As you've seen from some recent posts I've had some big hiccups in the plan. I usually plan for the meals by saving my points (I'm on ww)
During the week I'm right on plan, drink my water, take my vitamins, eating every 2 hours, doing light exercise(right now)...just right on plan.
I've noticed that when I get home at night I'm just not hungry for dinner. Tuesday night I ate when I wasn't hungry- and actually felt like I was about to explode. I ate a normal portion not alot but I was so uncomfortable. So last night I cooked dinner but wasn't hungry but felt like I needed to eat something so about 7 I ate a nutrigain bar and I was fine.

Is it okay to not eat if you aren't hungry or should I eat anyway?

I know it isn't advised, but I do skip meals sometimes if I'm just not hungry. I'm trying to learn to listen to my body and feed it accordingly. Now, if I have to skip a meal due to circumstance I always try to fit in at least a small snack so that I don't end up overeating later on. But, I've learned to tell the difference between not being hungry at all and being slightly hungry-not enough to want to eat but enough to know that I'll face uncontrollable hunger in a few hours if I don't.

I do believe the "rules" of eating often and never letting yourself got too hungry are valid and I follow them most of the time. But, eating when I wasn't hungry was how I got fat to begin with. I've come to realize that my body knows what it is doing so I try to pay attention to it. As long as I am eating enough to get the nutrients I need and have plenty of energy then I don't think a lack of appetite every now and then is going to have a negative impact on my long term weight loss goals.

I have an opposing viewpoint. Skipping meals (or eating too little) sends your body into starvation mode, which makes your body hold on to every last calorie!

Try spreading your eating out to every three hours. It might help you feel a little hungry by dinner time.

I agree with listening to your body. You never want to wait until you are really famished to eat, so you should eat regularly, but if you aren't hungry at all, then you shouldn't force yourself to eat something.

I'm a morning person to the extreme, and I'm hungry in the mornings. I'm hungry when I wake up, I'm hungry a couple of hours later, a couple of hours later, a couple of hours later...and then I'm not. My body winds down as the day progresses, and by the time it's time for "dinner" I typically want a bowl of veggies, or a quarter of a baked chicken breast, or a couple of slices of turkey (I try to avoid carbs in the evenings, they make my legs twitchy). So I "front weight" my day, taking in most of my calories (Points) before about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm generally in bed by 10, and I'm not plagued by night-eating issues at all.

What I suggest is that you plan your days around the times when YOU are most hungry, and work with the way your body naturally is. Hubby is the exact opposite of me--wants nothing more than a bowl of cereal in the morning, and gets progressively more hungry as the day goes on (he stays up til 1am most nights, too!). I'll make dinner and have a very small part of it or something different entirely, and we get along just fine.

Eat when you are hungry. Don't force yourself to eat if you're not. The caveat to that is to EAT when you are hungry! Make sure you're getting your calories in your day, but put them where you are most comfortable with them.

I think if you stick to a schedule it will be better for you in the long run. Maybe your body still needs to adjust to your new routien. I eat 4 to 5 times a day now and am usally not starved when I eat but just starting to feel hungry. I find if I get to hungry then I will have a harder time not over eating.

I DO agree that learning to listen to your body is a good idea, but I ALSO think that skipping meals ISN'T.

When I started my program I found that I had completely lost touch with my hunger & thirst signals. This meant that not only did I not stop eating when I was satisfied, but went all the way to stuffed, but I also didn't recognize subtle signals that my body needed food. So, my program has a schedule they really like for you to follow, 3 meals and 3 snacks, meaning you are eating every 3 or 4 hours. After doing that for a while, I started to recognize that I felt much better after my little snacks even though I hadn't thought myself "hungry" or low on energy.

Now, that's not to say you shouldn't pay attention to your own rhythms. Maybe you're the kind of person who typically needs more fuel early in the day but not so much at night (which is really how we all should eat). So, rather than having a full typical dinner meal at night, crowd more of your food into earlier in the day, and have a healthy snack-size meal in the evening, maybe just some cheese and fruit.

