What is this eat every 4hr business about?

(Bob M) #21

That’s a good way to do it, supposedly. I can’t do that, if I want to eat dinner with my family. The kids have activities, and we get home too late. But I did it once last week (one meal, “lunch”), and it was great. I stayed super late at work, and picked up one child after a late karate lesson. This is not normal, though.

(Jane Srygley) #22

I heard many times over the years that every time you eat, you stimulate your metabolism. I also heard that you need to eat frequently throughout the day to stabilize your blood sugar. I honestly thought I had to do it, and if I ate moderate amounts with moderate carbs, I was still able to lose weight. Thankfully, I found Jason Fung, who helped me realize that this idea was not supported by research, but I heard that advice many times over my decades of attempting to lose weight and keep it off (I lost about 100 lbs pre-keto).

Here’s just one article that might help you understand why I believed as I did:

According to many experts, eating breakfast jump starts fat burning and 5–6 small meals per day prevent your metabolism from slowing down.

#23

What was the reason for that? Or I should read about ghrelin? But it surely foreign for many (probably most) people as it’s normal not to eat all the time. During human history, it always was impossible for most people to eat every few hours… What went wrong with people?
4 hours, I can understand that, it’s not so very short and very familiar to me. In normal circumstances I have 4 hours between meals (except when I have zero or one meal, of course), almost no matter what, it’s a very fixed number for some reason. I just don’t have many meals but if I start to eat early, fancy late meal(s) or a medium miracle happens and eat small meals, I almost inevitably end up with multiple meals with 3-4 hours between them. I think it’s quite normal to get hungry after 3-4 hours we ate (unless we ate enough already). I don’t have headaches or weakness though, just a soft hunger and my blood sugar is the responsibility of my body, it handles it. I just need to provide (proper) food when it nudges me.

#24

I’ve heard about that but not with FOUR snacks… Just 2.
I lost fat eating 5 meals (I did IF because it was natural to me, I had no idea it has a name. why 5, no idea, maybe I just wanted to try. my 3 snacks were so tiny they couldn’t trigger hunger. I had big late lunch, decent early dinner), 3 meals (big late lunch, decent ealy dinner), 2 meals (the same) and one meal (big late lunch or big early dinner). It worked as long as I followed my natural pattern more or less. My metabolism is fine, I always ate well/much enough.
I am bad with following dietary advices against the firm opinion of my own body.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #25

Don’t we tell folks here not to weigh, measure and track? Just eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re not. Trust your body to tell when it needs food and when it doesn’t. This makes sense in ketosis because both ghrelin and leptin return to normal functioning (eventually). By cutting out the carbs we liberate ourselves from the glucose/insulin roller coaster.

The problem is people eating SAD think the same way: eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re not. They ignore they’re still riding the roller coaster and get hungry every couple of hours. So they keep feeding the beast.

(Susan) #26

The carbs are making them hungry, we cut them down really low, and the hunger dissipates =).

(Heather Meyer) #27

Well its certainly interesting…

My husband must eat every 2 hours or he thinks he is gonna die. Same with my little carb addicted daughter. But i wonder if its partly a metabolism issue too? Because neither of them can gain a pound. So is it possible that the factor of high vs low metsbolism ahould be credited when thinking in terms of meal frequency? If they burn through food faster as a form of enrrgy utilized right away…then it would make sense if they felt hungry and needed to eat vs someone with a slow metabolism who just looks at bread and gains 5 lbs. Hmmm…

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #28

@PortHardy I think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying. When I ate SAD I basically ate all day long and did not gain weight until I got to the age of late 50s early 60s, when I started to gain weight slowly. By the time I started keto at the age of 71, I was about 30-35 pounds over what I consider my ‘ideal’ weight. I now weigh the same as I did at the age of 18 and I have to make sure I eat to my daily macros or I will lose weight quickly. So, yes, I think there are a lot of us who’s metabolism just ‘burns’ faster or whatever it does and can deal with perpetual glucose/insulin ups/downs better than other folks. But eventually it catches up with most of us.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #29

It’s what doctors used to tell people 20-25 years ago, mine convinced me to try it. He recommended 5-6 mini-meals. He was worried that I was having high blood sugar after big meals and had me testing BG, but when I tested everything was always normal back then. So this ignorant advice pushed lots of people further into a diabetic condition and caused weight gain.

:rage:

#30

It easily may be a factor especially if they eat small or not satiating meals. I typically eat big, satiating meals as I need them so it wouldn’t make sense to get hungry soon, no matter my carb intake and if carbs make someone hungry, it’s me (but I wrote I eat big, satiating meals. with lots of protein and fat).
I know some people need more energy their stats would suggest (I need a bit more myself) but it’s usually not a huge difference. It’s usually very easy to eat enough for 4 hours, that’s a very short time. Other factors are more important IMO (for example food choices or mealsize, the latter vary way more than metabolism. some people usually eat 2-300 kcal per meal, some 3-4000…) but speed of metabolism still may matter.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #31

I too ate all day long until menopause. That is when your metabolism slows down.

#33

High insulin secretion has long been associated with obesity: obese people secrete much higher levels of insulin than do those of normal weight. Also, in lean subjects, insulin levels quickly return to baseline after a meal, but in the obese, these levels remain elevated.

Insulin is just part of the human makeup, but for people struggling with weight loss it does interfere with the ability to lose weight. One has to consider the thinking of eating a bunch of times throughout the day to maybe being part of obesity crisis. Optimal insulin levels does play a part in weight loss. If someone can eat six meals and make it work for them then that is great.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #34

In some cases this is true, plenty of obese people without metabolic syndrome. And a high percentage of thin diabetics (TOFI) around too, in rapidly growing numbers. While in principal I agree what you say is fairly true, it’s just not something that can be laid out as an absolute truth. There’s plenty of complete info on this if you look, try some Robert Lustig lectures. “The Bitter Truth about Sugar” is a good one. I try to keep insulin response low too, I use TMAD and IF most days but I don’t have weight to lose anymore, I’ve been at this a while and been at maintenance for months now. I’m on ZC now anyways so it’s a new and different game for me. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Jane Srygley) #35

What is ZC? Zoo Carnivore? Are you eating animals at the zoo??? :flushed::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #36

My guess: Zero Carb.

(Shane) #37

Zombie carnivore. You only eat brains.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #38

ZC (O Carb) is no plant food, animal based diet. :cowboy_hat_face:

#39

I like this one :slight_smile: And it’s kind of close, brain is a nice fatty protein rich food, good for ZC.

(Heather Meyer) #40

we should just call it the zombie diet!