Hungry but never want to eat- food apathy, nothing medical wrong, not depressed

Athena98501 wrote: »

Hausisse1 wrote: »

I'm not on hormonal birth control but I was from May to July. The week I started hormonal bcp I developed this problem. Nothing looks good. It's just REALLY hard to eat and kind of difficult to explain. Like... I just don't want food. Eating is a chore. I haven't lost weight because I'm forcing myself to eat, but it sucks and it takes a really long time because I drag my feet because I dread and hate it so much.

I've had blood tests and nothing is wrong. Nothing seems to be wrong psychologically, either. Like I said I'm no longer taking the hormones but I still feel the same way. I suspect it might just be that the hormones still need more time to get out of my system.

It's really upsetting because I'm trying to gain muscle. Does anyone have some suggestions for me? Like, could I live off of shakes? lol

Did they include a pregnancy test? Food aversions are extremely common in pregnancy, especially first trimester. Do smells bother you? That could go along with it.

https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/food-aversions#1

https://www.pregnancymagazine.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/why-do-pregnant-women-have-a-bionic-sense-of-smell

I got wooed.

There are shakes you could look into, Soylent in the US or Huel in the UK. You could use them to supplement and see if they help get your appetite back properly (not just physical appetite).

Hausisse1 wrote: »

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Your profile says "I've had a really bad relationship with food in the past and I got sick of not being able to enjoy life because of it. I started myfitnesspal as a means of kind of rationalizing my food intake."

It sounds like you are possibly still under going your bad relationship food. maybe some professional counseling to help you sort out your relationship issues with food?

Oh that's like two years old, I'm okay with it now. In fact I'm kind of having the opposite problem... I used to be obsessed with food, now I can't stand it. I am seeing a psychologist though! She's not sure what the issue is either

I am glad to see you are seeing someone, keep working through it. Not being able to stand food to me sounds like it could be quite dangerous long term.

I would not make building muscle a priority (you need a surplus of cals to do that), you need to work on getting basic calories/nutrition in any way you can. I say if you have to drink shakes to get them in, do. Plenty of things you can add to homemade shakes to help with getting adequate fiber, protein, fats and carbs.

Hunger and appetite are different. I wish I had something to give on how to work on appetite, maybe a doctor can look into some imbalance you have going on psychically, being deficient in something or underlying medical issue. I wish you all the best!

middlehaitch wrote: »

Not sure if this is you, just thinking of your last comment about always hungry, but when I am over hungry nothing appeals.
(I rarely get over hungry, it is not the daily oh I'm ready for my dinner type hunger I'm referring to)

Try eating anything nutritious, just to get the food in you, and then, before you get hungry again, eat another nutritious meal.

It may help to set up times to eat until your appetite returns.

Cheers, h.

This is a really good point. I experience this when I'm over-hungry as well -- I'm not always the best at paying attention to my hunger cues, so there's a tipping point where I go from "regularly hungry" to "nauseated and everything sounds disgusting."

I've found the concept of the hunger scale to be very helpful; I need to remind myself that it's better to eat when I'm starting to get hungry than it is to wait too long.

Hausisse1 wrote: »

It's really upsetting because I'm trying to gain muscle. Does anyone have some suggestions for me? Like, could I live off of shakes? lol

i have to clarify that i could be a totally different ballpark from you - you mention not being depressed, and my own experience brushes up against that. but i'll mention my workaround for whatever value it might have for you.

my thing is that i'm discovering i really can't deal with food when i'm stressed or distressed. the idea of having to eat something turns into this total abstraction, like something i 'should' do except who even wants to spend time on such trivia. it just gets really hard to take the idea of need-to-eat seriously, although like you i still understand in the abstract sense that it has to be done. and i stop being hungry in the way taht i've gotten used to recognizing, which is a big impediment too. it's like my stomach's shut down.

it seems to be just something i need to deal with, but fwiw the best way i've found so far for doing that is to go lifting and to lift heavy (or heavy for me). something about doing that dials the idea of food back into context for me. it seems like it's just easier for my own mind to make a connection between 'you just lifted - must eat' compared with 'you're breathing - must eat'. and purely on the physical level, deadlifts seem to be able to get through to my stomach the way regular life just doesn't seem to right now.

hope it settles down for you.