Eating When Hungry

[hawkmoon]

This is a topic that has been discussed in other threads, but I'd like to have a direct talk about it.

Personally I don't like force-feeding and 99% of the time will not do it. I try to eat when hungry and do so even if (as Phil says) I'm hungry only a hour after a meal. This does happen to me, especially after eating a large amount of red meat. Sometimes I will eat before I am hungry because I know I will be shortly and may not have easy food access at that time.

The only difficulty for me with eating when hungry is that my blood sugar drops and I get bile coming up my throat long before I am traditionally "hungry". I think this may be due to 25 years of eating every 3 hours or so. My body expects nutrients at certain intervals and prepares for it.

Any other members care to illustrate their experiences with eating as the body needs food, rather than what the magazines tell us all to eat like?

 

[BigJB]

Hawk, I would say that if you have an opportunity to eat now instead of later, and you don't feel like downing some solid food just have a shake, or some LBA's, something small.

The red meat thing is for sure too! Every time I eat steak with vegetables or a potato, I'm starving in just a few minutes.

I also work a traditional 40 hour per week job, and I get breaks every 2 -3 hours, so I take that opportunity to get some food in, but lately I'm just eating enough to satisfy til the next meal. I just go with breakfast lunch and dinner whole food meals, and protein shakes or bars in between, just to assure I will be starving when its time for my whole food meals.

 

[RESTLESS1]

i do eat every 3-4 hours all day........i consider it important to never let my body get empty........i also get up every night at around 1-2 and have a shake......

 

[wasp]

i do eat every 3-4 hours all day........i consider it important to never let my body get empty........i also get up every night at around 1-2 and have a shake......

, your interrupting your rem no?

 

[pupeye]

I used to force feed myself. I had to, i was never hungry. Otherwise I would be 150 lbs. Then I tried a keto diet... I was STARVING all the time. I ended up eating more calories on a keto diet then normal and I still lost weight. I came to the conclusion that carbs make me full and bloated and gassy, screw with my digestion. Even now when i have a carb up day, I get gassy and bloated and after two meals I'm not hungry the rest of the day. So now I keep carbs low and I am hungry all day long.

I still don't understand how this means force feeding myself is bad and will lead to fat gain. Phil says make yourself hungry... well I figured out how to make myself hungry... but am i hungry becasue I am missing something from my diet (carbs). My body is telling me something... is it telling me I need carbs...I don't want to be full and bloated. Perhaps my carb selection is wrong.

This week I added in oatmeal, jasmine rice, apple and bananas. We will see how my body handles those.

 

[Ness]

My personal experience

Starting out on this eat-when-hungry way can be hard when your brain gets in the way all the time. Sometimes I will eat 4 meals by 1pm and then I wont be hungry again until 5-7pm. After 2 years of eating by my hunger, Im getting the hang of things and Im starting to manipulate my hunger to my advantage.

Obvious but not so obvious things to notice that youre hungry include mood swings, fatigue, muscle soreness (I know it sounds strange but my calves and arms will start to get sore when I have not eaten in a while), thirst, loss of concentration, etc. Your body tells you in many ways that its hungry and not all the time will you feel it in your stomach!

Playing with your hunger can be beneficial. Sometimes I get into a pattern where I will eat the instant I feel any sort of hunger come on. Immediatly after eating, I feel satisfied. I will eat to remain satisfied throughout the day. I never ever feel very hungry, just generally satisfied.

Other times, I try to manipulate things by stretching out my hunger. I will notice the signs of hunger come on but I will force myself to hold out another hour or so. Over the course of the day, I find myself eating more meals! My hunger gets more intense and my body will crave more nutrition more frequently. Its strange to eat more food than normal but be hungrier at the same time.

Of course, your body is smart and it will catch up to the little games that you play. The better you understand your body and its patterns the better you can manipulate it and constantly change things to force progression. One's daily diet should never be the same from one day to the next. Change up your food sources, hunger pains, and patterns as much as you need to force progression.

Just my thoughts....worth a damn or not.

 

[Gunsmith]

.Obvious but not so obvious things to notice that youre hungry include mood swings, fatigue, muscle soreness (I know it sounds strange but my calves and arms will start to get sore when I have not eaten in a while), thirst, loss of concentration, etc. Your body tells you in many ways that its hungry and not all the time will you feel it in your stomach!

