Thinking about becoming hungry

[jessica129]

All I ever think about is eating. It's a miracle I'm not overweight considering food is a part of my thought process every waking moment. what I'll eat next, how many calories it has, how potentially fat I'll get, how good it's going to taste, when I can eat again without getting too stuffed. I think I have some sort of addiction. That's why I hate when ppl say they forget to eat...wtf to me that's like forgetting to breathe lol

[anndelise]

Perhaps you misunderstand. This has nothing to do with when one notices a desire to eat. Instead it asks when one thinks about becoming hungry, and so it is a question about the experience of conjectural meta-hunger.

If I understand this correctly, then I would say that it depends on how filling or satisfying the meal I just ate was.

If the meal was less than satisfying, then I will think towards how long before I'll probably be hungry and/or can eat again, and how well that times with when my family wants to eat, or how it times with other events expected for that day.

If it was close to satisfying, then I'm not worried about the timing of future hunger at all. I won't think about food until I'm actually hungry. Even after feeding family and me not ready to eat yet. (lol, which can sometimes lead me to going to bed hungry because by the time I got hungry, it was too late for me to eat for the night)

I'm not quite sure how to vote that.

[Korpsy Knievel]

Here's an illustration of what I'm speaking of, this time with the mental event twice-removed from the bodily one.*

En route to an unfamiliar suburb last night I was eating a sandwich and thinking about how to answer pianosinger on this subject. An example sprang to mind, that being the purchase of meat and other ingredients to barbeque ribs on the following day, and how one might imagine how something so tantalizing would spur on one's hunger as it neared completion. Now since I'd just filled my gut I wasn't hungry at the moment and was able to entertain this idea without actually feeling impelled to eat my imaginary ribs. Interestingly enough, however, as we neared our destination perhaps 10 minutes later we passed a BBQ establishment, and on sighting its brightly colored sign my mouth did in fact water, though it hadn't just minutes before when I'd visualized saucy ribs sizzling in the smoky heat of a hickory fire.

So I initially thought of the stimulation that would provoke the appearance of hunger in a hypothetical future scenario without actually experiencing that sensation in the present. And though I became no more hungry on spotting the rib-joint sign than when I'd first spontaneously imagined these ribs, I did experience an involuntary physical reaction (salivation) when noting the physical availability of that foodstuff.

*And yes, I generally hold that thoughts occur within brains as neurological events, but for argument's sake we're distinguishing between the cerebral and the somatic.

[anndelise]

Ok, so I didn't understand. Would you prefer that I delete my post above so it doesn't lead other readers to false understandings of what you mean?

[munenori2]

All I ever think about is eating. It's a miracle I'm not overweight considering food is a part of my thought process every waking moment. what I'll eat next, how many calories it has, how potentially fat I'll get, how good it's going to taste, when I can eat again without getting too stuffed. I think I have some sort of addiction. That's why I hate when ppl say they forget to eat...wtf to me that's like forgetting to breathe lol

lol I'm about the same. I plan my day around meals. Just sitting down to eat something is, not kidding, probably the best part of my day. In fact, I hardly ever get pissed off at anything, but if I have to skip a meal or I only get enough time to scarf something down and not enjoy it, I get effing livid!

Sometimes I'll make plans to eat somewhere in a week or two and I honestly start counting down the days and hours. Thoughts of impending sushi, endless chips and salsa, or mongolian bbq are sometimes the only thing that keep me going. It's kind of like spending time with your loved ones, only a foodie version.

[mu4]

I don't eat breakfast. I forget to eat lunch a lot. Like I have 1 meal a day most of the time.

But I'm pretty much a foodie, and I love good food, I think I just don't need it or think about it when I'm concentrated on something else.

[Korpsy Knievel]

Ok, so I didn't understand. Would you prefer that I delete my post above so it doesn't lead other readers to false understandings of what you mean?

As you can see it no longer matters.

I don't eat breakfast. I forget to eat lunch a lot. Like I have 1 meal a day most of the time.

But I'm pretty much a foodie, and I love good food, I think I just don't need it or think about it when I'm concentrated on something else.

My habits are similar though I don't really think about food except fleetingly, so what I'm talking about isn't some ongoing or thorough-going process, just momentary thoughts that arise and pass.

[inumbra]

So is this about trying to enhance enjoyment of eating for some point in the future? Is it about living in a world of food that exists more in the imagination than in reality? It would be removed from the actual experience of food, eating and hunger because it's more about thinking about eating, and anticipating becoming hungry at some later point and how to really enhance the enjoyment of it all (a food fantasy). And really I could see this as a manifestation of Si role (Si I would think, would be more about actually enjoying eating in the present not anticipating enjoying eating while eating and not even noticing one is eating because they're so busy anticipating the future eating opportunities and thinking about hunger as a concept rather than a sensation).

Still I would think that Si dominants might think a lot about tasty foods and imagine how they taste, but this wouldn't be your so-called "meta-hunger" because it's not about a process of anticipating becoming hungry. I would imagine Si dominants might even spend more time in associations with food (for instance TV commercials often link food being advertised with idyllic settings and attractive people living the social high life, etc. for a reason--for humans, food is very much about the imagination and associations. Sometimes the associations with food in the mind may drive food planning choices more than actual physical sensations like hunger. I might think of this as "mental Si").

This would also not be the same thing as planning for future moments of hunger. "Meta-hunger" as you call it would not mean "I anticipate I'll get hungry like I always do and so I better have some food around!"

