Do you eat even if you aren't hungry?

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Amberh82
Amberh82 Posts: 468 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So here is my question, I'm used to eating breakfast lunch and dinner, and sometimes 2 snacks. If I'm not hungry for lunch at lunchtime, do you eat anyways? or just wait until you actually do get hungry? (that is for example, same goes for dinner...I don't skip breakfast, EVER lol)
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Replies

  • Allup2Me78
    Allup2Me78 Posts: 589 Member
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    I am curious to see the responses because of course TWIN I am the same..lol..I was told we shld eat atleast every 2 hours or 4 hrs...I normally try and snack/eat on something healthy every 2 hrs-2 1/2 hrs.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Yes, if I need to in order to hit my goals for the day.

    I see days in your diary where you're running huge deficits by eating <1000 calories while getting hundreds of calories from exercise.

    Don't do that. Eat those calories. Doesn't matter if you're hungry. Meet your nutrition goals.

    Meal timing doesn't matter, but the totals for your day DO matter. If it's 9 PM and you're 500 under your calorie goal, EAT.
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,525 Member
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    I want to see replys too! I'm always hungry at breakfast and lunch, but if I have made healthy choices throughout the day, sometimes I have calories left over after dinner. Sometimes I'm hungry and have no problem eating them as a shack. But sometimes I am just not hungry.

    If it is not too many, sometimes I just carry them over to the next day, because usually my appetite rebounds.

    Let's just add, too that this is not often a problem, as I usually have no problem eating all my cals!!

    What does everyone else say??
  • Laurayinz
    Laurayinz Posts: 922 Member
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    If I only ate when I was hungry, would I even be here?? :tongue:

    Nothing says you have to eat according to the clock on the wall, just so you don't end up gorging yourself later and going way over and feeling like crap.
  • Shannon_H
    Shannon_H Posts: 35
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    Yep, I will eat! I try to eat every 3 or so hours even f I'm not really hungry. I know I have to in order to meet all my calorie goals and all that!! Even if it's something small..it's still something right!
  • shmoony
    shmoony Posts: 237 Member
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    Many people have a hard time with the relationship between their mind and their body. Many people think they're hungry when they're really not, and some people don't think they're hungry when they really are. Get in touch with what your body is really telling you because if you are at a huge deficit, and you still think you are not hungry there are a few things that might be at play: you have a slight eating disorder wherin you subconsciously convince yourself you are not hungry in order to limit your cals in fear of gaining (not losing), or you have an underlying health condintion. Either way, listening to your body is the place to start,
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
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    I do because I know the only reason I'm not hungry at night is because I don't eat a lot during the day and consume about 70 percent of my calories in the evening. It's going to be a cumulative effect if you are chroncially undereating where the next day you might be ravenously hungry or have low energy. So yes as long as you are losing weight at your calorie level eat that level.
  • tobejune
    tobejune Posts: 177
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    Agree with Jonny. Make sure your calorie and nutrition goals are set correctly then eat to meet them.
  • ilmb87
    ilmb87 Posts: 216 Member
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    Sometimes I will force myself to eat, if my net calories are serious low. If you don't want to force yourself, though, maybe save the calories for the weekend? As long as you meet your weekly calorie goals, you should be okay.
  • byHISstrength
    byHISstrength Posts: 984 Member
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    It depends, but most of the time I will have something even if it's something small because if I wait then by the time I am hungry I may be really hungry and end up not making a good choice. And also like Jonnythan mentioned, I too try to meet my daily nutrition goals.
  • chaoticgeek
    chaoticgeek Posts: 25 Member
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    I always eat breakfast during the weekdays and most of the time for weekends, or some sort of first meal of the day within an hour of waking up. Other than that no. I get hungry on fairly regular schedule so I know that around noon I may not feel hungry but at 12:30 I'll fell hungry. I normally have my breakfast, then lunch, then a snack before I leave work or on my hour drive home, then dinner then another snack a few hours after dinner.

    The only reason I eat breakfast is because if I don't I will over eat for lunch and dinner. That was one of my problems that had me eating enormous proportions of lunch or dinner and then having seconds. So some days that means I'm 500 calories under my goal (rarely), and some days it means I'm 50 calories over my goal (not very often anymore). But I normally hit within a hundred under of my goal with all my snacks.
  • bgelliott
    bgelliott Posts: 610 Member
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    I rarely ever skip a scheduled meal but if I do, it's not one of the 3 main ones. I always eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and AM snack, PM snack and late night snack. I do occasionally skip my AM snack and/or my late night snack.
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,473 Member
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    NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why would ya????
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
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    That's what got me here. I can't tell the difference between body hunger and emotional hunger, so I was eating all the time no matter what.

    Now I do my best to make myself wait until mealtimes. I am ALWAYS hungry at mealtime. My problem is waiting.
  • willdob3
    willdob3 Posts: 640 Member
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    It depends where my calories are. If they are too low I'll eat. If I have eaten some but not all of my exercise calories I might not eat anything.

    Using a step tracker that gives me calories burned for the day encourages me to eat more. It helps to see those numbers.
  • olDave
    olDave Posts: 557 Member
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    Speaking for myself and a few others I have discussed this with......

    There have been times in our lives when we ate...and ate...and ate....not because we were hungry but just because we loved everything about eating. We ate until we were sick sometimes.

    I have no analysis on why that occurs. It just seems to be something that some people do.
  • MizTerry
    MizTerry Posts: 3,763 Member
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    Nope. Why eat if I'm not hungry?
  • GracefulDancer4Christ
    GracefulDancer4Christ Posts: 419 Member
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    No I wait and eat when I am hungry . just save the snack later on when I get hungry.
  • briabner
    briabner Posts: 427 Member
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    If I am not hungry then I typically eat just a snack this helps me to not be extremely hungry when I do get hungry. This helps me because I do not have much self control when I get super hungry and thus make poor food decisions.
  • Amberh82
    Amberh82 Posts: 468 Member
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    Yes, if I need to in order to hit my goals for the day.

    I see days in your diary where you're running huge deficits by eating <1000 calories while getting hundreds of calories from exercise.

    Don't do that. Eat those calories. Doesn't matter if you're hungry. Meet your nutrition goals.

    Meal timing doesn't matter, but the totals for your day DO matter. If it's 9 PM and you're 500 under your calorie goal, EAT.

    I normally don't have those days where I am <1000....there were a few over the weekend, but I wasn't feeling all that well and I was compensating for eating WAY over my calories a few days...I'm not asking because I'm trying to eat less. I'm just curious, lately sometimes I won't be hungry at lunch or dinner (I don't know what is going on...its like my appetite isn't there...)

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