Are 3 meals a day important? Ad does sleep really effect anything?

FitPhillygirl

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Why should no one eat after 8 pm?

People can if it fits into their calorie goal. I hear a lot of, you shouldn't eat after a certain time or you'll gain weight. I eat something everyday after my late evening workouts and I haven't gained any weight.

When I was losing 95 lbs I ate dinner between 9 and 10 most nights, because I don't usually get home until after 8. Perhaps regularly skipping dinner would have been helpful, but I suspect not.

I'm not an advocate Of skipping meals. Perhaps skipping a meal here and there does help with short term weight loss because you are cutting the amount of calories needed. However, this is not good for long term weight loss.

I'm not into skipping meals either (in terms of regularly missing a good chunk of your planned daily calories), but I don't think there's any magic or science to any particular number of meals being correct. I like 3 meals or 3 meals plus one planned snack, depending on my workout schedule, but that's a personal preference -- lots of people do well on 2 meals or 5-6 meals.

Oh, I agree. But if a person is eating 2 meals or 6 meals a day and taking in the amount of calories to lose, gain or maintain as I am doing. I don't believe that eating 2 meals a day is the same thing as skipping a meal. To me skipping a meal would be if a person normally ate 3 meals a day that are lets say 400 calories each of example, and then cuts one of those meals out, for a total of only 800 calories a day. This is meal skipping and as I said above, only good for "short term" weight loss, not long term....

lemurcat12

Eileen_S wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Why should no one eat after 8 pm?

People can if it fits into their calorie goal. I hear a lot of, you shouldn't eat after a certain time or you'll gain weight. I eat something everyday after my late evening workouts and I haven't gained any weight.

When I was losing 95 lbs I ate dinner between 9 and 10 most nights, because I don't usually get home until after 8. Perhaps regularly skipping dinner would have been helpful, but I suspect not.

I'm not an advocate Of skipping meals. Perhaps skipping a meal here and there does help with short term weight loss because you are cutting the amount of calories needed. However, this is not good for long term weight loss.

I'm not into skipping meals either (in terms of regularly missing a good chunk of your planned daily calories), but I don't think there's any magic or science to any particular number of meals being correct. I like 3 meals or 3 meals plus one planned snack, depending on my workout schedule, but that's a personal preference -- lots of people do well on 2 meals or 5-6 meals.

Oh, I agree. But if a person is eating 2 meals or 6 meals a day and taking in the amount of calories to lose, gain or maintain as I am doing. I don't believe that eating 2 meals a day is the same thing as skipping a meal. To me skipping a meal would be if a person normally ate 3 meals a day that are lets say 400 calories each of example, and then cuts one of those meals out, for a total of only 800 calories a day. This is meal skipping and as I said above, only good for "short term" weight loss, not long term....

Okay, that's what I suspected, and I agree.

vczK2t

IMHO, eating 3 "meals" a day is important. but if you have one main meal and 2 "snacks" that's better than one big meal for the day.

usmcmp

vczk2t15 wrote: »

IMHO, eating 3 "meals" a day is important. but if you have one main meal and 2 "snacks" that's better than one big meal for the day.

Eating just one meal a day with no snacks is fine for people who don't have a medical condition. As long as their calorie intake is appropriate a single meal isn't going to stop weight loss or cause issues. There are some people who simply can't stop eating once they start, so a single meal works better than 2, 3, 5, 6 or any other number.

robertw486

I just don't like to eat much earlier in the day, and often eat the majority of my calories after about 3 PM. I've done this for years, and as often as not I have a good 60-70% of my calories to eat in the later part of the day and evening. And if I work out, I have a LOT of eating to do.

It's not unusual for me to be eating at 11 PM or later. I even log my food more based on my single day awake period vs the actual day starting at midnight. It just makes more sense to me. I don't want to start a days logging with calories I consumed just before sleep.


As for sleep... I tend to suck at it and go in bad patterns. But it is important, and I catch up when I can.