Do you eat when you’re hungry?

[PashunFroot]

Even after you’ve already eaten a substantial meal?

im slowly getting over an eating disorder and have joined slimming world which I’m finding really helpful, but I’m also calorie counting as I’m breastfeeding and want to make sure I’m getting enough.

i feel I’ve eaten quite a lot for dinner though, but I’m feeling hungry. Do normal people let themselves feel hungry? Or should I eat. I’ve already eaten my calorie allowance for the day. I am planning on doing a workout too.

aibu to ask what you do if you’re a healthy weight?

Also can I add that research shows people can have different appetites and be more prone to addiction to foods because of this. That's why general dieting advise often fails because everybody is different around food and it physically and emotionally stimulates some people much more than others.

I think addiction to food and eating disorders in general are so bloody complex, even the experts still have alot of research in this field.

Again no, the reason we have an obesity epidemic is because too many of us listen to our body. The body wants us to be fat due to the primitive brain for times of starvation. Also as a person with an eating disorder myself when I listen to my body it has me in my car eating huge binges of mcdonalds, boxes of quality street,cheesecakes....

Is that listening to your body though? Or listening to your brain and getting swept away by intrusive thoughts and emotions?
If someone has started to feel hungry, waited an hour, drank water, and their stomach is rumbling then what else should they do apart from eat?

Is that listening to your body though? Or listening to your brain and getting swept away by intrusive thoughts and emotions?
If someone has started to feel hungry, waited an hour, drank water, and their stomach is rumbling then what else should they do apart from eat?

yea but the problem is too many people don't know the difference. It's pretty hard to tell.

For me, being a healthy weight and being fit FAR outweighs experiencing some hunger. I know the hunger I temporary, it will fade, but health and fitness is so much more long lasting and I feel the benefits 24/7.

I do think some people have a harder time losing weight because their 'I'm full' signals are broken. It took me a while to realise this, but when I did, it changed everything and 6 stone just dropped off.

When DH and I eat the same meal, he's naturally slim, never been overweight, he feels full as he's finishing. I'm still genuinely hungry for at least 2 hours.

But I know I've eaten enough, so I ignore the feeling, and eventually later in the evening I'll realise the hunger pangs have gone. It's like my body takes ages to catch up.

For a small person, I can eat a lot. So I have to moderate myself, which works and I maintain my weight now.

I swear I'd do well on those eating contests!

I should swap diets with my husband. He’s very slim and weighs what I want to weigh!

Are you both happier being a healthy weight but hungry a lot? Or do you think you were happier being bigger but not hungry

On reflection, I'm probably less hungry though now I'm slimmer - I don't eat any crap so I don't suffer from cravings and I've worked out which foods help me feel fuller (hello protein!) And which make me feel more hungry (boo, white bread).

For example, when I was obese, I could easily eat a large portion of lasagne with garlic bread and chips. And I'd be wanting pudding. Now, I'd go for a vegetable bean chilli with wholegrain rice, and I won't fancy a pudding.

Eat a balanced, varied diet based on veg, lean meat, good quality fats (like avocados, fish), complex carbs and you'll be less hungry!

I'm just greedy, in all honestly. Love food. I used to feel like a slim person stuck inside this huge body. Now I'm slim, I battle the appetite of the obese person inside me!!

But there are lots of things like drinking lots of water, exercisimg, limit sugar, no processed stuff, alternative treats, healthy diet etc that help :)

I remember feeling the same way with my DH! I was 4 stone heavier than him 😳

But now I'm 2 stone lighter and six inches shorter, I know I have to have a smaller portion than him, if that makes sense. If he's full, I know I definitely shouldn't eat more - I use him as a gauge! Silly as it sounds.

Yes if I'm hungry I eat. I can tell the difference between hydration hunger, cravings and true hunger. I don't always eat straight away - there's nothing wrong with being a bit hungry for a little while!

If you have an eating disorder I'd advise staying away from things like slimming world, which are renowned for fostering unhealthy attitudes to foods and go against the concept of portion control with free foods and syns. Its certainly not good for someone with a history of binge eating.

