Mild Starvation - Solution?

it's good to have 6 small meals a day (I have 3 meals & 2-3 snacks). Grazing like this encourages your metabolism to stay revved up. You do need to be eating all of your recommended calories. You won't be getting fat if you're eating healthy (lots of fruits & veggies, and other healthy choices)

It'd probably help to see your food diary. I have trouble reaching calorie goals too - so I am starting to add whey protein mix to water or milk to boost calories, as well as eating nutrition bars (like Cliff, Luna, etc) which are high calorie with nutrients for less room. Eating a lot of veggies is great - but doesn't help you reach calorie goals when you are consistently under them.

So yesterday when I check in, MFP tells me that if I keep on eating the way i did i would reach 165 in 5 weeks (im at 190). Thats crazy, so today im trying to increase my calorie intake but it seems like i have to be eating every other hour. I feel stuffed!

is this what im supposed to be doing?? i dont want my body to go into fat preservation mode ither... any takes?

How many calories made you feel this stuffed?

It could be that you're food selection is very low in terms of energy density. For instance, and this is an extreme example, to reach your goal calories eating only fibrous veggies (which have very low energy densities) you're stomach would explode before you reached your goal, lol.

I have also read the 6 meal thing was intended for body builders who have to eat a ton of calories to pack on that muscle weight. So the meals were split into six so they could get their calories in.

That's one population that needs that many meals to fit their calories in.

Where does this myth come from?

To answer that question, we need to consider what metabolism is comprised of. The core components of what makes up your metabolism and thus your caloric needs are Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA), and Thermic Effect of Food. You could throw Spontaneous Physical Activity (SPA) in there too, but that's a relatively new concept.

Total Metabolism = RMR + TEA + TEF

For simplicity’s sake, RMR is the calories expended in a state of complete rest. Even when you’re sleeping your body requires energy for things like respiration, organ function, etc. In fact, RMR is the largest component of metabolism. TEA is simply the energy expended via activity. This can include formal exercise as well as gardening, walking the dog, or whatever you enjoy doing when you’re not resting. This is the second largest component of the metabolism equation.

TEF is what we’re really interested in with regards to this concept of meal frequency. TEF is simply the energy required to breakdown, process, and digest the foods we eat. TEF increases after each meal, obviously, as your body works to handle the foods you recently consumed.

Thus, the myth was born. People took this increase in TEF post-eating to mean, “Eat more frequently to boost your metabolism.”

The problem with this logic is this: if we eat fewer, larger meals… the thermic effect per meal is going to be larger as our bodies “work harder” to breakdown and utilize the larger quantity of food per meal. Compare this with more frequent, smaller meals. Sure, you’re getting more spikes in TEF per day, but compared to the former approach, each spike is smaller since there’s less food for the body to handle each meal.

Thus, we’re left with zero net difference in terms of metabolism.

Same calories spread over more, smaller meals = more frequent, yet smaller TEF per day

Same calories spread over less, larger meals = less frequent, yet larger TEF per day

The primary reason I speak up when I see this myth being propagated is it tends to make people anxious. The more rigidity you add to a nutrition plan, the less likely people are going to stick to it over the long-term. For those who have busy schedules, aren’t satiated by eating more frequently, or simply don’t feel like eating 6 times per day… DON’T!

The moral of the story is what and how much you eat is certainly very important in terms of your fitness/health goals, but how frequently you eat each day isn’t nearly as important. What takes far more precedence are things like calories in vs. calories out and nutrient (macro and micro) quality of your diet.

And for some, the higher frequency plans are certainly fitting. But that's not everyone.

Sorry for the off topic-ness of this.

What about eating after dinner? I end up working out later (7pm) then I am under by 100-200 calories. Is a 100-150 calorie snack around 9 pm an issue in this situation?

As long as it doesn't put you over your caloric allotment for the day, have at it.

I'll note though, getting some protein along with carbs after your workout is a good idea.

My nutritionist told me to eat 5-6 meals a day. This is not directly related to metabolism, rather, it is to control insulin/sugar levels. A side benefit is that this affects ghrelin levels which is the "hunger" hormone.


http://forecast.diabetes.org/magazine/features/hungry

Yea, you'll get very mixed advice from nutritionists and even dietitians (who I'd recommend seeing over a nutritionist). I work closely with a few dietitians for my select few of my clients who are beyond my scope of practice.

The facts are, the hormones associated with hunger and metabolism (Leptin, ghrelin, insulin, peptide YY, cholecystokinin, etc) have varying impacts on people. For instance, not everyone feels satiated on more meals over less. For some it actually stimulates hunger, hence the major push you see recently for diets involving intermittent fasting (IF).

Hunger is a very individual phenomenon.