Are 3 meals a day important? Ad does sleep really effect anything?
lexie8603
Posts: 1 Member
I never have time to eat so I usually just eat dinner rarely breakfast and almost never lunch. I also usually go to bed 11 pm- 1 am and wake up around 7 soon to be 6 am will this affect anything at all?
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Number of meals and time of meals is irrelevant to weight loss, unless you find that eating one meal a day results in eating too much. Sleep can impact weight loss thanks to our hormones. It's possible that you are getting adequate sleep for your body since not everyone needs the same amount of sleep.0
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Meal timing and the number of meals you eat does not matter for weight loss. It is just personal preference, scheduling, and comfort. Some find they do better on a couple of large meals, others do better with several small meals. I am in the latter group. I eat 5-6 small meals each day. It seems to keep me from getting hungry and I feel better if my stomach is not full.0
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Meal timing and the number of meals you eat does not matter for weight loss. It is just personal preference, scheduling, and comfort. Some find they do better on a couple of large meals, others do better with several small meals. I am in the latter group. I eat 5-6 small meals each day. It seems to keep me from getting hungry and I feel better if my stomach is not full.
I second that!
Number of meals and time of meals is irrelevant to weight loss, unless you find that eating one meal a day results in eating too much. Sleep can impact weight loss thanks to our hormones. It's possible that you are getting adequate sleep for your body since not everyone needs the same amount of sleep.
and that
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I have trouble figuring out when to eat because I work 12 hour night shifts. What's breakfast? When do I cut off the late night (day?) snacking? I've never been able to create a consistent schedule. I found weight loss much easier when I had a normal, daytime schedule.0
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svgabbard725 wrote: »I have trouble figuring out when to eat because I work 12 hour night shifts. What's breakfast? When do I cut off the late night (day?) snacking? I've never been able to create a consistent schedule. I found weight loss much easier when I had a normal, daytime schedule.
You just need to create a new normal. When are you hungry? When are you able to take meal and snack breaks? The actual timing of the meals does not matter. People with different schedules do especially well preparing most of their own food so they can work in in better.0 -
Not getting enough sleep can make it harder to lose weight for a variety of reasons, but how much sleep a person needs is very individual.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/how-sleep-loss-adds-to-weight-gain/
...The research showed that when the subjects were bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived, they strongly preferred the food choices that were highest in calories, like desserts, chocolate and potato chips. The sleepier they felt, the more they wanted the calorie-rich foods. In fact, the foods they requested when they were sleep deprived added up to about 600 calories more than the foods that they wanted when they were well rested.
At the same time, brain scans showed that on the morning after the subjects’ sleepless night, the heavily caloric foods produced intense activity in an almond-shaped structure called the amygdala, which helps regulate basic emotions as well as our desires for things like food and experiences. That was accompanied by sharply reduced responses in cortical areas of the frontal lobe that regulate decision-making, providing top down control of the amygdala and other primitive brain structures.0 -
I eat lunch if I'm hungry for it and always supper. I don't overeat. And I sleep when I want.0
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OMG I eat 5-6 small meals every day. End of story. e.g. 1 laughing cow cheese wedge with 3 Triscuit Sweet potato crackers is a small meal, 1/2 cup cheerios with skim milk, 1 cup beef barley soup, salad with a protein.0
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OMG I eat 5-6 small meals every day. End of story. e.g. 1 laughing cow cheese wedge with 3 Triscuit Sweet potato crackers is a small meal, 1/2 cup cheerios with skim milk, 1 cup beef barley soup, salad with a protein.
Sounds like many small meals works for you. Some people do better with one or two large meals. Thankfully for weight loss how many meals we eat is irrelevant, calories are what matter.0 -
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Lack of sleep can be very bad. Most adults need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a night. I find that I get very hungry and my eating goes down the drain when I do not get enough sleep. Lack of sleep messes with hunger your hormones.0
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catscats222 wrote: »smaller meals throughout the day often helps with weight loss
6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss
http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6_meals_a_day
From your link:
A study from the University of Ottawa found that on a low-calorie diet, there was no weight loss advantage to splitting calories among six meals rather than three.
A second study found that switching from three daily meals to six did not boost calorie-burning or fat loss. In fact, the researchers concluded, eating six meals a day actually made people want to eat more.
And a research review reached no conclusions about whether meal frequency helps or hurts with weight loss.
The "possible" advantages to frequent meals are blood sugar and some people make poor choices or over eat when they get too hungry.0 -
Lack of sleep can also impact performance, reduction in performance can impact the calories out side of things...0
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catscats222 wrote: »smaller meals throughout the day often helps with weight loss
6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss
http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6_meals_a_day
complete and total myth ....
you need a calorie deficit for weight loss.
