# How often must you eat to feel comfortable? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2005, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418 "2005-08-10T08:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/21 "2005-08-11T00:03:35Z")
I tend to eat three meals a day at more or less regular intervals. If I don’t, I get cranky- or weepy, which is worse. It runs in the family- and my brother is worse. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/22 "2005-08-11T00:37:44Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I wake at 6:15. Around 8:00, I start getting hungry. I usually eat at 8:15. If I don’t eat by 8:30, I’m angry and agitated. I need to delay breakfast as much as I can because. . . > > I start feeling hungry at about 11:15. I eat lunch at 11:30. If I KNOW I’m going to have to eat a later lunch, I can deal but I don’t like it. That sounds very similar to my day, with the exception that I also delay lunch as long as I can - usually until about 2:30 or 3:00 pm. If I eat lunch at a ‘normal’ time, I’m famished by 4:00. My delaying tactics include eating a piece of fruit, usually a banana, at about 11:00am and a tub of yoghurt around 1:00pm. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/23 "2005-08-11T01:37:19Z")
Ever since I had my colon removed (33 years ago), I have found that I feel hungry much more often. Part of what causes a person to feel well-fed is having a full colon, and the nerve signals for “missing colon” are apparently identical to those for “empty colon.” My brain hollers and screams that it is starving to death, and I feel dreadful if I don’t get something to eat every two or three hours. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/24 "2005-08-11T02:47:22Z")
I do best if I eat small meals every couple of hours. I go from being not at all hungry to starving and shaking very quickly, and if I don’t eat as soon as I realize I feel hungry, the consequences for all who cross my path are very bad indeed. When I was growing up, eating on a rigid 3-meals-a-day schedule was absolute misery. ---
**Author:** ![RFBluesValentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@RFBluesValentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RFBluesValentine)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/25 "2005-08-11T02:59:05Z")
I get irritable, clumsy, and “oops, things are grey when I stand up” when I don’t eat regularly. One of my bosses once told me to get that checked out, but, meh. Since I learned to keep something small in my bag, it’s not much of a problem. I _have_ to eat breakfast, almost always some kind of energy bar and 3-4 cups of coffee. Depending on when I work or go to class, that’s between 8:45 and 10 a.m. I have to eat lunch no later than 2. If I work a morning shfit, I’ll often have to duck into the break room to wolf down a cereal bar, so I’ve always got one in my purse or locker. If I don’t have that late-morning snack, I often get grouchy, spaz out, and babble stupidly. That’s when I usually get the “Have you been fed?!” comments 😉 When I have classes, it’s a lot easier. There’s always something small (mini-wheats, cereal bar, piece of fruit) in my backpack to tide me over until I can get a meal. And unlike at work, where I can’t eat on the sales floor, none of my professors have ever cared if I quietly chow down during a lecture. Dinner is whenever I get hungry, usually about 5-6 hours after lunch. I _should_ be done eating after that, but… mmm, computer snacks… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418/26 "2005-08-11T03:58:22Z")
It changes all the time. Yesterday I had a cup of coffee for breakfast (which is noon right now), never got around to eating and remembered to eat dinner when I felt a bit dizzy at 7pm. I had half a cup of soup and didn’t need anything for the rest of the day. Today I had soup for breakfast and just now had some for dinner and was fine the whole time. Tomorrow I could do the same thing and crash so hard I can barely eat for the shaking and dizzyness. It’s better during the school year when candy for dinner happens much less often. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-must-you-eat-to-feel-comfortable/316418.md?page=1)