Your tips and tricks! I need help.

Well first of all eating 5 times a day is not a must. If a program is saying it is a must then I would suggest you to go and find a program that is less outdated and is up to date with latest nutrition and exercise science. What matters is macros and calories. You can take them in 5 meals or in one meal. Of course 5 meals is easier for some cos 1 meal means you should ate the whole day's load in that one meal, what may be hard for some people.

Personally what I do is ate one big meal of around 1500 cals at 6 PM and then at 7 PM another 1500 cals in shake. And that's it for a day. I fast rest 22h. Did this for almost a year and gained a lot of muscle and didn't went in a starvation mode or any other BS myth like that. It's calories what matters not meal timings so just do what is more convenient for you. Your program will give you exactly the same results as it would, assuming your cals and macros are met.

I grocery shop on the weekend and prepare my food for the week on that day or the next day. For example, I was all my grapes, cut up my peppers, cook my meat and freeze it and try to plan what I'll make for the week so I can be organized. I have a pretty busy schedule, so I end up making dinners for several nights and freezing them. Even though time isn't an issue for you, I would still recommend planning what you're going to make.

My trainer gave me guidelines for times to eat as follows: 7 am breakfast, 10:00 snack, 12:30 lunch, 4:00 snack, 7:00 dinner. I follow these times, but also listen to my body when it tells me I am hungry.

Personally, I have found 3 breakfasts I like having and I alternate between them depending on what I feel like that morning. I also do the same with dinners and snacks. My advice would be to figure out what your favourite meals and lunches are and then alternate between them. I would recommend not stressing over it too much or you'll always be thinking about food! I find that eating regularly keeps me from being ravenously hungry at meal time and overeating. I listen to my body though.

Here is an example of what I ate today (I'm not a medical professional and am not saying you should do this, but this is what works for me):

7:30 breakfast
1/2 cup of plain fat free greek yogurt
1/3 cup of alpen plain meusli
1 cup of mixed fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
coffee with skim milk
*I also LOVE oatmeal for breakfast

10:30 snack
1 multi-grain rice cake with 1 tablespoon of unsalted natural peanut butter and banana slices
decaf mint tea

12:45 lunch
chicken salad with veggies, avocado, and quinoa

4:30 snack
baby carrots and cucumber slices with light humus

7:30 dinner
chicken spaghetti squash "pasta" (I use the scraped out squash instead of noodles) with veggies and a home-made sauce
chamomile tea

I hope this helps! I think it is about listening to your body and figuring out which healthy foods you like.

Good luck!!

Yeah, I know, I'm cute right ?! Must be the accent! But I just scramble my BFF !! :brokenheart:

Thank you all for your answers. I'm certainly gonna try your suggestions.

The schedule might be a good idea for me since I'm so disorganized.

The programs don't say it's a MUST, (well I don't think so). I just looked the nutrition guides from Insanity and it suggest 5 meals a day, Turbo Fire and T25 suggest 3 meal 2 snacks and I just thought everything look delicious in theses damn booklets, so I might as well try it. I admit they are all from BeachBody (and they indeed mention starvation mode) so maybe I don't have all the information I could get and I will look for more since it's interesting to know.

I also think everybody should do what's best for them. The reason I want to try it is mostly because I have been fat all my life and mostly all my life I wasn't eating enough and eating one meal a day. I think building muscles and eating more and more meals might help my case and wake my metabolism up.

Thanks again all good luck in your journeys !

Barring some sort of health problem, it wasn't the one meal a day that contributed to weight gain or a higher than desirable weight but rather the sum total of calories consumed. Either you were eating something you didn't realize was high in calories when not eating enough, or your "occasional" "splurges" were just a tad too high. Going from one extreme to another that doesn't appear to work for you is likely not the solution. Eating multiple meals a day won't "stoke the metabolic flames" or otherwise "rev your metabolism". Eating overall less calories than you burn will help you lose weight. Do it however is most convenient for you.

Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

My tip that works for me:

1. Compete with some friends (safe). Nothing gets your program going like competition.
2. I eat 1600 calories a day with a focus on High Protein breakfast (eggs, turkey sausage), Fruits for lunch, regular/portioned dinner. I eat what I want as long as I get 1600 or less. Being a planner helps.
3. I work out 3 times per week. My goal is 400 calories of cardio and 20-30 minutes of weights.
4. No liquids after last meal.
5. Bonus tip, I gave up in between meal sweets for Lent. I have not craved a sweet in 2 weeks...

I am down 7 pounds in 2 weeks, and I have 20 to go!