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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that we are addicted to never feeling hungry?

89 replies

Teetik · 21/10/2011 11:56

Recently, for various reasons, I had to stick to a really limited diet of three small meals a day, no snacks, water for a drink and one glass of wine in the evening with no food to accompany it (that was optional of course). I also did a lot of being outdoors, walked everywhere at the same time.

Usually if I don't eat for say more than a couple of hours, I start to feel a bit shaky. If I don't get a cup of tea, I feel something's missing. For this 5-day period, I felt nothing like that, nothing whatsoever. I managed absolutely fine with a coffee in the morning and NO SNACKS.

It just made me think that perhaps the reason why I'm 2 stone overweight is that I've tricked myself into thinking that if I'm ever even a tiny bit hungry, then something's WRONG and I have to correct it immediately. Cheap food is everywhere and I think we're being massively brainwashed into thinking we need more than we actually do. AIBU?

OP posts:
ShirleyKnot · 21/10/2011 11:59

YANBU.

Is it true that your stomach "shrinks"?

Concordia · 21/10/2011 11:59

i agree with you, i have recently started eating more protein, and reduced the number of quick release carbs - bread etc and hardly ever feel the need to snack now. i used to think i just had to or i would faint.
food is everywhere.
read gillian riley op her book is really good.

TheTenantOfWildfellHall · 21/10/2011 12:01

YANBU.

Obviously this isn't going to account for everyone's extra weight (as you are about to find out!!) but in a lot of cases it is the case. Some people (my DH for one) won't allow themselves to feel hungry.

I drink tea and snack pretty much all day when I'm at home and a bit bored - whether I'm hungry/thirsty or not. When I'm at work, I only drink water and don't snack at all.

I'm also 2st overweight and I know exactly what has caused it, and what is preventing me from losing it!

aldiwhore · 21/10/2011 12:02

I think there's different factors here, if you are genuinely hungry, then you should eat. But I think sometimes we're actually thirsty or mildly peckish, and automatically eat rather than listening to our bodies more.

I don't get the shakes or light headedness anymore because I eat regularly, rather than wait until I'm starving, then troughing every available food stuff in the house. I always have breakfast, and a small lunch, a medium sized dinner and fruit later on if I'm 'peckish'.

A lot of high calorie snacks don't comabt HUNGER, but sate your peckishness, yet as they are so so high in calories you're not doing yourself any favours.

I don't carry on eating once I'm starting to feel satisfied, whereas I used to eat until I was 'full' or stuffed... its made a huge difference to my weight and also how I feel, my moods are more even, I rarely get my afternoon headaches, and I think its down to changing how I eat rather than just what I eat (although what I eat has contributed to the weight loss!).

TheTenantOfWildfellHall · 21/10/2011 12:02

Yes, your stomach does shrink and it takes less food to fill it.

worraliberty · 21/10/2011 12:03

I agree

There's nothing wrong with feeling a bit hungry and simply working through it

But some people would be clutching their pearls and making out they'd get dizzy and it's not good for them etc...

I know some people do get dizzy if they have a medical problem obviously, but for others it seems to be an excuse.

Unsurprisingly, the people I know who are like this are all overweight.

TheTenantOfWildfellHall · 21/10/2011 12:03

aldiwhore you are spot on with that.

QueenofJacksDreams · 21/10/2011 12:06

Yanbu but unfortuntly its not true for a lot of us feeling hungry in my house for the last few days before payday is perfectly normal as right now theres nothing in. Its crap but we'll survive til DH finds a job a lot of other people I know are going through the same thing right now.

Original poster
Teetik · 21/10/2011 12:09

I would previously have said I was one of the ones who gets shaky and dizzy if I don't eat regularly. What I found was that in a situation where I had no choice in the matter - and, what's more, I wasn't sitting at a desk, I was upright and walking all the time - I didn't feel the same.

I think in my case there is a psychological addiction. I feel slightly hungry, I imagine this is a Bad Thing, I look for signs of feeling shaky, I eat and sit down, I feel better. Last week I felt hungry and pushed on through whilst also doing some mild exercise...and it was absolutely fine. I couldn't choose to eat, so I just got on with it. I probably was eating 2/3 of the calories I normally would with no ill effects.

OP posts:
BleedyGhoulzombiez · 21/10/2011 12:13

I don't think it's necessarily an addiction as such, more an ingrained habit. But I agree with the rest of what you said.

WowOoo · 21/10/2011 12:17

The reason I lost weight was trying to wait until I was hungry til I ate. It really surprised me how often I would eat when I was not hungry at all. Just all extra calories that I didn't need.
Find it hard in the evenings now. Used to have extra snacks and nibbles - from boredom really. Doing my nails is not as satisfying.

