if I am alone in never having felt hungry in my life?

[itsallsohard]

TW for anorexia and apologies for those with weight struggles, but I'm not and never have been a sufferer from anorexia nervosa. I've been steadily BMI 20 or so all my life, without much effort, and am nearing 60... and looking at my husband, who has weight issues, and my children and siblings, who are like me, it has recently dawned on me that I have no idea at all what people mean when they say they "feel hungry." I say it when I see something I want to eat, but I want to eat it because it looks delicious, not because I feel anything else. I eat when it's conventional to do so (lunchtime/ dinnertime) but I am entirely capable of totally forgetting if I'm on my own, and so are my siblings and now apparently my kids. I'm not sure I've ever felt hungry (and we were poor growing up - food-bank poor). I think somehow I just don't have those sensors. Is this possible? Anyone else out there?

I don't eat less, I eat around the advised calorie intake for a woman a day. 3 meals and a snack in between. I just don't feel hunger. I do feel thirsty though.

I felt like this as a kid - never felt hungry, couldn’t understand why other kids would leave play for dinner - it was the worst meal of the day. Teen hormones sorted that.

I never feel thirsty either. Ever! Even after 3 hours at the gym.

I never sweat, probably because I don't have any spare fluid to lose! But I do go incredibly red in the face.

I remember the first time I sweated when I was going through the menopause and wondered what was "tickling"" my arm, and looked down to see a single bead of sweat.

Had never felt or seen that before.

I used to be like this pre kids. I did have a very non stop active job and would remind myself to eat. Was size 10 for years. Post kids food became about comfort and I’d say a bit of a reflex and now I’m a comfort eater

I didn't while I had anorexia - but that's a different thing, I think, more like an addiction to feeling empty. I eat a LOT now and am fat, but not numerically overweight. I wake up so hungry I'm shaking and desperate to get at some food, even though I eat before going to bed.

Does never feeling hunger impair your enjoyment of food, do you think? Does it take something spectacular to really interest you?

I once read some memoirs of people who'd genuinely starved. They said that, when you're that hungry, other people smell like food 😱

It's really interesting how differently people's bodies behave!

Menopause has stolen my appetite & I hate it. I used to feel hunger, take pleasure in planning, cooking & eating but not anymore. I've fallen into a routine of fasting every other day to take the pressure off myself around food. When I do eat, what I want is drastically different to what I used to enjoy. I order a kids meal if we go out & still finish up leaving half of it. I've just done a drastic schedule reshuffle so I can fit more physical activity into my weeks to see if that'll make a difference, fingers crossed (but I was far from sedentary anyway, so I'm not hopeful).

However, I'm very aware menopause could have sent me the other way & I have huge sympathy for those 50+ battling weight gain that refuses to shift & constant feelings of hunger that can't be satisfied. I see friends struggling with this daily & completely accept it must be awful.

Are you sure you're not Prince Andrew? 😉

For around a third of women diagnosed with anorexia it’s an incorrect diagnosis. They actually have an eating disorder calles AFRID. AFRID is an umbrella term to cover sensory issues with food, fear of choking and lack of awareness of hunger signals due to poor interoception.

I used to have a very sweet tooth, always felt hungry and used to get ‘hangry’ if I didn’t eat. But changed to a low carb/keto (high fat) diet for health reasons a few years ago and now never feel hunger. Ive read that the keto diet changes your bodies fuel source from glucose to fat, which we never run out of (as our body has its own stores) so the hunger disappears. I’m not skinny but don’t carry lots of excess weight and can easily lose it if I do feel I’ve put some on.

My Dad. He is so uninterested in food that he treats it like a chore. He is very interested in health so is happy with the evidence that intermittent fasting is good. He has had one meal a day for about 20 years now since mum died.

He does love his tea though and drinks black tea all day. He is about 8 stone at 5’8”.

Interesting it might be linked to neurodivergence. That fits!

Interesting that there are those who don't get thirsty, I'm the same. For years I got by on 2-3 drinks only a day, I must've been SO dehydrated the entire time. I never noticed any ill effects though. I upped it massively recently, mainly out of worry I'd end up with kidney stones. I now try and hit the daily recommendation and have 7-8 cups a day (tea and water) but aside from maybe slightly less dry skin, I haven't noticed any benefits.

I have quite bad binge eating issues and it really made me think recently about how I have no off switch for food but I don't care about drink-I've never been the type of person to be like "I need my morning coffee before I can function" or whatever. Just interesting really how you can have such issues with food yet take or leave drinks. Never been interested in alcohol either.

