I'm hungry. Bt that's ok.

I come from an endurance sport background (long distance mountain biking) and from this sort of activity (or any sport, really) that hunger is a bad, bad feeling. If you are feeling hungry, it's because your bady is running low on nurishment and is telling you thatyou need to refuel. It's the same as pain: it's your body telling you that something is wrong.

The problem with waiting until you're hungry before eating, is your body is already losing efficiency by the time it starts telling you something is wrong.

Now, with regards to hunger, this may not necessarily be 100% true. However, with thirst it definitely is. When you become thirsty, it's because you're dehydrated to the point where yur body is losing its efficiency. If you lose just 2% of your bodyweight in water (which can be done in an hour of exercising) your body efficiency drops by 20%. Not good.

It strikes me that people are using the word hungry in very different ways.

To me being hungry doesn't mean "I could eat." It means "my body is telling me I need to eat."

So no you really I shouldn't be hungry on a regular basis.

I don't listen to my body. It's not that smart. My brain is though, and it knows better than to listen to my body.

I am ALWAYS hungry, and I can ALWAYS eat.

im finding that i never knew what true hunger was until i started cutting back, now that i do know i love it. i used to be such a picky eater, hated most veggies and gorged on meats and starches. now im not picky at all, im learning that everything tastes great once you let your body get to the point where it actually needs food, instead of just wanting it. last night i had a foodgasm over a piece of stir fried carrot, i used to despise carrots to the point of gagging

For a long time my brain and my eyes told me I was hungry when really my body was not. It's still a work in progress learning to differentiate between what is actual hunger and what is years of compulsive over eating and cravings trying to trick me.

I agree with this. I am learning, that as I lose weight and get healthier, as long as I am eating right I rarely get truly hungry. When I do, I know it's time to fuel my body, not just eat out of boredom, stress etc... I cringe at the thought of some of my previous eating habits before I started changing my diet and exercising on a daily basis. I look at food with a whole new attitude now!

When in doubt, drink a glass of water and wait 15 minutes. If you still "feel" hungry, EAT!

I'm still learning about what hunger is, and it's not as straightforward as I used to think (i.e. feel hungry -> eat), which got me to the middle of the 'obese' range.

First step for me is to check whether it's hunger, or whether it's sadness, anger, boredom, loneliness or tiredness sneakily masquerading as hunger. With those little devils ruled out, then I check it's not thirst, and then, finally, I have to remind myself I'm not going to die of hunger if I have to wait another hour until dinner.

Reading this thread is making me hungry!! It's very easy to trigger hunger and I'm just re-starting so hunger is common.

On the other hand, I was never hungry but for that first week or three and I had excellent results before by eating the right things. Leafy greens are very filling.

The very first thing I did when I started my lifestyle change was train myself to be able to tolerate hunger. Hunger to me was like an order from my body to find food immediately.

It was a painful 2 weeks of forcing myself to feel hungry, but then feeling good every time I triumphed over my body by forcing it to feel hungry for at least 2 hours before eating anything. Eventually the extreme hunger turned in to mild hunger, and then eventually just in to a "signal".

So now when I feel hungry it's not "real" hunger, it's simply a signal that I get from my body that feels like "hey, you might want to eat something in the next while, but if you don't it's no big deal, just think about it".

I am perfectly ok with being hungry. I have my plan for the day and if I feel hungry outside of that plan then TFB because i'm not changing the plan.

There are lots of people that say you should never feel hungry, or that it isn't good for you, or that they think X,Y,Z. All I have to say is that's great for them, i'm glad they are living the way they are and it's working out for them, but what worked for them won't work for me. I feel the hunger "signal" half the day, I can't eat all day. I'm also the healthiest i've ever been in my life. Lost 50lbs, running 5-10km multiple mornings a week, all the while eating healthy and feeling hungry quite often. My diary is public, check for yourself.

Hunger is just a signal, you can choose to ignore it whenever you want. Whether you choose to or not is up to you but there is no one right or wrong answer. Find what works for you and do that.

A lot of people here say they can't trust their hunger signals. I think really experiencing them is the first step in learning to read them right and trust them. If you're afraid to ever get actually hungry, you'll never learn how to tell what is hunger vs. the urge to munch.

This is completely true! I constantly was mistaking boredom, cravings, etc for hunger. There is now a distinct difference for me and being able to know that difference is HUGE

For me it just really depends on what kind of hunger I have. Most of the time... it doesn't bother me. But sometimes I get so hungry I get physically sick (probably blood sugar or hormones related). Then it's another problem entirely and I HAVE to eat. So yeah, I'm afraid of being hungry and getting to that state.

I always plan a 9 PM snack into my macros If you are honest with yourself, and plan accordingly/follow the plan you will not be hugry I have a bit of fruit or if it i spost workout a few egg whites and a bit of fruit Dont ignore your body!

I always plan a 9 PM snack into my macros If you are honest with yourself, and plan accordingly/follow the plan you will not be hugry I have a bit of fruit or if it i spost workout a few egg whites and a bit of fruit Dont ignore your body!

You can say that about yourself but you can't make the blanket statement that "if you plan accordingly you will not be hungry". Different people experience hunger in different ways. Some people can do everything right, plan perfectly, eat satiating foods, and still be hungry. Just because this doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Since I decided to do something about the state of my physique I quickly came to the conclusion that part of sorting my sht7 out was getting used to being hungry for a few hours a day.

Being hungry won't kill you, get used to it.

^^This. I find it very hard to feel full. It doesn't matter if I'm dieting, maintaining or bulking, I'm hungry most of the time. I've just accepted that I can't eat going by my hunger cues alone or I'd be back flirting with 200lbs on the scale. It's a small price to pay , imo.