Should you eat even if you are not hungry?

VanessaGS

Oh yeah and more importantly you want to keep your metabolism working not slow it down.

iulia_maddie

If you've been on a very low calorie diet for a long time i think your body adjusts to it and you loose that feeling of hunger. That doesn't mean you shouln't eat.
You might not feel hungry, but do you feel weak, tired, grouchy? Even if you don't, you're still putting your body through a lot of stress.

newmooon56

No. Learning to listen to your body's own hunger drive is one of the more important things you can learn. Just like if you are hungry, listen to your body and eat some (healthy) food. If you are not hungry, don't eat.

Personally I agree with this as it worked for me. I would worry when I first started and was that girl that "couldnt even eat all 1200 cals?!" in a day. Now I read those posts and roll my eyes. You need to lose 40#s but cant eat? Yea... ok...

Your body is adjusting and thats GREAT! LET IT. You will be hungry soon - just be careful not to pig out once your hunger comes back- eat when you feel it- dont wait it out.

Schedule your eating? Yea- cuz life isnt crazy enough with enough deadlines and such. Just dont let yourself get too hungry- nothing good comes of that.
But do learn to LISTEN to your body- you will love it and yourself for it.

ldrosophila

Nope! Dont care what anyone says if you watch a child eat or someone who is naturally always on the slim side, they stop eating immediately after their brain tell them they are full. A child, for the most part, will not snack just to snack. If they arent hungry they will be off playing. Listen to your body. If you are healthy, no underlying disease, listen to the wisdom of your body.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Feelings of hunger are far more complicated than indicating a physical need for food. Various physical, mental, and emotional factors come in to play.

If some people always ate when they were hungry, they would gain 2 lbs a week. If others never ate unless they were hungry, they would end up in the ER.

If following your hunger signals doesn't even get you to 1200 calories, then yes, you need to eat when you're not hungry.

This. Listen to your brain over your stomach, and eat what you know your body requires. Intuitive eating only works if your body's hunger signals are functioning the way they should.

Rocbola

Feelings of hunger are far more complicated than indicating a physical need for food. Various physical, mental, and emotional factors come in to play.

If some people always ate when they were hungry, they would gain 2 lbs a week. If others never ate unless they were hungry, they would end up in the ER.

If following your hunger signals doesn't even get you to 1200 calories, then yes, you need to eat when you're not hungry.

Good point. I should have added:
1. Learning to differentiate desire to eat, for various reason, from true hunger is a very important part of learning your body's hunger signals.
2. Man made, artificially concentrated foods can be more calorie dense than foods found in nature, so it's easy to fool your body's satiety mechanism if you are eating processed foods.

OspreyVista

No. Learning to listen to your body's own hunger drive is one of the more important things you can learn. Just like if you are hungry, listen to your body and eat some (healthy) food. If you are not hungry, don't eat.

This. Starvation mode myth gets used so much. There's been studies on it, you don't actually go into starvation mode unless you have less than 5% body fat. x.x Eat when you are hungry, if you are not hungry, don't eat.

thelovelyLIZ

I depends. If I've been laying in the couch all day not expending any energy, I probably won't eat much because... well, I don't have to. But if I lifted a bunch or ran 8 miles or something, then yeah, I make sure I eat. I know it's important to refuel.

secretlobster

If you're only eating 1200 calories a day, yes you should be forcing yourself to eat even if you're not hungry.

I say this mostly because your decrease in appetite is probably mental/emotional. a lot of people come here who are overweight, put themselves on a 1200 calorie diet and suddenly they "can't eat" any more than 800-1000 calories. It's usually because they are associating food with fat. You're not going to get fat from eating 1200 calories, or 1400 calories, or probably even 1600 calories. It would be best to stay in the habit of eating a healthy amount of food, not less than your (very low) goal.

Molly_Maguire

Don't force yourself. If you are truly not hungry, just don't eat. It would be silly to cram stuff down your throat if you don't want it, esp if it makes you feel sick.

