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Thinking of switching to 2 meals a day, any advice?
karasti
BreathingMinnesota Moderator
Not because I'm thinking of being a nun or anything, but for 3 reasons I guess. #1 to see if I can do it. #2 To see if there are any health benefits and #3 to see if there are benefits to my Buddhist practice/study.
I know a few people have mentioned having done it being in monasteries, but when surrounded by a community who also does it, I'd think it would be easier? My main problem is first of all, dinner. We eat dinner as a family (husband and 3 kids) and I'm a bit worried I might be hungry sitting at the table. I figured if I ate around 9am and then 3pm then I should be fine through bedtime, but is 3pm getting too late? I go to bed around 11, 11:30pm.
Any tips? I am going to try just for a week, starting Monday (so I can go out of town to do my shopping over the weekend). I'll have to manage Thanksgiving, but we eat at lunch time and typically Ill be more than full enough until bedtime anyhow, lol. What about evenings? As typical with a lot of us, night time is our snack time. We don't watch much tv, but we still snack a lot, and that's another motivation, to kill that habit. I understand water and tea (probably noncaffinated) is alright but if my stomach is rumbling before bed, so I ignore it and go to sleep and assume with adaptation it'll go away? Or is it better to have a handful of nuts or something to quell the growling?
I'm sure a lot of it is just what I find works, since like I said I'm not tryin to follow a vow or anything. Just curious what experiences others have had. I'm "afraid" if I allow myself any snack at night that Ill just end up mindlessly eating more. Evening time is my veg-out time and the hardest time for me to remain mindful, which is the reason for the snacking and soda drinking. I do exercise, and when I don't eat I notice an intense lack of energy, but I can just plan my working out around my 2 meals easy enough.
I know a few people have mentioned having done it being in monasteries, but when surrounded by a community who also does it, I'd think it would be easier? My main problem is first of all, dinner. We eat dinner as a family (husband and 3 kids) and I'm a bit worried I might be hungry sitting at the table. I figured if I ate around 9am and then 3pm then I should be fine through bedtime, but is 3pm getting too late? I go to bed around 11, 11:30pm.
Any tips? I am going to try just for a week, starting Monday (so I can go out of town to do my shopping over the weekend). I'll have to manage Thanksgiving, but we eat at lunch time and typically Ill be more than full enough until bedtime anyhow, lol. What about evenings? As typical with a lot of us, night time is our snack time. We don't watch much tv, but we still snack a lot, and that's another motivation, to kill that habit. I understand water and tea (probably noncaffinated) is alright but if my stomach is rumbling before bed, so I ignore it and go to sleep and assume with adaptation it'll go away? Or is it better to have a handful of nuts or something to quell the growling?
I'm sure a lot of it is just what I find works, since like I said I'm not tryin to follow a vow or anything. Just curious what experiences others have had. I'm "afraid" if I allow myself any snack at night that Ill just end up mindlessly eating more. Evening time is my veg-out time and the hardest time for me to remain mindful, which is the reason for the snacking and soda drinking. I do exercise, and when I don't eat I notice an intense lack of energy, but I can just plan my working out around my 2 meals easy enough.
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Comments
A main course of ice - cubed, with a water dip, followed by an H2O sorbet . . .
. . . should be fun, might catch on . . . :clap:
I've heard that eating after like 6 pm doesn't allow the body to properly metabolize all its food and more of those calories get added as weight gain.
Anyway it will probably take a short adjustment time and it may be harder if your going against the grain of the rest of your family but 2 meals a day works well for me at least.
No ill effects so far, bahhh to all the so called experts on breakfast being the most important.
I'm eating now as a matter of fact!
First I reduced portion sizes by cutting out 1/3 over 3 weeks - then cut out breakfast, then changed dinner to vegetables, then soup and finally just lunch. Hunger isn't an ever increasing demand - it's like a sine wave - ride to the peak and it will dissipate.
Snacks can be good - a single peanut is a very intense experience after a fast - you may find it interesting exploring your responses. Inspiring that you seek to challenge the boundaries like this - hope it brings you what you seek.
I admire you trying it, and by all means do, but I'd say there are plenty of other things to do that would fit better into a lay person's life. I'd surely cut out on the snacks, though. If you're going for health benifits, that'll probably be the best thing to do.
With metta!
Someone mentioned being hungrier if they eat breakfast, that is because when you wake up your metabolism is in the basement, and once you eat it gets your metabolism going, so you burn your calories from breakfast faster and so feel hungry earlier. If you eat a good dose of protein at breakfast that usually helps with that because it takes longer to digest. But toast with peanut butter probably isn't going to cut it.
I realize I can make changes without doing this in particular, but for some reason I feel compelled to try it. I've studied fitness and health/nutrition for half my life now, and just knowing what I need to know, isn't enough. I can make changes short term, but rarely stick to them no matter how much I understand it's good for me. Much of my point in attempting this is that I am hoping will set me up to pay better attention and be more mindful because I've made the decision to be. I realize this probably doesn't make sense, lol, and a lot of it is just my personality. I thrive on strict structure, so for me setting up a routine to follow is likely to have better results that simply telling myself not to eat snacks at night. I'm not unhealthy, I'm curious if it'll have any effect on my health and how I feel but I don't need to lose weight or anything, so it's not a diet plan. It's more a mental thing than anything.
Thanks for all the tips!
