Curious to see how many meals those of you living an active lifestyle eat. Also how often do you eat, how many hours apart if you time them out, etc.
At least 3 full meals. 1 workout shake. I try to add 3-4 snacks, if work is very busy this does not work all the time. Workout shake Snack Lunch Snack Dinner I Dinner II Snack/Pre-bed shake
I have a question that pertains to those in this thread and about Berardi's whole 7 Habits stuff. So, what is a 'meal' when you eat 5-7 of them per day? As in, total amount of food? Is it enough to make you full at all, or by 'meal' do you just mean 'small portion of food'? Yeah...I'm a newb at this stuff, but getting a lot better by reading this forum for a few weeks. This is one of the biggest questions I have actually.
I would say 3 main meals a day, then 2 to 3 snacks type meals and a protein shake before bed. (snack meal is usually something like a banana and however many nuts i can eat)
I work in an office environment and have the luxury of being being able to eat just about whenever I want (as long as i'm not in a meeting). Otherwise it would be hard. I pretty much graze all day. Preparing 5-7 'meals' is simply unrealistic. 1. breakfast: organic multigrain breakfast bar(1 or 2). Or 2 hard boiled eggs 2. Hour or so later 1 cup of mixture of (all organic) dry rolled oats, granola, multi grain something (can't remember right now) 3. Lunch (something light, not very hungry) 4. 1 to 1/2 hour later repeat #2 5. hour later, eat bananna 6. if I don't workout until 7pm or later I eat some type of power bar 7. post work out mixture of creatine, gatorade, whey protein 8. 45min-1hr later light dinner I also consume 200+ ounces of water during the day. I think there is a perception for beginners to this kind of lifestyle that you never get to be 'full'. That is probably true if you are used to full = stuffed. But you will find that you if you eat frequently you hardly feel the urge to stuff yourself. Eventually you will find yourself getting 'hungry' quicker, but satisfied with less food. My big meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) are quite small. I am just never that hungry. Give me more than 2 hours without a big glass of water or a snack though and I start to get hunger pains. I have always heard that if you start to feel very hungry or very thirsty then it means you have already well surpassed the time you need to eat. I kind of look at this diet is eating/drinking to prevent hunger/thirst. That means that sometimes you will eat when not what you may think of now as 'hungry', but you will require smaller portions. Preparing 5-7 real meals is just unrealistic unless you are a professional athelete, or have no life or responsibility. Others will have more sceintific advice. But this is what i do with much success in energy level, lean body mass, and hydration, and performance.
My meal timing is dependent on the type of meal I consume. Sometimes it's 1 hour, other times it's 5 hours. I've written an article about eating dogma and how to optimize timing here: 21st Century Eating
Good article. Makes sense. Eat strategically, rather than blindly following a principle. Although blindly following a principle is, as you put it, good for training beginners. What do you think about my previous reference to 'being hungry' or 'being thirsty' as your body warning you that you have gone well past the time you should have consumed some nutrients. Most people i know plan meals around when they feel hungry, and by the time they eat of course they are in 'starving' mode. Should you every be very hungry (especially when training)? I could understand when cutting weight, but in general?
