Anyone else eat one meal a day?

2

Replies

  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I find the intermittent fasting & fewer daily meals thing fascinating. I know I couldn't do it because if I go maybe 3h without eating something I start feeling sick and dizzy. Do none of you feel ill in the morning 2h after waking up? If I don't eat at least a small breakfast within 2h I get a massive headache. If you can do this, more power to you, I'm just super curious!

    I have never experienced anything you've described so it worked for me (until I started getting up at 4am, which throws me off). Without knowing that's what I was doing, I did 16:8 for most of my adult life. I guess you're either naturally cut out for it or you're not.

    I get nauseated if I eat too close to wake-up. I am capable of going hours without food with no consequences. The one meal a day, though--where do you put all that food? I could easily get 1500 calories in one sitting if I'm eating cheesy fried things, but my gallbladder . . .
  • pzyxian
    pzyxian Posts: 22 Member
    i eat 3 main meals plus 3-4 snacks a day. Doing so I don't over eat if I were to eat out or anything. It's like a rhythm to me.

    I used to love buffet and eat a lot in 1 setting. However, I was hungry after like 4-6 hours again...
  • kd6984
    kd6984 Posts: 16 Member
    I usually eat once a day and have a snack or two its just so much easier than 5 small meals and Im not a breakfast person
  • helenkaraven
    helenkaraven Posts: 27 Member
    i eat so very very light during the day, because i have a lovely fella who , bless him, likes to buy me nice food and wine :) which i can then have without my numbers going over. and i dont tend to get hungry during the day, its working for me!
  • icck
    icck Posts: 197 Member
    I practice intermittent fasting and often eat my food within a small window towards the end of the day. I'm another who is hungry from starting to eat, whatever the time, so find if I don't start eating until 2-4pm I am less likely to overeat - I used to just graze all day and it was so hard to keep within my calorie allowance, IF was a revelation.
    I have a 4 year old, and work out early morning, and haven't found changing to this way of eating a problem at all. If anything I have more energy. :smile:

    I have done having just the one meal a few times and it works okay, but I prefer to have two meals with a couple of hours between them.
  • icck
    icck Posts: 197 Member
    edited July 2015
    kae612 wrote: »
    I find the intermittent fasting & fewer daily meals thing fascinating. I know I couldn't do it because if I go maybe 3h without eating something I start feeling sick and dizzy. Do none of you feel ill in the morning 2h after waking up? If I don't eat at least a small breakfast within 2h I get a massive headache. If you can do this, more power to you, I'm just super curious!

    I used to be like this, absolutely. I would eat within half hour of waking without fail, else I would feel nauseous and dizzy. I decided to give IF a go on a day that I knew I would struggle to fit in breakfast, decided to just see how far I could push back my first meal. I didn't eat until lunch. It really surprised me. I just made sure I was very busy in the mornings for the first week and haven't looked back. :) It has totally changed my attitude towards eating. Today I am fasting until 4pm - I'll likely have a big meal when I get in from work, and maybe something lighter before I close my eating window, and otherwise just have water or black coffee today. A few months ago I would have been pretty much eating constantly from 8am.
    That said, IF is all about flexibility. You can have your eating window whenever you like in the day. I prefer to eat late, but plenty of people eat early.
  • Magenta529
    Magenta529 Posts: 100 Member
    Zedeff wrote: »
    Never really feel hungry. In fact, I only start feeling hungry if I eat. For example if it's a weekend and my wife wants to make a big breakfast or go out for lunch or something, I usually will eat because it's more about quality time together than a utilitarian meal. Once I've eaten for the day, I get hungrier throughout the rest of the day.