I notice i get irritable and headaches before my stomach will hurt , generaly about 3-4 hrs , if I get busy with a job and just stay focused i'll notice im ver easly agitated and harder to stay focused then relize I haved eaten in 4-5 hrs , especaily now that my carbs are reduce a bit

 

[EDED]

HM, sorry to hear about your digestive system pretty much set on schedule,,,25 years is a long time and that will be a tough 'homeostasis' to break away from.

i think eating hungry is better because hunger triggers all the hormones ready to digest and properly put away the nutrients,,,if you are not hungry and eat, you will end up hurting yourself either short term or long term (fat, sugar imbalance poor absorption due to low gastric juice etc etc) force feeding or eating when hungry eventually you will get used to but in the end you will be leaner when things are eaten hungry due to better absorption and partitioning.

anyways, Hawk, your body reacting to your old habit sounds like that should be the time you should eat,,,,if you really want to break away from that,,hopefully it wont take too long...but sounds kinda dangerous, low BG and acid erroding your lining until you get used to eatingwhenhungry routine...what do you think?

 

[EDED]

I notice i get irritable and headaches before my stomach will hurt , generaly about 3-4 hrs , if I get busy with a job and just stay focused i'll notice im ver easly agitated and harder to stay focused then relize I haved eaten in 4-5 hrs , especaily now that my carbs are reduce a bit

classic hypoglycemia and adrenal gland jacking up adrenaline to break off some fat to use it as sugar,,,but instead you get aggression too,,,ive read those peoplpe have cortisol dysfunction. cortisol/adrenaline are both from adrenaline, some are off then you either get adrenaline with empty cortisol

then you get all the imbalance in your brain, serotonin/dopamine and other things will make you angry,,,i used to get like that stay away when im hungry, but it changed.

i dont think when until stomach hurts is a bit too much,,,if you feel agitation/low bg/losing focus then thats your sign and that would be your 'hunger' signal. and thats what hunger should mean to you then,,,so you dont get fired at the job or pass out lol

 

[nickman1978]

I basically eat when hungery, which turns out to be just about every 2-3 hours ...

 

[Emery]

This is what I am still trying to master. I can do great every 2 - 3 hours during the day and stay clean, but when I wake up at night, I eat anything I can get my hands on. It's like a psychological binge that I HAVE TO BREAK!

I would be lean as hell if I could just get my diet down. It is a huge source of stress for me!

 

[buselmo]

I don't know how to eat when hungry, and it's extremely inconvenient... I wish i could have a microwave and food at work.but usually, the only thing i can bring there is whey and some cooked oats. the rest i eat on my lunch break.
i'm usually a guy who almost never gets hungry... i just "crave" food but i don't get hungry... for example, today... i woke up at 10 am (it's the weekend here) and the last meal i ate was yesterday at 10 pm... i didn't eat lunch til 4pm today and i still wasn't that hungry.

but what i noticed is that i get backed up pretty quick when i force feed (especially if my carbs are high) and when i have enough, i just fast for 16-20 hours... and when i do that, i feel that my muscles pop out and look full and veiny and i feel MUCH better...

as for the hunger thing... if i ate only when hungry, i'd probably lose 40-50 lbs. cuz i never get hungry... i just "crave", as i said

 

[Ness]

I don't know how to eat when hungry, and it's extremely inconvenient... I wish i could have a microwave and food at work.but usually, the only thing i can bring there is whey and some cooked oats. the rest i eat on my lunch break.
i'm usually a guy who almost never gets hungry... i just "crave" food but i don't get hungry... for example, today... i woke up at 10 am (it's the weekend here) and the last meal i ate was yesterday at 10 pm... i didn't eat lunch til 4pm today and i still wasn't that hungry.

but what i noticed is that i get backed up pretty quick when i force feed (especially if my carbs are high) and when i have enough, i just fast for 16-20 hours... and when i do that, i feel that my muscles pop out and look full and veiny and i feel MUCH better...

as for the hunger thing... if i ate only when hungry, i'd probably lose 40-50 lbs. cuz i never get hungry... i just "crave", as i said

Just thinking about your post, buddy. Do you think if you designed a set of macros that was specifically tailored to your unique food needs, that you could achieve a "normal" hunger pattern? I do. Regardless of anything else, your body needs fuel and it will communicate that need to you. I think cravings may be the body's way of telling you that it needs more of something. Perhaps the specific foods that you are eating may not be completing your own body's nutritional needs. Eating the wrong foods and or the wrong amounts of foods will hinder a normal hunger response. Just thinking, bro. I am not trying to advise you or tell you that youre doing anything wrong. I have no idea.

