How many hours should a meal fill you up for?

[NopeNopeNopeNot]

Years of dieting have resulted in a situation in which I can't judge how soon I should be hungry after a meal. 2 hours, 3, 4 or longer? I currently start thinking about food around 2 hours after my last meal, and then agonize about whether a snack is OK, or if that means my last meal wasn't enough or maybe I just have no will power. Have a history of disordered eating although I don't have an eating disorder, if that distinction makes sense.

I think it depends on what you eat. I used to snack all day, since cutting out all upf / most carbs / sugar, I can go 6 hours without wanting anything.

I do drink a LOT of water, but it’s made a huge difference - veg etc fills me up for much longer.

After 4 hours I’m starting to feel shaky and usually eat something.

Eat more veg and last 3 hours or more

It would be more helpful if you said what you eat.

Also your definition of hunger.

If I eat porridge for breakfast, I need some dark chocolate a couple of hours later. If I eat stir fry veg with salmon or boiled eggs, I last about 5.

Doesn't matter if I drink loads of water or not.

I do eat something about every 2hrs. And I eat a massively non processed diet apart from the 90/100% chocolate.

But it's not always hunger, it's often tired or bored.

If I eat an omelette I don’t feel hungry for many hours.

It depends what I've eaten and what I've done in that time.

Breakfast for me is toast with peanut butter and banana, plus coffee and a glass of apple juice, and I won't eat again until 2pm which is when I get home from a morning of dog walking (about 4-5 hours of movement). I'm hungry but not absolutely ravenous.

On the other hand if I just had cereal or porridge I'd be ravenous by 11am.

I eat breakfast at 7ish, dinner around midday and tea at 5. I have a small afternoon snack at 4ish. Thats it. I do feel hungry in the lead up to a meal but that's healthy and normal imo.

Must be a very big omelette!

I eat breakfast at 7, lunch at 12, dinner at 6. I work in school so can’t eat in class etc so it just doesn’t cross my mind. I have a coffee at morning break at 10.30 but never hungry until about 11-12 but know lunch is coming at 12. I’m a bit peckish after work at 4 and might have a carrot with hummus. After dinner I don’t eat until breakfast.
Today- 7 am- one boiled egg on seedy toast spread with full fat soft cheese , tea.
10.30- coffee
12pm- salad of 1/4 can butter beans, leaves, peppers, radish, tomato, olives, cucumber, olive oil, lemon juice and pumpkin seeds, an apple. 2 bottles of water throughout day.
4pm- half a carrot, tbsp hummus.tea
6pm- 2 air fried chicken thighs, ratatouille, bulgur wheat, feta, a satsuma and a pear.
A fairly typical weekday.

I'm almost the same, except dinner a bit later more like 6. Afternoon snack is optional depending on what I had for lunch. Other than that I don't snack between meals at all. It took time and determination to arrive at that though.

We're really not evolved to be eating every time we feel the slightest inkling too, especially when that so often means high calorie snack foods. Which is why there's so much obesity and so many people struggle with yoyo dieting.

So much of snacking is based on emotional rather than physical impulses, and it's a misplaced way of dealing with those impulses. And if you really do get hungry an hour or so before a meal now and then, so what? Occupy your mind with something and the hunger goes away. It's not like you're actually going to starve.

I have cereal most mornings but top with fruit, then I’m at work - will have coffee/s depending on how busy I am.

Lunch - is typically for eg, vegan sushi, fruit, lentil crisps. Or I quite like Ryvita, cream cheese, topped with cucumber/tomato/onion. Soup in the winter.

More drinks/ coffee - then a snack later on typically of either fruit or vegetables with hummus.

Dinner - I really fill up, had filled pasta with homemade vegetable sauce and a big salad. I’ll have cold drinks now but won’t eat before breakfast.

I eat my breakfast mid afternoon, as a snack...I'm not a morning eater at all but I love porridge and cereal so need to fit it in somewhere!

My typical day midweek goes:

• Morning - several coffees, an hour apart. Nothing to eat.
• 1pm - lunch (sandwich/soup/salad type meal)
• 4.30pm - breakfast meal 😂 (weetabix or porridge with fruit or yoghurt)
• 8pm - Dinner, cooked meal
• 9.30pm - snacks. Fruit or salad sticks, maybe a packet of crisps or small chocolate bar

@BorisArseCheek I think the same as you. I would ideally eat at 6 but have young children and often it's just easier to eat when they eat!

I used to eat chocolate every day but with will power I cut down to just Sundays and I actually prefer it this way now as it feels like a real treat rather than just eating it mindlessly as I was before.

Have a drink of water you feel hungry but what you actually need is a drink.