    Yup same here. I usually have a protein bar in the morning and then save my meal for dinner. If I'm eating throughout the day I tend to eat more and feel hungry all the time. I'm pretty active during the day too because of work, usually get 12-18 thousand steps in per day, I don't feel hungry till I stop going.
  • IanRS
    IanRS Posts: 68 Member
    I eat in a window from about 1pm to 7pm - I find it easy in the morning to go with just coffee (black) and water then I feel very satisfied with my calorie intake. It also helps me with decision making.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
    I used to just have one meal a day, but i just physically can't do it anymore-i need to eat during the day to keep my focus up during my job. However, i only eat light during the day as i find that i get sluggish on a full stomach. Plus, i eat with my boyfriend in the evenings who isn't calorie conscious at all, so i tend to save all my calories for them so i don't feel like i'm restricting him with my calorie needs.

    Except on a Friday- a load of us go to a local chicken place during our lunch break (grilled chicken, not KFC style). It's my one exception, and i am always too full to be able to do any decent amount of work after that. But it is a Friday afternoon :p
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    I'm maintaining now, but even when I was losing weight never ate just one meal a day. I now eat something small every 2 to 3 hours during the day. Once a day wouldn't be enough food for me no matter how much I ate at that time.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
    Really? wow never heard of this one,....
    Me neither!
    The only time i've eaten just once in a day is when i've been very hungover! Lol
    I'm an eat 5 TIMES A DAY person. :)
  • robspot
    robspot Posts: 130 Member
    I'm curious. How many calories are you on (one meal a day people) and what do you eat for that meal?

    I could probably manage it with a Dominos menu
  • bunnywestley81
    bunnywestley81 Posts: 178 Member
    I'm the opposite. A lot of my days are a small breakfast, bigger lunch, and no dinner.

    Anyone else give up on "meals" in mfp logging and just make one called "Food"?

    THAT IS AN AWESOME IDEA!!!!
  • 29_adjacent
    29_adjacent Posts: 104 Member
    Nope. Couldn't do it. I love my regular meals and snacks. Mmmm... snacks! :yum:
  • slideaway1
    slideaway1 Posts: 1,006 Member
    I pretty much just have one main meal of an evening, about 1500 cals and then make up the rest of my cals/macros with a protein shake, yogurt and treats which brings me to about 3000 cals before bed. I never get hungry in the day and feel more energetic without eating breakfast/lunch etc. I'm full before bed which helps me sleep well. It also makes tracking macros/cals in my head easier to consume everything in a small eating window.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    I like to eat maybe 400-500 calories throughout the day for breakfast/lunch and the remaining 1000+ for dinner. And dessert, cant forget that/ :)

    I like feeling full when i go to sleep, and i can hold out all day as long as i'm satisfied with a large no-restriction-whatsoever level dinner. It allows me to keep my deficit without feeling deprived and still able to eat my favorite foods.
  • accidentalpancake
    accidentalpancake Posts: 484 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I find the intermittent fasting & fewer daily meals thing fascinating. I know I couldn't do it because if I go maybe 3h without eating something I start feeling sick and dizzy. Do none of you feel ill in the morning 2h after waking up? If I don't eat at least a small breakfast within 2h I get a massive headache. If you can do this, more power to you, I'm just super curious!

    It's something that takes some adjustment for most.

    For me, it made it easier to tell when I'm actually hungry. If I'm not getting signals from my stomach, it's pretty clear that whatever brought me to the kitchen was mental.
  • accidentalpancake
    accidentalpancake Posts: 484 Member
    robspot wrote: »
    I'm curious. How many calories are you on (one meal a day people) and what do you eat for that meal?

    I could probably manage it with a Dominos menu

    I eat whatever I would eat if it were spread through the day. I have more of a window than a single meal, but it's generally just larger servings of whatever I cook.

    I'm maintaining/recomping right now, so I have to fit around 3k calories into about 4 hours. It's really all about food density.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
    I'm the opposite. A lot of my days are a small breakfast, bigger lunch, and no dinner.

    Anyone else give up on "meals" in mfp logging and just make one called "Food"?

    THAT IS AN AWESOME IDEA!!!!

