When you are hungry, do you always eat as soon as possible, or do you often wait several hours?

If I have a snack available at the time, I’m gonna hit that, you bet. I try to keep something handy when I’m away from home because it’s really a pain when the shakes come and you got nothing and are forced to hang on until a more substantial meal is possible. Even a small bag of peanuts will work.

That doesn’t happen to me, unless I’ve gone the entire day without eating a thing, then it will hit me that night. When I was younger (a teenager,) I would sometimes wake up in the morning and realize I hadn’t eaten a thing the day before.

Why would I wait? If my body needs to eat, I’ll feed it.

I wait because I enjoy the anticipation because, for the most part, eating is really boring and I do it only because I have to. I enjoy the times when I really enjoy eating, which only happens when I’m really, REALLY hungry and have been for a while.

I have been on a terrible jag for weeks now, having coffee, launching into the universe and not eating all day til dinner when I am about to keel over.
Baaad Coloma baaad!
It’s the time change, it has really messed me up this year.
I do drink tons of water all day long though, so, at least I am well hydrated.
I was doing so well with having my 4–5 small meals a day but I just haven’t been very hungry lately…it’s an awful cycle I am trying to remedy. I am meeting a friend for lunch today so I know I’ll be eating at 1pm. Gotta get it together again over here.

My family and I watch our weight. That means counting calories and planning meals accordingly and eating at regular intervals. Eating too early, when you’re hungry, means you’ll get hungry again too soon before the next meal. My husband is a little bit lenient with his son regarding snacks, but we are still careful about his nutrition.

For me, it will depend on what I have eaten recently and how recently. If I have not eaten, I will eat. If I have eaten and am feeling like a snack, I may have water or tea or something and see if that does the trick. I’ll also ask myself why I am hungry, and if it’s out of boredom or something I won’t just feed my face, because that’s not a good habit, in my opinion.

@Coloma If that’s the schedule you’re on…eating one large meal a day…I think your body can adjust and be fine. I, personally, don’t eat after 4:30. When I planned to change my eating habits to accommodate this, I wasn’t sure how it would work out. But it’s fine. I get all my calories in before 4:30 and I’m fine.

My poor kids never had snacks. Looking around now, I think that was really unusual. They’d be whining an hour before dinner “I’m hungry!!”
“Dinner will ready in an hour. Go outside and play till then.”

When I was a kid and we went on vacations, in the car for hours, we’d start whining about being hungry. We’d just have to wait until Dad found a place to stop and eat. We didn’t have any snacks in the car.

@jca I don’t have to ask myself why…I’M FREAKING HUNGRY!! I haven’t eaten since 4:00 yesterday! And I’m really looking forward to my ham, egg and cheese croissonts that I’ll be eating in 33 minutes and 12 seconds!

I never eat breakfast and rarely eat lunch. I have tuned my body to wait and have dinner around 5 pm. I generally have three cookies and milk before bed.

I have lost a lot of weight with this schedule. The food I eat at 5 pm, is absorbed before bedtime. The milk and cookies help me to sleep.

Odd schedule I know, but it keeps the weight off of me and my body seems to be completely satisfied with this arrangement.

I just had a bowl of fresh strawberries with a vanilla yogurt at 11:42 am..I’m doing well today. lol

I will eat at least a small snack straight away because I’m prone to hypoglycemia and if I wait too long, I will start to feel very ill.