Having problems with not feeling hungry or wanting to eat

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I just wanted to see if others here have this issue, or if it's just a "me" thing and I should look for answers outside of autism. How are ya'll with eating in general?

So sometimes I just don't feel hungry, like I'll go a whole day without eating and later I'll think "Wait... have I eaten today?" Usually I'll ask someone else in the household if I've eaten and they'll tell me. If I haven't, I'll just throw something together real quick to get the whole "eating process" out of the way so I can go back to my day.

Sometimes I WILL feel hungry, and dizzy, but it doesn't make eating any less of an annoyance. Little snacks here and there are all right, as I can eat them as I'm moving around, but just sitting down for a meal... ugh. I can't imagine how normal people do this three times a day? It just seems like that way, you wind up spending half of your day cooking and eating instead of doing other stuff that you actually WANT to do.

I find myself looking at the nutrition facts on things, like if I just want to grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast to stop the dizziness, it's just... "Ugh, one bowl only has 200 calories, really? If that's all I'm getting out of eating this, this whole process seems like such a waste."

And it doesn't help that I'm an INCREDIBLY picky eater and like a total of about ten different foods. Maybe other people here go through this? I could use some advice on how to make myself want to eat more than the equivalent of one meal a day.

I went through this when my doctors wanted me to gain weight. I was never hungry for a couple of years.
I ate meals according to the clock. Three meals a day. It helped that I was with someone and we ate together.

I suggest you do this. Pick some times and stick to eating at those times each day to build a routine. And eat even if you aren't hungry. You may want to pick foods that are easy to prepare and eat quickly.

I had this problem for several years and lost way too much weight because of it. So I started using an app called Fitness Pal and it really helped! The app tracks food too - I didn't really use the fitness part except to track walking. I made sure I ate at least the minimum 1200 calories per day (I wasn't very active at the time) but the best part was that I got to analyse the nutritional value of what I was eating. I didn't realize how crappy my diet was. I started taking a daily vitamin and eating way more "real" food. I feel much better now and have a lot more energy. At the time I didn't get hungry either but as my stomach adjusted to 4-5 daily small meals/snacks it improved, and my sense of taste improved too. I didn't realize how bland everything tasted before,I'm not sure why.

I've got a touch of bi-polar, and like to stay with an inspiration until the work is done. As I run low on food and water, my body assumes I'm foraging, and improves my concentration. I used to only sleep 3 or 4 times a week, but my body is too old for that now. I try to maintain a daily routine now, which helps. I have a few meal recipes that don't take a lot of time for excellent nutrition, and usually make enough for 2 days of leftovers. I usually read and/or write while eating.

You said sometimes you get "hungry" and "dizzy"

Do you have diagnosis requiring specific diet, for example, diabetes?

Not everyone eats the same amount

If you eat a small amount, you save time money and energy

Maybe the amount you eat is fine for your situation

I wish I had that problem

Groceries $$$

Grocery shopping, waiting in line, cooking, washing dishes.

The Missus put me on a NutriSystem diet.  This is the first week.  All of the food is low-calorie (~500 calories per meal) and high-fiber.

I feel bloated.  I'm having cramps.  I passed enough gas last night that Animal Control was cruising my neighborhood this morning looking for some fearsome creature that was heard barking and growling somewhere along my street...

All the time! I regularly find myself forgetting to eat as I seem to throw myself into doing things all gung-ho, then I lose time. I especially did this while studying, but still find myself sometimes realising at the end of the day, that I’ve not had anything to eat as yet. I love cooking for others, but have often thought it would be great to be able to just plug myself in somewhere to recharge my batteries .

Not feeling hungry can be an interoception issue, which does seem to be related to autism (based on my not-very-thorough Internet research).

I have a similar issue: almost never feeling thirsty, forgetting to drink or not drinking enough, and then ending up with dehydration migraines. I just keep water with me wherever I go and have developed the habit of occasionally sipping it.

So just building a habit of eating at certain times can help you. You can make it easier by eating mostly the same thing every day or have a repeating weekly menu. Just plan it out so that you get carbs, fat, and plenty of veggies and the nutrition aspect will be taken care of.

An easy way to get enough calories without tons of cooking or junk food is to get a rice cooker. You put in rice and water and you don't have to watch it cook. You can put in enough rice for the whole day so you don't have to cook more than once, and you can put veggies in there too.

Nuts and seeds also have a lot of calories and require no cooking. Some nut butter spread on bread with fruit can be nutritious.

I have pretty much the same issues, rarely have the motivation to eat even if I'm hungry, not able to eat a lot at once (my body would do much better on 4-5 small meals or snacks a day than most people's usual 2-3 big meals, once I reach a certain point I literally cannot force myself to swallow any more food), and also very picky. If left to my own devices, I don't eat, but if food is put in front of me (like when my mom makes dinner for the whole family), I do. I have to be incessantly nagged to eat or pretty much just given food and told to eat it. I've tried setting alarms before, but it doesn't work well for me with my memory issues, I turn off the alarm, intending to finish what I'm doing and then eat, but by the time I'm at a stopping point, I've forgotten that I was supposed to be eating at that time.

When I was on a bicycle tour, I had to follow the advice to "drink before you are thirsty and eat before you are hungry." That is the only way to keep up with the energy demands. Now, I set out a day's worth of water and keep track of any slippage in the time to refill it. Until I learned to do that, I'd have about one day a week with no energy and no idea what was wrong. Now that I'm almost regular about meal times, I can notice my energy flagging just before super time, but I know not to have a nap - it's food I need.

I measure out portions on a scale so I know exactly how much food I'm eating. I'll also cook single portions for most of my meals. This is safer, by the way. If you cook a lot and refrigerate/freeze it, it has to go through the "danger zone" where bacteria multiply rapidly of 40 through 140 degrees. Once if you eat it cold, twice if you reheat it. And you waste energy versus just cooking it once.

Wow I can't believe so many other people have the same issue! I'm glad to hear it can just be an autism thing, I was starting to wonder if maybe I had some horrible disease lurking in the shadows or something I'll take everyone's advice and give it a go, like setting aside specific times during the day to eat, or exercising more to make myself feel hungry.