Not Hungry. Should I Force Myself To Eat????

Yes, even eating a small snack (I always have a banana) will help keep you body working and will also help make it so you are not starving later. I will send you a friend request.

you have to feed the machine.

it's like your car wouldn't function right if you didn't put gas in it.

Starting your day with like a 250 calorie breakfast gets your metabolism going again. If you don't eat, in the short term you may lose a few pounds, but your body will start conserving the calories you do give it. It is NOT acceptable to go a whole day without eating - it's in fact very unhealthy. if you have a busy few days coming up, preportion things you can take with you -- i.e. yogurt, nuts, fruit, veggies, etc. Do you not hydrate yourself? if you make yourself drink water when you're not thirsty (which you should do because by the time you're thirsty you're already dehydrated) then you can make yourself eat. Your metabolism is running at a slower pace so it's not telling your body to eat -- it doesn't need to, it's not burning any calories any way because you're not feeding it.

I lost 96 pounds last year (from january 1 to December 2011) I hit plateaus twice (and am just breaking another one right now) - the first time I was eating around 1300-1400 calories, upped it to 1500-1600 - started dropping weight again -- plateaued again after a while -- upped to 1800 -- started dropping weight again....

re-think the not eating thing.

(PS. it's a very common misconception that if you eat you gain weight, and if you don't you'll lose -- just doesn't work like that. you have to make the right food choices and EAT)

I'm seeing a dietician and the advice I was given is this: never be hungry. Plan your meals and snacks in advance, including the time, rather than waiting for hunger since you're more likely to make a healthy food choice (content & portion) if you're not hungry.

Bump

I'm bad about eating when busy too.

You should try to eat at least 1000 calories a day if possible. Your body could go into starvation mode and if that happens your body will eat its 3 day supply of glycogen then it will eat your muscle and lastly will eat your fat stores.

sory I posted in the wrong feed , had to edit it out thanks

To keep your body from going into 'starvation' mode, you should eat something, even if it's a piece of fruit. Your metabolism needs to stay level so that it doesn't slow down because you haven't eaten anything. Your body IS probably hungry even though you may not feel it, especiall since you are so busy. Take a moment, have a healthy snack or even a meal replacement drink and you will still lose weight. Your body will thank you!

Logically my mind tells me "If you eat too much you gain weight. If you don't eat you lose weight." I've been told that if you don't eat your body will go into starvation mode and store your fat.

You were told wrong. If you don't eat, you would eventually starve to death.

Hi My friend and I are doing this together we are both the same in associating food to being fat... I never feel hungry... and when I make myself eat I gag... and feel its all going to come up.. my friend feels the same yesturday it took me an hour to eat chicken and salad and my friend the same to eat the chilli for dinner.. its so hard to change your eatten patterens or the phycology around food. I ve spoken to loads of health advicers with regards to dieting and thye all say that you need to eat less and exersize more... without asking what your eatting patterns are. Which just instill the poor food relationship.

I have 700 cals left and feel so so sick the thought of eatting again fills me with dread.. I was crying in the car on the way home at the thought... Any ideas...

I may be waaaay off base but, this sounds a bit like an eating disorder. Perhaps a counselor could help.

You should try to eat at least 1000 calories a day if possible. Your body could go into starvation mode and if that happens your body will eat its 3 day supply of glycogen then it will eat your muscle and lastly will eat your fat stores.

And this is a load of BS you need a hell of a lot more than this to survive!!! The supposed minimum is actually 1200 but I personally think that's horse *kitten*!

When I went from only eating 1200 to 1400-1600 a day I found that initially I was forcing myself to eat. As my body got used to eating more I found myself able to space out my cals a little better so I didn't have those HUGE amounts left at the end of the day. I also noticed that after a few days of making myself eat.. and getting all 1600 of those cals that I would wake up ravenous!! my first week of actual "eating" I dropped 3 lbs.

I would normally say, "If you aren't hungry, don't eat." This is different, though. If you are going full days without eating then you really do need to eat something. If this happens a lot, you may want to see a doctor. Not eating at all is not good for you and will not help you lose weight.