Appetite

I prefer two big meals a day and a snack before bed. Eating 5 small meals a day makes me feel deprived and like I'm on a diet.

Whether you divide your calories into 12 small meals a day, or two large ones...they're still your calories. You need to experiment and find what works for you.

Do you eat enough protein and fat?

Keep busy! That definitely helps me keep my mind off my appetite. Watching the clock is annoying especially if you've told yourself to 'wait until lunchtime'.

Try and get stuck into something and the psychological hunger gets sidelined.

Good luck to ya! Have just started myself.

I just eat all day. I keep my meals to 300-500 calories each and eat lots of snacks.

I like to eat six small meals/snacks every day, diving my calories equally between them as much as possible. Most of my meals include fruits and/or vegetables to bulk it up and allow me to eat more food, as well as healthy (unsaturated) fats, protein (lean or plant-based), and/or whole grains (with natural fiber) to fill me up and keep me from overdoing the next meal. I've found that, because I eat such small meals, I can't sit down and binge because my body just isn't used to and doesn't want a large quantity of food at one time.

re: having my blood sugar tested, I had blood tests (fasting) earlier in the year and nothing was ever flagged up about it. Something must be messed up in my mind/body to eat as much as I do cos it's not like I eat because of depression etc

Then you may need to get your leptin/ghrelin tested like I said earlier. They are crucial to appetite control.

You'll do it when you're ready. A lot of this is just mental and if you mind can't get into the right place to make it work you'll keep sliding back to old habits. It's one of those things you have to make the commitment to yourself. No one can do it for you but you can help yourself from making bad choices by making really good choices so you aren't so hungry when you go to eat that you feel the need to eat 2 meals. If you were full of water and broccoli you wouldn't have room for a second meal.

^^^^ THIS^^^^ perfectly stated!!

As far as your blood tests go, please don't be fooled into thinking that you should just wait and see what your doc says and assume they'll contact you if there's something bad. People make mistakes and miss something, including doctors. If you're curious or concerned about something, you should follow up.

Is it possible that you're bored or procrastinating? I'm not much of a stress eater either but I am a boredom eater. If I'm sitting around at home watching pointless TV, especially if it's food related, I think I want to eat. It's not actual hunger, it's just a response to a trigger. And being bored doesn't necessarily mean you don't have anything to do, it could mean that you don't want to do what your'e doing. Say I'm at work and need to start a project but don't really want to because I know it's going to be frustrating...eating something yummy sounds a whole lot more pleasant than doing that task.

Also, as someone else suggested, think more about WHAT you're eating, not just how much. Perhaps an increase in protein intake (don't worry about going over the MFP number, it's not a limit, it's a suggested minimum) and healthy fat intake would help as these types of foods tend to be more filling and satisfying. Add some chicken or tuna to salads, have nuts at snack time, add healthy oils to your recipes, etc.

It is probably a mental thing, or your body isn't getting what it needs. From a calorie stand point you are pretty good (in my opinion anyway) but your body can burn through 1500 calories of carbs pretty quick, where as protein will take longer to be processed so you feel full longer.
If it is a mental thing then you just need to take it day by day, and yes some times our brain has the power to give us migraines to get what it wants, and I can feel you on that. I suffered from chronic migraines for years it really is awful.