Eating when your not hungry...?

Hi you guys,

 This site is starting to make me really confused. I'm 5'4" 124lbs and I go to the gym five times a week. I eat around 1100 calories a day and I've been trying for the 2100 the eat meter suggests but I can't get there. What kind of calories would I need to be eating if I were sedentary compared to moderately active? I don't know anymore if I was eating enough before I started going to the gym or if I was already in a calorie deficit. I feel like giving up on eating more calories but then I'm just going to lose muscle mass and whatever else. Ugh. I don't know, I just can't eat 2100 calories in a day. It's making me depressed eating when I'm not hungry.

It's just something you have to get over. Gaining weight will be physically uncomfortable. It's a fact. Most of us, who are gaining weight without an eating disorder got to be underweight by only eating within our comfort zones. You need to push out of it to make any progress. It sounds like your comfort zone is around 1100 calories (which is less than half what you need).

Your goal should be at least 2500 calories a day if you are sedentary. If this seems like too much, you can gradually increase every day until you get there. But keep in mind, it won't feel good. It doesn't need to feel good. You won't always feel hungry when you need to eat, and guess what, you don't need to be hungry. The interesting thing is, is that when you start eating more, you start to get hungrier. The stomach can stretch, and you will eventually start getting normal hunger signals. Your body will adjust to increased food intake. The reason your hunger signals are off is because they shut down at such a low caloric intake. Your body is used to having so little food.

It will also be incredibly difficult for you to reach 2100 (which should be 2500) if you're eating nothing but green vegetables and other low calorie foods. You did not post what types of food you eat, so it's hard to tell if you just feel full all the time because your are eating a lot of bulky foods with few calories. These foods are "wasted bulk" in my opinion. Yes, we need some fiber, but sometimes we have to temporarily forgo some of it to gain weight on a realistic amount of food. You need to look for calorie dense foods. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to appropriate foods. You can even add oil into a shake or smoothie. Full fat dairy is also good. Start drinking milk or juice instead of water. There's a whole list of foods on this forum to check out.

You've had some really good advice.  If you have a tendency to badly undereat it's not much use trying to 'eat when you're hungry' .  You have to eat to a schedule in order to develop an appetite.   That's how most people eat, in truth.   Regular meals with snacks in between to top up as and when.

If you were completely sedentary and assuming you're circa 20 years old you'd need about 1900-2000 cals a day to maintain your weight.  If you go to the gym 5 days a week you'd need rather more depending on what you do.   If you need to gain weight, add 500 cals a day to the total.

There's a really good list of the ideal foods for weight-gain at the top of the message board.  The trick is to add calories without too much accompanying bulk.  Just 5 juicy dates, for example, is 250 cals and you could eat those without blinking.  A medium-size avocado... 300 cals... slice one up on a salad and you'd never notice it was there.  Olive oil and full-fat dairy products have been mentioned.  You could add oily fish, nuts and nut butters... all kinds of excellent low-bulk, high-cal, very nutritious foods. 

Plan your day out in advance including lots of those kinds of foods and then just work your way through it.  If you're smart with your choices and be a little creative it's very enjoyable.   Good luck

I definately suffer from the same problem. I feel guilty if I'm "eating for no reason" like it's a binge or something, even when deep down I know it isn't - a handful of raisins is hardly a "binge" by any means. But I'm definately getting used to it, and mechanical eating is the best way forward, trust me.

If I eat every 2 hours, which I;ve been doing recently, I think Im building my metabolism up. And I've definately been getting hunger pangs back. Sometimes they are like unsatiable, I still feel hungry after my morning snack sometimes and I'm starving through the next two classes before lunch! And that's just too scary tbh!

But you'll do fine if you practise mechanical eating! :)

I also eat every 2 hours!

I enjoy 3 or 4 small, 300 calorie meals along with several snacks

I do not enjoy eating a larger meal in one sitting, but in order to maintain my weight, I know I need to eat more regularly then people who like bigger meals

The result of my grazing means that I never feel very hungry BUT I noticed that the times I am STUCK AWAY from my food and I have to much longer then usual for a meal, then I DO notice I feel like food

A lot of people have to eat even when they do not feel very hungry, for a huge range of reasons, for me it is to take in enough calories throughout a day, for other people they need to do non hungry eating to gain weight, it is not always enjoyable but the smarter you are about your food choices the easier and less painful it will be for you to fit the food in!

There are some GREAT resources on this site in the weight gaining section on the best foods to gain weight on, high in calories without the bulk!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. I feel a lot better knowing that I'm not the only one, and all the advice was really helpful! I actually bought almond hazelnut butter today so I'm going to go eat some of that right now lol :D And thanks again for showing me mechanical eating is ok, weird as that sounds!

Almond hazelnut butter sounds sooo yummy! :)
I proper want to try all these things, like white choc peanut butter sounds awesome=]