What does REAL hunger feel like?

I'm just now begining my journey to lose a significant amount of weight.  I have really poor eating habits all the way around.  Usually, I don't eat anything until lunch time and then I binge on whatever I can find for what seems like the rest of the day.  Any food that pops into my head I have to have, and I have to eat all of it.  The only time I ever feel my stomach growl or hunger pains is for lunch...and then I have a hard time feeling satiated.  I know that one thing I need to work really hard on is my will-power.  I understand healthy eating, I've just never really applied it to myself.  Now that I am, I'm eating smaller, more nutritious portions; breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner.  The problem with this is that I NEVER feel hungry at all...which for some reason makes me feel like I'm not doing it right.  Could someone please give me some feed back on this? 

you have to feel a LITTLE bit of hunger from time to time, you feel nothing at ALL? are you sure you are counting your calories correctly?

Your body needs time to adjust. I never feel HUNGRY to the point of binging anymore, but that's a good thing to me.

I drink tons of water, so I know the hunger pains I do feel, which are little anyway, are real, and not dehydration.

It's best to take things one day at a time, and slowly let your body realize what you're doing to it. Never feeling hungry at all isn't that great, but never feeling so hungry you binge is good! 

If I could manage to eat only when I feel hungry, I would eat about once in 3 days!

I tend to eat for the taste of food instead of when I feel hungry, then end up binging...sounds like you may be doing the same thing??? 

Curious to the replies on this question.

Karen 

Did you use the on-site tools to calculate your BMR?  How many calories are you eating during the day?  Use these numbers to determine your deficit and this should give you a good indicator of whether you're "doing it right."

For example, my normal daily burn rate is about 2200 Calories. On exercise days it's more like 2900 Calories.

I eat 1700 Calories on a normal day, 2000 Calories on an exercise day.  This gives me between a 500-900 Calorie deficit every day.  At this rate I should lose about 1-2 lbs per week. And I do! 

Be careful not to undereat, though.  This can cause your metabolism to drop and you'll stop losing weight (your deficit will secretly vanish).

If you're not feeling hungry, then good for you!  It maybe that your body is still adjusting to your new eating lifestyle.  Also, eating healthier food can make you feel satiated longer than a lot of unhealthy stuff.  Just figure out the numbers, do the math and see if you are "on target". 

Well, I thought that maybe lowering my caloric intake would help, so I planned ahead today.  The Calorie Calculator says I need somewhere around 2400 a day, but today I've got breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks scheduled and I'm only up to 1085...I don't think that's the right way to do it though.  I understand what to eat to be healthy, but I guess I'm ignorant of the process.  Except for making a real attempt to be more active at work (I'm a nanny for a set of twins- so it's hard to be MORE active) I havn't started a real exercise program.  I'm much more interested in being successful in the long term than I am in losing the weight quickly.

One of the things that can be deceptive is that your stomach will growl when it expects to eat, not just when you are actually hungry.

For instance, if you always eat lunch at 12:00, at about 11:30 or 11:45, your stomach will start growling as it prepares for the lunch it knows is coming.  If you change your regular eating time, for several days, your stomach will still growl at the previous time, but after a while, your body will learn that the time has changed and adjust accordingly. 

If you are not feeling hungry, that's actually a good thing.  It probably just means that you are keeping yourself fueled evenly all day, so your body doesn't have to remind you to eat.  I have been experiencing the same thing since I started having snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon.  Although I can eat when it's time to eat, I'm not *starving* like I sometimes was before.  This allows us to make better choices instead of being influenced by extreme hunger. 

I'm sure if you skipped a meal, your body would let you know.  I think the fact that you're not "hungry" means you're doing it right!

ummm... i hope you know that you need more than 1085... atleast 1300-1500

Seeing that you were use to not eating anything till noon could have made your metabolism slow.  I know I could go till 1 or 2pm and still not feel hungry.  Start eating regularly and you will soon see a difference.  Way to go on starting your new you!!!

not feeling starving is good. starving feeling= drop in blood sugar=bad. eating the correct amount of lean protein at every meal, in addition to veggies and complex carbohydrates, keeps you feeling satisfied and is what you should strive for.

I usually don't feel hungry except for around lunch time either! I'm actually here because after I started paying attention to how many calories I was eating (after a few months of eating "healthy") I realized that I was only getting about 1000 - which is definitely not enough. And will actually interfere with your weight loss goals.

It's nice to not ever really feel hungry but its definitely a pain too - its hard to force yourself to eat when you aren't hungry and are trying to lose weight? It seems backwards - but that is how it is done.  

All it takes is a week of eating more calories and losing pounds and like me you'll get the "aha!" moment - just stick with it! It'll take a little time to figure it out and get the right amount for you, but when you do you'll know it. Even if you don't ever feel the hunger pains.