Okay.. let me describe my situation.. ive been on a pretty good diet/workout program for the last month and a half, lost nearly 20 lbs on it so far.. well anyway.. now it seems that my appetite has vanished! When time comes to eat ( lunch ), IM NOT HUNGRY, and have to force myself to eat.. is this normal or what? Here is an example.. I get up at 7, eat a pretty good breakfast, ( bowl of rolled oats and an orange, and a glass of water ) then 10:30 comes around and im suspose to eat a little midmourning snack like a fruit or sumthing, but im not hungry, so i dont eat it.. then 12:30 comes,, STILL not hungry.. well i force myself to eat the salad i made formyself then, but the other day i tryed sumthing, and i ate my normal breakfast, and didnt get the hungry feeling until almost 4 pm! can someone tell me what is going on here? should i be forcing myself to eat when im not hungry? or should i just not eat until i get hungry.. or what.. Thanx in advance, bye.

You're not weird. You're just listening to your body. In this world of abundant food, food commercials, and dieiting, we often forget what it feels like to be hungry and respond to it then (just like we were when we were babies). If you're not hungry, don't eat. BUT, don't ever let yourself get to the point when you're starving. That's when the trouble begins. Always carry a little something in your purse or in your pocket to avoid that. You never know where your going to be etc. and even if you plan to eat later in the day and you get delayed, etc. It may take you a while to establish a pattern.

Someone said to rank your hunger from 1 to 10 -- 1 being fully sated to 10 being starving. They say you should eat when you're feeling about 6 or 7 and stop at 4 or 5.

Hope this helps.

Well .. from a slightly different perspective. I have, I do, and am presently struggling with, the same issue. The problem is, if I don't eat till I get HUNGRY, I don't eat. I start to get dizzy and pass out, etc. I would never get in my minimum calories a day if I were to wait till I were hungry. So I make darn sure I'm eating at least 1200 calories a day, regardless if I'm *hungry* or not.

OTOH, I have found one thing that helps. Lifting weights. Not light weights, either. Seriously pushing on the weight lifting. I do upper/lower splits twice a week now, and I have noticed that what I call my "body hunger" (as opposed to pure appetite) has returned. When the present weights get too light, however, the hunger disappears again. THAT I can listen to!

I'll give it a try, only eat when im feeling the hungry feeling come on, but what im thinking of, if i only eat like this ( staying in the scale that you mentioned ), then i'll consume less then 1000 cals a day.. because right now im forcing myself to eat at certain times, and only get about 1400-1600 cals a day..

What you're facing seems perfectly normal to me.

In my case, being borderline diabetic, I have to space my meals in the course of every 4-5 hours to keep my blood sugars level, whether I am hungry or not; otherwise, I get a dizzy and generally "weird" feeling. I've even woken up not hungry, but with that "weird" feeling, so I had to eat.

Presently, I make a point of eating 1500 calories a day and 35 or less grams of fat. Most of the time I am successful, but there are also times I can do better.

I'm going through the same thing right now, so I'm glad to know that it's not just me. I don't get hungry at all, ever. I do make myself eat at certain times to stay OP, but I don't get hungry and have no desire at all to eat the things I used to live on. I worry a little bit about it, but then I figure I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

any more suggestions..? or comments.. or aaaaaaaaaanything..