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One meal? Grazing?
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
This discussion was created from comments split from: The Practice of Eating One Big Meal., as that thread was only 3 months away from being a year old....
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I see this thread is 3 mos. away from being 1 year old,
and I need a place to talk about this type of thing.
I like the idea of eating no breakfast, and 1 or 2 med-large meals and although I haven't been doing that lately, I feel better when my eating schedule is closer to that. Grazing (light snacks - whatever that is (calories? yeeks! for a 'small' snack can be amazingly astronomical) is bad for me and only keeps my mind on food and I'm highly suggestible in this area - evidently.
I'm hoping it's okay to share this link. It's about HIIT - High Interval Intensity Training combined with Intermittent Fasting, and I think it's a really good idea, if you can pull it off: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2014/09/26/intermittent-fasting-hiit-workout.aspx
I hope the link works, but if not, just go to mercola.com - I get regular e-newsletters from him.
I fasted one day a week for many years. It gives your digestion system a rest.
I have also done a one month fast. This may increase your life span.
I think that everyone needs to listen to their body and mind and figure out what works for them.
What works for me? No breakfast (unless maybe a smoothie or a piece of fruit). Any kind of grain or protein in the morning leaves me mentally sluggish all day. If I skip breakfast I feel mentally alert through the day (so long as I've gotten enough sleep). If I eat lunch, I then immediately want a nap. If I have the time to take a nap, I will maybe eat and then take a nap. I wake up from my nap refreshed and with energy to get through the rest of the day. If I don't have time to take a nap, eating lunch just saps me of my ability to get anything done the rest of the day.
I do not get particularly hungry during the day when I do not eat. Come dinner time, I start to get a smidgen of hunger. Once I take a bite, then a more all-consuming hunger may kick in and I will be inspired to eat a full meal. However, I don't tend to overeat. Much the opposite, I seem satisfied with a reasonable portion. In the past when I was less intentional about my eating habits, I would overeat A LOT. I was overweight. In the last year or so, I have gotten down to my ideal weight. This is a great deal due to my eating habits.
(Of note, I have also stopped drinking alcohol to the extent that I once did. When I drink alcohol, I become insatiably hungry. If I get drunk, it's pretty much a given that I will gorge myself on unhealthy food that night before going to bed. The excess calories from the alcohol, in addition to the excess calories from my late night feasts, were not helping me maintain a healthy weight.)
Now, I mostly can just eat when my body tells me that I should eat. I tend to avoid eating because it's "time to eat." This usually results in one meal per day, in the late afternoon or evening.
I am not suggesting that other people should eat the same way that I do. Pay attention to how your body and mind respond to your eating habits. Alter your eating habits accordingly.
I think it's great to share how we eat/live, with the caveat: 'I am not suggesting that other people should eat the same way that I do. Pay attention to how your body and mind respond to your eating habits. Alter your eating habits accordingly,' from thegoldeneternity -- For decades we've all been burdened by what the media tries to foist upon us with eat this/don't eat that, and all the rest of when/how much/how little, etc.
I hardly ever drink, but I could replace that with just emotional eating, which for me is the same as 'unconscious' eating, but lately, I'm trying different tacks, like when I feel like it (on very rare occasions) when I want nothing but potato chips or cup noodle soup, and then I end up coming out of it in 2 or 3 days, and pretty much back to the kind of foods that work for me, like protein (eggs, especially): if I eat an early meal of mainly protein and light carbs and vegie, I do really well with my energy level and feeling alert. FYI
I may or may not have mentioned it, but I did work on a couple of horrific cravings (Cheetos mainly) and now, I don't even 'go' for them when I see them on display in the store. Yay.
Paying attention to your body can be very difficult if your mind is running the show. Meditation and other mindful activities will help you better able to listen to what your body needs. Then you aren't giving into your mind insisting you need cake, lol. Sometimes it's a fine line, and sometimes it's very hard to override the mind in that way.
I practice Ayurveda (very much a beginner) and indeed everyone's bodies are different. If something works for you and you truly feel it, then terrific. But don't assume your way works for anyone else, or that their way should work for you. One person can have amazing results from a particular diet/nutrition plan, and then you try it to find nothing but frustration when it doesn't work out for you.
