How often do you feel properly hungry?

[Holidaysmoliday]

Asking in here not the weight loss section as I want to hear from all sorts not just people who have their own weight concerns.

I had an ED in the past which consisted of restrictive eating both volume and type of foods. Lost weight rapidly and stayed at the lower level for about ten years until I just slowly started eating more and regained the weight. Am now static again at my normal weight but it’s slowly slowly creeping up and I think I need to look at how I eat, but don’t want to be strict.

Prior to the ED I never thought about my eating. From what I remember I had days when I ate less and days I ate more, I assume based on hunger or what we were doing. I just never thought much about it and my weight was always the same.

Since eating properly again I eat because I can. If it’s a mealtime I eat. I also snack a lot. Nibble and pick. I enjoy food but I also eat even when I’m not enjoying it. Not binges per se but unnecessary food I suppose and I think this leading to the slow weight gain above my normal adult weight.

I realise I very rarely feel actually belly rumbling hunger. Which I assumed was because I eat too much and graze a lot.

But over the last three months due to work circumstances I’ve been missing lunch some days and despite a light breakfast I don’t really feel hungry even by the evening.

I get home and eat (lots) because I feel I deserve to after not eating all day but I don’t think I’m actually hungry. Or not as hungry as the volume I eat would dictate.

So my question is do you eat because it’s a mealtime or do you wait for your body to signal it is hungry and if so how does that manifest for you?

Sorry it’s long.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

Nobody?!

I feel properly hungry before lunch. I have a smallish breakfast (3 x wheatabix or porridge) and am hungry about 11.30am. I might have a banana, but mostly wait until lunchtime, which is normally 12.30pm for me.

Also, on the days I eat at 5pm with the kids, I sometimes go for a run about 7pm and I'm then hungry about 8.30pm, which I tend to ignore until bedtime.

Hardly ever. I'm a terrible grazer and apart from first thing in the morning, I'm never hungry. I'm literally constantly 'topping myself up'

Hardly ever. I'm not a grazer either.

Sometimes I will have a sudden need for food (can feel blood sugar is low) but it's very rare.

I eat because I know I must.

Honestly? I never feel really, really hungry since I started eating lower carb/less sugar.

Before I used to feel ravenous, often.

Blood sugar is much steadier.

Usually before lunch - my stomach will rumble then because I often have a smallish breakfast and don’t snack much. Before tea not so much because I’ll have a snack and lunch is more substantial.

Not often. I don't eat until about 3pm- only drinking water during the day. I only have one meal in the evening, and a snack beforehand. I'm about double the weight I should be (about 6-7 stone heavier than the recommended weight for my height), despite not eating as much as I should. I have IBD, and most food goes straight through me. God knows how I can't shift the weight.

Maybe once a week I will wake up completely ravenous, rumbling belly and everything.

Every week day before breakfast which I have at 11.30am (fits in with work, awake from 6am). By 11am I’m super hungry!

I am always hungry for lunch and dinner

Proper gnawing hungriness

I eat to appetite

Am not overweight fwiw

Quite like the hungry feeling before a meal, makes me enjoy food more

I’m hungry quite often in the night as I don’t really eat dinners. Like eat your own arm hungry but I just ignore it and it’s passed by the morning.
When I’m working I normally have porridge before I leave at 8am and by the time I get home at 2ish I’m pretty hungry. I try not to eat anything at breaktime at work and just have coffee.

I get hungry at about 11.30am at work and I have breakfast at 7.30 and lunch at about 1 so I have started tiding myself over to a small snack eg a penguin bar.

Always hungrey for lunch and usually dinner but sometimes have a snack at 5-6 ish so then less hungrey for dinner. I have dinner at 7ish, a bannana at 9am, lunch between 12-1. I am usually hungrey before I eat.

I'm probably not helpful because I'm always hungry. Unless I've only just eaten. Even then I could probably fancy a bit more. I cannot conceive of skipping a meal and not being hungry. I rarely make it from one meal to the next without an emergency snack.

I eat 3 nutritious meals a day.
Lots of rice. Greens. Meat protein.
Today I was hungry just before lunch and same at tea time.

Hunger goes in waves. I can be very hungry for supper, but if I have to work late I get less hungry again. I do enjoy my food more if I’m properly hungry - if I’ve snacked the next meal just isn’t as good, somehow.

I actually believe I am hungrier than most people. Especially in the week before my period. I love food - all food. I wish I wasn't hungry so much but it's hard to lose weight when you are often ravenous

I don't eat breakfast and usually don't get around to eating lunch until about 1.30 - by which time, I'm nearly passing out with hunger.

I also eat dinner very late, as I work late, so again I'm absolutely ravenous.

I’m breastfeeding so perhaps not in a “normal” state of being and find I’m ravenous regularly, at odd times of the day as well. I eat very instinctively these days and have whatever I want, as I did when i was pregnant, and it feels pretty good. My periods recently came back and I knew when I was due because I had mad cravings for fried eggs which has always been a hormonal craving. I had some, then the thought went away and I felt satisfied. I eat healthily but have more carbs than I used to and if I’m suddenly very hungry I’ll eat quick stuff like a bowl of granola, a banana, then some crackers and hummus if I’m still hungry. I never feel full these days but don’t let myself stay feeling hungry as I suppose I don’t feel like what I eat just affects me. I don’t feel bad about anything I put in my mouth as I know I’m mostly filling up with decent quality, if not terribly exciting, nutritious stuff so if find myself eating something high in fat or sugar bit it’s what I fancy then I have it. If I’m hungry, which I am, then I eat.

I think eating disorders never really go away. Your issues with eating suggest your ED is not in the past but has shape-shifted. This is what EDs do - overeating, undereating, purging. Diets, nutrition, exercising etc etc. On it goes. One, of many, clear indications of an ED is not being able to recognise hunger/confusion around hunger.

I am in recovery for my disordered relationship with food (see above). As a result of working a recovery programme I am hungry 3 times a day before I eat my 3 meals. This is a miracle for me. I don't have snacks but some people who are in recovery do.

Look here for more info about 12 step recovery from an ED.

I do wish you well.

Thank you @springydaff

I do feel I am in recovery if not recovered
I eat well and enjoy it

But as my weight creeps past what is ideal I wondered if I’d lost my hunger cues or if actually many of us nowadays don’t often feel hungry but eat due to social norms of mealtimes, grazing etc.

The thread has already shown variable it can be
It’s interesting actually