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?

You likely have a big disconnect between your body and your mind. Do you ever feel a lack of emotion? Numbness? Do you cry? Do you laugh?

I wouldn't envy non hungry people. I think feeling hungry and then being able to satisfy that hunger is a great feeling. Hunger and the prospect of breakfast is my main motivation for getting out of bed in the morning.

This is so interesting. I don’t experience this myself, always hungry and thinking about food, and am I overweight. However I have noticed this in friends who are very slim. Talking about ‘forgetting’ to eat all day etc so it’s definitely a thing.

Just wondering if you eat a diet with limited UPFs?

Likewise - tea and toast first thing is one of the highlights of my day. I was reading this thread before I got up this morning and that definitely made me more hungry!

If any of the non-hungry people would like some of my ghrelin I'm happy to donate 😕

I feel like I'm always hungry! I really hate the feeling of being full though. And I kind of like the feeling of hunger. I was lucky enough to have plenty of food growing up.

Yes. It's a hormonal trigger, hence why the weight loss injections work and stop people craving food constantly, by manipulating that switch.

It's a bell curve, like pretty much all human biological characteristics. I'm not as extreme towards the end as @itsallsohard is, but yes, I have minimal food noise, rarely feel hungry and can easily skip multiple meals when distracted/absorbed in something else.

It's pretty much like eye colour - neither good nor bad, just part of the genetic lottery we're all handed at birth.
Which isn't to say there's nothing we can do about it, but we all have a predisposition somewhere on the scale.

Your kids op…. Daughters?

Yeah I know absolutely nothing about nutrition or anything else it was just a wondering thought :)

I, on the other hand, in the past decade gained nearly 3 stone on medication, making me heavier than ever before in my life

The OP on another thread 🤔

Absolutely. I am an OT and worked in paediatrics and saw this a lot. I also have.l a DS with ASD and sensory differences and he struggles with identifying that he is hungry. Same as you, I have to make sure he eats.

I remember having many referrals for children with sensory differences. The parents had been told the usual 'don't worry they will eat when they are hungry' but it's simply not the case when there are sensory differences.

I feel hunger, however I don't often have an appetite. I can be hungry and not feeling like eating. Hunger is just an information for me, not someone I have to act on.
As a result, my BMI is quite low.

Surely that means she is feeling hungry! Hangry even.

Friend's partner is like this, can go all day, in a physical job, without eating or drinking. He's a camel. It just doesn't occur to him.

I get hangry if I don't drink or eat - I get to the stage where I have to have something/anything. Remember going on holiday with someone who seemed to find eating optional - and just didn't get that my 'it's lunchtime, I have to have something' was a real plea.

I see people at work eating lunch at 3pm - because 'they forgot' - nope, don't get that at all.

Non-hungry person here.

I'm fine with identifying emotions, but a physio recently commented to me that she thinks I have a bunch of back problems because I'm not very in touch with my body, in that I subconsciously ignore discomfort until it turns into a whopping great big problem.

It's not on purpose, it's that my brain doesn't always flag it up, just like it doesn't always flag up hunger, it flags up extreme irritation and physical shaking not - my stomach feels empty and I need to eat.

I mostly eat out of routine (because if I don't, I get a terrible migraine). Sometimes I get hunger queues and if I ignore them, they go away and I don't feel hungry anymore.

Sometimes I feel hunger though, usually around Christmas when I've eaten a lot over a sustained period of time. The less I eat the less I want to eat.

Maybe non-hungry people just need to eat more and are really good at ignoring feeling hungry so they eat less and feel less hungry?

>>> off to eat a sandwich before it gets too late...>>>

I've been like this my whole life and it's only since being an adult and diagnosed with adhd/autism I learnt what it was

Interoception is the body's internal sensory system, which includes the ability to recognize the feeling of hunger. When you feel hunger pangs, a growling stomach, or fatigue, your interoceptive sense is interpreting these internal signals and telling your brain that your body needs food. Conversely, some individuals may struggle with interoception and not recognize hunger cues, or they may only notice them when they become intense, like a severe headache or irritability

My daughter is like this, but is autistic. I don't think she hears the messages from her body the way that other people do. She tends to get shakey or faint before she realises she needs to eat! Also very thin.

Same. I force myself to have liquids.

Same 😁 never forgotten to eat a meal in my life. Often counting down until it's the mealtime

People who say they've forgotten to eat lunch are more mysterious to me than the Bermuda Triangle. I wake up hungry and plan my day around meals. I'm jealous beyond reason.

Me too. I live in a perpetual state of dehydration and drink like it’s medicine because I know I need it.

What do you actually do and how much do you exercise?

If you consistently eat breakfast/ lunch/ diner, that's more than enough and frankly if you don't do much, it's nearly too much for some of us. I am not hungry for 3 means a day if I don't exercise.

When I am in a routine of long runs, and intensive training sessions, I am bloody starving 😂

But when you eat "socially" and regularly, the next meal tends to pop up before you even get a chance to be hungry. I think it means you are just used to NOT over-eat, it's a good thing.

Honestly it's a habit more than anything else. I never eat that much for breakfast, but after basically years of not having time for breakfast, or no time until "brunch time' and not eating until at leat 11am, I can't eat in the morning anymore.

I have to force myself to have a banana and some protein before a long run, and I nearly feel sick having to eat. I am not even that hungry after a run either, but I eat all the time (I mean 2 meals a day, every day) so there's never that much time to be hungry if that makes sense?

I recently went 24h without eating, just forgot really, I was busy and didn't consider meals. I don't have a regular eating pattern, so no real habit around food.

I also have this weird thing that when I'm with people, I don't like to eat. It's like being socially fulfilled means that there's no room for food.

I've been driven by hunger more since being a teenager... but just because it has been my body's way of burning off calories and a fast metabolism.

During my lessons at school, I would sit there with my stomach rumbling, feeling really embarrassed as it growled louder by the minute 😅 I had a very active lifestyle, played a lot of sport, and had quite a muscular physique which I think contributed to burning food quicker.

I also.think I probably wasn't eating the right food types to satiate my hunger ie high enough amounts of protein and fat etc).

I've always wished I could never feel properly hungry as the rumbles are annoying lol 😆 😒