    I have mine changed to times: so I have a 7am-11am, then a 11am-4pm, 4pm-8pm and 8pm-7am; I'm an 'eat little and often' person, and this best reflects the times I tend to eat.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I find the intermittent fasting & fewer daily meals thing fascinating. I know I couldn't do it because if I go maybe 3h without eating something I start feeling sick and dizzy. Do none of you feel ill in the morning 2h after waking up? If I don't eat at least a small breakfast within 2h I get a massive headache. If you can do this, more power to you, I'm just super curious!

    Don't feel like you have to try IF or anything like it, but I wanted to share my recent experience.

    Due to my travel and event schedule, I felt like my continual mild hypoglycemia was making my performance and stamina suffer. I'd wake up foggy with no desire (or really, even a capacity) to work out in the morning. If I didn't eat every hour during the day, I'd get grumpy and/or dizzy. If I waited more than about 2 hours to eat, it was gonna be a bad time. I couldn't exercise for more than maybe 30 minutes without needing some calories/carbs. It was kind of crazy, and to do my best at events, I knew I needed to do something different than I had been. I transitioned into more or less a "feeding window" between 11 am-7 pm for a while, as well as keeping my carbs around 100g per day. I was in maintenance at this time, so not at a deficit. Personal experience has been this helped my body learn how to function during a "fast." Some websites I've read call it "fat-adapted" or something like that where your body can switch in and out of using fat as fuel when needed. I now can work out on an empty stomach, go 4+ hours without eating, etc., wake up with energy to work out. Note, I'm not in ketosis or anything like that. I don't know if I gradually retrained my pancreas to process the carbs/glucose I eat slower? or what. But it seems to be working. Now I can wait until after my morning workout to eat, and waiting to eat again until lunchtime isn't really difficult. I can now eat more based on the needs of my schedule, instead of having to be that person who is in a 2 hour meeting and saying "Hey sorry everyone if I munch on these almonds while we keep talking. If I don't eat every hour I'm a b1tch."

    I don't know if I could do this if I was back at my goal weight. It might be I can do this now because I do have some extra fat to lose.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    I'm maintaining, but I eat all of my calories in a window. Typically 2 balanced meals around 11a - 5p then I close the kitchen. Sometimes longer or shorter depending on how I'm feeling.

    I like big filling meals. Not to the point where I am stuffed and bloated, but I'm happy. Snacking and mini-meals set me up to overeat, plus it wasn't satisfying for me.

    From what I read those who need to eat every 2 - 3 hours are "sugar-burners". Those that can go a while without eating are "fat-adapted" or "fat burners".

    For fat-adapted people the body turns to using its fat stores for energy instead of depending on sugar for fuel. It can take a little time to make this transition.
  • noobletmcnugget
    noobletmcnugget Posts: 518 Member
    Zedeff wrote: »
    kae612 wrote: »
    I find the intermittent fasting & fewer daily meals thing fascinating. I know I couldn't do it because if I go maybe 3h without eating something I start feeling sick and dizzy. Do none of you feel ill in the morning 2h after waking up? If I don't eat at least a small breakfast within 2h I get a massive headache. If you can do this, more power to you, I'm just super curious!

    Never really feel hungry. In fact, I only start feeling hungry if I eat. For example if it's a weekend and my wife wants to make a big breakfast or go out for lunch or something, I usually will eat because it's more about quality time together than a utilitarian meal. Once I've eaten for the day, I get hungrier throughout the rest of the day.

    Yeah - this is exactly how I feel too! If I ate breakfast at say 8am, I would be ravenous by 11am. Same if I eat lunch - I feel starving a couple of hours later and my mind just gets preoccupied by food. If I don't eat until 6-7pm I don't feel hungry or think about food all day, and I get to eat a large meal which satisfies me a lot more than 3 small meals. It's strange.
  • NinaSharp
    NinaSharp Posts: 101 Member
    I'm the opposite. A lot of my days are a small breakfast, bigger lunch, and no dinner.