Now I have lost all notion of what this meta-hunger is. I can think of too many ways in which one would be removed from "the body" regarding food, eating and hunger. Also not all hunger would be a "physical sensation" because it's also about chemicals that feed the brain (for instance when people eat chocolate when depressed... which is self-medicating in a way).

Like some others here, I think I rarely actually imagine becoming hungry and then satiating this with something tasty. The only times I can think of imagining being hungry are somewhat like polikujm's example. Either wanting to participate in eating, try something, eat, or being in a situation where everyone else is eating and so surely I must too... in these kinds of situations I may imagine being hungry--looking and trying to see what is there and bending it into something else to the point of eventual confusion, e.g. "can I say for sure I'm not a little hungry?!" Associations of the food with times in the past or with other things may also create an imaginary affect of hunger.

I may also think about becoming hungry when in a mood/mode of general misery and inertia. My mind wanders over various possibilities trying to see if I feel like doing any of these things because I'm miserable just sitting here. But I don't feel like doing anything either, so the mind intensifies its torture coming up with multiple reasons why it's too much effort to do one of the proposed things I could do and why I don't feel like doing it. For instance there could be a "scheduling difficultly" where my plan and when I get hungry and what's available for food options and blah blah blah don't intersect well, and so I really don't feel like doing whatever it is ("then this will happen, and then that, and then I'll get hungry and that will be around the time of this other thing, and why would I want to bother with all of this" and so on). The mind is in these times searching for a feeling of actually wanting to do something as it runs over everything, and it can't find anything it feels like doing. It also doesn't feel like being miserable which is why the solution-quest must continue. It's looking for a spark out of depression and apathy. But the thoughts are self-sabotaging because the mind is immersed in the very depression and apathy it wants escape from.

Anyway, I don't think I really think about hunger in the way you mention. I plan very little regarding meals, sometimes to my detriment (for instance I may realize that I've been hungry for a while and then wish I would have went to the store yesterday as I knew then it would have been a good idea to prevent this very occurrence). It's always easier to select food when I'm mildly hungry or interested in food and anticipating being hungry as I may crave any food I see in the grocery store. I may then fantasize about eating the food. If I go to the store when all cravings seem to be turned off I may pass through aisles of food uninterested, making decisions more difficult or leading to a decision to deal with it later. In these times connecting to interest in food seems impossible, and without interest in it I seem to have little motivation to actually buy it because I don't feel like any of it. Maybe this is actually Si, because it's wed to a current state. (I also prefer the state where all craving is turned off because I feel that finally I'm able to return to "the important more spiritual things in life." I don't like being a slave to hunger or craving.)

Although what has fallen out of this is that anticipation of being hungry is linked with interest in food and craving. And I think that the anticipation arises out of the craving of food (not because one is hungry, but because there's some chemical process going on in the brain sparking up the craving cycle). Without the craving-->anticipation/interest there can't so easily be the rest of the sequence: acquisition of food or planning ahead for eating-->actual eating-->satiation. So really the separate mental and physical sequences work in tandem so as to allow for nourishment (the physical one is more: hungry-->find adequate food-->eat).

But for me it's all turned off right now. I crave nothing. I have no interest in food right now. There is no anticipation. I know what I will eat later, but it means nothing to me. And it's almost like being of two minds. I'm actually in a very different state when it's turned on, to the extent that I could probably think about the anticipation more... it's like when it's off, I write off its history because the history becomes meaningless. I can't connect to it. Ribs in BBQ sauce mean nothing to me right now. There's a bit of a response to seeing them in my mind, but I can't actually be in it while the craving system is turned off. I have no interest and do not care.

[Erk]

If we get hungry every three hours then why is it if I eat a meal loaded with protein I do not have to eat again for the rest of the day? Theory debunked.
Also why is this even being discussed.

[pianosinger]

If we get hungry every three hours then why is it if I eat a meal loaded with protein I do not have to eat again for the rest of the day?

Maybe because your digestive system gets backed-up because you're not eating enough fiber?

Also why is this even being discussed.

Because someone started this thread...

[Absurd]

Only when I shave my head.

[Capitalist Pig]

sometimes i just want to eat ALL OF THE TIME


sometimes i don't



i eat because i know i must

[jessica129]

You're a guy, you can be fat and still be accepted in life. Go ahead.

[blackburry]

lol I'm about the same. I plan my day around meals. Just sitting down to eat something is, not kidding, probably the best part of my day. In fact, I hardly ever get pissed off at anything, but if I have to skip a meal or I only get enough time to scarf something down and not enjoy it, I get effing livid!

Sometimes I'll make plans to eat somewhere in a week or two and I honestly start counting down the days and hours. Thoughts of impending sushi, endless chips and salsa, or mongolian bbq are sometimes the only thing that keep me going. It's kind of like spending time with your loved ones, only a foodie version.

this sounds so.. nice.
I always have to scarf down food. I eat super fast and mostly because I have to.

[munenori2]

this sounds so.. nice.
I always have to scarf down food. I eat super fast and mostly because I have to.

sadness

[blackburry]

btw i've been meaning to ask you @munenori2: what the hell is in your avatar? a cat with a.... turkey with foil on it's legs?

[Korpsy Knievel]

Fairly soon I will begin preparing to become hungry.

[munenori2]

btw i've been meaning to ask you @munenori2: what the hell is in your avatar? a cat with a.... turkey with foil on it's legs?

Yep, that's it. Angry ass cat.