You DO need to fuel your body on a regular basis. That will not only keep your metabolism humming and keep you from getting over hungry, but will prevent insulin spikes and keep your blood sugar on an even keel. Keep in mind that people who are insulin resistant and who have diabetes are instructed to eat small frequent meals rather than 3 squares. It's really how our bodies were meant to work.

I'm kinda like Mousie, I eat constantly from when I get up until noon. I don't eat anything else then until supper and no snacks in the evening. But...even if I don't feel all that hungry for supper I make sure I have something or I'll totally pig out the next morning. Right now in the mornings it mostly fruit, veggie, yogurt, stuff like that. If I didn't eat supper the night before I'm sure that would change to to Mickey Dee's breakfast or something similar.

~Dee

Good question, I struggle with this one myself. I know that I, personally, need to eat every 3 hours, but sometimes I'm just not hungry, or as hungry as I usually am at snack/meal times. In fact, just the other day I writing in my blog about how I realized about halfway through my dinner that I really wasn't hungry anymore, but since it was "healthy" (a big, honkin salad w/ lotsa yummy veggies and chicken breast) I went ahead and finished it off anyway, and was too full afterwards. Blah! This is especially tricky for me because I thrive on a routine, so it's difficult for me to do something different than normal, which is, of course, where the whole listening to my body idea seems to fly straight out the window! I guess, if you're truly not hungry, then your body must be telling you something, but you may still want to eat at least a small snack, just to keep your body fuled and your metabolism revved up. My 2 cents, anyway.

Beverly

Thank you for the responses. I was worried about the 'starvation' mode thing because I've heard that before.
I am eating a nutrigrain bar around 8 am with a Fuze green tea. Then I eat a banana at 10 a.m ish and then lunch(weight watchers meal) and then at 2 I eat an apple then I go home and might grab a ww ice cream(has 1 pt). I also have one diet coke with lunch and water for the rest of the day. I have a diet coke with dinner but a bottle of water before bed. I was just noticing tues I was not hungry for dinner but ate and felt miserably full even though it was a very small portion. So last night not wanting that again I decided not to eat a full dinner waited until 7 and had a nutrigrain bar. I wasn't hungry - normally I'd get the stomach growling I'm so hungry in the middle of the night but...I didn't.
maybe like they say when you are feeling hungry its really thirsty and the water is helping me?

Liz--

Are you getting all your Points? That part is IMPORTANT! From what you've listed I'm coming up with about 15-20 Points (ballparking, since I don't know what meals you're eating). You need to eat all of your Points. There is no virtue in eating too few of them--it's referred to as "too few" for a reason!

Are you tracking your calories or using points or something? If that's all you're really eating, that sounds like MUCH too little food and not well-balanced. The only protein and vegetables you're getting is the little bit in the WW meal, and you have no dairy and essentially no fat. It's primarly carbohydrates; even though you've got some good fruit in there, the nutrigrain bar and the WW snack is pretty empty nutritionally. I don't know what's in the Fuze drink but if it's not sugar-free then those calories are basically empty, too.

I know your problem is not being hungry, but the rest of this scenario worries me, too. If you were eating 1500 - 1800 nutrient-dense calories a day and not being hungry in the evening, that would be one thing. But to eat so little food, and NOT getting much besides simple carbohydrates makes it even more odd.

Yikes. Please name a vegetable that you ate that day.

I think the bigger issue here is your nutrition.

In my experience (and only in my experience), I think that making a lifestyle change is moving away from processed foods and getting my nutients in better, wholesome forms. I see a lot of processed foods on your menu that leads me to believe that when your hunger DOES kick back (and it will) that you won't have enough volume (fiber etc) in your habits to fall back on.

I didn't list any of my dinners.

Until this week I was eating a salad with my dinner and lunch everyday, the lasagna florentine has a serving of veges in it(ww meal), I am supposed to eat 5 serving of fruit and veges a day- and I do that. The chicken enchilad suiza is another one I eat for lunch.

If I eat dinner I usually am right at 30 pts, If I don't then I will be at 20. thats why I am asking.