Spreading meals throughout day

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heatherhikes
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Spreading meals throughout day

Post by heatherhikes » Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:39 pm

Lately I have some problems deciding how to spread out my meals.
If I sleep in, e.g., get up at 10 a.m., I usually eat at noon and then around 7 p.m. and that's it.
Would you mind letting me know how you spread out your meals timewise?
Do some of you eat, e.g., at 11 a.m., around 3 p.m and then at dinner, and are you hungry in between?
Do some of you eat late in the evening?
How do you feel physically?
Thanks for helping me with this :!:
________
h

elegantportions
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Post by elegantportions » Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:34 pm

I can't really help from experience since I get up at 5:30 a.m. 6-Noon-7 works for me, but here are some thoughts I would consider if my schedule changes.

If it's a rare thing to sleep in, then I think I would simply skip breakfast that day and go ahead with only the two meals. But if you are sleeping in frequently, I would take that to mean that you also often stay up later. In that case, I would plan my first meal soon after waking up, the last one 2-3 hours before projected bedtime, and the third about in the middle of those times, OR keep lunch and dinner close to normal times with a later "second dinner" as the evening wears on. Also, if you tend to keep later hours frequently, you might want to adjust your normal eating times for that schedule and plan to only eat breakfast on an "early" day.

Whatever you decide, habit will be stronger the more closely you stick to certain eating times, no matter what is going on from day to day.
EP
5'5" Female Age 62
Dec 2018 Year 5 BMI = 25.8

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:20 pm

I get up about 6 AM and rarely eat breakfast. I eat at noon and 7 PM. If I do get hungry before noon, I have brunch and dinner at the usual time. I rarely get hungry between meals but if I do, I ignore it.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

r.jean
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Post by r.jean » Mon Jun 23, 2014 10:54 pm

I generally eat at 8 am, 1 Pm, and 630 pm. I am okay flexing breakfast and lunch, but if I eat dinner too early I am hungry by bedtime. Just figure out what works best for you and then stick with it.
The journey is the reward.
Maintenance is progress.

noni
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Post by noni » Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:17 pm

My schedule looks a lot like wosnes: I get up M-F at 6am, mostly, I skip breakfast, just have coffee. At noon is lunch, and it's filling enough not to be very hungry by 7-8pm when I have dinner.

This is M-F. You don't want to know the rest.

Marianna
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Post by Marianna » Tue Jun 24, 2014 3:30 pm

I get up at 5:30am. I have coffee in the morning. I eat at 10, 2pm, and 6pm. I love this eating schedule. If I eat first thing in the morning (like 7am) I am starving all day long. If I wait til 10, my appetite is so much more regulated. Took a little getting used to in the beginning, but I adapted very quickly.

heatherhikes
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Post by heatherhikes » Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:37 pm

Thanks for your responses!

I contacted Wellnes Resources (the leptin diet books/website) about having breakfast later in the morning or at noon. They advised me to eat breakfast not later than 1-2 hours after getting up in the morning to avoid stressing the adrenaline gland. Other socalled health experts have similar opinions about eating late i.t. morn. However, if you're just not hungry?...

That's one reason why I started this post. I wonder what your energy levels are when you eat later or at noon. And, how does one know whether or not she taxes her adrenaline?...low energy, edginess, sleeping problems :roll:

Any advice or experiences? Thanks!
____________
h

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:36 pm

heatherhikes wrote:Thanks for your responses!

I contacted Wellnes Resources (the leptin diet books/website) about having breakfast later in the morning or at noon. They advised me to eat breakfast not later than 1-2 hours after getting up in the morning to avoid stressing the adrenaline gland. Other socalled health experts have similar opinions about eating late i.t. morn. However, if you're just not hungry?...

That's one reason why I started this post. I wonder what your energy levels are when you eat later or at noon. And, how does one know whether or not she taxes her adrenaline?...low energy, edginess, sleeping problems :roll:

Any advice or experiences? Thanks!
____________
h
I don't know anything about those books or the the web site, but I tend to take what any of them say with a grain of salt. I've never been a breakfast eater and my energy has always been just fine.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

eschano
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Post by eschano » Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:29 am

heatherhikes wrote: They advised me to eat breakfast not later than 1-2 hours after getting up in the morning to avoid stressing the adrenaline gland.
____________
h
That's en par with people advising you to eat 5-6 meals a day to not let the blood sugar fall - complete BS unless you have a medical problem with blood sugar or in this case your adrenaline gland.

