A metabolism question

[ksmith]

...or something.

What is your baseline state, hunger-wise? Do you always feel sated (no desire to eat), except when you're expressly hungry? Do you only eat when your stomach growls, or do you let it get that far?

I'm trying to eat more healthy food and yes, lose some weight, and I'm trying to figure out--how am I supposed to feel? Is a constant mild feeling of hunger the sensation I should aim for, or not? What is the baseline for an average human being?

In all the diet and lifestyle articles I've read, this isn't addressed. External factors--food groups, calorie counts--work only for so long. How am I supposed to feel?

I fear the answer is that everyone is different, but otoh, not sure if that's true. I wonder if, because of the constant proximity and availability of food, our baseline has shifted up so that what we now call sated is really overstuffed, and what we call hunger is often simply craving.

Comments

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

If I get hungry, I eat. As soon as I'm not hungry anymore, I stop eating. This translates to me "grazing" a lot--I probably eat a handful or two of food every few hours, and I'd honestly rarely eat a "meal" per se if I didn't need to cook at least a dinner for my family once in a while to make me feel like a decent mom. :-)

So I might eat something like a banana, or a couple handfuls of grapes, or some pecans (sometimes with chocolate chips ;-)), a cheese stick, a yogurt, some pretzels, a piece of bread with butter, a peanut butter sandwich, a slice of pie, a bowl of cereal...Easy stuff that I don't have to cook.

I've always eaten this way, and I've never had to diet. Part of that's probably genetic, but I really believe that eating that way keeps your metabolism up; I don't think it's good to let yourself get hungry.

What a lot of people I know have trouble with--and that I was really lucky with my parents about--is to stop eating as soon as you're not hungry anymore. My husband had parents who made him clean his plate, and he has had huge trouble getting out of the habit of finishing whatever food he takes (and trouble losing weight because of it). When you're not hungry anymore, stop eating. It doesn't matter if you have one bite left. Stop. I think a lot of people don't think they're full until they're actually overfull because their parents encouraged them to eat past their satiety level. If that's the case, you have to learn to listen to your body for the first time, and that can be difficult.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

What a lot of people I know have trouble with--and that I was really lucky with my parents about--is to stop eating as soon as you're not hungry anymore

That is a huge factor, and I think a major part of my problem.