Meal Frequency and Capacity

The optimization of our health in this era has surpassed the general guidelines for us to not only be aware of what we’re eating, but also when we’re eating it too. Recently, we’ve now been delivered justification that our health can also be influenced by when to eat. Well gee-whiz, thanks health Nazi’s, not only am I eating the foods proclaiming to make me feel like a golden star, when in reality I feel like a soulless black hole; but now I have to set my watch to a feeding time too? It can sound pretty imposing, for such the simple action of bringing food to one’s word hole, but its rationale does sounds pretty legit. It’s alleged that the process of eating smaller portions throughout the day is an assistive metabolic igniter, capable of allowing us to feel more satiated throughout the day but also to keep our metabolisms revving. This proposed affiliation with our meal frequency and our metabolism is sourced to TEF (Thermic effect of Food). After we consume a meal, our body must adjust its metabolic vitality to account for the metabolism of the food; our body must work harder and therefore expend more energy. It was a concept I found most intriguing and was a principle I lived off in my deeper phase of ED. I was fixated on eating every 3 hours, no more and absolutely no less. It was comforting to assure myself that I was doing things right when my periods of eating were cyclically met. Even though while on this regime, I found myself very unhappy, being hungry shortly after I ate, and always counting the minutes till I was “allowed” to eat again. I didn’t inherit any of the benefits of this method due to my defective mindset keeping me underfed in general, even though I was supposedly eating the “right” way. You know, oats and eggs for breakfast, Salad with Chicken breast for lunch, Almonds and fruit for snacks, salmon and yams for dinner, Greek yogurt before bed… all proportion 3 hours apart, systematically in check every day. This made me feel like shit! As much as I wanted to change this life influencing structure, it was very hard to break mindset with ED reinforcing my judgments. It was very hard living out a life and adjusting your plans around food and missing out on events because I was afraid of not getting my nutrition in on time…
Now its present day and I’ve become much more mentally well, and this is where my opinion stands with meal frequency today… I still prefer to eat every 3 hours or so, however it’s now more so a choice rather than an obligation. I lived so religiously on delivering my body with nutrition every 3 hours to a point where its naturally become accustomed to the process, but instead of eating like the metabolic capacity of a 12 year old girl, I make sure my meals are calorically representative to what I require. I’m no longer so concerned if I get a meal in every 3 hours, and the more I broke that cycle, the more mentally relaxed I felt when I crossed that 4 hour or 5 hour mark. It’s all been a learning experience; I use to think that if I ate a big meal before bed, or had carbs after 8 that I was in deep trouble. Now there have been days where I’ve gone about eating 50-60% of my macros at 11 o clock at night, full of carbs (fast & slow digestive), and woken up the next morning showing numbers on the scale representing weight-loss. I realise now that weight management is reprehensive on a long term period, an overall maintenance of caloric input vs. output and won’t be dramatically influenced based on one huge meal, or 6 smaller meals throughout the day for that matter… I’ve adjust my meal frequency and capacity on a daily, managing it on how I feel and how my day is scheduled. I no longer panic if I don’t eat for a long period or if I eat shortly after a previous sitting, I’m comfortable getting in my macronutrients any time of the day at any point. I would advise others to do the same, and customize what works for you. If you prefer eating smaller meals throughout the day so that you aren’t burden with the feeling of hunger than by all means.  Other people prefer the routine of intermediate fasting, where they undergo long periods of malnutrition and then consume 2 or 3 large meals because that’s what they prefer. Just because you’re doing things one way, and others are doing things another, does not mean that your way is wrong. You are not a sheep and don’t need to follow a herd, nor should you jump off a cliff if everyone else is.  

Night time eating influencing weight gain?

It is not a foreign topic for anyone; the behaviour of late night eating and its influence to ones weight has been an accepted concept by people for many years. As a child I remember that the supposition of eating after 8pm was a factor to weight gain. Eventually that concept was widely dismissed by many and even reportedly wrong, as now and days athletes would argue that slow digesting protein is crucial for Anabolic growth. We even developed a phase that carbohydrates at night are linked to weight gain, as their influences on the bodies insulin levels at a rested state will favour storage of fat. All the proposed answers and strategies have conveyed people to practise their principles, and eventually wither away with a new profound secret to prevent weight gain at night. Its a free world out there, you can do whatever you like and what works for you; i’m just voicing my say on the concept and share my opinion on late night eating. If you’re aware on the concept of IIFYM(If it fits your macro’s) already then you’ll understand what I mean in the next part. If not, educate yourself on the rationale of flexible dieting through internet sources. http://iifym.com/introduction-to-iifym/.
So when it comes to late night eating, what do I do? I just fill in the numbers. If I got fat and carbs still available in my macros, and its 9/10/11 @ night I still go ahead and eat them. On countless occasions I have had high carb meals, low protein meals, high fat snacks, huge caloric containing meals, etc all at night, and sometimes even literally right before bed….like in bed. If you know my diet, I thoroughly enjoy having protein pancakes at night. It’s a meal that roughly delivers 600-800 kcal, with <60carbs, and 20-25g fat. Depending on my day, mood, situation, etc, Ill eat it an hour or 2 before bed or even right in bed…Thats a lot of work for you digestive system to encounter during a phase of rest and reduced metabolic activity, however its still all a matter of calories in vs calories out that decides weight gain/loss. I’ve done the above eating ritual countless times and still come out lighter on the scale by the end of the week because I still kept my calories below my caloric need. To sum up my point, I personally don’t believe that late night eating will make you fat. Whether you’re eating carbs, fat, clean/unclean, light or heavy meals…as long as your within your macros, you still have complete control over your weight.

My Fitness Pal

If you haven’t already heard about my fitness pal, then I’m glad I have the effect of making it relevant to you. This handy technological accomplice is a saviour to those looking to accurately track their caloric measures to help reach the weight related goals. Whether it’s to loss, gain, or maintain weight, myfitnesspal is bound to make your goals more attainable. Definitely check it out and follow me if you’d like as well http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/tibss