How many time a day do you eat?

[Triskeliongirl]

I eat 3 squares, with an occasional snack if I need it (like in the middle of a long bike ride!). I find that works best for me, especially to be sure I am eating for the right reasons, hunger and not emotion. Our bodies have the ability to process and store food for use later, so I would say if 2 squares are working for you, you are a healthy weight and have good energy, to not change it. I recently lost 30 lbs and find limiting my eating to real meals very helpful.

[Sheesh]

Lately, it seems that I'm eating all day.

breakfast (8am) - usually toast with peanut butter or yogurt with granola.
snack (10am) - banana or grapes
lunch (noon) - whatever looks good in the cafeteria
afternoon snack (2pm) - fig newtons or chocolate or pretzel sticks
late afternoon snack (5-6pm) - pretzels or cheese
dinner (7pm) - depends on the day...

While I'm not losing weight, I'm also not gaining any, so I guess this is working...

[spokewench]

It sounds like you are not trying to lose weight, but not eating for many hours in the middle of the day is probably not real healthy. You risk your blood sugars plumetting and just feeling not as strong as you might at some point in the afternoon. Do you hit about 4:00 pm and feel like your day should be over?

Everyone is different, but I would be a mess in the afternoon if I ate like that!

[emily_in_nc]

I once read a book that had a different take on weight and nutrition than so many out there. For the life of me I can't remember the title, but I do remember the key concept, that of "fast burners" and "slow burners". There was a quiz to take based on your eating habits to determine which camp you fell into. Over-simplifying, "fast burners" are folks who have quick metabolisms and thus feel ravenously hungry if they don't eat something every couple of hours. "Slow burners", otoh, tend to have slow metabolisms, rarely feel hungry between meals, and so forth. There was a lot more to it that I've forgotten now. They recommended that FBs eat more fat and protein so that their food would "stick to their ribs" and last longer; where "slow burners" were supposed to eat lighter meals, more carbs, and maybe more frequently than they would normally feel the urge, to boost their metabolism. A friend and I both took the quiz and were complete opposites. I came out a fast burner, and sure enough, a low-carb, high-fat/protein diet enabled me to lose weight, feel much less hungry and thus eat less often. My friend, a slow burner, felt like crap on a low-carb diet and did much better losing weight with high healthy carbs and low fat and eating more frequently than her body naturally "wants" to. All kind of interesting.

As a fast burner, I'd never, ever be capable of lasting from breakfast to dinner without snacks, even if I were still eating low-carb. My stomach starts growling an hour or two after eating, and as a result I am a three-meal-a-day plus 2-3 snacks gal. My slow burner friend has started eating three meals (she always used to skip breakfast and never feel hungry until lunchtime) and a couple of healthy snacks daily, like fruit, and she's lost weight doing that. I'm maintaining my weight now since reaching my goal weight on a low-carb diet five years ago and try to eat a balanced diet of carbs, fat, and protein.

Sorry this is long-winded. In any event, it sounds like you're a slow burner and thus can do something I can never do - skip meals and snacks too! As long as you're at your ideal weight and feel good, I don't see any harm in it. We're all very different!

Emily

[annie]

Reading the different eating styles that work for all of us has been a good learning experience for me. It's very easy, to read in a book or magazine, that one method of eating is superior to another for ALL people. Obviously, this is not the case. Thank you all for sharing what works/does not work for each of you. I don't feel like quite such a anomoly, with my twice a day meals.

If you DO remember the name of the book you read, Emily, I'd really appreciate your posting that info. If not, c'est la vie........ I'll try and do some googling and see what I come up with.

Annie

[OakLeaf]

Just really test what works for you.

I thought I just wasn't as strong a rider as the rest of my club... until the day I happened to eat a nice big lunch, with a couple of bowls of brown rice, on club ride day. All of a sudden I could hang with them and my legs weren't hurting Deliberately repeating the experiment has reproduced the results... if I have a big high-carb meal 3 hours or so before the ride, I am MUCH stronger. I would never have known if I hadn't tested it.