You can eat six meals a day and be in a calorie surplus and you will gain weight.0 -
I like to eat 4 meals a day, with snacks in between, I'm never hungry and never over eat anymore which i used to do quite frequently. Never eat after 8:00, other than that just eat healthy and stay under your calorie limit and you'll lose weight!0
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Why should no one eat after 8 pm?0
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Sleep is important for me. I lose more when I sleep more. I crave sugar and carbs when I don't get enough sleep.
How many meals I eat doesn't seem to make much much difference. I usually have five or six little ones. I feel more energetic. When I ate two or three big meals I'd feel stuffed, but then get really hungry before the next one. No fun there. So, I stick with a bunch of little ones. Little meals also help me get a bigger variety of food into my diet, which is very helpful, nutrient-wise.
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LolBroScience wrote: »Lack of sleep can also impact performance, reduction in performance can impact the calories out side of things...
Now this I can attest to. I'm pretty on top of maintaining a tight, consistent sleep routine for medical/health reasons and find that if something happens where I don't or can't, my exercise the next day really suffers for it.0 -
catscats222 wrote: »smaller meals throughout the day often helps with weight loss
6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss
http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6_meals_a_day
From your link:
A study from the University of Ottawa found that on a low-calorie diet, there was no weight loss advantage to splitting calories among six meals rather than three.
A second study found that switching from three daily meals to six did not boost calorie-burning or fat loss. In fact, the researchers concluded, eating six meals a day actually made people want to eat more.
And a research review reached no conclusions about whether meal frequency helps or hurts with weight loss.
The "possible" advantages to frequent meals are blood sugar and some people make poor choices or over eat when they get too hungry.
Eating a bunch of small meals a day irritates me - it's like it's just enough food to be a tease every time and I'm constantly hungry. I do much better (in terms of adherence and satiety) on two or three larger meals per day.
Here are a couple of study abstracts which indicate that meal frequency has nothing to do with weight loss (I believe the first one is the study you referenced):
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985 - isocaloric diets, two groups of obese adults (8 males, 8 females); one group ate 3 meals + 3 snacks per day, the other ate 3 meals per day, study duration 8 weeks. No significant statistical difference in weight loss between the two groups.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494 - actually a meta analysis of several studies.0 -
I'm more worried about the sleep deprivation.0
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I'm really bothered by sleep deprivation in lots of ways (more hungry, less will power, more stressed/anxiety issues, lack of energy, mood issues, so on), but a schedule like OP mentions (about 6 hours per night) is wonderful for me. It's an issue when I'm routinely sleeping less than 5 (or waking up all the time).0
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I'm more worried about the sleep deprivation.
If she's sleeping from 11pm to 7am she's getting enough. If she's regularly sleeping from 1am to 6am she's likely not getting enough. Her profile also says she's 18 and younger people recover from lack of sleep faster.0 -
LolBroScience wrote: »Lack of sleep can also impact performance, reduction in performance can impact the calories out side of things...
agree ..when I try to lift and I am exhausted my lifts absolutely suck...0 -
Make sleep a priority. Having enough helps you in other parts of your life too.0
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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.0 -
catscats222 wrote: »smaller meals throughout the day often helps with weight loss
6 Meals a Day for Weight Loss
http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6_meals_a_day
complete and total myth ....
you need a calorie deficit for weight loss.
You can eat six meals a day and be in a calorie surplus and you will gain weight.
Correct. I eat 6 to 7 small meals a day for medical reasons and not to lose weight. There are times when my weight dropped too low and I simply added food to my small meals to gain a little back.0 -
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.0 -
lemurcat12 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.0 -
Sleep is important for me. I lose more when I sleep more. I crave sugar and carbs when I don't get enough sleep.
How many meals I eat doesn't seem to make much much difference. I usually have five or six little ones. I feel more energetic. When I ate two or three big meals I'd feel stuffed, but then get really hungry before the next one. No fun there. So, I stick with a bunch of little ones. Little meals also help me get a bigger variety of food into my diet, which is very helpful, nutrient-wise.
Ya, I "accidentally" ate an 800 calorie breakfast once and found it didn't keep me fuller for much longer than my normal 400 calories breakfasts.0 -
lemurcat12 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.
I just think it's funny that some people insist that one must not eat after some specific time that would mean I shouldn't eat my dinner (especially since it didn't hurt me to eat later).
This is relevant here (although I don't think you and I are disagreeing), since OP was told not to eat after a certain time even after she said that one of the issues was adjusting to an atypical schedule, which could well mean different eating and sleeping patterns (in terms of time of the day) than most people.0
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