I feel physically sick if I eat that early and my body loves my getting up at 6:15am, eating bf at 9:00am, eating lunch sometime between 12.30-13.00pm and dinner at 8pm so who cares what some experts say? (If it were not for my commute I would eat dinner at 7)

Listen to your own body. Everything else is not worth listening to.
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

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ironchef
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Post by ironchef » Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:07 am

Ugh, people are not machines. I can't stand the tendency for people to give "one size fits all" advice on things as varied as eating and appetite.

My husband is a "naturally" lean and health eating person, and he never has breakfast first thing. If he forces himself to eat then, he generally gets queasy. I realise that the plural of anecdote is not data, but I can certainly attest that there is nothing wrong with his adrenaline.

When I was working in Italy I was amazed that lots of people didn't eat breakfast, or if they did it was tiny (an espresso with a mini-pastry). When they stick with their traditional eating patterns, they tend to be a thinner culture than Australia, so perhaps they're onto something.

I'm experimenting at the moment with moving breakfast later (after my cycle to work) and then pushing lunch back to reduce the loooong wait from lunch to dinner. If anything I'm sleeping better.

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:14 pm

There's a lot is pseudoscience out there. There's also a lot of personal opinion injected into shaky science.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

elegantportions
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Post by elegantportions » Wed Jun 25, 2014 1:54 pm

Ummmm, if you sleep until 10 a.m. and eat at noon, you ARE eating within two hours of getting up... :roll:
EP
5'5" Female Age 62
Dec 2018 Year 5 BMI = 25.8

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BrightAngel
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Post by BrightAngel » Wed Jun 25, 2014 8:59 pm

wosnes wrote:There's a lot of pseudoscience out there.
There's also a lot of personal opinion injected into shaky science.
wosnes, So True! :lol:
BrightAngel - (Dr. Collins)
See: DietHobby. com

heatherhikes
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Post by heatherhikes » Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:54 pm

Hi, y’all.
I would like to say it again, really appreciate your taking the time to respond to my questions and concerns! It is great to be able to come to this forum to *chat* with you all. (expat’s wife, feeling isolated in switzerland...pooh, wooh...feel my self-pity?)

elegantportions (like your name),
“6-noon-7 works for me†--- wow, what discipline. Your suggestions on varying eat. schedules confirms some of my thoughts. Thanks a lot! Sticking to my eating times IS important for habit building.
One of my concerns – besides eating schedules in general - is: what is y’alls experience about eating (apprx.) 11:00-15:00-19:30; are you really hungry before your afternoon and evening meals?! I figure you need to adjust your meals accordingly to experience hunger.
To my later question about “endangered adrenalines†--- didn’t mean to confuse the issue, sorry. Many times I don’t sleep in and get up at 6:30. If I then eat at 11:00, would that somewhere hurt my body if I, say, do that every day...
Byron Richards, CCN, (“Mastering Leptin†and “The Leptin Dietâ€), and also some others coming from the intermittent fasting corner are warning people about going too long stretches of time without eating, if done daily, that is. They also say that women in particular can bring their hormones into disarray when not eating (fasting) too long; and that people need to look at the sum of all their stressors in their lives before deciding about fasting. Basically, they just warn about overdoing it and so getting out of balance, physically. Just sayin’. The clincher really is, what feels right for you and what makes you feel good physically, as agreed with all posters here.
For those interested in meal frequency and IF, here’s a most interesting (IMHO) discussion with Elizabeth Walling:
http://180degreehealth.com/meal-frequen ... g-q-and-a/

wosnes and noni,
you have, for the most part, the same arising and eating schedules; what discipline, bowing my head :)

r.jean, brightangel, marianna, eschano, ironchef, thanks again for sharing!