Since you are only eating 1200 cals though, (like me!) I would try to make sure it doesn't happen very often. To make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need, try planning all your meals for the day, eating higher calorie meals in the beginning of the day, just so you aren't left with an extra 500 calories you don't want at the end of every day. It used to happen to me a lot, and with a little trial and error I was able to work it out to where I always met my goal. Good luck!

*Edited for typos

trdepalo

In my personal experience, once I started dieting I too lost my appetite. I thought if I just listened to my body and didn't eat if I didn't feel like it it would be fine. I felt good eating little and I keep up up, but then a week or two doing that my body just forced a binge and I went back and forth from not hungry to very hungry for a while and it made my weight loss stagnant. After a reset, when it started to happen again I just forced myself to eat smaller meals at scheduled times and I've been losing slowly but consistently. Plus, if you're not that hungry it makes planning in treats easier which make maintaining it easier too. But this was just my experience, do what works for you.

MyM0wM0w

When I first started my body wasn't used to eating on a schedule... since I just shoved food into it 24/7.... I had to learn to eat at meal times and now that my body seems to have adjusted that is usually when I start to get hungry. I'll feel my stomach rumbling and check the clock and sure enough it's getting close to a meal time.

If i got super hungry in between meals I would have a SMALL healthy snack to hold me over. (Still do at least once a day).

Early on there were meal times I didn't feel like eating but I made myself eat it all (since it was portioned out properly for my needs). In the beginning I ate three meals religiously. No skipping then and now i don't want to because I'm usually hungry at that time. Breakfast and lunch at set times because of work but dinner is flexible. If I'm not hungry @ 5 then I'll eat at 6.. or 7 ...

secretlobster

Ok, you're getting a lot of mixed responses, which is not surprising.

I'll say this - Just be aware of your general eating habits. If eating less than 1200 calories becomes a trend for you, that's not a healthy habit to allow yourself to continue, and at that point you should be consuming more calories whether you feel like it or not. Eating 1000 calories one day once in a while is as fine as eating 3000 calories one day once in a while. Just keep an eye on your eating trends and don't let your calorie intake get too low. If eating less than 1200 becomes a habit, at some point you are very likely to want to start binging on food.

Remember that if hunger were always a perfect indicator of how many calories you need, you wouldn't be overweight.

wildfirediva

While I agree you do need to listen to the signals your body is sending, in the long term that is the key to knowing what is and isn't working for you. But you should also be very familiar with your body's base caloric intake to operate. In the short term ( a day here and there) being under your Basic Caloric need is not going to hurt you, but in the long term it is essential that you give your body the baseline calories it needs to operate (breath, keep the organs operating, keep the heart pumping, etc).

If you want to listen to your body, get a good calculation/range (initially) of what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is and always keep your NET caloric intake in that range (or not too far under) for long.

You will not have the energy to work out or think for that matter if you are not fueling your body and giving it what it needs.

dantrick

This. Starvation mode myth gets used so much. There's been studies on it, you don't actually go into starvation mode unless you have less than 5% body fat. x.x Eat when you are hungry, if you are not hungry, don't eat.

who did this study? where can I get the information on this? how reliable is the source? I keep asking and no one will answer.

yoovie

Nope! Dont care what anyone says if you eat a child........

wait what

secretlobster

Nope! Dont care what anyone says if you eat a child........

wait what

I like where this thread is going

Cgrnlaw

Good one....

ldrosophila

Nope! Dont care what anyone says if you eat a child........

wait what

I like where this thread is going

LOL oops!

RoadsterGirlie

I'm on maintenance, and am just one pound shy of being underweight. I don't want to lose anymore obviously, but I also don't want to go back to old habits.

I do eat when I'm not hungry to meet my calorie goal for the day sometimes, but I make sure it's something healthy like boiled veggies with a touch of parmasan cheese. I might have a small scoop of ice cream as well. Even if I'm not hungry, I will eat ice cream (using portion control, of course).