Eating every three hours a myth

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share this based on my own experience. When it first started being said in the media that eating every three hours boosted your metabolism I bought into it. However, after thinking about it, I realized that eating every three hours couldn't possibly boost it because your body needs time to digest the food and three hours simply isn't enough time. You're just making your body work harder while it should be doing other things.

I found this article that confirmed what I had been thinking.

 

Dr. Steven Schnur's Top 5 Diet Myths!

Myth #5: If I don't eat every three hours, my body will go into starvation mode and my metabolism will shut down.

Reality: Clocks were invented long after human beings. Your body will go into starvation mode only if it's starving -- that is, if it doesn't have enough calories to sustain its basic cellular functions. Just because you feel hungry, experience cravings, or have low energy doesn't mean you're starving. It just means that you've trained your body to expect food at certain intervals, so your gastric juices start pumping in expectation. The only thing you'll do by eating every three hours is ensure that you'll be hungry every three hours -- the last thing you want to do if you're trying to lose weight.

Training your body not to be hungry between meals is no different than training a toddler to use the potty. By lengthening the intervals between courses, you eventually will lose the urge to eat to frequently. Of course, you don't want to leave such huge gaps between meals you become ravenous and binge. Your ultimate goal should be to eat three satisfying meals a day with an occasional snack and not be distracted constantly by thoughts of food.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=fitn ess&id=4345046

Melkor re:

 If your diet doesn't include exercise or only mild, non-panting cardio like yoga or pilates that isn't as much of a concern since you aren't putting enough stress on your body to make it grow new

If Pilates (can't speak for Yoga) is done right it will cause muscle pain and with that muscle gain (tranversal abs, obliques, shoulder muscles, triceps) and there is deliberate panting involved in doing Pilates.

However if by non-panting you mean low impact / low heart rate cardio, then I concurr.

Yup - from what I've seen of both Pilates and Yoga the effectiveness depends greatly on the quality of your instructor and not so much on the specifics of the protocol.

 (You can probably tell I've looked more in-depth at both since last time this conversation happened)

 Bodyweight protocols can be extremely efficient or very inefficient depending entirely on the amount of work you put into them - the trouble with the majority of bodyweight exercise programs is that making the workout hard enough on yourself to see continued progress beyond the initial 6-8 weeks adaptive response almost never happen unless you've got a very good instructor who keeps pushing you. In that respect a general weights program is no different from either of the above protocols - you'll get out of it exactly what you're willing to put into it in terms of pushing your own boundaries, and no more.

 As Cosgrove notes in his postscript - "Keep in mind that what all this boils down to is that hard work that makes you sweat is better than easy work that doesn't" :)

 Also, note that everything that gets you off the couch is better than staying put - it may not be as effective or as fast as a more intense method, but the workout you do is infinitely superior to the workout you don't, however theroretically perfect.

There ya go. I have a fantastic instructor she does classes of max 8 people and corrects everyone's position and form continuisly!

I just love doing Pilates so I make it part of my gym work out.

But I agree it's very easy to do it wrong and have no results/effect whatsoever or actually hurt yourself doing it.

it's not going to put you in "Starvation mode" if you don't eat every three hours... it's just a method some people find helpful because it does give your metabolism an extra boost (as opposed to what it would normally be) and it does help prevent some people from overeating because then they aren't ravenous come meal time. Unless you eat ALOT every 3 hours... this method certainly isn't gonna hurt you

what about the 3 hour diet?

lol- really L.O.L.

I think everyone needs to realize that each person is different.  Maybe several small meals throughout the day is not for them.  For myself, it is.  In fact, after speaking with my dietician, she recommended it to me.  By eating smaller meals and snacks, I'm not as likely to gorge myself at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

But what works for one person, may not be what's good for the next.  Play around with your options to find what works best for you.  Good luck to everyone!

Yes, it is a myth that your body will go into starvation mode if you don't eat every three hours.  But that myth evolved from misinterpreting what fitness experts were doing.  Eating small meals every three hours is ideal for protein absorption and fat burning.  But it is not worth it if you cannot constrain yourself to eating within your limits.

I have to eat every 3 hours just to get my daily calorie needs. The foods I enjoy are generally low in calories, and since I am reducing my carbs to wheat bread for a sandwich at lunch and occasionally some rice, I need a lot of food to get all of my calories in. I can not eat a lot at one time because I do not feel good and I have a baby who likes to eat as soon as I start eatting...lol. I don't know if it has helped me lose weight, or if my weight loss is from working out and eatting better foods in general, but I feel a lot better than when I was trying to eat 1200 cals in 3 meals. I can barely get that many when I eat 5-6 times a day, and I am rarely hungry, so getting it in 3 meals would be really hard.

I tried for years to lose weight by eating 3 meals a day and failed over and over again which lead me to think I would never be able to lose the weight.

It wasn't until I allowed myself to eat 3 times before 1pm that I started to lose. I eat when I am hungry and it is not always the same pattern but mornings are definitely my hungry time of day.

I've lost 57 pounds so it's working for me. I don't feel like I'm hanging by my fingernails ready to quit at any moment like I have on previous diets.

We really are all different and creating the plan that works for you is key.

When I was losing weight I liked to eat more frequently during the day. I never thought that my metabolism would shut down or that I would go into starvation mode if I didn't. That seems ridiculous to me. Also what's up with the clock reference? If were going back in time, how long have "breakfast, lunch and dinner" been around?

Personally by eating more frequently I found myself focussing less on what the next meal was going to be. IMHO, fine tuning a diet plan to meet individual needs is one of the most important components of a successful outcome.