I’ve learned something lately.
Multiple mini meals throughout the day – doesn’t work for me.
Multiple little snacks trhoughout the day – doesn’t work for me.
For me these just end up being a chance to overeat. I tried for the longest time to eat like this because so many other people do it and said it was the best way.
The best way to do something for one person might not be the best way to do it for another.
I was reading Lyn’s blog post about regaining the weight she had lost and my heart hurt for her. I did that once before and regaining the weight is awful. It hurts. It’s so much harder than you think. I know she can get back to a good place and I’m totally cheering for her. What really got me on this post was a lot of the comments that asked her to stop snacking, especially this one:
“…can you please stop snacking? I know in recent years it is always touted as the “answer” to never feel hungry, blood sugar, blah blah blah, but I’m a lot older, and trust me, back in the day three square meals a day was enough. I think snacking alone is the way to put on weight even if you are perfect at every meal. I’m not perfect, but I can say I do much better when I’m not chewing and sipping all day long. I’m not sure when it happened but nobody can go without a large drink and something to munch on. In the 50s, 60s, 70s you never saw this and almost everybody was slim… “
In my own situation I’m realizing this is true. I do much better when I stick to three meals a day rather than trying to break it down into mini meals or have lots of snacks.
Sure snacking is fun but it’s also a chance for me to constantly think about food which something I don’t need in my life at all. I find that half the time I’m not really physically hungry either I just feel I “should” eat at certain times to keep my blood sugar or energy levels good. When I’m snacking or eating small meals I’m thinking about food more, spending more time on it, and in the end consuming more of it.
With three meals a day I don’t do that. It’s easier to plan those and then just make them when needed. I spend less time and thought centered around food and I eat less. I am much more satisfied after a meal and that feeling lasts a long time. After counting calories doing it both ways I’ve learned that 3 meals a day works out much better for me calorie wise than the small meals/snacks route.
I’m giving up on the mini meals and meals with snacks ideas. They just don’t work for me like they do for other people. Snacking isn’t helpful. Lately I’ve been sticking with 3 meals a day (and maybe a night time protein shake sometimes) and it’s been working slowly.
That’s what works for me. What works for you? 3 big meals? Lots of little meals? Meals and snacks? How do you eat?
I was just thinking about this the other day. I tried eating smaller meals throughout the day, but, like you I would end up overeating and not feeling satisfied. I eat 3 decent sized meals and I have found that I have had much more success with that. People need to realize that some people can do the little meals throughout the day and others cant. Find out what works for YOU.
Good topic! I also like 3 meals, with perhaps 1 snack if the meals are placed really far apart. I am more satisfied, and it’s easier to balance meals. It also depends on logistics – it helps right now that I literally don’t have an opportunity to eat between 7am and noon/1pm. I have breakfast at 6:30 and yes, I do get pretty hungry by lunchtime, but then I sit down to a nice meal and feel good. If I was home during that time, I am sure I’d be tempted to grab a snack earlier and end up eating more overall.
For me, I need snacks – but these are based around my training; I need something before and after training, whether this be in the morning, in the afternoon, or both. Without them I feel tired, weak/faint, and lack in concentration. These ‘snacks’ tend to be a banana, a handful of almonds, or some whey protein shook up water, and can’t be compared to my three main meals. For me, I eat my main meals as a ‘want to’ (so they’re healthy, good meals that I enjoy eating), and my snacks as a ‘have to’ to make sure I don’t feel like I’m about to faint.
That being said, my goals aren’t related to weight loss at all, and I have no idea whether I’ve lost or put on any weight recently (and I don’t care :) ) While I’ve found this to be successful with maintaining my energy levels and increasing my training and at work productivity, I can’t make any comments about ‘success’ as far as weight loss goes.
If I trained as much as you I might want/need snacks. I am still in awe of your fitness badassity!
YES. Love this. I stopped eating because it was meal time. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m not, I don’t. My 92 year old grandfather has lived his whole life that way.
