[Ready4aChange]

Does anyone else have a problem with not feeling hungry? I want to eat breakfast, but I am seriously not hungry when I wake up. SHould I eat anyway? Then, I don't feel hungry at the normal dinner time. Again, do I eat anyway? Obviously, I don't have a problem eating in general... maybe it's because I'm actually paying attention to being hungry, when I eat, etc. Any thoughts?

[carolr3639]

We talk a lot about this in the intuitive eating thread under general diet plans.............eat when hungry stop when satisfied. A couple of people just posted lately about not eating breakfast.

[JayEll]

Hey! Well, it may be that the times you have "set" to eat aren't the times your body is used to eating. I don't eat breakfast right when I get up--it usually takes an hour or so before I feel like breakfast. But if you have to eat before going to work or something--then have a "snack" instead of breakfast. Something lighter. The same thing might be happening at "supper time"--you could have a snack instead at that time, and perhaps eat supper later? Just thinking out loud here.

Are you counting calories? Do you know how much you're eating in a day? Do you tend to snack in the evenings before bedtime? These might affect your hunger.

It's true that often people don't know what hunger feels like. I've had experiences when I wasn't hungry when it was "time" to eat, but then half an hour later I felt seriously starving! And not much changed in between...

Jay

[JoyfulVegGirl]

I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I've observed that my body goes through phases. Some weeks I'm not hungry at all, and then some weeks I'm famished all of the time and it's really hard to stick within my calorie budget. I think fluctuations like that are pretty normal, especially if you're just starting a new eating plan and practicing intuitive or conscious eating.

Eating breakfast is supposed to be really good for your metabolism, though, so if nothing else I would make an effort to eat something when you wake up to get your body going. It doesn't have to be breakfast per se or even a huge meal, just something that you can get down. I've always had problems with not feeling hungry in the mornings, so I usually drink a protein shake or smoothie. It's made a difference not only in my weight loss but in my energy levels and mental capabilities (not really a morning person).

[Cats tongue]

I've heard that breakfast is anything you eat within 2hours of getting up. So that means you can wait a while.

The importants of breakfast is just to turn your metabolism on. Even something small, like a piece of fruit is good if you aren't hungry. then later instead of that snack of a fruit you can eat a little bit more of a substantial mini meal.

[mandalinn82]

What Jennifer and Jay said!

My body definitely goes through cycles...hungry some weeks, not hungry other weeks. At the same time, I've also struggled with not knowing what hunger felt like, so I'd think I wasn't hungry when, in fact, I was.

For me, eating SOMETHING in the morning is really important to not being starving all day. If I were you, I'd try to start small...a snack, a bit of protein, even a piece of fruit within an hour of waking up. Your body will adjust and you may or may not start finding yourself hungrier in the mornings. Either way, you'll be getting that metabolic fire going earlier and hopefully, keeping yourself less hungry as the day progresses.

[QuilterInVA]

You may be so out of tune with your body you no longer recognize hunger signals. Eating small mini meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism running and your weight coming down. Eating too much late in day will keep you from being hungry in the morning.

[Ready4aChange]

I was a definite evening snacker (pig-outer is more like it) and one of the things I've been doing is the whole stop eating at a certain time. I stop at 7:30pm so I'm not tempted to do the mindless binge eating thing while watching television in the evening. So, it actually makes sense that my body still isn't triggering that hunger mechanism in the morning because it's so used to still having food around... or that I'm not accustomed to the feeling and perhaps not recognizing it because it's a foreign concept to my body right now. Excellent advice and tips. I bought a couple of grapefruits, and some blueberries so I have something sort of quick and easy to get me in the mood in the morning to eat and start a healthy day! Are there any breakfast bars or that sort of thing that are actually healthy and not just pretend healthy? That might be a good idea too. It's so weird how out of whack my body has become that I have to re-train it to understand hunger! At least I'm getting back on the right path now