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Well

Inconvenient? Welcome to the world of a top level bodybuilder........

 

[Gunsmith]

This is what I am still trying to master. I can do great every 2 - 3 hours during the day and stay clean, but when I wake up at night, I eat anything I can get my hands on. It's like a psychological binge that I HAVE TO BREAK!

I would be lean as hell if I could just get my diet down. It is a huge source of stress for me!

try eating some protein and fats before bed , this keep me satisfied all night and even when i wake im not "famished" , if i skip my pre sleep snack when i wake up it would be ver ease for me to "binge" eat , especaily carbs , so in these cases i try to eat just protein and fats , generaly just some eggs , if I eat any carbs with this its like i can't get enough so i skip them till the next meal.
I mix 2 scoops of casien protein 1 scoop of when and a 1 tablespoon of almond butter into a thick paste and eat that 30 min before bed , and i'm good for 5-6 hrs

 

[Golgo13]

I eat only when hungry, and sometimes thats only 2x per day, sometimes 5x

Every day is different.

 

[buselmo]

Just thinking about your post, buddy. Do you think if you designed a set of macros that was specifically tailored to your unique food needs, that you could achieve a "normal" hunger pattern? I do. Regardless of anything else, your body needs fuel and it will communicate that need to you. I think cravings may be the body's way of telling you that it needs more of something. Perhaps the specific foods that you are eating may not be completing your own body's nutritional needs. Eating the wrong foods and or the wrong amounts of foods will hinder a normal hunger response. Just thinking, bro. I am not trying to advise you or tell you that youre doing anything wrong. I have no idea.

oh yeah... trust me man... i've been through that... set macros that are the same for every meal throughout the day... doesn't work... tried 50/20/30... 40/30/30... 30/40/30... 40/40/20... meals are usually 400-600 cals... all the same... no hunger. funny, when i first started bodybuilding i was hungry every hour even if i ate 1500 cals in one meal... now, it's the exact opposite. I have to have a set food time for myself.. and i can't let any meal go over 500 cals or else I won't be able to eat the next. probably my body's way of saying "dude... stop it... don't want no more food"...

and just a tid bit of info... i'm not a person who requires many calories to "gain weight"... be it fat or muscle... 3300 cals per day at a weigh of 200 lbs (i'm 5'7) made me gain 12 lbs in a couple of weeks... i grow just fine SLOWLY at 2400-2700 cals... this is with morning cardio and weight training 5 days per week ... i'm weird

Inconvenient? Welcome to the world of a top level bodybuilder........

for a top level bodybuilder? incovenience is the least of his concerns!! LOL! but we aren't top bodybuilders here, probably none of us will be (except a couple i can count on the fingers of one hand)... so, convenience rates pretty high on my "is it worth it" scale

 

[Michaelthomasj]

This is a topic that has been discussed in other threads, but I'd like to have a direct talk about it.

Personally I don't like force-feeding and 99% of the time will not do it. I try to eat when hungry and do so even if (as Phil says) I'm hungry only a hour after a meal. This does happen to me, especially after eating a large amount of red meat. Sometimes I will eat before I am hungry because I know I will be shortly and may not have easy food access at that time.

The only difficulty for me with eating when hungry is that my blood sugar drops and I get bile coming up my throat long before I am traditionally "hungry". I think this may be due to 25 years of eating every 3 hours or so. My body expects nutrients at certain intervals and prepares for it.

Any other members care to illustrate their experiences with eating as the body needs food, rather than what the magazines tell us all to eat like?

X2 I had the same thing happen to me until my body was used to not eating every 3 hours.

 

[purelifting]

I eat every 1.5 to 2 hours. fruit and chicken all day also a side of my healthy fats

 

[Huge_C2]

and just a tid bit of info... i'm not a person who requires many calories to "gain weight"... be it fat or muscle... 3300 cals per day at a weigh of 200 lbs (i'm 5'7) made me gain 12 lbs in a couple of weeks... i grow just fine SLOWLY at 2400-2700 cals...
QUOTE]

Finding out im the same way and im over 300 pounds... Loosing weight all the time and getting bigger at the same time..
it just goes to show you that everyone needs something different. Just because your this doesnt mean you need so many carbs fats ect. Everyones body is different..