For me, I frequently skip breakfast. Despite the insistence by the media and other outlets that you need it, I don't. If I am hungry, I eat. If I'm not, I don't. I probably eat breakfast 1-2 days a week on average. I eat a larger lunch and a smaller dinner. I stopped tracking everything by calorie and macronutrients and go strictly by what works for my body and what I feel my body needs. It works quite well. But it takes a quiet and stable mind to be able to keep that attention focused and not give into cravings. What my mind thinks it needs is often vastly different from what my body truly needs, and being able to separate them and put the mind in the corner isn't always easy.
As far as exercise, right now I am finding restorative exercise to be better for me. I like challenging workouts, but they beat up my body too much at this point in time. I have a bad knee and the stress isn't worth it. I mostly do yoga, though some of it is quite intense on a cardio level. It's just not punishing on my joints.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/health/breakfast-myths/
Related to one large meal, I found these myths about breakfast interesting.
Really? Got any links for that? I'd be interested to see the evidence for that.
the 5-2 diet says the same thing. I do not know if it is scientifically proven.
I like to see evidence before I do a one month fast myself.
@dhammachick
I don't know if you have time to see the evidence for yourself, unless historical accounts have any bearing. Scientific studies have been conducted on rats though. They revealed that the calorie control group lived significantly longer. The explanation for this is that it has something to do with insulin like growth factor (IGF-1). The amount of calories and type of foods you eat affect your IGF-1 levels. Lower is allegedly better; if you eat 2 lettuce sandwiches on wholemeal per day you will have lower growth factor, which concerns proliferation of both healthy and not so healthy cells.
A 1 month fast would make you ketogenic so your body would start to use subcutaneous and visceral fat as fuel. As ever a balanced approach is probably best, so no extremes.
@ownerof1000oddsocks rats are not humans. And from what you're saying, it's not a fast per se so much as a diet or change in eating. THIS is why I asked for evidence- fasting is abstaining from food. I highly doubt anyone could abstain from food for a month.
On a platform such as this, wording IS everything and clarifications are reasonable to request.
Even though I marked as insightful 1000socks said something positive about a 1 month fast, I wouldn't agree to a whole month, maybe I read it as 1 time a month or something.
FWIW, I lost a bunch of weight way back (1980) on a liquid protein drink diet and kept it off for 7 years (ate steamed veggies with butter, lemon and a few soda crackers during that 7 years)- then I got preggers and my ex fed me like a Christmas goose! (Then blamed me for being a fattie after the kid was born, ha ha ha).
Yes it was the rats I didn't think you were going to go for it because of that.
Actually there comes a time when you are not hungry. I wasn't jumping around and a lot of mediation My friends would sit around me and talk about different foods. At the end of the fast they made ice cream for me I would not recommended it. They were not into what I was but they were awed but no understanding. That was when I was controlling the weather an and healing people. The person next door to us was a healer His bother was a catholic priest. When his bother would enter the church it would light up. He had pictures of before and after. The church fathers forbid him to light up the church. It literally killed him.
As I have said doubting is OK
Actually, this time I think doubting is mandatory.
People absolutely do 30 day no-food fasts. I know people who have done them. But they did not look it up online and do them on a whim. Their bodies and minds were trained for them by shorter sessions for a long time. Unless you are quite well trained, it's not something you generally want to undergo without adequate supervision by a trusted professional. But yes, people do them.
Would a single session of a 30 day fast extend life for everyone who did it? Probably not. People's bodies are much to varied to apply something meant to be a spiritual experience to the limits of scientific testing to gauge something like that. Studies done on intermittent fasting with people has shown both benefits and harm. It depends on so many factors.
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The 5-2 regime (I hesitate to call it a diet, because it's not so much a weight-loss health drive, but more of a gradual change in attitude to food, intake and benefits) was devised and researched fully by the man who wrote the book, who is himself a Doctor.
Dr. Michael Mosley was in danger of inheriting the diabetes and heart problems his father suffered from. I recommend his book, as it contains factual and researched details on the whys and wherefores of the benefits of intermittent fasting.
He's also not scared to admit when he makes a mistake.
If oneself is living alone and have to be busy in some important project and have no time to cook twice and for some reason don't want to eat out then it's best idea to eat once a day.
I doing it right now to save time and to study for exams.
It could seem falling hair due to lack of proteins in diet therefore you need to add various diets to which could provide proper nourishment. I have became strict vegetarian and it's easy for me cos we don't eat non veg much in India.