I keep to my three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Meanwhile, I am constantly seeing people munching away on dehydrated fruit bits, protein this or that, fiber supplemented cookies, etc, to the point they overlook proper meals.
Did I miss a memo?
Intermittent fasting? Grazing?
Please elaborate.
Grazing is like snacking throughout the day or many smaller meals
Intermittent fasting is better explained here, but it comes down to “fasting for part(s)” of the day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting
Grazing sounds like a sure way to gain weight and fast. By not putting in on one sitting a full meal, capable of sustaining for a given amount of time, we’ll constantly adding to our mouth this and that. It makes harder to tally how much is eaten in one day.
And not eating between meals can not be considered intermitent fasting? We have a meal and abstain from eating until the next. It is quite intuitive, as far as I understand the notion.
You should read up on diabetes.
Big meals are probably the worst way to eat - the body stores all the extra calories as fat.
Quite the opposite of your supposition.
I have. I have a few relatives that either suffered or suffer of diabetes and besides watching what and how much they eat, every single one keeps a life as close to normal as possible.
Honestly it’s probably way closer to the true neolithic diet that humans evolved to eat than scheduled meals are. And you’re even describing the right things to eat that way, nuts, berries, a lil jerky. There’s a lot of cultural variance too but honestly what our comes down to is that humanity’s biggest strength that has allowed us to become as powerful as we are is our fundamental versatility.
Even just in terms of food: koalas can’t even recognize the leaves of the one plant they eat their entire lives if they’re not on a tree but humans can walk to the other side of the planet and look at a plant or animal and be like “wonder how I’m gonna cook that.” That is AMAZING and you’re saying you think that’s bound by a schedule? You think humans spent time on the migration path going “nah I’m gonna skip that berry cuz it’s not lunch yet!”
You made me smile with that line on the humans looking around and thinking in different ways to eat the landscape.
You are correct, our ancestors ate whenever and whatever they could but we are not our ancestors. We’ve developed and went above and beyond those constraints.
And this is not to deny your point. I can easily withstand an entire day with a single meal, like many others, but it is not pleasant. And it is very well understood how keeping a schedule for eating, properly, is benefitial.
I fast for 20 hours and eat in a 4 hour window every day. It looks and feels nothing like not eating between multiple meals per day.
Also, people who graze, in my anecdotal observations, are always the absolute thinnest, healthiest bastards I know. A nut here, a grape there, abs visible in their thirties? Motherfuckers. If I did that if be a thousand pounds in no time. But as the person you replied to said, we all respond differently to different strategies and stick to what works for us.
What you’re describing in closer to what muslim endure during Ramadan, which is fasting, by definition.
If you feel fine with such regimen, good, but how adequate for common practice can it be?
My own anecdotal observation tells me the “grazer” (not a word I enjoy using) tends to put on a lot of weight. That constant eating is putting unnecessary calories into the body, regardless they eating “healthy” snacks.
Your metabolism goes up when digesting. So snacking a little at a time keeps your metabolism high and keeps your blood sugar from spiking. Also it keeps you from gorging in larger meals than is necessary, because when you feel hungry, you overestimate how much you really need. Then after you overconsume, how do you feel? Lethargic and not ready to do as much.
I can only reply with sitting down and stopping to eat, instead of the opposite. Keeping a schedule. Avoid junk food.
I’m quoting my doctor here.
Unless there is a need for a special regime, it is what I have been advised for decades.
That is the “classic” approach, but dietician increasingly recommending varied strategies fire different people.
I’ve been trying to gain weight for years and the most effective method has been 2 meals a day and intentionally snacking on small candies throughout since those teens to make me feel hungry as an appetizer rather than full like other snacks did. If I needed to lose weight the recommended practice based on how I live would be 4 meals a day and never snacking.
The way gaining or losing weight works is simple, it’s calories in versus calories burned. For some people snacking, so long as it reduces how much is eaten at meals, increases calories burned by a significant amount. Therefore keeping them at a lower weight. For others it doesn’t have that effect, and usually it’s because those people eat a consistent amount in their meals regardless.