Myth #1: You Should Eat Every 2-3 Hours To Lose Weight

NubyGloom

I am going to have to disagree with the broader topic. I think there are a number of things I disagree with in the message. But I am bumping this to read the article later. There are a couple of statements that I have a contradicting opinion on. I would offer dissent, but I do not want to interrupt the consensus of opinion, nor start an argument.

I can see this is going to become a controversial thread quite fast...

agree!

Troll

This is another one of those "works for some, not for others" deals. I eat ever 2 hours (even have an alarm on my phone that goes off so i remember). However, i eat 300 calories at a time, give or take a few-because i work out for over three hours a day (intense cardio and heavy weightlifting). Now, if you only walk, swim, or do 30 or so minutes of cardio and you eat like that with an average person's metabolism yo uwill likely gain. If you're eating 500+ calories at a time, you will gain. If you eat junk food (and yes, i count most "diet food" as junk because it's artificial sweetener and sodium and not much else) you will gain.

On the flip side, if I personally were to eat 600+calories three times a day, i would have little energy to fuel my workouts. I have to keep carbs in my system so my muscles have the fuel to deadlift my bodyweight over and over. If i were only working out for an hour or so, i do cut my calories or skip a snack or two, but since i burn as much or more than i take in, i have to keep that kind of food in my system to prevent burning muscle as fuel.

For other people, crashing isn't a problem so they can have the typical 3 square meals and do just fine by making them more sensible and paying attention to what they eat.

Either way, portion control shouldn't be a problem if you log your food. If you KNOW you can only have 1800 calories a day and you're of the 2-3 hour eating timeframe, don't be a dummy and eat 600 calories for every meal! Divide your totals (macros too!) by how many times you eat in a day and adjust meals accordingly. It's just whatever works for you!

wildon883r

Myth #1: You Should Eat Every 2-3 Hours To Lose Weight

«This is a biggie. According to JJ, If you are doing this, you are a sugar burner, not a fat burner !
This does not lead to stable blood sugar. When you eat a diet with "loads" of non-starchy vegetables (like high nutrient greens!), low amounts of slow carbs (like lentils), ideal amounts of healthy fats, a little "clean and lean" protein- you create an environment for stable blood sugar.

When you eat, your blood sugar and insulin rises- it has to. When insulin is up the "message" to your body is that you don't have to burn stored fat because food is coming in. So when you eat every couple of hours you are shutting off fat burning and teaching your body to fuel on sugar. You want to teach your body to access stored fat for food.

What are healthy fats? Olive oil, avocado, coconut milk are great examples.

You should go 4-6 hours (or be able to) between eating. If you need to eat before this, you are out of balance. This can be "healed" in a couple of weeks. Research shows that when you eat a 400-600 calories breakfast- you burn more calories and keep it off.»

It is very interesting and ... well... logical !!
It is quite a big one myth to bust!!! I forced myself into eating more often because I never was a nibbler before.

But eating more often does help to eat less at once and maybe over all at the end..
What do you think??

Here is the link :
http://www.peertrainer.com/myth_busters_jjvirgin.aspx

Sorry but this is simple misinformation like the majority of threads on these message boards.. I generally eat 5-6 times a day and i lost ALOT of fat. It makes no difference how many times you eat when it comes to weight/fat loss. Most folks eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks anyways. You just have to remain within a healthy weight loss calorie deficit. Exercise is an added bonus. People here try to make weight loss a science but its actually something a 5 year old could comprehend.

Atthea

A lot of information and very interesting to read you all.

I don't see any controversy at all !

I personally prefer reading you guys, and that is why I posted this article here, than just wonder about it on my own.

Thanks to you all !

:flowerforyou: :drinker:

NubyGloom

Ok I made a blog post on this a little bit just some more things to think about on being healthy. I hope it makes sence lol. I was born with pre-biabeties. when I was a baby I was on a strick eating plan, as i got older it went away ^^, how ever I found that when i dont eat good some symtoms of it may pop up!

So i hope some of this info helps out a bit!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/NubyGloom/view/a-thinking-post-for-us-to-chew-on-114896
[you may have to copy and paste it for it to work]

UsedToBeHusky

Your body is not designed like a cow, that grazes all day long. You need a "recovery time" between meals to balance out your blood sugar. 2-hours is not adequate recovery time. Think of it this way...you eat, your blood sugar rises and your body secrets insulin to do "its thing". Before the insulin has a chance to bring your blood sugar down, you are already stuffing more food into your yap, signaling for more insulin to be released. If you aren't diabetic now, you are on the road to becoming one as you are working your pancreas overtime.

