Everyday Systems

I am wondering on this NO S journey if most people find it better to eat scheduled meals or to eat when hungry only? One of my habits from my old diet days was to put off eating until late in the day. I am kind of doing this with No S too and I am wondering if I should change this. What have you found are the benfits of eating regularly?

Lovedby2

I find that eating regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner seems the most socially appropriate schedule. I am finding that I am hungry at these times now that I have been doing this consistently for 4 weeks.

If you haven't eaten yet, and you go to lunch with friends but don't feel hunger, do you not order food? Just wondering. I remember doing that in my extreme diet days and now look back on it thinking how sad it was that I didn't bond with my friends over a delicious meal. Do you have a past of fasting? Do you find that waiting for meals later in the day makes you feel like you need to eat a lot more?

I think waiting for hunger isn't always the greatest route to go. When building a habit, you kinda of want to do things on a schedule, or at least loosely around a schedule.

Have you read the No S book? If you have the book, check out Chapter 6, Building the No S Habit. Especially these sections: Natural, Simple, Unobtrusive.

What it really comes down to is how the No S fits into your life. If waiting to eat later in the day is how you want to eat, then you should do that. If it is stressful or making you miserable, try adding meals.

I just eat at scheduled times. For one thing, often I only can eat at certain times (e.g. I have to have breakfast before I go to work), and for another thing, I don't trust my hunger/appetite! I like having a routine. I go to bed and get up at the same time too.

I agree with Kittson about regular meals being more socially appropriate. I've tried intuitive eating in the past and it doesn't work for me.

Yes, one of my absolute favorite things about this "diet" is that it is unobtrusive. I have been doing this for four weeks, and not even my husband knows. I prefer to keep it to myself because once I "tell the world" about my next big diet plan, it tends to blow up in my face. This way of eating is just so normal, it's nearly impossible to detect if someone is doing No S, or just in fact a "normal" eater. When I worried about restrictive dieting, I was always not eating this or that, or skipping a meal here or there. I feel so foolish now when I think back on it. I am sure everyone around me was just waiting for the ball to drop, and for me to move on to my next big weight loss scheme.

I've always tried to do scheduled meals, although my schedule has changed a few times in the past 2.5 years of No S.
Some reasons (other posters may be different):
1. After a while, my hunger learned to "show up" on schedule - the body gets used to being fueled at regular times. Random hunger between meals has reduced.
2. My brain/emotions feel "safe" knowing that another good square meal is only "x" hours away. The uncertainty about when more food is coming is one of the things that can make me overeat.
3. It's so much easier with friends, family and work. Sitting down for breakfast with my son and my husband is one of the best parts of my day. We talk, laugh, read books aloud to our son.

I want to enjoy my food, and hunger really is essential for that (for me, anyway), so I often skip breakfast because it sounds gross. No S is a nice safety net for eating intuitively. I am also a naturally late in the day eater, but now that just means that typically my lunch plate is less calorically-dense than my dinner plate.

I used to always have seconds, so at first the thought of having one plate of food was a little scary, but I was shocked at how quickly my appetite adjusted. Now, I don't even have seconds on S-days because I'm just too full. So, I would say if you are putting off eating so that you can have more food at one sitting to relax about that. I would suggest doing scheduled meals until the diet thinking subsides. I think you're in for some very pleasant surprises.

Scheduled meals seem to work best for me.

Thank you so much for the replys! It helps me so much to hear back from all of you. It has helped me detect some "issues" I have with my sporatic eating habits. I had been feeling that I should probably eat scheduled meals but the old diet head really can be deceptive.That tendency to put off eating is a habit. You does make you feel off so I am giving it a go. Thanks.

I'm a little late to the party, but just want to say that no slim culture in the world lives by eating only when hungry. They may not all eat three scheduled meals but they all have some recognized meal times for people to eat (together) on a daily basis. However, they also don't eat all large meals and seem to eat in a way that probably does leave them hungry for the next meal. Trial and error on that front seems to be the key.

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