I just started the diet. Actually let me rephrase that I am not going on a diet, this time I am aiming for a life change. I used to eat once in the day and it was junk or a huge meal when I did. I am female 5'2 at 295Lbs now. So I am told I need to eat more small meals and more frequently because my body will think its starving itself if I dont. I also am trying to cut out the majority of processed foods. Here is my issue. Should I be eating even if I am not hungry? I got up today at 7:30 had 2 scrambled eggs with tomato, around 12 I had 2 ounces of turkey breast. Now here it is at 5 and I am just not hungry. Should I be making myself eat something anyway? I am not taking any kind of appetite suppressant or magic pill either to make me not hungry.

You could do another lean protein, or a serving of yogurt or some fresh vegetables. If I were you, I would do the lean protein. When I don't do protein late in the day, I wake up in the night wanting something or am famished the next morning.

Naturally there are some days that are easier for me. On days like those, I clip my coupon and say a prayer of thanks. God knows there are way too many OTHER days--when I cannot stop eating. That being said, plenty will come behind me talking about what your daily calorie needs are and yada, yada. Zig Zag dieting works wonders for me though. Lately I have had way too many ZIG days!

I wouldn't force yourself to eat if you're truly not hungry.

On days like that I have some leafy greens, a small protein portion, some vinegar and call it a day. It all evens out.

I love this!

No--I would not make yourself eat if you're not hungry. That may lead to binge/emotional eating. It IS a good idea, in my opinion, to eat several very small meals a day. You will get used to it and it will start to feel natural.

It's like people who don't eat breakfast. Once they DO start eating breakfast on a regular basis, they wake up hungry/not nauseous and can eat something.

You know.... I'm getting really tired of 'experts' telling us what to do to lose weight and live our lives. Sorry... I'm hormonal, but like we are are the same? Like we all need the same everything? The same sleep? The same amount of food?

I realize more and more that we are all individuals and we need to taylor our lifestyles around what works for us.

Honestly, if eating once a day works for me - then stick with that. WHO SAYS you have to eat more frequently? If you want to eat mostly in the morning - then do so. Mostly in the evening? Then do so. Just stick to a set amount you will eat - or better said, stick to an amount you will not go over. If you eat under, fine... you aren't hungry and can lose a bit more that day.

Find what works for YOU and stop worrying about things we shouldn't worry about it. I mean really, does it even make sense to ask (and many, many, many ask it) "should I eat when I'm not hungry?" Listen to your body.

Now yes, intuitive eating doesn't work for everyone, but it's usually people don't realize when they AREN'T hungry - not the other way around. Most people know if they feel hungry or not.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! Thank you!!! I'm an intuitive whole foods eater (leaning IF cause I'm never hungry until the evening) too and sometimes I get nervous posting because I'm afraid the food police will jump on me. YES, I can sustain this for the rest of my life. That's the plan, isn't it? I can't sustain forcing myself to eat 10,000 meals a day just because the almighty "THEY" says it's the best. So yeah, most of the time I eat one meal a day. But it's a big meal and I get all my nutrients in. Sometimes I'm not hungry. So what? I don't eat. Sometimes I'm starving, so I eat more calories than I usually would and don't feel an ounce of guilt about it. It all evens out.

You have to become your own expert, to be successful! Do what feels right to you!!!!!

I'm obviously hormonal this afternoon too .

Yes, yes! I agree with you and ValRock. It's about what works for the individual!

I like eating so I eat a lot of food. It's a lot of good stuff, but I literally eat all day. It's awesome. It also works for me. I snack a lot too which should be bad or something apparently.

I finally had this epiphany when I realized how differently my husband and I are with sleep and with food. I was making myself miserable trying to fit his rhythms. I was staying up too late to stay up with my night owl. I was eating light earlier in the day to eat the big meal in the evening - even though that meant I was starving all morning and it many time would lead to stuffing my face at some point to EAT and then still having a big dinner in the evening.

Now, I realize, "Hey, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." And I'll realize - dang, I'm starving this morning and this evening. I need to eat. So, I eat and sometimes that means I have no calories left after 3:30 pm. And guess what? Like maybe once a month or so I get really hungry in the evening. Most other times I'm completely fine not eating after 3:30-4 pm. Now, usually I will still eat dinner, but it is often my smallest meal of the day as that's when I'm the least hungry. My husband is the opposite. he downs at least 1000 most dinners, but he eats light all day because he's not hungry. He also eats an late night snack. I now don't because I'm not hungry. Joining in just made me fat.

So, OP.... try to find what works for you. Obviously, eating the way you did didn't work in some ways because you are obese (yes, I said it - so was I), but was it from waiting too long to eat and then stuffing yourself? or was it something else? THAT is what you need to figure out. You need to decide how you want to eat or feel better about eating because it's you who has to make this lifestyle change to keep the weight off.

I eat fairly frequently in the beginning of the day - a grapefruit here, a protein bar there, a couple sticks of cheese, an apple with peanut butter, etc. I eat snacky stuff all morning and lunch - 100-200 a snack. I probably eat every 1.5-2 hours, but then I just stop and won't eat for hours and hours. So funny how we all are different in that, but then I go back to our "past". Did we have clocks to tell us when to eat? Did we all stop working in the fields to have formal meals? No. We didn't. We eat when we could - we probably gorged sometimes and eat little bits and pieces most other times. There were no RULES - we ate when we could eat and most of the time, we didn't get enough.

Actually they do say "eat when you are hungry".......we get fat because we eat when we are not.

I wouldn't force, like the previous posts said do what works for you. I actually have the slightly same situation, but I make myself eat because I don't want to eat too little calories (I have around 700 kcal a day).