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3 vs 5 meals per day?


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I have not yet started W30, but starting it on May 7th with a co-worker. I have ordered the book and it will be arriving today (however I'm at work, so I won't get to look at it until tonight *sad face*). I have read online that you only eat 3 meals per day, however I'm used to eating 5 meals per day. I'm just wondering how much of a difference there is, doing 3 vs 5 meals per day, or if the emphasis is actually 3 meals per day with 1-2 snacks?

All input is appreciated!

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Hi! Your babies are adorable :).

The emphasis is on three meals a day. I just posted this for someone else, so here is a look at the template:

http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf

By eating the recommended portions at these 3 meals a day, believe me, there is no need to snack. I came from an "eat every 3 hours" mindset before the whole30, and this new way of eating was a game changer in my life! No more crabbiness at 10am or 3pm. No more foraging for snacks. No worrying about surviving until the end of a long meeting.

Good luck on the 7th!

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Agreed.

The only time I feel snacky is when I eat breakfast or lunch too late and my body gets out of whack. (Or when I got cocky and started nibbling on dried fruit in the afternoon and woke my pm snack sugar dragon.)

At first it is hard to transition, but loading up on fat and protein will help. If you do get hungry, having a mini meal per the template will help you stop snacking out of habit. Eating something sweet feeds the sugar dragon. It also helps to do the whole HALT thing--am I Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? before putting something in your mouth.

You'll read ALL about this stuff when the book comes! There is a reason to just eat three meals a day. If you are eating five, your body is likely running on sugar and needs to be refueled every couple hours. Wih this WOE your body can transition to burning fat. There are also hormonal and digestive reasons why 3 meals are best. The whole five small meals ramps up your metabolism thing is a myth.

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I can attest to only needing to eat 3 meals if you follow the template and get enough protein and good fats. :) I always felt like I had to snack even if I wasn't hungry because everyone said to eat 3 meals then 2 small snacks to be healthy. I eat enough and sometimes don't even feel like eating my next meal (but I do anyway to make sure I have fuel for my body to keep going). I think this is part of building a better relationship with food since I am not constantly thinking about what I am going to eat at my next meal/snack.

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I can attest to only needing to eat 3 meals if you follow the template and get enough protein and good fats. :) I always felt like I had to snack even if I wasn't hungry because everyone said to eat 3 meals then 2 small snacks to be healthy. I eat enough and sometimes don't even feel like eating my next meal (but I do anyway to make sure I have fuel for my body to keep going). I think this is part of building a better relationship with food since I am not constantly thinking about what I am going to eat at my next meal/snack.

Ooh, that's good... that's partially why I'm doing this... My relationship with food sucks. I did a carb-cycling diet after my son was born 3 years ago, and while it worked, I became totally obsessed with food... when was I eating next? Was I eating too many carbs? Not enough protein? How was I going to plan out my meals for the day? Man, I'm really hungry, its a high carb day and there are some cookies that a patient brought in... and so forth. I always said that the carb cycling diet jaded me with carbs. I would analyze every morsel of food, every calorie, etc. And this relationship with food didn't help my already-poor body image, and view of "dieting". I'm really anxious to get into the book! I'm doing this with a co-worker and she's already halfway through her book (her's arrived yesterday and she was able to drive home at lunch to get it from her mail... and we work at different offices usually).

Thanks for the tips!

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I did a carb-cycling diet after my son was born 3 years ago, and while it worked, I became totally obsessed with food... when was I eating next? Was I eating too many carbs? Not enough protein? How was I going to plan out my meals for the day?

That would ddrive me crazier than I already am! :D I know what you mean though! As long as you stick with the template and not overthink things, you'll do great! There were days when I thought I ate way too much fat and started to obsess about not eating so many the next day to make up for it but then I stopped myself....I told myself to have faith in W30 and not too worry about it. In the end, I lost 11 pounds! Now, fat is my friend! :wub:

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I told myself to have faith in W30 and not too worry about it. In the end, I lost 11 pounds! Now, fat is my friend! :wub:

Ahh yes, I need to remember that... Have faith in W30! I'm terrible at overthinking even the most minute little details... Even the "no scale allowed" rule is going to drive me bonkers. Eek! Gonna have to hide that sucker... or better yet, have my husband hide it!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bethany, how Re you doing? I'm very excited to know Fter reading the above conversation. Share share :)

I'm doing pretty well... My body seemed to adjust from 5 down to 3 meals per day fairly well. One thing I did was to make sure I was eating enough at each meal. I almost get paranoid that I'm eating too much, especially when I read other posts and see other people's food pics and their meals seem so small. I think (and hope) that I'm just eating for my activity level (running, lifting, swimming workouts, 4-5x/wk, med to high intensity). But overall, it's been good. Aside from my meal sizes, I don't find myself obsessing over food like I used to. Hopefully the meal size issue will diminish over the next several days too. :)

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I'm confused by the 3 or 5 meal thing. I haven't started the plan yet.

When I was eating five times a day, it was not "three meals and two snacks" it was five meals. Yes, smaller meals, but still meals. I'm not understanding why this is bad on Whole 30? What am I missing?

Part of the reason that I am doing this is to attempt to nutritionally manage some other medical issues. I have done it successfully in the past, but sticking with it was the problem. Hunger blows that management out of the water, and when I eat only until full I am almost always hungry within three hours - regardless of what I ate. If I eat a "junk" meal I'm hungry much faster, if I eat a healthy meal, it's about three. If I eat until my stomach hurts then I'm not hungry for four or five hours, but I know I'm over eating and that's not good either.

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