Natural Eating Styles...triggers?

devrinator

So it's almost 2:44 pm and I haven't eaten anything all day. I don't want to, and that's normal for me. I'm thinking about my weight which has increased...I haven't been active on here for a while, because when I do lose weight, I feel like I have to be obsessed with counting calories and exercising daily. It doesn't fit with my lifestyle very well, and even though I lose the weight, I struggle to be that absorbed in myself in terms of logging everything I eat and ensuring adequate time to exercise every single day.

I need to do something, right? So I've been thinking about my body and how I react to food and eat. I never really want or crave food until the evening, and then I can't eat enough. My appetite seems triggered by the taste of food. I want more and more and more. Anyone else feel this way? I wish my appetite would be the same all day long.

Okay, so logically, one might deduce that since I don't eat all day, of course I'm starving by the end of the day. That has been my own deduction, so when I've tried to lose weight in the past by eating healthy, I made sure to eat a breakfast and lunch. Even after months of doing that, my appetite was the same: not really hungry or wanting to eat in the morning and noon and feeling exceptionally deprived in the evening with a sensible dinner. So I would eat either oatmeal or an egg or even just a fruit to "kickstart" my metabolism, then a salad or a small meal for lunch...still--BAM the hunger comes in the evening.

So I would lose weight doing that, of course (plus with exercise), but each and every day the appetite would be huge in the evening...go to be hungry despite having eating throughout the day.

I wonder how common this is--to feel as hungry as a "thin person" during the day, whether eating breakfast and lunch or not, but becoming the obese person I am in the evening and wanting to eat an entire pot of chili or all the broccoli and rice that is left over from dinner?

Another observation I've made is that while I feel the hunger pains in the evening, I'm not compelled to really chow down until I smell or taste actual food. So, it's like, even a bite of lettuce makes me want to eat the whole head of lettuce, all the tomatoes I can find, cans of veggies or whatever I can eat quickly--but only like, after 4pm. If I eat nothing, the hunger pains tell me to eat, but I can do without eating.

It's kind of like I could easily eat nothing--unless I smell the food cooking. So I could probably do really, really well with eating breakfast and lunch only, so long as my family didn't want to eat any dinner that smelled good.

Any thoughts on the "taste trigger" or evening appetite? You ever feel this way? Ideas on how to curtail it?

Whambam087

I'm confused. If your not hungry until the evening and you don't enjoy eating breakfast or lunch then stick with that. Sounds like you're already sort of following a warrier diet. With that you eat all your calories in the evening and there's a 4 hour window period to eat them all. So instead of spreading your calories out throughout the day you have one big feast. The idea of eating a huge meal is really appealing to me, but I wake up hungry and ready to eat so waiting until the evening wouldn't work well for me. Or maybe my body would get used to it I don't know

devrinator

Warrior diet? Wow, I have to look into that. If I have that natural tendency, then perhaps I can just change a few things, up my exercise and do alright.

Whambam087

Well eating 3 square meals is just a construct of modern society there's no rule that says you must eat all your calories in 3 meals. And really everyone is different. Some people like eating smaller more frequent meals throughout the day and others are more satisfied with larger less frequent meals. When it comes down to it doesn't matter if your eating 1 meal a day or 6, calories are what matters if you want to lose weight. The warrior diet is not a starvation diet you just end up eating all your calories in the evening and if you prefer to eat that way maybe that would work better for you.

cmriverside

I agree with the idea of eating when you need it.

I tried doing things the way people told me to do it for years.

But I want to skip breakfast, and eat two large meals. So that is what I do. A medium-ish midday meal - like 500 calories - then a big meal six or seven hours later - 1000 calories or so.

I also need to have a substantial protein and fat intake for both meals, so my carbs are a bit lower. That keeps me from hunger and has allowed me to control my weight.

You really have to listen to your own inner voice. Just make sure you eat within your calorie goals - it doesn't really make a lot of difference when you eat if it isn't affecting your physical performance or workouts.