What is your opinion on skipping meals when you aren't hungry?

Saving calories over a day, or even over a couple days for a big meal is fine, as long as you are aren't stinting yourself too much.
As far as not eating if you aren't hungry, well if you truly aren't hungry, you probably don't need extra calories at the moment. Again as long as you aren't making yourself sick, and it's only once in a while, you are probably fine. Some people don't need as many meals in a day, some people do better eating only one or two meals, and using thier calories up at once instead of over the whole day.

My opinion is that skipping meals and low calorie days are fine, even more often than just before an event, but with caveats:
1. It shouldn't push your overall deficit over time too high - that would be chronic undereating which isn't good
2. It shouldn't push you into an extreme hunger rollercoaster of skipping meals, feeling hungrier, loss of control, overeating
3. It shouldn't encourage an unhealthy mental perception of food like "fewer calories is better, food is my enemy", or worse, disordered thinking patterns, or even worse, eating disorder if you are prone to it.

If you do it in a calm and controlled manner and know that it's just a calorie management system, then I don't see any issues with it. In your specific case, occasionally saving up for a higher calorie meal or day, it's usually less likely to create problems, but still, be mindful and take action if you find yourself over-restricting, over-compensating, or losing control.

Listen- we’ve all been poorly informed about healthy eating, hunger, starvation and caloric demands.
First off- if you’re of the general population that happens to be overweight or obese- you’ve never truly encountered hunger or starvation for that matter. Most Americans have a minimum of a months worth of fat stores on their bodies which would technically keep the body and brain fed and nourished without any caloric intake for an entire month. People with extreme obesity are IMO hardcore doomsday preppers. Now obesity is the greatest health crisis that we face in this day and age, but at least you can take a positive spin on it. All that aside- fasting has many benefits and I do personally recommend doing week long fasts once or twice a year and then intermittent fasting periodically through the year. It has huge benefits to your immune system, lung health and your bodies ability to repair, restore, renew and fight cancer while detoxing and expelling the built up toxins that our fat stores continuously and without end.

A 3-4 day fast will move you through the unpleasant period of detoxing from sugars and garbage food and on into a state of ketosis and autophagy where the body really cleans itself. Maintaining a fast for a week will give your body the time to reset and renew without causing major upset to metabolism. (Metabolism isn’t as delicate as we’ve been led to believe). It’s a wonderful time to commit to a new healthy lifestyle and to really reset to optimal gut health following the clean out and commitment to cleaner eating.

The truth about meals and eating? We have been led to believe that we need constant food with high frequency in order to function at our best. Yet any person who has experience with fasting will maintain that mental clarity and acuity improves when in a fasting state. For optimal physical prowess there needs to be balance in order for one to meet physical goals. Much of eating is based more on addiction to garbage foods (namely sugars) and misconceptions of feeding demands.

Depending on how active you are- there’s the basic math of caloric requirements for weight maintenance, losses and gains. Skipping meals or having periodic short fasts can be a boon to your health in aiding in repairing insulin and blood sugar levels, regulating your feelings of hangriness, and retraining your body to eat when it needs to eat rather than eat because you were told a magic little fairy tale about 3-5 meals a day. Fasting is NOT for weight loss- though you will lose water weight, adipose and fecal mass, following a fast your body will naturally replenish its stores. Fasting is about health, control, cravings and clarity.

Meet your caloric demands. Have a loss here, have a treat there. Keep your body dynamic and fluid and able to take on variations in diet without crashing!

Also a little FYI- don’t have time to gather links but numerous studies have shown that lower calorie diets than the standard 2k we’ve been advised to follow actually promotes healthier living and considerably longer life expectancy.


Time to think outside of the box!