Oof – you took the words right out of my mouth Mary! I’ve had friends that have had great success with the “snacking” thing, and whatever works for you is great, but I have a sneaking suspicion that these people were either raised eating smaller meals in general/not as part of the clean plate club, or had ended up gaining weight but not due to heavily compulsive eating… just a theory that could be completely wrong but I’ve thought about this a lot in the past year or so.
I absolutely do better with 3 meals a day only, and the option for something like an apple and a string cheese mid afternoon if for some reason I am starving (even with this one snack concession I have to do a strong mental check of: am I really hungry? Am I bored? Upset? Can I really have my planned snack and stop at that?). This being said, I did the wrong thing for so many years and ate no dinner, so I’m still struggling with not considering dinner a “splurge” at the end of a long day (oh, brain…).
I guess I still have a lot to learn about eating intuitively and beating compulsive eating once and for all, so for me planning with my brain and not my emotions or hunger will probably be key for a while if not forever…
I was reading about this elsewhere today. I know many that like mini meals & others that don’t for the exact reason you wrote about. Like I always say, find what works for you! :-) I am a mini meal eater & find that best for me but I realize it is not for everyone.
I really try to listen to my body.. and my body wants food around 8am, 12noon, 4pm, & 6ish.
Here’s my two cents. I followed the old WW Momentum program before, and I lost 64 pounds. I did not exercise one single day. I ate two meals per day most days, and no snacking. I later regained all but 8 pounds of the weight, and tried the plan again, this time paired with working out HARD 5 to 6 days a week. You know what happened? I stopped losing weight completely, and I was starving all the time, which led to the occasional binge.
Four weeks ago, with some suggestions from a friend, I stopped doing WW in favor of three things. Eat 1500 to 1800 calories a day. Eat no more then 30% fat calories. Work out 5 to 6 days per week. Immediately I started losing weight and inches.
How do I eat? I eat when I’m hungry. I eat a small snack of some fruit or a little container of yogurt when I am feeling a bit peckish. I eat all of my calories. And I feel like I am eating. All. The. Time. But in four weeks, I’ve only really slipped up maybe two days. Its working for me. I never feel hungry, but I never eat too much. And if I want something sweet, I have it, but in moderation. And I am losing weight, gaining muscle, and shaping up.
What works for me won’t work for Sammie. Or what works for Sammie won’t work for Bob. Or whoever. There are a lot of programs out there, but I’m willing to bet most people have to tailor them a bit to make them work for them.
Meals and snacks work best for me. I pre measure my snacks and put the amount of calories are in the particular snack. Now this works for me cause I have three small children that eat small meals. The need to eat often cause 2 of them are underweight for their age. Not for lack of me trying to feed them but from them just eating really small amounts at a time. Pre children three meals a day was what worked and as they get older I will probably go back to that method.
INTUITIVE, Baby :)
depends on the day.
After being diagnosed with PCOS and consulting a nutritionist, I eat 5-6 small meals a day, approx. 3 hrs apart. If I do that the way I’m supposed to work (controlled portions, esp for carbs) then it definitely works for weight-loss. I like that no food is off-limits, as long as you exercise proper portion control. Of course I slip up (just check out my last post!) but even if it was an option for me, I don’t think I could limit myself to 3 (larger) meals a day. I like eating more regularly, and eating smaller amounts. But as you and the commenters say, it really is ‘eash to their own’ – you have to figure out what works for you
I seem to average about 4 meals a day. I try not to snack unless it is fruit or vegetables. Adding in the extra meal fills me up more. All snacking ever did for me was make me want to snack more!
I have never been able to do the “eat 5-6 mini meals throughout the day” approach. It just makes me resent that I never feel satisfied and makes me want to snarf anything I can get my hands on. So it’s 3 squares with a night time snack for us.
I began eating more snacks after my coach suggested it and I don’t regret it. I have lost 70 lbs since in less than a year. Yes it’s harder to plan what you eat. I agree. However, someone explains something to me at one point that made a whole lot of sense and has helped me stick to the snacks. She said when you eat bigger meals, you get extra calories from that one meal that are not needed and those calories go straight into fat. When you eat smaller meals throughout the day, you only take in what your body needs at a particular moment, no extras, and all of it goes to refuel your body rather than into the fat. I also agree that you need to find what works best for you. There is no secret recipe. Good luck!
