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

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

The diet that seemed to work well for me was the eliminate one meal a day diet. The meal I eliminate is dinner, probably the highest calorie intake of the day. I do this by eating a healthy breakfast, a large late lunch around 1-2pm and then a snack of fresh fruit around 8pm. To be honest the meal I am really cutting out is lunch, because the meal I eat at lunch is the size of a dinner, and I normally eat out at a restaurant. By placing it slightly later in the day, it tides me over til snack time, and the snack tides me over til breakfast. The only time when things get rough is around noon when hungar is really kicking in for an afternoon meal.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One old saw I've heard is "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper." That goes with the theory that dinner should be your smallest meal.