    Anyone else give up on "meals" in mfp logging and just make one called "Food"?

    This. Sometimes breakfast doesn't happen until 2 pm and then there's a calorie explosion.

  • mizcorbie
    mizcorbie Posts: 3 Member
    I'm inspired! Thought there was something wrong with ME because once I start eating, I'm hungry all day. But maybe that's the trick (for some of us). And I've been stressing out about what to eat for "breakfast" and "lunch" -- two meals I used to not have in my routine anyway.
  • JaimusWilliams
    JaimusWilliams Posts: 84 Member
    I find I'm happiest when I eat all of my calories at dinner. I find that if I eat earlier in the day I end up feeling much hungrier than I would be otherwise and just obsess about food too much. Plus I like being able to eat a larger volume in one go in the evening.

    Just wondering whether anyone else did this? :)

    Yes, I feel the same exact way. If I get really hungry during the day I'll have some fruit etc or something real small and lean in protein. Other than that I eat most of my calories in one sitting at night. Mostly veggies mixed with some fish or chicken etc. Works out pretty well.
  • PerpetualGlitch
    PerpetualGlitch Posts: 13 Member
    I lost 50+kgs doing this. One meal and nothing else - didn't even count calories. I ate anything I wanted, in moderation, and just kept going.

    Now I've moved myself onto calorie-counting (hence why I'm on mfp) and have started spreading out to three meals slowly while I progress onto maintenance. And that's only because of One Meal Per Day's major drawback (for me). It was not a social plan to follow.

    I have a big family, a lot of friends, and they all like to meet up, eat up, drink up and be merry which, obviously, made it very hard for me to follow -- if only for trying to put up with the constant, well-meaning but demoralising, "eat something!" comments.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    Not one meal, but I tend to eat the majority of my calories between 3pm and 8pm. I do eat throughout the day, but my breakfast and lunch is usually smaller and my afternoon snack, dinner, and night snack add up to more calories. It's just what works for me and when I feel most hungry... and I've tried eating a bigger breakfast and lunch, but then I'm still just as hungry mid afternoon and evening! If you have found what works for you, then that is fantastic!!
  • unrelentingminx
    unrelentingminx Posts: 231 Member
    I tried the 5:2 diet and on my fasting days I was having just breakfast and dinner, 12 hours apart. Although I felt hungry during the day, I found it would come and go in waves and I never felt dizzy or sick with it. But I do love my food so have gone back to 3 meals, 3 snacks per day.
  • fulltimelife
    fulltimelife Posts: 125 Member
    It varies for me, but I sure do like my evening meal, and look forward to it most, so I often eat lighter in the day or sometimes not at all so I can eat in the evening. If this is the case, then I tend to eat an early dinner, followed by a snack later. It isn't hard to eat my allotted1400 calories, especially if the meal is coming in around 900 or so, and the rest are in my 'snack'. My foods are healthy, with minimal processing. I simply enjoy my meal in the later afternoon/early evening hours.

    I can not do 5-6 mini meals. That doesn't suit me. Sometimes I eat once a day, but usually 2-3 times, but not in the conventional way. Often first meal is late morning/early afternoon. Then a second meal early evening. Then maybe a snack. It's a day by day thing, how I feel, what I need, and what I plan to work with. Today I am having "breakfast" as it will be a very physically busy day.
  • hellokathy
    hellokathy Posts: 540 Member
    Not one meal but evenings / nights are definitely more calorie-heavy than the rest of my days. During the day, I usually have the odd light snack but dinners are typically larger and I'm also more likely to allow myself treats then.

    I don't really do this to save carbs or anything but eating is a bit difficult with me because I get stomach cramps after every other meal. I have yet to get it properly checked to find the cause of it because right now, it doesn't matter what or when I eat, it just happens randomly. So I try to eat as little and as lightly as possible while I'm at work or out because it gets really uncomfortable and embarrassing.