What are you actually worrying about though?
I probably start thinking about food 2-3 hours after eating in terms of what I'm going to have for my next meal. However I eat three meals a day max, sometimes two. No snacks. I love my food and enjoy planning and cooking though.
If you have a history of disordered eating I think you should get to the route of what you're worried about rather than trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong.

Unless you have a medical condition you should be able to last a few hours without eating. This goes for whether your last meal was big or not and whether you are hungry or not.

4 hours: breakfast at 8 , lunch at 12, snack at 4, dinner at 8

About 3 hours. Doesn't seem to matter whether I've had a snack or a meal although I do feel hungrier quicker if I eat junk food.

Also noticed I couldn't get my fill/felt constantly hungry when I was due my period.

I can only speak for me but I have breakfast (yoghurt and granola) around 10 ish, lunch between 1 and 3 depending what I'm doing and dinner between 6.30 and 8 again depending what I'm doing, so 4-5 hours between each meal when it averages out?

May have been said already in the thread but I think we tend to forget that it's perfectly ok to be hungry for a while before you eat again, rather than responding immediately to every pang with a snack.

If I eat breakfast within 1 hour of waking up I am ravenous for the rest of the day. I simply can't feel full. I'm talking stomach growling hunger. If I wait 1 hour drink tea/water then eat this doesn't happen.

I snack a fair bit over a day. But on stuff like vegs and nuts and not large amounts. I also struggle with a high amount of protein as it sets off my IBS badly. Bit by bit I am learning how to combat this and make me feel comfortable for longer.

As for how long after I eat it varies depending on what I ate. I feel full for hours after porridge unlike some here. And also an egg based breakfast. If I get toasts or crumpets I'm hungry within a few hours.

Something rice based makes me full for a long time however noodles doesn't. So if I have a noodle dish I add nuts of some sort to make the full feeling last longer.

I know this doesn't answer your question but for me it has been about learning what my body needs and how IBS affects it. That's taken years and I'm still not there.

Absolutely depends on what you’re eating OP, and how much of it. I’m a vegan and can only go about an hour after a meal before I’m hungry again.

I think you have to train yourself to eat less often, and at first it's not easy. I went through a phase of constant grazing, and thought I was hungry all the time. I managed to shift that to 3 meals and 2 snacks, then 3 meals and 1 snack, now trying to drop the last snack. Not sure about the third meal either really, when I was at my slimmest and healthiest I would have hot water with lemon first thing, coffee mid morning, a small lunch around 1pm and a big dinner around 7pm (and never felt hungry!) I think my blood sugar is very temperamental these days, I get hangry a lot and get very shaky if I don't have breakfast immediately on waking. I feel sluggish a lot, I think it's because I'm constantly digesting food because of eating so regularly. It is better than when I was grazing pretty much hourly though so moving in the right direction! I'm an emotional eater when I'm stressed, and programmed my body to expect hourly food.

I think it depends on what you eat and your lifestyle. ie, yesterday I had 20g cereal, one biscuit, a bowl of vegetable pasta and a bowl of salad (cereal bowl sizes) & clementine - after that I dragged it out about three hours but was starting to get hungry. That was probably 600 cals. Then you look at what I'd done in the day. At home before work, I'd been food shopping and carried back up hill, cleaned bathroom and hoovered. Walked around 4-5 miles part of which was at a fast speed, lifted lots of tables and chairs, swept and mopped a large area at work.

I wouldn't over analyse what you eat. If you're a steady weight and feel hungry/fancy something a couple of hours later, have it - obviously depends what else you're likely to eat in the day (ie portion/calorie wise) as to weather you make that snack fruit, veggie sticks & hummus or a cake.

I'm a grazer & can go 2 hours or 20. Basically, I usually find something else to do & only know I need food because I'm getting so tired.

It depends on the size and timing of meal and when you last ate.

I have dinner at 8pm then don't eat until breakfast which is usually 8am.

I have overnight oats and protein powder, maybe 350 calories. By 10.45, sometimes earlier, I'm usually hungry, so I then have a second breakfast of eggs on sourdough toast and cottage cheese. If I ate a lot of carbs the day before I might not be hungry though. It also depends how / what you eat - if you eat carb but dress them with healthy fat (nuts, EVOO) then they have a lower sugar glucose spike and less hunger crash.

I tend not to feel hungry at lunch time but it's more that I notice my focus dips, so sometime around 1-2 I'll have a wrap with a side. If I'm hungry about 4pm maybe some chocolate rice cakes and fruit and yoghurt. And then dinner about 7pm which is always a balanced meal.

Writing that down I eat quite often but it helps regulate circadian rhythm and my weight is stable as long as I pay attention to fueling my body properly. If I feel like I'm gaining weight I will just track what I eat more strictly and aim for my TDEE but get more steps in and train a little harder in the gym, add in one cardio session. At 43 diets are a thing of the past for me and I love my carb, carbs are life.