There was a good UK documentary called East Fast and Live Longer, and it was about the health benefits of fasting - not for spiritual purposes - but for health ones; and the benefits are more far reaching than just losing weight or maintaining weight:
Apparantly fasting reduces a growth hormone (ICG1?) which is a hormone that puts our bodies into "Go Go Go" mode. By reducing this hormone through fasting, it puts the body into rest and repair mode. People with really low levels of ICG1 suffer with much less cancers (for example), even if they smoke and are overweight.
It's quite an entertaining program too; made me smile.
It may help.
When it comes to maintaining your metabolism and feeling full, timing and digestion are closely linked. This is why it is suggested you always eat breakfast -- because it gets your metabolism going -- and why you avoid a big dinner right before going to sleep -- because it can cause heartburn. Knowing how certain foods affect your digestion and sleep at night can help you choose ones that make you sleep soundly.
Misconceptions:
A common medical misconception is that eating at night leads to weight gain because the body will digest your foods as fat instead of using them for energy. However, this myth does not prove true. Your body's digestion and metabolism relies on the foods you eat in a 24-hour time period balanced with the amount of calories your body burns for daily activities.
If you eat before bed, yet stay within your daily calorie requirements to maintain a healthy weight, eating before bed and the way your body digests food should not affect your weight.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/445535-eating-before-bed-digestion/#ixzz2CJ7s4Bxf
And:
Perhaps you've heard this advice before: Don't eat before going to bed. People most often give this advice to people trying to lose weight. The logic behind this advice sounds reasonable: If you eat and then go to sleep, your body will convert the food you ate into fat rather than using it right away as fuel. Ultimately, you'll gain weight.
But is this true? I have been unable to find any study that specifically asked and answered this question: When total calories are kept constant, does eating at night (whether just before bed or in the middle of the night) lead to weight gain?
In fact, I could find no compelling evidence that eating late at night or just before bed matters one way or the other. It is likely that total intake over a 24-hour period balanced against calories burned through one's daily activities matters much more than what time a snack or meal is consumed.**
** Julie K. Silver, M.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Chief Editor of Books for Harvard Health Publications.
Anyhow, what I said wasn't because I read it in a health magazine, it was based on my past experience. I've never tried to not eat dinner before, and that's why it'll be interesting to see how it affects anything. But even when my calories are identical, if I am eating between dinner and bedtime, i gain weight. Even if what I am eating is decent for me, when I eat between 6pm and bedtime, I gain weight. Normally we eat closer to 5, 5:30 but while my son is in ski season it's not possible for us to have dinner that early. As it happened last year, when we started having later dinners, I started gaining weight, then we go back to normal dinners in the spring and I lose the weight. So I'm just interested to see what happens. I've quite in tune with my body and if I start having issues because of a slower metabolism, then I'll adjust again. But considering I work out for 90 minutes a day every day, I'm not too worried about my metabolism at this point.
Good luck and keep us updated!
I have no tips. We just did it.
I have heard that it is better for people to not skip meals -- rather eat more often, but less food at a time. On the other hand, I know that people can vary a lot as to what their bodies need/what works for them personally. I doubt that giving it a try for a week is going to cause you any harm.
@black_tea : you're not alone with that, far from it.
And believe me, I know all about blood sugars, my son is diabetic, lol. However, he still has not been advised to have 5 meals a day. It depends, as has been said, on the individual person and also the types of food that they eat. If you don't combine carbs with protein and some fat (at all meals) you are much more likely to be hungry much earlier. Also, if you eat the wrong kind of carbs, some of them are much more conducive to a blood sugar spike and crash, leaving you hungry 2 hours later.
The main problem with grazing, or having 5 smaller meals, is that most people don't understand what "smaller meals" means and they over eat. To split the same # of calories into 5 appx. equal meals is actually really hard to do, and what you end up with is basically 5 snacks, not meals. For some people, it works. For others, they gain weight because they are eating too much, not realizing meal #4 should consist of a handful of grapes with a slice of cheese, and not a 350 calorie powerbar with a soda.
@Dakini, thank you:) He is doing just fine and we're working on mentoring another family who has a son who was diagnosed today.
Remember the middle way and that it isn't about deprivation.
Just my two cents, I'm no expert.
I juice my "green drink" (right now it consists of: cilantro, spinach, cucumber, celery, ginger, jalapeno pepper, ginger, lemon, apple) in the morning around 7am, and then I eat my main meal (vegan, or sometimes vegetarian due to the fact I eat local, humanely raised farm eggs for the B12 and K2) from 11am-12pm. And trust me-- it's a pretty big meal. I can consume a lot of quality nutrients in one sitting, since I tend to eat a lot of dense, raw healthy fats (avocados, good olive and hemp seed oils, nuts and seeds, etc).
I feel that doing this has helped my energy levels skyrocket, even though some people would argue that eating like that would ruin your metabolism. I've been on so many crash diets and detoxes (i.e. starvation sessions) in my life, that my metabolism, adrenals, and thyroid have suffered tremendously. I find that eating this way is actually helping me to heal those issues and force me to not over indulge in food during the day. I actually have so much energy at night, that I end up exercising instead of stuffing my face with more food that my body doesn't need. I find it to be very helpful for my food addictions/attachments, as well as keeping my mind clear and alert.
Of course, this is not the answer for everyone, but it seems to be the key for me. So if you're looking for similar benefits, perhaps it would be beneficial to give it a shot? If not, just keep doing a trial and error and you'll find out what fits your lifestyle the best.