If you are slim are you regularly hungry

[Spaghettihulahoops]

Prompted by a thread about weight training and weight loss. A poster stated that they are always hungry on the days they train. They said they put up with this to stay slim.
So if you are slim do you experience and ignore hunger on a regular basis?

I think that people have forgotten that being hungry is actually normal. Its a biological imperative to go and find food which keeps you alive. Its like feeling horny makes you want to have sex which the body knows you need to do to make a baby! We are animals when all is said and done.

The problem is that now snacks are cheap and so easy to access. Go into any shop in the country and there are shelves of chocolate, sweets, crisps etc all of which are high in sugar. The create a sugar spike, then a crash which means you need more of it to feel satiated.

The idea that if you feel even the slightest bit hungry you should eat immediately goes against our biology, our bodies simply are not built to work like that. The body reacts by storing excess food because millenia of evolution has taught it that it could be days before it sees food again. We literally evolved to be prepared for Feast and Famine. Eat when you can because it may be a long time before you can eat again. Except it isnt, its hours at best.

The idea that being hungry is somehow terrible is so wrong! HUnger is actually ok!

For me personally, and I'm absolutely not judging anyone else for their weight because it's nothing to do with me, being overweight would definitely not be worth the trade off of avoiding a few hunger pangs. It would be so uncomfortable and inconvenient that it makes me shudder to think of it.

but surely you accept that it is not healthy to deliberately eat so little that you are hungry a lot of the time?

I think also on here there is often a belief that anybody who is slim must be under eating, or at the very least eating a very healthy, controlled diet with no snacks, when that isn’t necessarily the case. Plenty of people eat whatever they want, including cake, biscuits, crisps etc., without thinking too much about it, and are still slim- but some people obviously don’t want to hear that.

It's an absolute myth to make people feel better, which perpetuates negative stereotypes of those who are slim. I see it a lot on here.

I have always been thin but healthy, but I believe it to be an amalgamation of luck, moderate appetite and an enjoyment of fresh foods. I do like cake and chocolate but not often. I like yoga and cycling. I have never calorie counted or gained more than 4 pounds here and there.

I am also nearly 50. It is a myth that all women gain weight and can't keep it off at meno.
One thing I have found always puts weight on is alcohol. I have lost too much weight when I gave it up without altering my diet, and had to increase my calorie intake to balance back up.

We are all different. And if society wasn't so horrible and judgmental about larger people it would make the world of difference. I think we make a mistake in correlating morality with thinness, which causes the disconnect and bad feeling. So ultimately I think a lot of people who have a 'set point' that is higher than average need to believe that all thin women are starving. It just isn't true.

Acceptance of all bodytypes with a focus on health is a dream I would love to see come true. Our culture pits large women against small, and vice versa. Sad but true.

And I love carbs, by which I mean potatoes, some breads and rice. I have never liked pasta though so cant comment on that!

Edited to add: I also accept that life can throw a curve ball at us, so I could eventually need a medication that would make me gain a lot of weight. We should never judge at either end of the scale.

For decades I didn’t eat lunch and sometimes breakfast (poor) and then as an adult I over ate to compensate. I remember being hungry as a kid but there was nothing I could do about it so got on with it. I was a big adult for ages until I lost the weight (one third of my body weight), now I have gone back to having breakfast and dinner but I remember being hungriest when I was at my biggest.

the hungriest I have ever felt is the morning after a huge meal.

Humans have been going hungry since the beginning of time so no I don't think it's inherently unhealthy or bad for you or even that big of deal really.

And again, not judging but being overweight is hardly good for you.

I think I probably do feel hungry but I'm not very good at noticing my body signals (poor interoception probably due to neurodivergence) and I'm not really bothered by hunger, it's slightly annoying but no worse than that. It takes me about a day and a half to feel properly bothered by hunger. Or when I'm pregnant, then I eat normally. I put on loads of weight in my last two pregnancies that I've never managed to before, probably about 3 stone.

I read on here once someone had a theory that everyone has one of the following they just can't cope with:

Lack of sleep
Lack of food
Being cold

For me it's 100% being too cold (or too hot) - I am a complete wimp about these things and can't function. Hungry, tired, doesn't really matter but I basically can't stand being outside for about 80% of the year.

I eat a load of crap and I'm unfit so I'm not sure being slim is really anything for me to be proud of.

I don’t ever feel hungry. I’m short and the same weight I was when I was 17 decades later). I don’t get pangs or stomach rumbles. I just try to eat something fairly substantial once a day, I don't seem to need more than that. I’m not underweight. I occasionally feel like I fancy something in particular but not most days. It's a chore the majority of the time and I don’t enjoy it very often.

I’ve always been slim and and am always hungry. I need to eat every 2/3 hours but rarely do because I never know what to eat, hate cooking and am so unadventurous with food that I end up relying on cereal to keep me going as it’s quick and no fuss.

No. I’ve no idea what my numbers are for those. I can see my ribs and stomach muscles, which to me is a decent measure of. “Slim.”

