Eating less is key to feeling better.

[SitSea]

For a while I have been only eating between 10am and 6pm. I also try and keep my calorie intake to 1,800. I am trying to slowly loose weight (need to lose 7lb) but didn’t want to do really low calorie.

The results are that I sleep better, feel better, my period pains are less (I have suffered from crippling cramps in the past). I am also slowly losing some weight when I stick to it.

I am sure this stating the obvious but it’s something I have really been dwelling on because it’s a very boring thing to accept. The truth is I am also quite hungry a lot of the time. Not starving but a manageable feeling of hunger. I have had to learn to just kind of accept that because feeling hungry is definitely worth all the other benefits.

I do break my own rules sometimes. If I am socialising or it’s a special occasion I will eat later and eat more but I try to stick to the restricted eating the rest of the time. However I try really hard not to focus on food as a treat as this makes the emotional connection. I have started to see food as just fuel.

If I mention any of this in real life I am told it’s unhealthy and you shouldn’t have to feel hungry. I think that’s just not reality and people just don’t want to accept that we are not designed to overeat at the level we do. I accept it would be different depending on lifestyle but I work in an office and am mostly sedentary so don’t need loads of calories to get through the day.

I agree. I also feel better with a no processed sugar diet more than anything. Sleep, skin, feel more alive. I just can’t maintain it 😞

I am a bit surprised you feel regularly hungry on 1800 calories if you don’t move about much

More fibre maybe?

It’s true it’s healthy to be hungry sometimes but if it’s regular it can be quite distracting.. also I just don’t think one normally would be on that amount

Yup.
And a glass of water / apple when you're hungry is often enough.

@theduchessofspork I am sure what I eat could be improved. I need to put more of an effort into that but at the moment I am relying on calorie counting to keep the weight off.

Maybe improving what I eat would stop me feeling hungry but I am not sure? I am very tall if that makes a difference? I could easily eat twice as much as I normally do but don’t because I don’t want to put on weight. I am not sure I believe anymore that you shouldn’t feel hungry. I am learning to embrace and feel comfortable with a feeling of hunger as a healthy sign.

@WhenWereYouUnderMe yes I have been told that accepting hunger is a sign of disordered eating. I am not sure that’s right. I think people are so scared of hunger that all the diet advice tries to play it down and say we shouldn’t feel hungry. I just don’t think it’s true.

I ignored hunger for about 6 hours on Monday, I was busy and ended up in a chain of "I would rather get the next thing done, and the next thing..."

It was fine. I do think in the past, I would never have skipped a meal because the idea of being hungry later was something I worried about.

That said, if your stomach is growling loudly in a meeting....well, I'd want to avoid that! 😂

Diet advice is probably dependent on what people are selling, frankly.

Exactly- I didn't eat for 9 hours yesterday because I was out in the evening and didn't have time to eat. It was fine. I didn't think about it much.

I do worry that I've got a bit too 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' tbh.

eating constantly when not actually hungry and over eating, or eating in anticipation of later hunger is just as disordered as restricting food. There is a middle ground where you fit in the balance between not staving off hunger before it’s even happened and you wait a little but dont get addicted to letting yourself get really hungry frequently