I think you are totally right – the bottom line is we all have to find out what works for us, and if the small meals don’t, then don’t force it just because that’s what we’re told is the right thing to do. I do have 1-2 snacks per day, but I usually do a bigger breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then i’ll have an afternoon snack and a dessert post dinner, and then I’m done. I do think about food quite a bit still though, probably more than is healthy.
Hey Mary,
Yesterday’s post on The Great Fitness Experiment was exactly about this. And she came to the same conclusion.
http://www.thegreatfitnessexperiment.com/2012/03/busted-top-3-myths-about-your-metabolism.html
And I’m thinking that it sounds good too. I try to snack, even make “appointments” with myself to remind me, and always feel like I just ate. So now I’ve read it from two of my favorite bloggers. :)
Happy Wednesday!
Cheers, Katie :)
This is great post. What works for me: I NEED something as soon as I wake up, I’m completely starving, so I have a smoothie before 7am usually, then by 10 or 11 I need something small like fruit and tea. I have a large lunch usually vegetables and protein then eat again at about 4pm which is usually nuts or a carb and then whatever I feel like at dinner which is small compared to lunch and usually has some kind of protein as the main part of the meal.
So I sort of eat through out the day and it’s 5 times but I don’t see it as snacking or even min-meals. And even though that commenter was right, people didn’t eat all day back then – high tea, morning tea, afternoon tea, and even dessert after dinner have been rituals for a long time. It’s just not even close to being the same thing.
If I had to give up meals and only keep 3 times to eat I would keep breakfast, morning snack and 4pm.
I am a snacker. I take carrots and grapes and cashews to work with me and snack on them. Because they are controlled portions and I can’t overeat, it works. Snacking helps me stop feeling ravenous and in that way I can successfully avoid the donuts, cakes, and cookies that seem to magically appear in our break room.
Mini meals don’t work well for me, I like to be full. On weekdays, I eat breakfast lunch and dinner with maybe a barely snack (like 4 almonds) in the late afternoon before the gym. I used to snack more cuz I thought I was supposed to but I just adjusted my meals to later (10am, 130pm and whenever dinner’s done, 8-10pm) and that works better. On weekends my schedule is not very stable so oftentimes I only have a late breakfast and early dinner, sometimes with a snack between the two, or often a snack of hummus or eggs or potatopuffs when I come back from the club early in the morning before bed. Really, I just eat when I’m hungry, unless I know it’s been too long since I’ve eaten and then I eat because I should. If I’m hungry and don’t eat, I get cold, faint and CRANKY!!
I usually eat three meals and couple of small snacks depending on my activity level and how I feel that day. Most of the time my day ends with a little trail mix, some hot chocolate, or even a cookie. It depends on how I feel. Small snacks between my meals have helped me to not overeat at meal time. I work out six days a week, fairly hard about 3 of those days, and I am not trying to lose any more weight. I react to the 5-6 small meals thing the same way you do!
I have just been on my “eating plan” for about four weeks now. I’ve lost 23 lbs. and I believe it is the 5 small meals that is allowing me to stick to it. I also believe that eating more often helps my metabolism stay up. Let me illustrate, if I may;
Ever built a fire? Or seen one built? If you throw a giant log into the pit and light it with a match, it will just smolder and burn ever-so-slowly.
But, if you put in a bunch of twigs and tiny branches, it catches quickly and has enough power so that when you do put that big log in there, it will burn it efficiently.
I see my metabolism the same as that fire. If I keep throwing little branches in there, it keeps working at its optimal rate all throughout the day.
These other two “extra” meals aren’t anything big. So far, I’ve just been eating a packet of instant grits in between breakfast and lunch, and a large banana in between lunch and dinner. They’re easy to plan, and bring to work, so not much thought at all goes into them at all.