Hunger is a good thing!

cp005e

This IS a great post, I think I'll put it in the archives so it is forever preserved in the annuls of MFP history!

Awwww... thanks! :blushing:

cp005e

Your stomach is a creature of habit. And if it's used to getting a mid-morning snack, it will groan for one, no matter how much you had for breakfast. I am much LESS hungry in the morning (and all day)now that I have stopped eating between breakfast and lunch. And my mind is much more focused on the work I need to do, rather than on the food I'd like to eat.

This may vary from person to person... but I think it also may depend a lot on WHAT you have for a snack. I think that I am a lot more likely to get hungry later when I am eating sugary snacks. But my normal snack is a yogurt, or a piece or fruit, or a 70-cal string cheese. And, I just don't like eating big meals anymore - I am more likely to overeat, or feel uncomfortably full. Just the other day, I was getting over a cold, and so I wasn't hungry and didn't eat very much during the day. I did go to the gym and put in a light workout. When I got home, I was RAVENOUS. So I had some leftover pasta (about 250 cal), but I was still hungry. So I had some "no-chicken" noodle soup (180 cal), a 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice and seltzer (80 cal), and then I realized I was still short so I had a slice of wheat toast (100 cal). I realized about three-quarters of the way through the soup and toast that I was full, but I went ahead and finished it. Ugh! I wasn't even overeating - I was still low on my calories for the day, especially considering the workout. But it was too much, and I did not feel good the rest of the night. So, for me, it is important not to let myself go so long without eating that I get so hungry.

My father was always very much against snacking, and I didn't believe him for a long time. But after reading up on changes in American eating habits over 40 years, I have come to agree with him. The average number of calories consumed during meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) has actually fallen over the last 40 years. However, the average number of calories consumed as snacks has increased by more than 300 per day. (That translates into weighing 30 extra pounds.) As far as nationwide eating habits are consumed, snacking is a greater contributor to the "obesity epidemic" than meal sizes.

You definitely bring up some good points! "Mindless snacking" (in front of the TV, at a party, or because the food is there) was always my problem much more than snacking due to actual hunger. Maybe it is just a matter of habit, as you say. For me, I still find that I often 'forget' to get hungry when I am busy at work - but I also pay more attention now. I don't let myself go too long without eating because I do believe that my metabolism runs slower when I forget to eat. And then when I do eat, I usually find that I get (a little!) hungry again a few hours later.

yellow_pepper

The phenomenon of "forgetting to eat" was something I never understood. It's only happened to me once, when I was really under the gun at work and just worked through the day without stopping for anything, not even the bathroom, and not food. But that's only happened to me once.

The only snack that I've really rid from my diet is the mid-morning snack. When I used to travel every week for work, I'd have breakfast in my hotel room, and then, after I'd had my early morning meetings and calls, I'd often get a second breakfast. I think I was doing it because I was TIRED and confusing a lack of energy from sleep-deprivation with needing more calories.

Since I've stopped eating so much in the morning, I find that I actually have MORE energy. My body and my mind are nimbler, more alert, and LESS distracted when I wait until lunch for my largest meal of the day. And after I finish eating lunch, I take a walk for the rest of my lunch hour to get the metabolism revved up. In the middle of the afternoon, when I feel a slump, I take another walk, and that energizes me more, and faster than a snack - which actually makes me feel hungrier, as though my stomach is saying "That was good. Now give me more, more, MORE!!!!"

Guess that's just me. :ohwell:

cp005e

This is a post I made several months back, but I am bumping it up in case it is helpful to anyone! :flowerforyou:

- Hungry in Upstate

OomarianneoO

So glad you bumped it up! I've learned so much (and continue to learn) from MFP and appreciate all the information.