Which is better

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OMJW120
OMJW120 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Say it has been a couple of hours since you ate and you forgot you meal due to rushing, when trying to lose weight, is it better to stay hungry or eat an unhealthy snack if you don't have a better choice.

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  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,660 Member
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    All that is required for weight loss is a calorie deficit. I'm assuming that you've demonized chips and candy bars, even though they might fit in your calorie budget. I give you permission to eat the "junk" food.

    If I'm reading you wrong, it could just be that you haven't typed enough words to fully convey the issue that you're having. In that case, we could do with more information...
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
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    I was going to reply that it's okay to be hungry sometimes but after seeing the 1st reply got disagreed with....... :) But I'll still stand by that thought. However, all our situations are different. For me to miss a meal or snack and get hungry, chances are the opportunity to eat something soon, for me, is better than someone who, say is stuck in an office, dealing with customers, etc., can't reach food for a length of time, etc. You have to figure out your own situation and go from there.

    For the incident you mentioned, if there was no other choice available any time soon and my stomach was getting louder, I'd probably grab something and go for as healthy choice as possible.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 878 Member
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    It's better to eat. There's not really a snack that's 'unhealthy' as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements.

    Your body needs food to fuel itself and function properly. Starving/being hungry is really never going to serve you well...later you'll probably be more likely to overeat than if you just have a snack to help keep you satiated.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
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    westrich20940 wrote: »
    It's better to eat. There's not really a snack that's 'unhealthy' as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements.

    Your body needs food to fuel itself and function properly. Starving/being hungry is really never going to serve you well...later you'll probably be more likely to overeat than if you just have a snack to help keep you satiated.

    Couple of points where I disagree with this...
    1. the snack would only be unhealthy if it is pushing out needed nutrients (not calories)
    2. your body will not starve from missing 1 meal (nor will it harm your metabolism)... you would not be 'starving' from missing the meal... you might be hungry, but that is a mental problem and not a physical issue. Even a healthy person at 15% body fat has thousands of stored calories in the form of body fat that will be converted to energy to make up for a missed meal.
    3. the overeat later is true for some people but is not a universal truth (there are very few universal truths when it comes to dieting). I personally skip meals frequently and find (for me at least) it helps me NOT overeat later in the day.

    As to the original question, totally up to the individual. If you can control your hunger, then skip the meal and maybe eat a little more at your next scheduled meal. If not, have the snack.
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,126 Member
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    You shouldn't be hungry only 2 hours after you eat. Personally, I start to get hungry about 2 hours before I get off work. No big deal, I am just hungry until I can go home and eat a decent meal.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 878 Member
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    ccrdragon wrote: »
    westrich20940 wrote: »
    It's better to eat. There's not really a snack that's 'unhealthy' as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements.

    Your body needs food to fuel itself and function properly. Starving/being hungry is really never going to serve you well...later you'll probably be more likely to overeat than if you just have a snack to help keep you satiated.

    Couple of points where I disagree with this...
    1. the snack would only be unhealthy if it is pushing out needed nutrients (not calories)
    2. your body will not starve from missing 1 meal (nor will it harm your metabolism)... you would not be 'starving' from missing the meal... you might be hungry, but that is a mental problem and not a physical issue. Even a healthy person at 15% body fat has thousands of stored calories in the form of body fat that will be converted to energy to make up for a missed meal.
    3. the overeat later is true for some people but is not a universal truth (there are very few universal truths when it comes to dieting). I personally skip meals frequently and find (for me at least) it helps me NOT overeat later in the day.

    As to the original question, totally up to the individual. If you can control your hunger, then skip the meal and maybe eat a little more at your next scheduled meal. If not, have the snack.

    Ok, I feel like the OPs question is very subjective so there will be subjective answers. I used the word 'starve' colloquially and now that you pointed that out I wish I hadn't. Since that's not really what I meant. And as far as talking about the possibility of overeating later, I didn't say that 100% of people would do that. I said it can make it 'more likely'. Like you actually, I often don't eat during the day sometimes if I don't have time during work -- and I also don't overeat when I get home. But, if I had something I cold eat (like a basket of candy bars was in the copy room and I could grab one)...I probably would and simply adjust my dinner to accommodate that.

