i couldn't reach my daily goal and i forced myself to eat.well i felt aweful for the rest of the day and the day after.so full and bloated,i hated it.so after it happened a few times,i stopped forcing my self to eat.there will sooner or later be a day when i feel hungrier,or want something extra sweet to eat,and then those calories come in handy.