As for a snack, there's nothing wrong with cheese and crackers. Yes you could have ate lettuce and cucumber instead, but life is for enjoying, so a moderate approach is always going to be better.

I can’t recommended ‘Why We Eat (Too Much)’ by Dr Andrew Jenkins. It is invaluable to anyone wanting to control their weight and blows old ideas based on flawed research out of the water.

I’m almost a whole person heavier than my husband! He is very thin though bless him. Makes me feel even fatter really!

Thankyou :)

Tbh I’m never actually hungry, apart from in the evening. But it must be my brain playing tricks on me. Something about evenings must be triggering something.

im going to stick with slimming world for the minute, because it is working and I have lost Weight with it and I’ve only had 2 binging episodes since starting it. But if I get unwell again then I will stop .

No, I don't usually eat when I'm hungry. I'm busy and active, and often I'll realise I'm hungry, but don't have the time or the inclination to do anything about it.

For context - I'm thin, after years of being overweight. When I was overweight I used to snack if I felt hungry; now I don't..

Hi all

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If you have an eating disorder I'd advise staying away from things like slimming world, which are renowned for fostering unhealthy attitudes to foods and go against the concept of portion control with free foods and syns. Its certainly not good for someone with a history of binge eating

The problem though is that even if you do portion control or really any kind of dieting and you have eating disorder/binge eater or love your food it can still often promote unhealthy attitudes to food. There is no simple solution.

Can PPs please be aware of the OP post. They are recovering from an eating disorder and stating that cheese and crackers are bad, black coffee will work and an extra morsel of food makes you gag are not healthy.

OP you have changed your binging comments from none, to one, to two since you started slimming world. You are also counting calories - some of the allowed food is high calorie so maybe you are not eating enough? How many calories are you allowing yourself to eat a day?
Please ignore some of the comments - as someone upthread said, there are a lot of competitive undereaters on here!

I’m allowing around 1500.

i had a binge last night. I think this thread upset me a bit and I shouldn’t have started it. Laying in bed now starving and just don’t know what to do. I wish I could just be normal.

I’m sorry about that op. Unfortunately posting on mumsnet for people to tell you you shouldn’t have eaten a cracker and should just drink black coffee isn’t going to help. Mumsnet is full of extremely disordered eating advice.

Can you visit your gp? I’ve known people who have accessed therapy through the gp, especially if you emphasise how much it’s affecting you emotionally/mentally.

They just refer to a self help thing. I went on today to the Chatroom and said hello but no one responded. I just want to figure out how to eat like a normal person. I’m so scared of food.

That's too low unless you're about 5ft.

I'm on 2100 a day, do 4 lots of high intensity work outs a week and 10k steps a day.

That’s what MyFitnessPal is telling me to eat? So I should be aiming for more? I am allowing the extra 500 for breastfeeding too.

Definitely more! You need to work out your TDEE the likes of James smith has a free calorie calculator that will work it all out for you.

I’m 5ft and my calorie deficit is 1400-1500 cals, I’d lose about 1lb a week (although it doesn’t go 1pm a week, weight loss is not linear), if I’m on maintenance I consume around 1800-2000 cals.

I know you said you’ve worked with a lot of nutritionists but have you ever worked with one who specialises in eating disorders and have you ever had CBT?

They are recovering from an eating disorder and stating that cheese and crackers are bad, black coffee will work and an extra morsel of food makes you gag are not healthy

I am recovering from eating disorder. I find that if I eat very well and over 2000 calories, not calorie deficit, I still get intense cravings. Black coffee helps stop the cravings and it is not unhealthy, it helps to stop irrational cravings and intense binges. I still eat very healthy diet and stay hydrated with it.

Surf that's you though. The OP is not eating as many calories as you.

But this op clearly isn’t in the right space. She’s yo yoing between diets, restricting calories to a very small amount, then seeking validation online after eating a little bit of cheese when hungry. She is not in a position where people online suggesting she curbs her appetite with black coffee is helpful. Those with very disorders eating often seek to validate their disorders online. It’s not healthy - op needs proper help, not a bunch of people saying fill up on coffee and it’s awful to eat cheese, why not just have some nuts?