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Why is snacking discouraged?


NikiH83

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1) Your meals should satisfy you until the next meal

2) Your digestive system needs time to recover in between meals. Without any food to process

3) Snacking leads to over eating or eating foods with no brakes.

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Hi Niki and welcome :) Indeed we are all better with three square meals (plus extra meals to support workouts) for the reasons Bet stated. It is also important for women because it helps to balance hormones. 

 

Let me clarify:

 

Snack is NOT a bad thing if 1) it helps you to stay on track 2) it resembles a meal and consists of protein+fat+carbs 3) you are really hungry. 

 

Snack is a bad idea if 1) you are bored, angry or sad 2) you are launching "hand-to-mouth" mode 3) you are mindlessly "inhaling" food. 

 

With time and a little bit of practice you will find proper amount of food that will keep you satisfied for 4-5 hours without the need to snack. For now, just make sure you have good options handy and play with the amount of food at your meals! Good luck. 

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Niki, 3 meals/day is the ideal, but remember it's really just the minimum that the guidelines ask of you to eat per day.  I do 2.5 or 3 meals/day now, but back when I originally started I had to snack to make it through my work day.

 

Like Nadia said, if you need more, make sure they're balanced (protein-fat-carb) and that you really are hungry and not just eating out of habit/boredom/mindlessly.

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Thank you everyone for the information. I do guess I just need to work on finding a happy medium with meal size...right now as snacking options I have been doing...HB eggs, pecans, almonds, peach, banana...not all at once, but these have been my choices.

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Thank you.

Here is my menu from the last couple of days:

 

Day 2- (This was not a typical day because I had to bring my son for some medical tests, tried to plan well but ended up having ot buy a salad at Starbucks becuase I could not wait till I was home to eat lunch)

B- Coffee, HB Egg, Peach

S-HB Egg

L-Small Salad w/ grilled chicken

S-Sweet Potato, sirloin

S-Peach

D-Chicken Breast, Olives, Zuchini & Squash

S-Pecans

 

Day 3 (Today so far)

B-Black Coffee, 3 eggs scrambled w/cocnut oil & Spinach

S-2 small peaches, a couple pecans

L-Sirloin, 11/2 sweet potatoes, zuchini/squash, olives

I will probably have a HB Egg before I run and maybe a banana after.

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Remember, Niki, if you've been fueling on simple carbs most of your life (grains and sugar) it takes a little while for your body to become fat-adapted.  It wants to burn those easy carbs, and when there aren't any available, it signals you that you're hungry in hopes of getting more.  When they don't appear, your body turns to burning fat, which is a bit harder to do, but much better for it.  After the first week or so, your body will be in the habit of burning fat for fuel, and the hunger will subside.  Then you'll just eat until you are satisfied, and be surprised that it's almost time to eat again and you haven't had any hunger pangs..

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I would echo Roz, make your meals a bit bigger. Try to contain fruit to 1 portion (hand sized) during a meal. Snacking on fruit doesn't help your hormones get rebalanced and like Roz said can make you hungrier. I personally found snacking on nuts to be detrimental to me though I do keep some for emergencies.  

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Also make sure you are adding your fat serving to your meal. That is always key for me. Cooking fat generally does not count because it does not make it to your plate. I always know when my meal did not contain enough fat because that is when I get hungry 2-3 hours later instead of 4-5.

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I personally find that fruit can give me the blood-sugar shakes, so I limit it to one piece after dinner as a dessert. With such limited sweet-tasting food, the fruit really does taste like dessert (which I always thought people just said to be smug and sanctimonious. GIVE ME CAKE!!!!). To make sure I get the fat, I just eat half an avocado with every meal--not terribly exciting, but it gets the job done. It takes a little while to figure out what works for you and your own particular bod.

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Also, if you are having trouble eating that much food, stretch out your meals. There is no reason a meal has to last 30 minutes or an hour. For lunch and dinner, I start eating at noon and may not end until almost two, with fruit at the end. Even if I end at 2, I know it will be 5 hours at least until my next meal, so thats fine.