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    What is an unhealthy snack to you OP?
    Perhaps if you gave some examples people might see where you are coming from.

    Without context to the rest of your day, rest of your food, or even rest of your week there's simply no answer apart from personal anecdotes.....

    I don't have any problem going extended periods without food, that's normal for me and I certainly don't need to eat every two hours. I also can't think what of my hugely varied diet of meals and snacks is actually detrimental to my health. Everything I eat has some nutritional value and I'd be surprised if that wasn't true for you as well.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    edited February 2022
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    Lots I personally agree with above:
    • It's ok to be hungry.
    • For *some* people, getting *too* hungry leads to uncontrolled binges. This is very personal, and it might vary depending on the time of day. I am one of those people who binge if I get too hungry, but that is more likely to happen in the afternoon than at night. I tend to eat an earlyish dinner and am often a little peckish at bedtime, but it doesn't bother me and I just go to bed. If I missed lunch and afternoon snacks, though, I might feel fine at 3 but at 5--watch out.
    It's important to "spend" your calories on the things you genuinely enjoy. So whether you have an unplanned snack to compensate for a missed meal depends on several factors that are personal to you. Are you prone to binge? Is the snack something you will enjoy? Would your personal preference be to add the calories to dinner instead?
  • RunStart34
    RunStart34 Posts: 157 Member
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    I still wondered what you mean by unhealthy snack.. mostly from what i hear from friends as candy bar, donut, or energy drink.. well i always looks at my calories i have banked. lets say your talking about Lunch and this is where you forgot your food and the situation is you won't be able to leave your desk in another hour or so but your starting to get hungry i would wait and go after the hour. However, if you can't leave your desk or area for another 4 or 5 hours.. and your only have access to a vending machine.. then yes i am going to see what they have and eat a bag of chips (usually 150 calories with those small bag) and i don't know a bag of salted peanuts ( usually those small bag are 170 calories) that should hold me until dinner. Total 320 calories if that can hold me until dinner then so be it if not i don't mind going back as i usually have 500 calories banked for each meal. It just depends on how you see the situation but also to take care of yourself.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,187 Member
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    When I was on reduced calories, I found that if I actually got hungry and a planned meal/snack wasn't coming up soon, I was better off if I had a small snack. For me, something protein-y worked best.

    It wasn't that I'd do anything dramatic like "binge", necessarily . . . but it did help me keep energy constant, get my mind off my appetite, and perhaps avoid some (sub-true-binge) overeating (or speed-eating that took longer to register as satisfied) at the next meal.

    Because of that, I made it a habit to keep some suitable pretty-nutritious shelf-stable snacks in my car, that I liked well enough, but were not soSo tempting that I'd tear into them when not really needed. (I'm retired, or I would've kept some at work, too.)

    It wasn't that I "couldn't go for 2 hours without eating" (another over-dramatic description, for my taste). I could, and often did. It's just that in certain situations, the snack option worked out best overall for me.

    As others have said, this is going to be very individual, both to the person and the situation. You may need to experiment. As with any experiment, it's fine to try something, discover that it doesn't work for you, and take another approach next time. Learning experiences are good and useful, y'know? Thinking of it as some Grave Personal Failure is also unnecessary melodrama. Experiments lead to finding good solutions for you, and some experiments don't work. Meh. Let 'em go, try something else.

    Now that I'm in maintenance, I don't find the snacks as frequent a need, don't usually keep them in my car. At home, I do snack sometimes in a similar scenario, still usually choosing things that are tasty, filling, and that help with my day's overall nutrition.

    Weight management (loss and maintenance both) is IMO a process of analysis and problem solving, very individualized. It's about finding strategies that work for you, as an individual, and we all differ in our preferences, strengths, challenges and more. Other people can give you ideas, but generally there aren't absolute universal right and wrong strategies. You can figure yours out. If something doesn't work well, try something else next time, no anguish or stress about it necessary . . . they don't burn enough extra calories (if any!) to be worth it, y'know?