But yes I get hungry, painfully so, and loud loud grumbles! Wish I didn't. I never knew there were people that didn't get this-what an interesting thread!

I do get hungry, but it's a feeling that I can live with and it doesn't bother me.
If we eat at 1pm, then we're going out for dinner at 8pm, DH will say "I'm absolutely starving, are you?" and my answer is always "No I'm not, but I'm really looking forward to my meal".

No, it isnt that. I was at my optimal weight for most of my life. I felt hunger. After having my son nearly 4 years ago, that's when my BMI has risen gradually to now 28.

Huh. This thread is really interesting because health visitors say that all babies are 'intuitive eaters' who will instinctively know when to stop eating. So either they are wrong, or that absolute truth changes later down the line.

I also don't feel hungry. But if I don't eat regularly I suddenly get shakey, irritable and disorientated then have a migraine. I always wondered if it was a low blood sugar thing?

DH says he never ever feels full, he's hungry all the time.

My BMI is 21, his is very high.

Th info about the role of hormones is interesting.
Can I ask if the non-hungry people feel they've had any other unusual hormonal issues?

My migraines are related to sensitivity to changes in sex hormones, for example.

How interesting. I had no idea there were people who didn't ever feel hungry. I know people who aren't particularly interested in food but I assumed they would at some point in the day feel hunger.

I am on wli so my hunger is definitely curbed but I do still get hungry. Prior to wli I'd say I was hungry all the time. I remember going out for a three course meal and not feeling in the least bit full afterwards..in fact I was still peckish. Now I'm stuffed after half a sandwich. I have been slim with a healthy BMI but I was still permanently hungry...just having to resist eating. It is like torture.

I find people's varying appetites fascinating. Those who eat lots are viewed as gluttons and those who don't eat much are viewed as having more self control. So much morality placed around food and how much we eat. I'm more interested in the science though...why do some people have much bigger appetites than others?

I am the same. I don't get hungry. When at work I don't eat all day people think it's strange. I only eat really as a routine not because I am hungry same as drinking water. I can go 7 hours or more without thinking about a drink then I remember I haven't had one so I make sure I do. I am a bit overweight though because I still enjoy eating chocolate and biscuits but find it easy to diet as I don't get hungry at all but I enjoy eating when I do.

I feel hunger if I haven’t eaten for a long time, proper hunger in my stomach.

However I became very overweight not because I was hungry all the time but because I ate too much even when I wasn’t hungry. Now I’m at my ideal weight and I still have some trouble not eating when I’m not hungry but I’m getting much better at listening to my body, however if I only ate when I was actually hungry and stopped when I was full I would eat half the amount of calories I need to maintain my weight sometimes at the end of the day I haven’t eaten enough.
I feel thirsty much more. Sometimes if I feel thirsty my head says eat something, but if I drink water the thought to eat food goes away.

You've presumably got naturally low levels of leptin? The clues are that it's been life long and your family are similar.

Hmm, maybe I mean naturally high levels of leptin. A biochemical difference from the norm, anyway.

This is so interesting. I don’t get hungry either, and thirsty only rarely. I tend to eat once a day, and that’s only because DH does the cooking. I like food, though, I like the sight and taste of it. I just don’t feel hungry.

I think it’s more likely that you’re eating intuitively OP. Before you start to feel obvious hunger pangs, your body signals in a different way and you’ll find yourself ‘fancying something’.

If you were to go 48 hours without food, I’m pretty sure you’d feel hungry.

It will be the ghrelin hormone in the gut, you have low amounts.

its why my hunger signals went down when I had 70% of my stomach removed. It literally took the ghrelin away.

Yes.

i have fuckloads wrong with my body on many levels and hormonal is one of them

Autistic DS2 never feels hungry. For him it’s part of his sensory processing issues, and poor interoception, which is to do with the body’s internal state. This means he doesn’t often register the signals his body is giving him, so often won’t recognise when he’s hungry, thirsty, needs the toilet or even registering pain. I know when he’s hungry as I can see him getting snappy and agitated but he doesn’t recognise it as such. Despite what healthcare professionals may say, some people simply don’t eat when they are hungry because they don’t feel like they are!

I drink the odd drink throughout the day as I enjoy the flavour (i.e I’ll have a couple of coffees and maybe a juice). I assume I get enough fluid from food to make up the rest.

remember, wine is hydrating too 😂