Question for those of you who only eat once a day (or used to):
What kind of daily activity do you guys do? Do you sit at a desk, or have to do some moderate walking/standing (teacher, mailroom, light factory, watching kids, walking between buildings, etc) or do you have jobs that require alot of exercise during the day (mail carrier, construction, pro athelete, etc)?
Also if you do get regular exercise away from work, when do you do it? Before or after your one meal?
Just curious as to how active one can be on one meal a day and how much extra energy you have for exercise.
The premise is that “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. Until that is proven, I consider the whole concept a scam (and scam is used ‘loosely’ here. I understand the factual nature of GQ, but ‘one meal a day’ studies aren’t exactly pouring of the any medical journals.)
However, very low calorie diets rich in nutrition are gaining in popularity after being popularized by folks such as Dr. Roy Walford of UCLA.
I ain’t here to prove a negative. In other words, if “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”…well, that needs to be substantiated.
I was in college classes in the morning, usually two or three. In the afternoon I worked customer service for a small airline. So it was standing all afternoon into the evening and trotting up and down a flight of stairs at least a dozen times a shift. I did not “work out” at a gym. I played tennis many weekends for daytime dates.
Sorry for another post. Be warned about showing that several small meals result in a higher metabolic rate, versus one big one. The studies on calorie restriction show that higher metabolic rates contribute to aging and the onset of disease and cell damage.
Lower caloric intake is the best way to target health and weight loss, not necessarily higher metabolic rates.
You can’t really offer dietary and nutritional advice in absolute terms, as if this or that idea is inherently good or bad. While there are certain constants about human diet, digestion and metabolism, there can also be tremendous differences between what works for one person and what works for another. Unless you get silly (let’s try eating rusty nails!), it’s really a case of saying whatever approach works for you is OK if you are fit, healthy and happy with it.
I do adopt the one meal a day approach for long periods at a time, and it works just fine for me. Combned with the right exercise and workout program, and the right mental attitude, I find it’s a good way to regain my ideal weight if, for whatever reason, I’ve gained a few pounds. I also make sure that the meal I do have is about as ‘perfect’ as I can manage, in terms of balanced nutrition and my daily requirements. As for blood sugar and energy levels, I don’t seem to have any problems, and if I feel the need for a quick ‘fix’ then I just have a piece of fruit.
I endorse what has been said about the need to re-calibrate what we feel to be ‘normal’ in terms of blood sugar levels. Many of us get so accustimed to an artificially increased level of blood sugar, and what’s more the wrong kind of sugar, that normal levels can be perceived as a deficiency to be remedied. I find that it only takes 3 days and 3 nights for my system to regain a correct perspective on ‘normal’ sugar levels.
It’s a big subject. I recommend Body For Life by Bill Phillips, and the books by British fitness guru Jason Vale, including Chocolatebusters. I don’t think this is the same Jason Vale as the ‘laetrile’ guy… at least I hope it isn’t.
I have been sedentary for nearly 6 to 7 years. I manage engineering projects and do some field work running around power plants. I used to spend a lot of time walking around airports…and sometimes, when bored and when I had time, would do laps of the entire underground section of Atlanta Hartsfield or walking the terminals at Heathrow. I used to exercise (power-walk about 4 miles 3 times a day) but became too sick to do that much. After restricting my diet I found my energy level was unchanged - neither up nor down. Hunger gets bad a couple of times during the day, still, but just like losing weight, all you need is willpower - you assess whether or not you are really malnourished, and if not decide you will not eat until time. After a half-hour or so, the hunger goes away. A simple plan that just requires self-control.
I do no exercise now by choice, rather than being prevented by illness. I started swimming this Summer however, and will pick that back up again as exercise. Due to worries about blood sugar, any walking/running I used to do was at the “low point” of insulin effectiveness, to try to prevent going low on the trail and dying.
My cholesterol is “fantastic” according to my doctor, as are my lipids and CRPs. All of my blood chemistry is ideal or better than normal, H1Ac doing very well, and my blood pressure is way down. My doctor thinks exercise might help, but is impressed enough with my repeated good tests that he’s concerned about “destabilizing things”.
I work in a museum, giving tours, cleaning artifacts, running between buildings on fetch-and-carry missions, helping to install exhibits, cleaning the buildings, and putting artifacts into, and taking them out of, storage. I also walk to and from work each day, though I live just down the street, so maybe that doesn’t count.
I can say for sure that I burn up whatever I eat, because I haven’t ever topped 125 lbs, and I eat very fattening foods for supper. (I also drink vast quantities of sugared tea . . . I probably get a lot of calories from that.)
Wife and I have been eating one meal a day for the last 15 years. We do have a very light breakfast… like a piece of toast and un-sweeten black coffee. We eat our meal about 3 PM. If we eat three full meals a day we would be fat!
Hmmm I am not an expert by any means but for me 2 meals a day is the happy medium, I’ve been doing this about a year now and have gone from 238 down to 180(though I want to lose at least 10 more pounds) currently and I rarely feel hungry or lack energy, and try to eat a lot of fruit with at least one of the meals and more protein type food like fish and chicken in the other meal.
