Snacks - is this normal or obsessive

[thedendrochronologist]

I have a difficult relationship with food and over eating and I am trying to lose weight.

I appreciate this is a weird question.

Would you take a snack and a drink if you were going on a longish overnight trip. Away from home for 24 plus hours. Dinner breakfast and lunch provided? Or would you just get something if needed?

I'm going away for work tomorrow. I leave at 4pm on the train and have arranged to see a friend for dinner at 7.30pm.

Next day is hotel breakfast and lunch at the course and then trip home. Can either get something for the train or wait til I get home at 7.30.

FWIW I'm first class on the train so should be a complimentary snack service but it's not guaranteed.

I would normal take a drink and a small snack, maybe just even an apple!

I always carry snacks on trains (especially in summer) as they're notoriously unreliable and I wouldn't want to get stuck without food and water on a hot train for hours.

I used to travel a lot for work meetings and whilst meals were provided, I got in to the habit of having a bottle of water, some fruit and perhapss a cereal bar in my bag as so many of the provided lunches were brown food or I was the speaker so didn't get much chance to eat a lot.

I always stuff some biscuits, fruit and crisps in my travel bag whrn we go on holiday, just in case.

I would take water and a pot of nuts which are always handy to fill up with in case the food is rubbish. I would also eat these instead of dinner at 7.30pm as I prefer to finish eating by 6pm.

What about those of us who said we don’t take a snack but made no comment on your weight?
I don’t take snacks. Don’t care if anyone else does though and don’t have any opinions on why you’re overweight.
I don’t take snacks because I don’t have snack foods at home. So to take a snack, I’d have to go to the shop before my trip especially to buy snacks. In which case I might as well just buy a snack from the shop while I’m out if I decide I want one.

I’d take an apple.

It's not something I'd think about in advance tbh. If I felt hungry as I was leaving the house then I might pick something up.

It's interesting how we've see the experience of hunger as something that must be avoided wherever possible, and responded to immediately, in a similar way to pain.

I wonder if it is actually more normal/healthy for the human body to spend a proportion of the day hungry. Not to the extent of feeling faint etc, but actively peckish.

Well I didn’t write an essay upthread but to go into more detail about buying something if I was hungry…

If id had a decent lunch and felt peckish while about to get on a train for a 2 hour journey I wouldn’t bother, because I could easily wait until I got home.
If lunch had been a shitty carby sandwich and I felt peckish while about to get on a 4 hour train to get home, I’d probably pick up a snack for the journey because by the time I got home I’d be absolutely ravenous.

What I really don’t understand is why people have no many opinions on other people’s eating habits and preferences. It’s perfectly possible for someone having 3 snacks a day to consume fewer calories overall than someone who has 3 large meals, they’ve just realised that having food more regularly throughout the day works better for them in terms of stabilising blood sugars.

No I wouldn't, maybe just a bottle of water

Fruit and water. Don't like paying train prices

I wouldn't take a snack because I'm not a snacker. I'm a 3-meals a day type. If I'd had a hotel breakfast and a lunch it's unlikely that I'd be hungry until around 7.30-8 anyway. But I'd make sure I had something easy to make when I got home so I wasn't eating too late.

Everyone is different. Some people graze throughout the day and some eat 3 meals a day. The issue with snacking is that people often do it on top of 3 meals a day which can then lead to weight gain.

Maybe the snackers on here are actually grazers? Who knows.

Enjoy your trip OP.

I wouldn’t need a snack…but I’m not you

When travelling, I don't take it as a snack as such, but a preparation for potential delays that may mean I will miss a meal.
In the same way that I often take a bottle of water with me in the car. I never need it, but on a hot day, if I were to break down on the motorway for example, I'd be glad I had it.

Obviously the train isn't going to get stuck for so long you die of starvation - but no need to be unpleasantly hungry just because you dislike snacks.

I have been stuck for long periods on trains that didn't have any food to buy. People with food were happier than those without, and some people were sharing theirs out. My dad was once stuck stationary for so long on the motorway on a hot day that people were getting out of their cars to kick a ball around on the hard shoulder. He was grateful a nearby family offered him a can of coke because he didn't have anything with him.

If the question was "can you go three hours without a snack" my answer would be, yes of course. But "would you get on a three hour train journey without some food" my answer is absolutely not.

It might also reflect how tightly scheduled people are on work travel days. When I travel for my own purposes, if I’m hungry I’ll find something. With work, if I can’t have enough breakfast or lunch for whatever reason I may well be going hungry while also trying to perform well in an unfamiliar space.

i also get travel sick sometimes.

i remember being much more junior and if I traveled with work a cafe may well have been involved. These days I rarely have time and I’m dependent on food being provided, but I remain difficult to feed.

So yes, there’s a cereal bar in my bag so I don’t end up struggling.

I always bring snacks. I don’t always eat them though, I just like to know they’re there.

Lots of things you can buy on the hoof don’t fit in with my diet or are larger than the packets we buy at home - grab bags of crisps for example, so it’s better to know what I’m eating for me.

Yes, I would take snacks since it's a trip. I'd also probably buy a meal deal or something for dinner for the train home

YES to this.

Also OP, nobody wants to get stuck on a boiling hot broken down train with no drink and no snacks.

Always travel prepared.

Yes always, a meal deal from tesco, sandwich, crisps and a drink.

Hey! I have BED and ik your struggle is advice to take the whole package cz when i was traveling i used to take the breakfast lunch and dinner package and used to eat much less than when i didn't bcz when i dont id be like well let me get something small and then 20 mins later another thing and another thing till my stomach explodes