"Forgot" to eat?

[vixenvixen]

I frequently here people around me say "I forgot to eat." I wonder, how does this happen? How does a person forget to eat? Do you just not recognize that growling emptiness that is your stomach? Are you unaware of your dwindling energy level and increasing irritability? If I were to "forget" to eat, surely the feeling faint would be a clue that

Comments

[shawnaree]

I often used to forget to eat.

Sometimes I would feel hungry, but be busy, and I would say, "when I'm done with this, I will eat" and by the time I was done with whatever it was, I didn't feel hungry anymore, so I wouldn't eat.

More often than not, however, I just wouldn't feel hungry at all. No hunger pangs, no empty feeling, no hunger at all. Without any hunger clues, I just wouldn't think about eating, until someone reminded me that I hadn't eaten.

Also, I often still have phases where the thought of eating makes me nauseous. Even if I /am/ hungry-- if I eat when I feel that way, I get sick.

Anyway, it's possible to forget to eat. I think it mostly comes from operating for so long in starvation or minimal calorie intake mode, that our bodies just don't register hungry the same way.

[bezeldesign]

It also occurs to me that some people have more "padding" than you do and and so don't necessarily experience hunger as a true need for sustenance. The average sedentary person takes in more calories than they burn off and getting totally involved in something can easily over-ride hunger messages because the body doesn't really need calories at that point. Personally, I often stop working and have a snack when all I really need at the time is to take a little break from working