    Best wishes!
  • LiveOnceBeHappy
    LiveOnceBeHappy Posts: 432 Member
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    I HAVE to eat. If I don't, I get cranky, headachy, and then I'll eat anything I get near--calories galore. I don't typically get in this situation anymore as I have food with me most of time time! A granola bar in my purse, fruit in my work fridge, whatever. I didn't answer your question, but for me it's about being prepared, knowing myself.
  • thewhipple12955
    thewhipple12955 Posts: 73 Member
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    Since signing up to this app and the accountability I'm getting from it and I was in your situation and all I had was the option of a vending machine I would kick it so it did not work anymore.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,979 Member
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    I could be wrong, but I'm reading the OP as saying a meal was planned and packed but forgotten at home, and now OP is away from home and it's time to eat but the planned meal isn't available.

    For me, what I would do would depend on a lot of variables. How long until I would be able to get to my missing planned meal or my next planned meal? What are these supposedly "unhealthy" options? Will any of the available options actually help with my hunger (this is a pretty subjective thing, and even if you know yourself pretty well, you can't always -- or at least I can't always -- accurately predict the outcome, but I would make my best guess)? Am I just hungry (which personally I can ignore pretty well as a result of years of having to eat when I wasn't actually hungry, due to hypoglycemic issues, but obvs other people's MMV), or is my hunger affecting me physically (shaky, headaches, lightheaded) or mentally/emotionally (e.g., difficult to concentrate or control irritability)?

    I don't view individual foods such as candy bars, for example, as "unhealthy," but generally, if a candy bar doesn't have something like nuts in it, it's not going to do much for my hunger and associated physical or mental/emotional effects. So I would look for something with a little protein, fiber, and fat if I could find it (Snickers bar, popcorn, tortilla chips and hummus), as my best personal bet to see me through to me next meal.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 909 Member
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    carry a quest bar or something like that with you, and eat that.
  • Bridgie3
    Bridgie3 Posts: 139 Member
    edited February 2022
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    The question is entertaining: kind of like the fat kid stuck in the cave entrance and the tide is rising, you can't get him out but you do have some dynamite. Do you blow him up and save everyone else, or do you all drown?

    :D bit brutal... but one of those philosophy 104 questions we all got asked.

    I think there are a lot of variables.
    1. what does 'unhealthy' mean?
    2. what does 'hungry' mean?
    3. how long before you get to food.

    People say meat pies are unhealthy - but someone who needs the calories does not find them unhealthy. What level of activity are you at, and what kind of food are you talking about.

    If it's empty carbohydrates with no nutritional value, like a twinkie - chuck it. It's of no use to you and probably won't save you from the hunger. But if it's a piece of fried chicken? scoff that down. It's full of fatty acids and protein chains and vitamins, and it will keep you full.

    The next one, what is hungry? Is it that one side of your tummy is eating the other side? or is it that you're starting to shake and get blurred vision?

    Having an empty tummy is good for you, but if there are irritants in it it will feel truly awful. Have a big drink and it will wash out irritants and your stomach will relax, without discomfort, and even maybe shrink a bit. This is good: having that sack empty is good, but it shouldn't feel unpleasant, it shouldn't feel of anything at all.

    However if by hungry you mean you're shaking with blurred vision, headaches, maybe nausea, then reach for food. try to make sure it has fats (people hit the disagree button if I don't say 'healthy' like a schoolkid so 'healthy fats' it is) and maybe proteins. carbs disappear far too fast to help you in any real way. I snack on cheese segments, bits of salami, tomatoes, bacon. Tins of sardines. Maybe always have a tin of sardines (or tuna or salmon if you hate sardines) in your purse? those little flavoured single servings of tuna are brilliant).

    ... last one, how long before you can get to food. if you're 10 mins away from a healthy meal, suck it up, buttercup. But if you aren't going to get fed again for another 6 hrs? Yes. Eat the thing.

    :) I try to avoid having brutally strict rules for myself, basically because life's too short and I am not much of a rule follower anyway. Every day is a slalem through dangers and difficulties and situations that require me to change my plans on my feet. A rule is dashed to pieces by 10am.

    Just go with the flow. so long as you're skiing downhill, it doesn't really matter how steep the gradient, or how many dangerous jumps you undertake. So you can just take the easy path. Any day you are under your calorie goal, you are losing weight. Try to reach for high nutrient options when you can, but bottom line; keep skiing downhill.



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