Just because this didn't sound right, I had to debunk this. Check this link.
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-myths/

To summarize, you only get diabetes if you are genetically predisposed and obesity is a contributing factor. You don't get diabetes from working your pancreas. That is what it is there for!!!

LJC44

Myth #1: You Should Eat Every 2-3 Hours To Lose Weight

«This is a biggie. According to JJ, If you are doing this, you are a sugar burner, not a fat burner !
This does not lead to stable blood sugar. When you eat a diet with "loads" of non-starchy vegetables (like high nutrient greens!), low amounts of slow carbs (like lentils), ideal amounts of healthy fats, a little "clean and lean" protein- you create an environment for stable blood sugar.

When you eat, your blood sugar and insulin rises- it has to. When insulin is up the "message" to your body is that you don't have to burn stored fat because food is coming in. So when you eat every couple of hours you are shutting off fat burning and teaching your body to fuel on sugar. You want to teach your body to access stored fat for food.

What are healthy fats? Olive oil, avocado, coconut milk are great examples.

You should go 4-6 hours (or be able to) between eating. If you need to eat before this, you are out of balance. This can be "healed" in a couple of weeks. Research shows that when you eat a 400-600 calories breakfast- you burn more calories and keep it off.»

It is very interesting and ... well... logical !!
It is quite a big one myth to bust!!! I forced myself into eating more often because I never was a nibbler before.

But eating more often does help to eat less at once and maybe over all at the end..
What do you think??

Here is the link :
http://www.peertrainer.com/myth_busters_jjvirgin.aspx

Sorry but this is simple misinformation like the majority of threads on these message boards.. I generally eat 5-6 times a day and i lost ALOT of fat. It makes no difference how many times you eat when it comes to weight/fat loss. Most folks eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks anyways. You just have to remain within a healthy weight loss calorie deficit. Exercise is an added bonus. People here try to make weight loss a science but its actually something a 5 year old could comprehend.

Acg67

I can see that eating regularly keeps our metabolism going, but surely the best lesson is simply to eat less than your total daily energy expenditure? Unless you are risking starvation mode by not eating enough, and hence causing your body to store the fat that it will in starvation mode anyway, then whether you burn sugar or fat is immaterial, you will burn it all eventually.

Personally I stick to the usual three meals a day with the odd snack in between as most of humanity has done for millennia. Sure, I am obese at present, that's why I am here, but I know that is because I always used t eat more than I needed sitting at a desk all day. Now I am consiously eating less than my TDEE, I am loosing weight and have been for six weeks.

Eating sugar rich foods does lead me to being hungry sooner, but it isn't stopping me loosing weight.

Just my thoughts...

You kind of brought up a good point. If you are burning sugar while it is sugar, then it can't be converted to fat and stored. So if you are below calorie, and you are eating small meals, you will burn the sugar you consume and the body will turn to your current fat stores for the deficit. I think that might be a little closer to the point of the article. You don't eat every 2-3 hours to burn fat, but rather you eat that often to prevent the sugars you consume from converting to fat.

A little more complicated than that. If your glycogen stores are full and you have excess blood sugar then it will be stored as fat. Calorie deficit or not. Then you have to unlock that fat storage which for many, can be quite problematic.

Too much insulin promotes fat storage and hinders fat mobilization. And high blood sugar levels mean lots of insulin pumping through the body.

I keep my blood sugar levels low so I'm not producing a lot of insulin. I did this by cutting out the foods that caused the insulin response. I now no longer get "hungry" every 2 hours. I don't get that weak, shaky feeling anymore. I can go all day without eating and not get that feeling. I eat when I'm hungry. And the foods I eat fill me up well. And the 7lbs I've lost in 6 weeks (I was told it was almost impossible to lose at a healthy weight without lots and lots of weight lifting - not doing this yet I have muscle definition everywhere now) tells me I'm doing something right. No starvation mode going on here. I'm not losing muscle mass and my metabolism is going strong (BodyMedia Fit Armband). I'm waiting for it to slow down but it won't.

I'm curious as to how you are preserving muscle mass while not eating protein?

LJC44

Myth #1: You Should Eat Every 2-3 Hours To Lose Weight

«This is a biggie. According to JJ, If you are doing this, you are a sugar burner, not a fat burner !
This does not lead to stable blood sugar. When you eat a diet with "loads" of non-starchy vegetables (like high nutrient greens!), low amounts of slow carbs (like lentils), ideal amounts of healthy fats, a little "clean and lean" protein- you create an environment for stable blood sugar.

When you eat, your blood sugar and insulin rises- it has to. When insulin is up the "message" to your body is that you don't have to burn stored fat because food is coming in. So when you eat every couple of hours you are shutting off fat burning and teaching your body to fuel on sugar. You want to teach your body to access stored fat for food.

What are healthy fats? Olive oil, avocado, coconut milk are great examples.

You should go 4-6 hours (or be able to) between eating. If you need to eat before this, you are out of balance. This can be "healed" in a couple of weeks. Research shows that when you eat a 400-600 calories breakfast- you burn more calories and keep it off.»

It is very interesting and ... well... logical !!
It is quite a big one myth to bust!!! I forced myself into eating more often because I never was a nibbler before.

But eating more often does help to eat less at once and maybe over all at the end..
What do you think??

Here is the link :
http://www.peertrainer.com/myth_busters_jjvirgin.aspx

Sorry but this is simple misinformation like the majority of threads on these message boards.. I generally eat 5-6 times a day and i lost ALOT of fat. It makes no difference how many times you eat when it comes to weight/fat loss. Most folks eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks anyways. You just have to remain within a healthy weight loss calorie deficit. Exercise is an added bonus. People here try to make weight loss a science but its actually something a 5 year old could comprehend.

I agree. I started eating 4-6 times a day 4 years ago and lost a TON of fat and inches (exercise added bonus). It is what worked for me. You can't tell people it is a myth if it works for them. If it does not work then the "eating frequently method" is not for you. I learned even in highschool that eating 5-6 meals a day (not big meals) causes healthy weight loss and boosts metabolism. There will always be opposing research on this subject.

Butterfly3730

Everything ain't for everybody

This :laugh:

MissJenn33

I gotta say I don't agree. Maybe it really is different for everyone. I eat every 3 hrs and it works just fine for me. I AM losing fat without a doubt. I say do what works for you and be happy.

embersfallen

bump

SergeantSunshine_reused

It works the same for everyone - calorie deficit.
It is person preference. If you eat 17 times a day or 2 it doesn't matter. What ever you like

Those who are saying it is wrong because you eat 5-6 times a day and lose weight. Do you think that is the only reason? Not the calorie deficit? Cmon now :laugh:

sundancer1966

This is good advice esp for people who are controling type 2 diabetes. Eating every 2-3 hours taxes exhausted organs to produce insulin. I only eat 3 times a day and a small snack when I really need it, and I loose.

Every body is different, but for me, I agree that you do not have to constantly eat to loose, i am the opposite, if i do the same calories throughout the day, my blood sugar goes up, and the scale does not move.

RunHardBeStrong

Also, I don't really put much faith in the concept that eating more often raises your metabolism. Even if it does, it's probably not enough to see any major changes. I'd be surprised if it was more than 10 calories a day.

I agree with this and have read articles stating the same.

LJC44

Good pic!

RonSwanson66

It works the same for everyone - calorie deficit.
It is person preference. If you eat 17 times a day or 2 it doesn't matter. What ever you like

Those who are saying it is wrong because you eat 5-6 times a day and lose weight. Do you think that is the only reason? Not the calorie deficit? Cmon now :laugh:

Of course it isn't the only reason.

The Red Scarf helps too.

ArroganceInStep

Eat fewer calories than you burn
Get adequate macros for your goals
Try to eat from more nutritious sources

Everything else is psychology.

SaraTN

[/quote]
You kind of brought up a good point. If you are burning sugar while it is sugar, then it can't be converted to fat and stored. So if you are below calorie, and you are eating small meals, you will burn the sugar you consume and the body will turn to your current fat stores for the deficit. I think that might be a little closer to the point of the article. You don't eat every 2-3 hours to burn fat, but rather you eat that often to prevent the sugars you consume from converting to fat.
[/quote]

I quoted Swhitney above.

I couldn't have said it better myself. The article also fails to address exercise, strength training, and cardio and the impact that has with burning fat. I think different things work for different people based on their current lifestyle and caloric needs along with the amount of energy they expend (when and how).

The bottom line is consume less calories than you expend in a day eventually you will lose weight. There will always be variables regarding water retention etc. As an aside, I have started weighing myself daily and then averaging out the weight on my true weigh in day since my weight tends to fluctuate a pound or two on any given day. It is a pretty simple equation that we tend to overanalyze. I also think this "starvation mode" buzz word is just that... buzz. If you look at an anorexic or those in concentration camps -- that is starvation and the body in starvation mode.

taso42

You're debunking one myth (eat every 2-3 hours) and attempting to replace it with another (you should be able to wait at least 4-6 hours).