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I agree with the 'need more fat' comment. I don't see much of it. for me I will snack if I'm not eating fats...and I tend to err on the side of more fat rather than less. I find when I do that I get by sometimes 6 or 7 hours before I'm even hungry again. I eat 4 eggs with sweet potato hash in the morning usually around 8 or 9 and find I'm ready for another meal around 2 or 3. FAT IS YUM! :)

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I get the add fat thing, but as summer comes to an end avocados become rare and expensive ( and frankly I am getting tired of them)

I still don't really know what other fats (other than the cooking oil which apparently doesn't count) to add. Not a big fan of olives so I can only get myself to eat them about once a week. I eat plenty of eggs. Nuts and nutbutter I try to keep low to avoid over doing it.

What else is there?

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I get the add fat thing, but as summer comes to an end avocados become rare and expensive ( and frankly I am getting tired of them)

I still don't really know what other fats (other than the cooking oil which apparently doesn't count) to add. Not a big fan of olives so I can only get myself to eat them about once a week. I eat plenty of eggs. Nuts and nutbutter I try to keep low to avoid over doing it.

What else is there?

Do you have a copy of the meal template?

You can have oils - coconut, EVOO, avo, nut oils

Coconut meat, butter, milk

Ghee, lard

Olives

Mayo

I haven't used avo in weeks!

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Yes I have the template

Ghee and EVOO, coconut oil... I cook with all of those, almost every meal. But just eating them straight? Really? No offense but Gross! I am pretty sure you and others have said that just cooking with it doesn't count because that stays in the pan. I do make an oil salad dressing for my lunches.

I have GREATLY expanded my food choices in both the veggie and protein world during this... Eating things I had literally never even seen or heard of, but eating/ drinking oil straight will make me gag. Maybe it was that castor oil my grandma shoved down my throat as a child.

Coconut meat sounds good, but I cant find it without being covered in sugar. I didn't realize coconut milk was considered a fat. Maybe I need to find a way to use that in sauces.. But not really a huge sauce person. Again I gave cooked with it, but seems like that doesn't count,

Mayo is also something I have never liked, ever. I have tried 3 times to make the homemade stuff so that I can try a few of the other dip, sauce, dressings but have failed every time. I have tried different methods and materials so far no success. Is there a suggested compliant mayo out there? All the ones I look at have preservative chemicals that look unpleasant. Or are super spendy. I hate to buy something that I wont be able to stomach.

Like I said I do eat olives, but kinda have to gulp and swallow without tasting, they are too bitter and salty to me.

I just wish there was something else! Or that I liked mayo and olives more. I am pretty sure the one area that I am not eating enough of is the fat.

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I don't eat or drink the oil, I add it after cooking - I put ghee in cauli or sweet potato mash, cover vegies in coconut butter or oil, use coconut milk in curries, make dressings etc out of it.

That counts as you usually eat the sauce you're making... Most of the fat you'd put in the pan gets left there though - I usually only use a little to cook with, if any and prefer to add it after.

I buy shredded coconut, no preservatives or sugar. I have crumbed chicken and fish with it, it's delicious mixed with herbs and spices

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I put olive oil or coconut oil on veggies. Coconut milk in coffee. I eat pieces of coconut. I don't eat avocados because they bother me, but I am sure I'm getting enough fat. Bacon can also be classified as a fat.

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I put clarified butter and coconut oil in my breakfast coffee and blend it with my hand blender. Sounds weird, but it's tasty. My taste buds now prefer this combo over half and half in my coffee. To my palate, it tastes like an international coffee.

I've never been a mayo fan, but paleo mayo is yummy!  Delicious on a sweet potato, in a chicken/tuna/salmon salad, or used as a base for a salad dressing. Bet it would also taste good coated on chicken before baking.  I use Melissa Joulwan's directions and have found it comes out perfect every time. http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/08/19/mayo-how-to-video/

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Another vote for paleo mayo!  I miss 'ketchup' (have to make my own soon) but I've found that modifying the mayo into tarter sauce, ranch-ish dressing and other 'dips' has kept me from ODing on Avocado.

 

And if you do need an 'eat straight' fat that isn't avocado or nuts, try coconut butter.  Enjoyed (really yum-o) by the tablespoonful....

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