What could cause low appetite?

[ZenAlex]

I can still eat OK. But I remember during my 20's I lost tonnes of weight because despite eating healthy and exercising, I wasn't eating enough calories and didn't realise it because I wasn't that hungry. I was at a caloric deficit for months at a time and eventually ended up getting  to 135lbs about 5 years ago.

I'm back up to 160lbs now, because I have incorporated medjool dates, nuts etc into my diet to bulk calories.

My hunger is a bit better now that it was before, but I could still easily go long periods without eating much. I'm doing it out of habit.

I've had low hunger for about a decade now. I can help stimulate it more with exercise, but it's still not great.

I am about to do a gut test via stool sample, but is there any advice you guys could give me in terms of

1) What to test for?

2) What to try?

I have had depression/anxiety in the past, but I've had good times and bad times with mental health, and the appetite was still the same. 

I feel like the only way I can get myself hungry is through exercising enough to make it come, but I almost feel like it's not compelling me to eat, it's just discomfort that I could ignore. 

I have went long periods of no alcohol, pop and don't eat much junkfood. I did used to drink diet coke in the past, and I didn't notice sugary/carbonated drinks fuck with appetite so I rarely drink them now.

[PsychedelicEagle]

Have you looked at the natural hygiene movement? There are some medical phylosophies that take the absence of hunger as an indicative the body needs to fast. Not necessarily suggesting it's your case, just food for thought.

Other ideas:

• Reducing the number of meals. Personally, I eat 2x/day. I find it quite nice because when I eat it's pleasurable and I get to eat significant amounts of food in each meal.
• Using a blender to get more calories in. Not solving the hunger issue, but an alternative.
• Trace minerals. Something I became aware of recently. Not sure they can be tested...

Edited June 18 by PsychedelicEagle

[Schizophonia]

What’s the problem ?

Otherwise being anxious and or more or less depressed will decrease appetite, the only thing to eat with other peoples rather than alone will stimulate appetite.

You can also try medication if you want gaining weight. 🤷‍♂️

[MarkKol]

Been wondering this all my life bro, it could be genetic, I went on an extremely high fat & low fiber diet to gain weight and I did, I “gained” 5kg in 3 weeks, and I lost it very soon after because I just couldn’t keep eating so much.

I have reduced my diet to a big vegetable shake, with plenty of green, red and orange vegetables, shit loads of oats (like 200g per day), any and all fruits, liquid egg whites and rice cream to reach 3k calories and 400g or carbs. 

If I could only live of fruit and milk, that would be ideal.

[ZenAlex]

15 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

What’s the problem ?

Otherwise being anxious and or more or less depressed will decrease appetite, the only thing to eat with other peoples rather than alone will stimulate appetite.

You can also try medication if you want gaining weight. 🤷‍♂️

Sure but there have been times where i'm not that anxious or depressed and my life is in order and it's still the same issue. 

I suppose it's not a huge issue since I can manage it but it always makes me believe there's an underlying undiagnosed issue still waiting to be resolved.