Penlan's Journal, 06 Dec 18

Set realistic goals and count calories to achieve a small deficit to lose weight, don't sweat it too much with specific diets and eat if you're hungry not because it is "dinner time" etc. if you really never have an appetite maybe a visit to the G.P. is in order. 

look up omad (one meal a day) might be useful to your situation  

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate all the help and advice offered, even if I don't take it up. I find it interesting to see the perspectives of others.  

Routine is the key.. you may not feel hungry you say....but your car is going no where if you don't put fuel in it.....Get a good filling breakfast in as a standard....then just eat when you feel hungry until 6.00pm when you have again a good dinner as standard. 

Interesting perspective Angieopg. My car doesn't need fuel if it is not going anywhere though. ... Yes, I don't feel hunger. I used to say I had to remember to eat. Now I think if I am not conscious of wanting to eat then I don't need it. Here's a thing. I had a car once with a busted fuel gauge. Every time I went any distance I put £3 in - yes, this was the mid/late 1980's!! It was an old Maxi, great car. I digress. I was sure I would run out of petrol and didn't want to end up stranded. One memorable day I was sitting at the traffic lights and the driver of the car behind jumped out and knocked on my window. What's up? I asked. Oh, he said, something is dripping out of the back of your car. .... Yup, the tank was SO FULL it was overflowing and dripping out onto the road. Oh, how lucky I was nobody dropped a fag end close by!! I ran that car for weeks and weeks without filling up again. So yes, the car story is a great analogy, but I don't think you meant it quite like that. I put too much fuel in my Maxi and it overflowed. Same with the body, put too much, or the wrong kind in and you are in trouble. Why eat if the tank is full, and as a fat person I know my tank is full. What I am trying to work out is how much is enough and how much is too little to keep everything working well in my body. Unlike a car I have all sorts of other needs to run well. Like a car, I need to be kept tuned and serviced. Fascinating though, I love it.  

I think the human body needs around 1,750 calories just to function.... 

Whatever it needs to function in terms of basic energy requirements it does not need to come from external sources while there is body fat. I reckon we need moderate fresh protein from diet as we need more than we recycle each day and there is no point degrading muscle if we don't need to. But that is not the same as taking in kcals to burn as energy to meet basic energy requirements. That aspect of it is why there is a mechanism to store body fat - so we can tap into it at some time in the future. Not the same thing as saying it is why we *become* fat of course.