Have you heard the term 'grazer'

A grazer is one who just eats all day long.  No big meals but is constantly eating, like every couple of hours.  I think I may be one of those individuals.  And I can't stand this terminology because of the obvious association it makes between a cow and myself.  I have always been  a good 30lbs overweight and I am wondering if this 'grazing' is a contributing factor.  I have researched this terminology and found conflicting info.  Some say its good b/c it boosts  metabloism.  I think though, it may depend on what one is grazing on.  I recently switched to a low sugar (not including fruit sugar), low sodium 'grazing' kick, and this seems to be helping jump start some weight loss.  What do you all think?

Yessss I've been described as a grazer so many times, haha. What I consider grazing is eating bits of things at a time... maybe popping into the kitchen and eating a slice of cheese and then an oreo or two, then popping back in later and grabbing a few handfuls of cereal and maybe an apple, then once again for a yogurt and some more cereal. If you don't keep that nibbling in check, you quickly lose track of calories. It doesn't really matter how healthy or junky what you graze on is, as too many calories in will result in weight gain. What it all comes down to is calories in, calories out.

do you count all your grazing calories? if not, you might try it. you gotta run the numbers to figure out if its a problem for you or not. eating frequently is good, but not if its consistently over your maintenance.

im definately a grazer. I hate eating meals. But you should def count those grazing cals. Maybe you just shocked your body form switching up your diet a bit. but in the end its all about cals in and cals out

Grazing often means that someone is eating a lot more than they think.... Little bits and pieces can quickly tot up to hundreds of extra calories and that often results in weight-gain.  Grazing is also a very unsatisfying way to eat .... few people feel 'full' on snacks so the signals to stop eating get lost.... this is also instrumental in weight-gain.  Nutrition often gets lost along the way.  Snack food is often quite nutritionless and 'diet' snack food is even worse.  A nutritionally poor diet often leads to overeating.

There have been studies that show that people who are not conscious of the amount they are eating will eat a lot more than people who are conscious of quantities.   The example was two tables of people being served chicken drumsticks.  On one table, the finished bones were allowed to sit on the diners' plates.  On the other table, waitresses removed the finished bones so that the diner had an empty plate.  The diners that could see how many chicken drumsticks they'd eaten ate fewer than the ones that couldn't keep track so easily

Try to stick to three meals a day with one or two planned snacks in between.  Sit down at a table to eat.  Eat with other people, if you can.  Try not to have any distractions when you eat... e.g. television or a computer.   Eat more slowly so that your body register the feeling of fullness.   All these things mean you can feel more satisfied on less food.

And finally, record what you eat in a food diary or the CC food log.

good point about the drumsticks.  I had heard that story before but never associated it with grazing.  I am trying to log each time I snack but the problem I am finding that it is so unminded ( habitual) that I find I dont remember everything.  What is helping is that I have been portioning things out into baggies and keeping the empty baggies in a pile so at the end of the day I can tally things up.