I was thinking about my food habits and why I eat the way that I did. One thing I realized was that when I ate meals with people, I could eat the whole thing, but I never felt...completely satisfied-like emotionally I didn't really like I "really" had a meal. Not sure why, maybe cause in my adolescent years, I ate dinner alone when my parents worked, but I still grew up eating with people. I'd end up either eating another meal after or grabbing food to eat alone. I think that I feel a recharge from being alone, even though I like to socialize. I love having coffee with friends, or a salad or something and just hanging out in general, but for my real meals, I just like eating them alone. I did eat with friends occasionally in college, because some of my friends were busy and that was our only regular social time, but now that I moved to a different state, I eat alone more. My sister was just telling me that food is a social thing, that I should ease into it, but I've spent years eating with other people (and then later on eating alone) its dangit, I can't try to change it anymore because I genuinely like it. I've pretty much decided that...thats just how I am? Plus now that I am on a diet, I don't get funny looks if I only have a bite of this or that (like the really chocolately part of a dessert, but I don't want to waste calories on the entire dry pastry), or I just get the veggies from a buffet line. Its also just calming just to eat and focus on food without having to stop to talk, eat, talk haha. I just feel more satisfied lol.
I hope that I'm not the only one who likes eating alone =(

I guess it depends for me. I like to eat my desserts alone now because I don't like the pressure of the eyes on me from taking the smallest slice of cake. I got used to my coworkers' bewilderment of my eating fruits and vegetables for lunch instead of eating the cafeteria food or something pasta based. I like eating popcorn alone too because it's my favorite food to eat now...

I prefer to eat alone. I don't feel judged when I eat alone-only I'm judging me if that makes sense. When I eat with others I always feel like they're watching what I'm eating. I end up not eating as much as I want to when I'm with people I'm not close friends with or with guys because I don't want them to consider me a pig...and if its like a pizza or something you share I never take more than one or two slices even if I'm not full because I don't want them to think "that's why she's fat."

On the other hand, when I eat with family and close friends I end up overeating. Because they aren't on diets and don't eat healthy foods and encourage me to eat more and to get the unhealthy stuff because "one" cheat won't kill me. So I end up either eating more than I normally would or eating less. But when I'm buy myself I don't have to worry about the judgment of others.

Also, I agree...I hate having to carry on a convo with friends while eating. Its so tricky! I've gone on job interviews before where they served lunch. It was HORRIBLE! I worried about how I was eating it (and unfortunately chose a sandwich with a very tough bread)...how I looked while eating it. And then they kept asking me questions and I'd have to wait until I finished chewing to answer. Overall very unpleasant. Lol.

I totally get what you mean. The opposite happens to me a lot! If I say that I don't like a certain food, my grandmother would be like "then why are you so big?" gahhhhh

I have always hated eating in front of people. Eating was and still is a very shameful act in my parents' house. My parents are both overweight. I believe my dad has a compulsive overeating problem, because for as long as I can remember, he's eaten large amounts of really strange things like Parmesan cheese in secret, and if you go into the kitchen when he's in there, he'll still try hide whatever he's eating from you. On top of that, my mother nagged and yelled at him for it. She scolded him at the table for getting too large of a spoonful of something or putting too much butter on his roll. And still does. And I guess being an empathetic creature as humans tend to be, I felt horrible for him and internalized the whole "You're bad for eating that!" thing, even though my mother has never said anything to me about my eating habits.

So after 18 years of that plus breaks from college, I've conquered (woohoo!) an eating disorder of my own and I still really can't eat in front of anyone without being extremely uncomfortable, because I feel like someone might be disgusted with me.

Yessss. I only feel comfortable eating in front of my fiance and my parents. I love eating by myself the most. I'm alone a lot too, which is sort of bad... because then I eat. lol. I can't wait until I'm thin and can eat in front of others again.

I like eating by myself for the same reasons . . . when I'm with friends, or co-workers, or ESPECIALLY my family, I binge eat. I don't know why. I think with my family it's because being around them is a very stressful situation for me, but I just get into "who gives a crap" mentality and totally go off of my diet. I eat way past the point of being hungry, sometimes until I feel sick. When I'm alone, I rarely if ever do that. Days I have to prepare and eat all of my food alone, I don't have any problems sticking to my diet. But then I don't like sacrificing my social life for my own weird dietary needs, so in the end it's usually my calorie counting that gets sacrificed : (

NoMoreDoughnuts nailed it. NAILED it.

I only like eating alone if I'm eating for comfort. When I was going through a hard time and was binging on food regularly I would get annoyed if someone messed up my plans to eat alone. When I'm feeling better emotionally I could care less whether I eat alone or with others. Eating with other people can be fun because I am a huge foodie and like to discuss the food (taste, texture, seasonings, cooking method) to death

I agree with the above poster, uwfan27. I sometimes used to eat alone, but trying to break that. I would eat fast food in the car so nobody would see me eating it. Then I finally committed to losing weight, and dont miss them as much as I would have thought. Had a little the weekend and while it was nice I am figuring I can enjoy some when I reach my goal weight.

Just a seperate note, I read somewhere that its bad to eat infront of the t.v. The main reason being that if you get into this routine, anytime you sit to watch tv, your brian automatically expects food and you feel hungry. I can agree with this because it has happened to me, and off I used go for fast food, even after eating a dinner. Now it isnt a problem.

Hm yah I can definitely see what you all mean. i wouldn't go on a "major binge-binge" in front of people. Still, maybe this is because I am more introverted-I used to think that that meant that you were antisocial, loved to be alone and never opened up, but I learned that it just means that you feel recharged when you are alone, but you can still enjoy socializing. Since I am improving my diet, I want to stick with eating my real meals alone and just have coffee/appetizers with friends-I feel like itd be too much for me to eat healthier/portion control and fight against who I want/don't want to eat with. I think that it really depends on the individual then-if you like eating alone because its easier to binge, but you can enjoy eating with other people, then eating with other people may be best for you =)

I don't mind eating alone but I enjoy eating with other people as well. When having a meal with others I actually don't eat as much as a lot of conversation goes on and food is not the primary concern. A friend of mine and I once joined WW together and every Friday night we went out to dinner together.We both made goal, too.