Should I eat if I'm not hungry.

I believe one of the main reasons people lose control of their eating and end up over-eating is because we stop listening to our bodies and start listening to an "expert", a book or a website. Never put anyone else's advice in front of the needs of your own body.

It sounds like you ate your dinner later than usual and you didn't have enough time between dinner and snack to become hungry again. In general, I wouldn't ever recommend eating when you're not hungry. Obviously, there are a few cases where you ought to eat regardless of hunger, such as if you have hypoglycaemia or are diabetic and have to eat to compensate for insulin you've taken. Also, if you notice a marked lack in appetite for several days or a week, you'd want to check with a doctor and ask advice there to make sure you were receiving adequate nutrition. However, most people should listen to their body and decide for themselves whether they are hungry before eating something. Eating when you're not hungry tends to normalise eating for reasons other than hunger...and it easily becomes "normal" to eat for boredom, out of frustration or simply because food is available. Ignoring your body also makes it harder to know when you're truly hungry. A better idea would be to wait until you were hungry, maybe checking in with yourself in an hour or two after your usual snack time to see if you'd like it yet. If you still don't want it after an hour, then you don't need the snack for today and can always add a bit more calories tomorrow to balance things out.

Ok so if I don't eat but wake up at 3am with a hunger pang should I eat something small then to get back to sleep?

Gosh I would never eat if I woke up hungry during the night, it will never kill us to go hungry through the night.

I can't eat for the sake of eating, I need to be hungry.

But even at 370 pounds, I can honestly say I have never, ever got out of my bed to eat anything EVER!

So you just have a bigger breakfast if you are THAT hungry..... or have some water

Ok so if I don't eat but wake up at 3am with a hunger pang should I eat something small then to get back to sleep?

I have a friend that will get up and eat a half of pb sandwich in the night then go back to bed, she's not obese but is carrying a few extra lbs. but nothing I would worry about. Me on the other hand, even at over 400 lbs, have never gotten up in the night to eat even if I did wake up hungry, like this morning at 3 am. I don't see the need to get up from a warm bed just to feed a growling belly when I can roll over go back to sleep. But you may feel you need to get up and eat. I think it's a bad habit to start but you are not me. A growling belly is NOT a bad thing unless you haven't eaten in 2 days.

I never eat unless I'm hungry. You wouldn't fill your car with fuel if it was already topped up, so why would you do it to yourself? If you go to sleep hunger goes away anyway

I think I need to reword the last part. If I'm the slightest but hungry my body won't let me sleep. I will toss and turn until I eat something and once I do I'm able to fall asleep. So is it better to eat at 10 pm if not hungry to avoid waking up hungry or just go to bed and if I get hungry in the middle of the night eat? And at 3am its usually a quick nutrigrain bar or tbsp of PB

If you can't sleep while hungry, go eat something.

PP said you might be hungrier tomorrow. Your body can't tell time in regards to eating. You can always look at a weekly calorie goal instead of daily, that way a single day of not hitting your goal won't bother you so much.

I can not sleep when I am hungry so I think you made the right choice by eating something before you went to sleep. I have been woken up out my sleep hungry before when dieting and when this happens usually I eat something I shouldn't have. I think it was a good choice to avoid over eating later.

She's already not eating enough. This may be why she gets hungry in the middle of the night and hunger can make it hard to sleep. There is nothing morally or physically wrong with eating in the middle of the night as far as I know. I'm confused by these responses.

Me too, if you are hungry, eat. Light heavy whatever whenever, time of day or type of food. If you are not getting the minimum 1200 calories daily that most people should get, It isn't going to matter if you eat a TBP of peanut butter or a banana, or ice cream for that matter. You don't have to overindulge, but if you are waking up hungry, and you are under your calorie goal, eat. JMHO

Meal timing has no effect on weight loss. I make and eat most of my baked treats as a night time meal (well there's really only one or two baked treats in rotation right now). The baking, washing dishes, some cooking - either for a snack or meal prep, packing of gym bag, all routinely done in the middle of the night for me. That's the simple thing about calories in calories out - you can tailor it to your own lifestyle and be successful, not anybody else's

As for hitting your numbers, try to get enough calories at least on a weekly basis. Body needs nutrients and all that :happy: