One big meal a day?

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The other day,following a serious cheat day, I experimented with fasting from waking up at 9:00 until 5:00, at which point I ate nearly all my calories for the day in one sitting. I felt great!

When I eat all day, I have to be very careful with spacing my meals or I get blood sugar fluctuations, plus I am hungry all day. Also, I am currently doing 1,700 calories/day, and one satisfying meal for me is at least 1,000 calories. Thinking doing some daytime fasting a few days a week and maybe the occasional full-day fast might be a good option. Anybody tried this?
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Replies

  • LisaWeir74
    LisaWeir74 Posts: 88 Member
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    I have been doing Intermittent Fasting and like it!! I eat all my calories from noon to 8 pm. I don't know if I have lost weight but I feel so much better.
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
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    The warrior diet is like this. I do 2 or 3 24 hour hour fast a week.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
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    Check out leangains.com
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    Yes. Check out www.leangains.com for example protocols. I do think Martin's site is probably the best resource for this practice.
  • LeenaRuns
    LeenaRuns Posts: 1,309 Member
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    There's some information about eating (kinda) like this in The Yoga Body Diet. Might be worth looking into.
  • allaboutaleah
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    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
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    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
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    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Um no...
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
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    We wouldn't be on this site if we didn't have lots of extra gas in our tanks!
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
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    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    Exactly
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    Exactly
  • iuew
    iuew Posts: 624 Member
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    i did it in college after a diet. figured if i could wait until dinner and just eat that one meal, i could eat whatever i wanted and still maintain. eventually snack got added in, and it was downhill from there.

    my opinion : not sustainable. it was fun eating big macs and chocolate pie every day, but the negatives outweighed the positives significantly. it didn't work.
  • killagb
    killagb Posts: 3,280 Member
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    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it
    Shenanigans and broscience here.
  • allaboutaleah
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    um no, the difference with ur body and a car, is that ur body continues to burn fuel at night, it never shuts off like a car. just bcuz there r websites that people give you that promote something doesn't make it ok 2 do it. Speaking from a medical point of view it is not ok. b4 u run to the websites that r being suggested, maybe talk to a nutrtionist (which I have), and get a little more info on how it may effect your body
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it
    Shenanigans and broscience here.

    lol broscience
  • killagb
    killagb Posts: 3,280 Member
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    um no, the difference with ur body and a car, is that ur body continues to burn fuel at night, it never shuts off like a car. just bcuz there r websites that people give you that promote something doesn't make it ok 2 do it. Speaking from a medical point of view it is not ok. b4 u run to the websites that r being suggested, maybe talk to a nutrtionist (which I have), and get a little more info on how it may effect your body
    If you think that it's necessary to eat smaller meals through the day to keep metabolism going, you are either horribly misunderstanding your nutritionist...or they clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

    What slows your metabolism is not eating ENOUGH in a day....ie your total calorie intake...and this takes time to be lowered...many days of eating extremely low levels of calories. Meal frequency has nothing to do with this.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    um no, the difference with ur body and a car, is that ur body continues to burn fuel at night, it never shuts off like a car. just bcuz there r websites that people give you that promote something doesn't make it ok 2 do it. Speaking from a medical point of view it is not ok. b4 u run to the websites that r being suggested, maybe talk to a nutrtionist (which I have), and get a little more info on how it may effect your body

    Lol from a medical stand point? Yea do some more research then. I am a nutrition student. Surrounded by them, and am constantly learning how the body works.

    If I eat 2000 calories in a 4 hour window in the evening my body will continue to use those 2000 calories throughout the next 20 hours. Just because you go to bed doesn't mean that all those calories are used up or completely gone.

    Those are not just websites, peer reviewed clinical studies. Might want to read some
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
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    Oh and guess what! I regularly eat all of my calories in a 5-6 hour window. 2 huge meals. MY metabolism works just fine
    Broscience right back at you ;D
  • PepeGreggerton
    PepeGreggerton Posts: 986 Member
    Options
    This is not a good idea, it wll drastically slow your metabolism, which will initially cause you to gain weight, and will causeyu to lose weight at a drastically slower rate. Plus once you start eating normally again, youill gaineight back, bcuz ur of ur slow metabolism, and your body storing fat. also your body needs fuel to run the day. think of your body like a car, you couldn't rip and run all day on an empty tank, with the intention to fill up at the end of the day. you wouldn't make it

    Completely wrong.

    How would it slow your metabolism? I'm sure our ancient ancestors ate every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going too.
    If I fill my gas tank up completely full at night, the gas is still there to use in the morning and all day long

    um no, the difference with ur body and a car, is that ur body continues to burn fuel at night, it never shuts off like a car. just bcuz there r websites that people give you that promote something doesn't make it ok 2 do it. Speaking from a medical point of view it is not ok. b4 u run to the websites that r being suggested, maybe talk to a nutrtionist (which I have), and get a little more info on how it may effect your body

    Yes because being a nutritionist qualifies you with a complete understanding of the complexity of the human metabolism. Nutritionist and doctors get it wrong all the time. However I can simplify. The human body is designed to store fat as fuel for times of famine. In western culture do to our prosperous nature and therefore the availability of food we are abundantly fat. Other cultures and religions have periods of fasting as part of their daily lives.
  • CaptainGordo
    CaptainGordo Posts: 4,437 Member
    Options
    um no, the difference with ur body and a car, is that ur body continues to burn fuel at night, it never shuts off like a car. just bcuz there r websites that people give you that promote something doesn't make it ok 2 do it. Speaking from a medical point of view it is not ok. b4 u run to the websites that r being suggested, maybe talk to a nutrtionist (which I have), and get a little more info on how it may effect your body
    ok b4 u shoot down da evidence, lettuce due sum research, k? omg lol ftw

    The Claim

    The notion behind eating smaller, more frequent meals is simple: spreading out one’s daily calories over six meals stimulates the metabolism, keeping it going at a faster pace and thereby burning more calories.

    The Studies

    Some studies have found modest health benefits to eating smaller meals, but often the research involved extremes, like comparing the effects of two or three large daily meals with those of a dozen or more snacks. Six meals, according to some weight-loss books and fad diets, is a more realistic approach.

    But don’t count on it. As long as total caloric and nutrient intake stays the same, then metabolism, at the end of the day, should stay the same as well. One study that carefully demonstrated this, published in 2009 in The British Journal of Nutrition (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985), involved groups of overweight men and women who were randomly assigned to very strict low-calorie diets and followed for eight weeks. Each subject consumed the same number of calories per day, but one group took in three meals a day and the other six.

    Both groups lost significant and equivalent amounts of weight. There was no difference between them in fat loss, appetite control or measurements of hormones that signal hunger and satiety. Other studies have had similar results.

    For a more reliable metabolic boost, studies show, try exercise.

    The Bottom Line

    There is no solid evidence that six small meals a day instead of three will speed metabolism.

    Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/health/23really.html