trouble spreading out your meals?

i dont really care if anyone replies to this, i just feel like expressing it.

i dont know if this really counts as "binge eating" or not.. because the bottom line is, i never go over my allotted calories for the day. its just that.. i can almost never spread out my eating until the end of the day. i start out good, but most of the time i end up eating my last meal by like.. noon or at the latest 2 in the afternoon. if im not eating.. im like waiting eagerly for the next chance to be eating. i try to stay super busy so i can't eat all that food at once.. but i SO look forward to eating. i feel like it's the only thing that gives me happiness. even though it really gives me a big freaking headache most of the time. it's weird. food is like crack to me. it feels so good while im eating it, but i eat it in inappropriate amounts and i feel bad afterwards. i completely have no idea what it feels like to be hungry anymore. i definitely know what it feels like to be overly full.. not that that stops me. anyone else do this?

If you're not eating after noon or 2pm, you're probably waking up starving--which means you do the exact same thing the next day! It's not healthy to obsess about food to the point that you feel you can't eat for 18 hours straight. Maybe your allotted calories are too low? Or you're not getting enough protein, fiber, etc. that will make you feel full? Maybe you need to make a schedule for yourself--breakfast, midmorning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and stick to it. Even if you overeat at one meal, make sure you eat the other meals! It's not good to stop eating at noon every day.

Gabby,

I just commented on your other post too, lol. Sorry to blog the heck outta ya! I think that it's really hard to space out your meals bc chances are you may have gotten too used to the crash and burn of over-stuffing all in one or two big ole meals. Your stomach gets stretched, you get mental hunger like nothing anyone else can understand and you probably cannot stop shoveling food in right? I get that way too, and like Cosmo said it's a viscious cycle. Plan it out!!! One day you need to have small amounts of food, all spaced 3 hours apart. Try to stick to it without any failures for 3 days. This is what I do to break my cycle. Then I break it down to eating every 2 hours and eventually I hope to get to once per hour. This way I am never hungry; view eating as a chore and less of an excitment. I'm in no means perfect but I have timed eating down to an art most of the time. ;). If you have Outlook, set reminders; or your phone. Important to eat right when you wake up, and also try to stop about 2 hours or so before bed. That's what helps me the most. G'Luck!!

I think that sometimes people are *afraid* to feel hunger. Sometimes your going to be hungry-and its okay. Way to many people panic and feel that hunger is something that has to be cured immediately.

Say you have your meals and snacks planned out and that in total, they meet your daily caloric needs. If after breakfast and you first snack,you find yourself feeling hungry at 11 still- forget about it. Eat your lunch at 2 (or whatever designated time you have for yourself). I agree with littlemalynda-you have probably streched out your stomach from eating so much all at once all the time before that its hard for you to feel satisfied.

Its a mental thing that you look forward to and enjoy eating a lot-so maybe start eating foods that you can eat MORE of. One serving of air popped popcorn instead of a serving of crackers provides more quantity. A rice cake with peanut butter and a banana as a morning snack would have almost equal calories to a granola bar, but you could actually be eating more food. Granted that if you do start to eat less calorie dense foods in order to feel satisfied you may need to get a multivitamin and some fiber supplement to make up for it. Bottom line is that its going to be a trade off. You either need to train yourself to put up with hunger or change the way you eat and put a little more effort into it.

i was going to post a thread with basically the same subject. this has been troubling me for quite a while as of late! i am glad to here responses from others about this.