Am absolutely sure my stomach has shrunk. Takes far less to fill me up now compared with last year.

Original poster
Teetik · 21/10/2011 12:20

Yes fair point, it is a habit. I'm not sure of the difference except that I've definitely had times where I've thought 'if I don't get food NOW then life is unfair/crap/not optimal' Grin which is clearly very silly.

I've always sneered a bit at non-snacking cultures (eg the French) because it seems to go hand in hand with a kind of bullying attitude about the shape of women, but since my shape is now unhealthily overweight I am happy to concede this one.

OP posts:
JarethTheGoblinKing · 21/10/2011 12:20

I've been wondering about this recently too - I get very shaky and dizzy if I don't eat for an extended period of time. I do find it's worse if I've had a carb-heavy lunch for example (so avoided the pasta for lunch).

I'm almost scared of being hungry too, so I make sure I can get some snacks or have a glass of juice to 'keep my blood sugar up', but then a part of that is that if I do get too shaky then I just end up with a migraine.

Never got it when doing a high protein diet though, so reckon a lot of it is down to carb crash

Trills · 21/10/2011 12:22

YABU to say "we" in this sweeping sense, but you have a good point.

Fuzzywuzzywozabear · 21/10/2011 12:29

I don't eat snacks so I think my body is conditioned to only feel hungry at meal times - my kids don't eat snacks either and they don't ask for them - they clearly don't feel the need

I agree that "some" people are addicted to want to never feel hungry

Original poster
Teetik · 21/10/2011 12:32

Fuzzy interesting about your kids, mine stopped asking after 2 days. I was surprised tbh.

Jareth you describe me before my recent conversion Grin however I don't get migraines. If you know protein helps, then you're one step ahead of the evil overfeeding industry.

OP posts:
JarethTheGoblinKing · 21/10/2011 13:21

Need to sort it out and just brave actually being hungry I think. I've been resisting snacks at 11am (even though I'm bloody starving) and just having a cup of tea instead, so that helps.

Now.. if I could just get through DC dinner time..

EllaDee · 21/10/2011 13:29

Hmm. My mum is of the 'I get hungry then I feel wobbly and have to eat'. She's convinced herself it is so, but I notice that actually, if she's had something sane to eat - like porridge or bread as opposed to cake or juice which are pretty sugary - she's fine. Coincidence? I think not!

I think it's not just we're addicted to never feeling hungry, but we're used to the idea of snacking regularly to keep energy up. It isn't actually very good for you to have constantly high blood sugar for energy, but plenty of people (me included) have to think quite hard to remember that when I reach for an apple or a chunk of cake mid-morning, that is pretty much what I am doing.

brighthair · 21/10/2011 13:32

Mine was the carbs. I have weirdly low blood sugar and go shaky a lot. One day I had porridge for breakfast, and a snack 2hrs later and my blood sugar was 2. I gave up carbs and never felt shaky/dizzy since. For me it was a "need sugar before I pass out" feeling. More protein and I feel better

CustardCake · 21/10/2011 13:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wicketkeeper · 21/10/2011 14:13

Totally agree with the 'listen to your body' argument. Eat when you're hungry (not just peckish, or bored), stop when you're full (not stuffed).

And yes to the whole stomach shrinking/stretching thing too - if I've been out for a dinner (3+ courses, more food than I would normally eat) the night before, I always wake up ravenous. Not because I could possibly be that hungry, but because my stomach has stretched - I refuse to give the greedy thing any more than its normal breakfast, and by lunchtime my appetite is back to normal.

Original poster
Teetik · 21/10/2011 14:15

Custardcake you are really spot on. Our culture is so food-based now. We eat because we're bored of/during other forms of consumption.

OP posts:
cumbria81 · 21/10/2011 14:20

At the other end of the spectrum, I think some people are too conditioned by the clock.

At work my colleagues will spend all morning saying theyre hungry but refusing to eat because it's "not lunchtime". As soon as it's 12 they eat.

I don't get it.

I have my lunch at 10am sometimes because I'm hungry. If I'm hungry again later I will eat more.

NorfolkBroad · 21/10/2011 14:22

Couldn't agree with you more OP. Snacking culture is everywhere and it is completely out of hand. Most of us eat way too much and it has become normal to do so. When you cut down a bit you actually feel alot better, I think so anyway!

Chandon · 21/10/2011 14:25

I'm not part of the snack culture, but it's hard to go against the tide!