In these tough times some have chosen to become dumpster diving "freegans". . Re other strategies when dieting we’re often told to break up daily intake into a number of small meals. Re this article about the resurgence of “all you can eat” deals, suppose you have to feed yourself on just (say) $ 10.00 per day, and yoo don’t want to spend lots of time on shopping and food preparation. Is it going to make any real difference nutritionally if you put on the feedbag for one massive meal vs 3 + squares a day? Are calories metabolically all the same to the body even if they are dumped in all at once vs multiple meals?
I do it, just 'cause I got used to it, and I got a kick ass body
I used to work in hotels so you’d get one free meal. Brother I ate almost a whole day worth of food.
So I got used to it.
Now I’ll have coffee and something small like fruit or yogurt for breakfast.
My big meal at around 5pm (usually around 1,100 calories)
At night I’ll have a snack to round out to 1,800 calories a day and I am very healthy
No problems with weight control and I exercise 4 -5 days a week.
It’s just what you get used to.
I have heard that it is more healthy to eat small meals often than to eat fewer, bigger meals. I don’t know why.
I’m with Markxxx. I have one meal a day, usually around 6:30. My calorie intake is around 1200. Too low for most, but I’m a small person. The reason I do this is because I don’t feel any hungrier not eating all day than I do if I eat breakfast and lunch. Why eat all of those extra calories if I feel the same level of hunger whether I eat them or not. EVERYONE who knows about my eating habits thinks it’s extremely weird.
My stepdaughter LOVES to point out how little I have on my plate at holiday dinners. WTF, lardass? Do I make fun of how many plates you’ve had and how, later, you’re going to be whining on the floor about how full you are.
Take a breath…
Carry on!
Calories are not all the same. Calories come in the form of carbs, proteins, fats, and ethanol. Each provides very different calories per gram and each is metabolized very differently and with varying efficiency.
One of the big considerations is: Which nutrients are accompanying which type and what quantity of calories in our diets. The average cookie-cutter buffet meal fails miserably when considered as a sole source of food. Too many saturated fats and simple carbs, not enough vitamins, minerals, fiber etc…
Since your body requires food all throughout the day and never all at once, it is unhealthy to gorge yourself once and starve yourself the rest of the day. You put your body on a sort of hibernation cycle. Your body will lower its metabolism. You will become lethargic and start to gain weight.
The healthiest way to eat is to have several small meals througout the day. Someone (I think mythbusters) did a test on this. They gave one of the guys a healthy snack to eat throughout the day (of picking melons or something) and the other guy was given a large lunch. Their energy levels througout the day were examined. The guy who snacked had much more stamina, ate a smaller lunch, was ready to get back to work much faster after lunch, kept working longer and worked with more vigor.
Eating small, evenly spaced, carefully balanced meals throughout the day seems to be the healthiest way to eat: no insulin spikes and crashes, no “starvation mode - fat storage” kicking in, elevated metabolism, a steady flow of nutrients to feed muscle and brain etc.
Yet I submit that, in the course of human history, eating five small, balanced meals per day was a true rarity. Energy-dense food in the wild is hard to come by. Loads of ethnographic data tell of hunter-gatherers who would eat stupenduous amounts of food at once, then go two or three days or more without real food. Humans are perfectly capable of handling short-term lack of food. There is some convincing evidence that intermittent fasting is actually quite healthy, provided the “eating days” are energy-and nutrient-rich enough.
In my youth, I’d eat like a hunter-gatherer from Central Australia: huge meals once per day. Meals like 1 kg of french fries plus 1 kg of fish sticks. Or three pizzeria pizzas and a liter of coke. Or the occasional “all you can eat” stints, with 30+ pizza slices consumed. I was rail-thin and in good health.
For the past couple years I’ve been eating a half-dozen small meals per day, a complete 180. I’m much heavier and stronger than before, though apparently no better off health-wise than I was before. Once I started eating like this, I can’t go without food for more than four hours before feeling very hungry. Humans are adaptable opportunists.
The hunger pangs after going 24 hours without food would drive me nuts.
I had a friend who lived like this for a time when he was trying to get through school part-time while holding various low-paying jobs. He never felt anything particularly bad at the time. But once he got a “real job” and could afford to eat on a more normal schedule he was amazed at how better he felt both physically and mentally…school material that was tough for him (and really shouldn’t have been) suddenly became “easy” again.
$70 a week seems like a lot of money to feed one person. You could buy a lot of groceries on that, including stuff that didn’t need much cooking or prep.
Buddhist monks have been eating this way for the past 2,500 years (they eat one huge meal in the morning, then nothing afterwards). So it certainly can be done as a long term lifestyle.
Excellent point. In fact, you could actually purchase healthy pre-preprepared meals for that much.
I’ve done it for short spurts… for example, if I’m waiting a day or two before going to the grocery store and buying that month’s groceries… or if I’m travelling in a couple of days and I don’t want to waste money buying food that may perish (or lose usable days) while I’m gone.
It is certainly expensive on the long run, but considering that a single meal around where I work may cost that much (or a small meal and a snack), then a huge all you can eat (which is actually less than $10), may be a good deal short-term.
My first thought as well. Hell, for half that you can buy two pounds of deli ham, two pounds of cheddar cheese, and a loaf of bread and a big bag of frozen peas and eat all week.