I’m 168cm, 6 or 8 on my bottom-half, normally about a 10 in tops.

That'd be lack of sleep for me. I have a huge capacity for sleep. I can function on 8 hours but given any chance I'll jump at 14+ hours and feel great. Nothing to do in the day? I sleep. Years of sleeping tablets and still only getting a few hours in. Cant stay asleep with them, cant fall asleep without them. I’m way more fussed about sleep than food.

Hunger is just a signal. It doesn’t always mean that you need to eat or are eating too little. Sometimes it means that you’re thirsty or bored. Thirst often registers as hunger to us, so a large drink of water is always a good idea.

As for the second part, it’s not that people don’t want to hear it. It’s that studies have been done on it and found that people who “eat whatever they want and are slim” are, in fact, eating quite moderately and consuming a lower than average amount of calories. People’s perception may be that they indulge a lot, but the reality is that they eat very moderately when on their own.

I would agree with that. I eat what I want when I want it, but I dont much or very often. I am happy to have one chocolate when I fancy it and leave the rest for example.

That said......I have one friend (I think we all have one!) who disproves that rule. I have never known anyone eat like she does! She eats more than anyone I know, including my ex who was a very very greedy man and would eat almost to the point of being sick rather than turn food down. She is still a stick thin size 6 and when she needed to put weight on she genuinely couldnt! The doctor didnt believe her when she said what she was eating and it got to the point where she was keeping a video diary to prove it! To this day I have no idea where she puts that much food, her body is tiny so it must be 90% stomach! And she isnt an athlete or particularly active either!

Agree. I don’t know anyone like this in real life as well. Not that I know of.

OP, I was slim most of my adult life before the pandemic. I wasn’t hungry all the time at all, always ate plenty including a significant amount of cakes and a daily Starbucks chai latte ( colleagues and friends and family commented on my hearty appetite quite a bit so it’s not just a false perception ) but I did walk 1-2 hours a day (my commute /work) had a semi-active job working with kids, and I’d go through phrases of going to the gym 3 times a week on top of that.

my issue in lockdown was processed foods, and takeaways coupled with extreme sedentary lifestyle and sleep deprivation which increased cravings and ultimately led to weight gain. I’ve now lost most of the weight I gained though and not by being hungry most of the day. Swapped the takeaways for home cooked meals, make my own coffees and limit my sugar intake. I try and fill up on high protein food and veg and stay hydrated.

This is exactly me right down to the being cold thing.
I'm 45, been a size 8 all my adult life.

Absolutely it is normal to feel hunger, but deliberately not eating to satiate that hunger because you don’t want to gain weight is a modern day thing and not something our ancestors would have done.

As you say being overweight is not good for you either, though I think some people strive to be underweight, rather than just a healthy weight, and are constantly monitoring what they are eating, which must be miserable. There was someone on here a few weeks ago who was choosing to live off 500-600 calories a day and then wondered why they had no energy to exercise!

168cm, 52kg, BMI 18.4

I eat within a 10 hour window. My body is used to it and I just hate that bloated, over stuffed feeling. I don't snack just eat 2 small and 1 medium meal every day. I feel a bit empty before each meal, but not actively hungry with a rumbling stomach.

I'm in more or less the same boat.. I've gone up to 9.10 stone from 8.5 & it's literally just from boredom in front of the TV in the evening so I've decided to take up knitting to keep my hands occupied because I KNOW it's just a boredom /let's snack issue, here's hoping anyway!

I'm not slim but st the very top end of healthy bmi. I'm regularly up with disabled dc from around 3am and have found the earlier I eat the hungrier I am. So have usually been up for about 6 hours before I eat breakfast. This helps to maintain my weight. If I eat less than 5 hours after getting up I'm ravenous all day and then easily gain weight.

My BMI is about 21.5 (is that slim)?
I'm really good at ignoring food.
Or at least waiting until it's convenient to eat.
Then I'm tired & think... oh yeah, I need to refuel don't I.
Love food but only whenI'm hungry. It doesn't taste nice if you're not hungry.
I get a lot of exercise & that's an appetite suppressant.

As young person I was hungrier a lot more, hormonal?

Can get by on 2 hours sleep, but hate being cold !!

The aim of how we live our lives?

'Hungry' and 'full' mean different things to different people.

Full to some means not actively hungry anymore. What is 'full' to other people is 'too full and uncomfortable' to them.

Hungry, to some people just means, 'not full anymore'/'I have room to eat'.

One of the main differences between 'naturally' slim people and those who are not/watch their weight is the slim ones don't feel the need to keep 'topped up' to avoid hunger. They don't mind being hungry for an hour or two before a meal, and look forward to the meal.

You shouldn’t feel hungry for several hours after a meal though. I think if there’s one thing that has increased obesity it is snacking. Going 4 hours between meals is fine and means you will be hungry for your next meal. It’s also better to not keep spiking your blood sugar.

I think it’s normal to feel hungry between meals?!

or it used to be

maybe now it’s more normal to feel you have to immediately eat

eating snacks all the time and “grazing” are fairly new concepts in Western culture.