3 square meals or snacks throughout?

Lunch, dinner, and dessert works best for me, with sometimes a small snack between lunch and dinner. Eating little meals throughout the day makes me feel more hungry. I also don't have that many opportunities to sit down to eat, or the time to prep that many meals!

I eat breakfast, lunch, a mid afternoon snack, dinner and popcorn later. This is how I eat to lose weight, AND this is how I will eat at maintenance.

Find something that you can stick with long term because you don't want to get to goal and say "now what?"

I eat breakfast, second breakfast, workout snack, lunch, big snack or sometimes two smaller ones, huge dinner, dessert. This works for me. I pretty much eat the same if I am bulking, cutting or maintaining just decrease the portions or maybe cut out one of the breakfasts.

Jruzer wrote: »

You're receiving bad advice from your naturopath.

Agreed...

And digestive systems don't need breaks...

Naturopath- read that and already knew the advice would be nonsense. Ditch the naturopath.

kommodevaran wrote: »

I'll start with the question you aren't asking: Does this make any sense?
I'd say it doesn't. Your digestive system doesn't need a break, it's constructed to digest food.
Insulin levels is a thing, but it doesn't affect us to such a degree that we should micromanage our intake (or try to live on liquids, which doesn't even makes any difference for insulin levels).

You can eat as many meals you like, and eat whenever you like. You just need to get in proper nutrition, preferably pretty evenly from day to day.

I have eaten 6-7 mini meals, ate 4 for a long time, and now I'm on 3 most days. All work fine. 4 provides most variety. 3 meals is the most practical.

Agreed.

It doesn't matter. Eat when you're hungry and eat your calories.

Also agreed with ditching the naturopath. What utter nonsense they're spewing.

Whatever works best for you.

I'm still curious why everyone is so concerned about "spiked" insulin levels, especially when they aren't diabetic.

Digestive systems do sometimes need breaks, but that's typically for medical conditions (like if you had diverticulosis, WLS, etc.)... My point being, if you don't have a confirmed GI condition, it is unlikely that you will need to "rest" the intestines.
Personally, I saw my best weight loss when employed an "every hour" snack regimen. Not huge snacks, not meals, but small things like a serving of almonds. At that time, I was trying to eat appropriately for my caloric output, and eating all of it within a few hours was completely unreasonable and unhealthy.
The normal human stomach holds approximately 40oz of contents. Eating to capacity can be hard on digestion, and some experts believe that this can encourage early stomach emptying, poor food break down, and actually cause more issues for the intestines.

Now, I think it's something you have to really consider for yourself and how you work. What are your goals? Are you able to meet them with a 3 meals a day pattern? That's what the real decision maker point is... If it's not feasible to meet your goals within that pattern, then it won't work.

Personally, I've had WLS at this point and thus, have to structure accordingly. Now that I can only do ~4oz of soft foods at a time (like yogurt and shakes) and less than that in solids, I have to map my eating accordingly. What this means is that many days, I'll eat something every other hour or so, because otherwise I cannot obtain my protein intake goals. Lo and behold, me with insulin resistance and such still manages to lose weight with this pattern... and I have GI rest needs too! If you want real GI rest, all you have to do is take in easily digested things, you don't have to refrain. Even in hospitals, GI rest typically means you're giving protein supplements and broth alongside water... It doesn't mean you're full on NPO.

Drueru wrote: »

I've always eaten 'mini' meals, having snacks throughout the day. There are set times where I forbid myself from eating just to give my digestive system a break.
My naturopath suggested that because eating anything solid at all (even veggies) spikes insulin levels, I may want to try having 3 square meals a day with my last meal being at 7pm. This to me is a foreign concept. The only thing I have done differently before is the Warrior Diet. For anyone unfamiliar with the warrior diet, you don't eat until late evening, and then you eat all of your food! Now, I did feel amazing on this diet but was also doing kickboxing, mma, jiu jitsu and karate 6 days of the week, so was very active.

Question: What do you guys do? Do you prefer snacks throughout the day or are any of you used to eating only breakfast, lunch and dinner?

First, I would stop seeing a naturopath and start seeing a Registered Dietician who actually has training in nutrition.

Second, Eat the way that satisfies you the best. Meal timing/number/quantity has no effect on weight loss. The only difference is comfort. For example, some like to eat before a workout, others are uncomfortable with food in their stomach while working out. Eating before bedtime helps some sleep better but others have trouble sleeping on a full stomach. It really is individual.

ETA: I eat 5-6 meals per day. Lunch and dinner are my largest meals and the others are closer to snacks. I sometimes skip breakfast and just have coffee.

I eat a brunch like meal between 10-11 AM, mid-day snack around 2:30 PM, dinner around 5:30 PM and dessert around 7:30 PM. That is typical, but some days it looks nothing like that depending on where life takes me.

I try to not give myself to many "rules" or restrictions. I basically eat when I am hungry and it naturally falls into the schedule above. Losing weight is hard enough without setting arbitrary or unnecessary rules on myself.

extra_medium wrote: »

Whatever works best for you.

I'm still curious why everyone is so concerned about "spiked" insulin levels, especially when they aren't diabetic.

I personally like how spiking insulin helps build muscle!

lemurcat12 wrote: »

extra_medium wrote: »

Whatever works best for you.

I'm still curious why everyone is so concerned about "spiked" insulin levels, especially when they aren't diabetic.

I personally like how spiking insulin helps build muscle!

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