At this point, I've decided to eat 11:00-15:00-19:00 when sleeping in, keeping the afternoon meal light to be hungry for dinner.
When getting up early my plan is 10:00-14:00-19:00, at this point.
________
h

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:39 pm

heatherhikes wrote: To my later question about “endangered adrenalines†--- didn’t mean to confuse the issue, sorry. Many times I don’t sleep in and get up at 6:30. If I then eat at 11:00, would that somewhere hurt my body if I, say, do that every day...
Byron Richards, CCN, (“Mastering Leptin†and “The Leptin Dietâ€), and also some others coming from the intermittent fasting corner are warning people about going too long stretches of time without eating, if done daily, that is. They also say that women in particular can bring their hormones into disarray when not eating (fasting) too long; and that people need to look at the sum of all their stressors in their lives before deciding about fasting. Basically, they just warn about overdoing it and so getting out of balance, physically. Just sayin’. The clincher really is, what feels right for you and what makes you feel good physically, as agreed with all posters here.
For those interested in meal frequency and IF, here’s a most interesting (IMHO) discussion with Elizabeth Walling:
http://180degreehealth.com/meal-frequen ... g-q-and-a/
________
h
There is absolutely no discipline involved in how I eat. It is what works and feels right to me.

Though I'm not doing it right now, I have done intermittent fasting. When I learned about it, I realized I had occasional days when I did it naturally. It didn't seem like much of a stretch to do it purposely.

I think that women getting their hormones into disarray by fasting or going too long between meals is probably a lot of bunk. We're probably more likely to get our hormones into disarray by eating too much too often or by eating foods full of chemicals. There are religions whose members fast regularly (though pregnant and nursing mothers may not fast) or who routinely eat less often without issue.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

Strawberry Roan
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Post by Strawberry Roan » Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:44 pm

I agree with everything you have posted, wosnes. I often "fast" because I am just not hungry for food during that time span. Crazy I know but I usually eat when I am hungry, don't eat if I am not. I have the luxury of doing that both at work and at home, I schedule my own meals and eat them when I want to.

Often don't eat breakfast - would NEVER eat early like 6 a.m. :shock:
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Dandelion
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Post by Dandelion » Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:49 pm

As far as IF goes, I have read that people's success or lack thereof, may have to do with how their fat reserves are stored, and whether the body can access them easily for energy while fasting. As in everything else, YMMV

If something is wrong for me, it's wrong for me, no matter what results anyone else has. I tried IF, and it was a disaster for me. I think my body likes an even keel - nothing dramatic either way, so that's what I do.

And as someone else said - I don't have any discipline in my eating either :)
'I do think the way to a full and healthy life is to adopt the sensible system of small helpings, no seconds, no snacking, and a little bit of everything. Above all, have a good time.' Julia Child

germanherman
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Post by germanherman » Wed Jul 23, 2014 6:51 pm

Regarding the building of habits it seems to be easier if you can keep an clear schedule.

So for a long time i kept roughly the same meal-times (between 06:00-07:00 - around 12:00-13:00 an between 18:00-19:00). After the habit was build the timeframe became unimportant. I eat a meal when i'm hungry. I learned what hungry means and that way i keep my three meals.

But i don't skip meals anymore.

When i started the no s diet road i could skip some meals. Well i had some "body reserves". That time is gone. I need a lot more calories than before the diet simply to keep my body and more so to keep it at high function. Even while i'm lighter now, i replaced a lot of weight with muscles-mass and muscles devour energy.


When i wake up, my last meal was 10-12 hours ago. After i trained i'm simply hungry. So i eat. When i have worked 5-6 hours i'm hungry too, so i eat again. Sometimes if necessary i can skip the meal, but i don't like to do that. And in the evening, when most of the labor of the day is done, i'm hungry again and i need to eat, so my body can rebuild while i'm sleeping.

So the advice would be: Start with a strict mealtimes plan, till you have figured your hunger out. after that simply eat one of your three meals when hungry.
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eschano
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Post by eschano » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:24 am

Sound advice as always germanherman!

I think IF is for people with healthy eating habits (such as 3 meals a day) to start with as germanherman explains. It is not for people like me who would love to stuff their face with chocolate 24/7.
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

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