How to eat more: 5 tips for eating even when you're not hungry

Having trouble eating enough to gain muscle mass? In this article, we'll show you how to eat more, even when you're not hungry.

See, if there's one thing you can't cheat in bodybuilding, it's your calorie intake—don't eat enough, and you won't gain muscle mass. Period.

However, it's not always a matter of diet discipline or a lack of knowledge about building a hypertrophy diet ; the problem is literally being able to eat more food. Lack of hunger, feeling constantly full, and cravings just thinking about the next meal are common symptoms of people following a weight gain and hypertrophy diet.

If you have trouble eating too much, you're obviously thin and have a metabolism that's compatible with your body. Therefore, the mechanisms that control hunger and satiety work together to maintain balance and keep you slim.

Luckily, however, with a few tips and subtle changes to your routine, you can make eating easier and eat more, even when you're not hungry. Keep reading.

5 tips for eating more, even when you're not hungry1 – Use calorically dense foods

Calorie-dense foods are those that provide a large amount of calories in a small volume or weight of food.

This means you can consume more calories without necessarily having to eat large amounts of food. These foods are especially useful for people who need to increase their calorie intake for weight gain, muscle hypertrophy, or recovery from certain health conditions.

For example, a (not very full) tablespoon of peanut butter easily has 100 calories. To consume 100 calories of broccoli, you would have to eat over 700g of the vegetable. Peanut butter is more calorically dense and easier to consume.

Here are some examples of calorie-dense foods:

Nuts and seeds : Almonds, walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds are rich in healthy fats, protein, and calories.Fatty meats: chuck, sirloin, and chicken thighs are some fatty meats that provide a lot of protein with the bonus of being more caloric than lean cuts of meat.Nut Butters : Peanut butter, almond butter, and other nut butters are packed with nutrients and calories.Extra virgin olive oil : They are useful for seasoning food, healthy and high in calories.Avocado : Rich in healthy fats and high in calories.Dense whole grain products : Granola, cereal bars, whole grain breads and pastas.Dark chocolate: Rich in fat and calories, and contains antioxidants.

These foods, in addition to being high in calories, often offer a variety of other important nutrients, such as protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, making them useful choices for adding calories in a nutritious way.

2 – Liquid meals

Liquid meals (shakes) are one of the easiest ways to consume a lot of calories without your body realizing it. However, it's recommended that you use shakes as a supplement to meals or at times when you wouldn't be able to consume anything solid.

The trick with liquid meals is to supplement your diet by providing more calories when you can't eat solid foods. If you start replacing several meals with shakes just for convenience, it won't have the desired effect.

Hypercaloric shake suggestion:

30g whole peanut butter (2 tablespoons)60g rolled oats (4 tablespoons)1 low-fat natural yogurt (170g pot)400ml skim milk

Protein: 35g 
Carbohydrates: 58.4g 
Fat: 19.2g 
Calories: 515 kcal

It's recommended to avoid (if possible) the use of industrially produced high-calorie supplements, as the vast majority contain inferior protein and most of the calories come from simple carbohydrates. By making your own high-calorie supplement , you control the quality and know exactly what you're consuming.

3 – Smaller meals in larger quantities

Eating smaller, larger meals throughout the day can help increase food intake even when you're not hungry because this strategy reduces the burden on your digestive system at a single time and minimizes the feeling of being overly full.

Eating frequently but in smaller portions can also help maintain more stable energy levels and avoid the spikes and drops in blood sugar that can affect mood and appetite.

Furthermore, this approach allows for a wider variety of nutrients to be included in the diet, as different foods can be consumed throughout the day, contributing to greater nutritional balance and better meal acceptance, even if hunger is not intense.

4 – Don’t skip breakfast

Skipping breakfast means missing a significant calorie intake opportunity, which directly impacts the size of subsequent meals. Basically, if you miss a meal, you'll need to compensate by eating more at subsequent meals.

Furthermore, there is evidence in the literature ( 1) showing that skipping the first meal of the day can have an appetite-suppressing effect. Simply put, people who skip breakfast tend to have a lower appetite and eat less throughout the rest of the day.

There are people who, for a variety of reasons, can't eat first thing in the morning. However, in normal situations (not involving illness), this is more a matter of habit and psychology, not a physiological limitation.

5 – Avoid meals (very) rich in fiber

Fiber-rich meals can make it difficult for those who want to eat more to increase their food intake, especially because fiber tends to promote a prolonged feeling of fullness and suppress your appetite for subsequent meals.

This occurs because digested fiber swells as it absorbs water in the digestive tract, increasing the volume of the food bolus and delaying gastric emptying. As a result, the person feels fuller for longer, which can reduce the frequency and quantity of food consumed throughout the day.

Additionally, high-fiber foods often require more chewing and take longer to digest, which contributes to feeling full and a decrease in overall appetite, complicating efforts to consume more calories needed for weight gain or muscle hypertrophy.

Remembering that this does not mean completely avoiding fiber intake, but you can be strategic by leaving some meals of the day fiber-free while others may have more, especially the meal before bed, and not being hungry at this time (when sleeping) is not a problem.