Are 3 meals a day important? Ad does sleep really effect anything?

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lexie8603
lexie8603 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
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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  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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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.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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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.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    earlnabby wrote: »
    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!
    usmcmp wrote: »
    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
  • svgabbard725
    svgabbard725 Posts: 1 Member
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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.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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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.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,973 Member
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    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.
  • pie_eyes
    pie_eyes Posts: 12,965 Member
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    I eat lunch if I'm hungry for it and always supper. I don't overeat. And I sleep when I want.
  • kbmnurse
    kbmnurse Posts: 2,484 Member
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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.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    kbmnurse wrote: »
    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.
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
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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.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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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.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    Lack of sleep can also impact performance, reduction in performance can impact the calories out side of things...
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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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.
  • nicolegrant2015
    nicolegrant2015 Posts: 8 Member
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    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!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Why should no one eat after 8 pm?
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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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. :)
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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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.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    usmcmp wrote: »
    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.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I'm more worried about the sleep deprivation.

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