5-Meal-A-Day-Plan?!

Okay, so maybe I've quite literally been living in a hole, but I've only just realised that my dieting program is absolutely unacceptable. Don't get me wrong, I didn't actually go off to a dietitian or a doctor for any advice, instead, I just took matters into my own hands.

So, apparently I've been doing some tremendously stupid mistakes by attempting to ignore my hunger throughout the day. Yes, I have three meals a day, and yes I undergo a tremendous amount of exercise throughout the day to aid me in maintaining my weight. Yet, although I have been losing weight (losing and gaining - very unbalanced), I've been losing it in the wrong places. The places that I wish to lose it at the most is still similar looking to how I used to be before I started attempting to change things a little.

Hence, a 5-meal plan has been strongly advised. Apparently if you skip meals your body goes into starvation mode and the next time you eat your body starts to stock-pile fat in case you go back into this mode. Maybe that is why I have been losing weight in some places and yet the other places seem to just look the same.

I'm hoping that I can fix this mistake and undergo a plan/recipe that will help me shed some pounds by eating a lot more healthy.

So, I'd like to know how it is that you shed some weight (if you follow a 5-meal-a-day-plan, that is), and maintain it a later stage, by eating more healthy and giving your body a chance to strengthen it's metabolism.

Hence, I'd really appreciate it if you'll let me know your recipes. What do you eat? What don't you eat? When and how much?

Thank you in advance.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.  You don't really need 5 meals a day you just need to eat regularly and eat enough.  If you've been getting a reasonably evenly spaced breakfast, lunch and supper then you have not gone into starvation mode... you've been eating regularly.

Given what you've said in other threads it sounds like you're just not eating enough. You would benefit by eating more at your usual three meals, plus adding a few snacks in between.  You're 18.... I can't tell how tall you are (let's assume 5'2")...  If you still weigh 50kgs or so and if you're working out for several hours a day then you need 2680 - 3000 cals a day to maintain your weight. 

If you chronically undereat you will affect your body-shape because you'll be compromising your muscle development.  People who chronically undereat also find it a lot easier to gain than to lose weight eventually..  that unblanaced losing and gaining you speak of would be classic.

Thank you again, gi-jane. I really appreciate you replying to my threads all the time.

Just to make things clear; I'm 5'4" (I work with metric scales, in which case I'd be 164.5 cm) and my weight is always fluctuating. Maybe because I'm always hanging off the scales like it's a lifeline. Yes, nobody wants to put on any weight, and yet although I know I'm losing it and putting it on at the most random of times (hence, I fluctuate horribly), I find it interesting to see what it looks like in numbers.

I'm usually on the borderline of 50kg. Obviously, this weight changes drastically throughout the day, depending on how much you consume and what your output is. On weekends especially (such as this weekend [which quite literally drove me to tears] I was at 52kg) I put on weight (simply because I eat more). On a good day (a good day being when I feel good about myself) I can be 49kg. But mostly, I'm 50kg.

Yes, eating regularly is definitely something that I do not do. I never skip breakfast, don't get me wrong, but I never touch a crumb of food inbetween meals. The worst I feel is between lunch and dinner. When it gets to dinner I'm so ravenous that I feel I could eat the world.

Hence, this is when my sister interfered and said that if I'm thinking of losing any weight and maintaining it... it isn't by letting my body go into starvation-mode. Which is what I think it's been doing, considering that I am not losing weight regularly, neither putting it on properly.

Like I said before - it's all very unbalanced and I fluctuate a lot. I've been researching a lot and reading on people's feedbacks, etc, and I've decided (from tomorrow) to attempt to stick to a 5-meal-a-day plan and hope beyond all reason that it'll work to balance out my weight/diet and through this - make me happier.

You are right about your  body going into starvation mode. If you're hungery you should eat or else you will consume way more at you next meal. Also if you don't consume enough at the next meal your body will start storing. Listen to your body its very intelligent.

i just plugged your stats in, and you are very thin, almost underweight. why are you trying to lose any more weight? you mention both maintenance and also weight loss in your post. maintenance is good obviously but you have no need to lose any weight. so yes you should obviously eat when you are hungry. even on your "heavy" days you are very slim. it could be possible that all of this is in your head (i do this all the time). i bet others around you think you are very slim, all over. good luck and be healthy!

I totally agree with you "rikaj", Why are you trying to loose more weight if you are already thin enough, I am 157cm 61kg, I am the one that needs to loose 10kgs. not you at all. If you still feel fat there is totally something wrong, love yourself and realize that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL just how you are.

Here's the best one I've seen, from our own Nutritionist, Mary Hartley, in the CC Advice section:

1500 Calories in Six Meals-a-Day
Six meals may sound like a lot of food, but the portions are key and probably smaller than you think.

For maintenance, you will want to use the CC Burn tool to determine how many calories you burn.  You need to eat that amount to maintain your weight.  I'm sure you don't want to lose more and become mal nourished.  I'm sure what you need is far more than 1500.

Thank you for all of your concern. I don't particularly see myself as fat or anything. Neither do I think I'm underweight. I know for a fact that I am thin, and yet for some reason I'm not yet happy. The thing is, when you find that there is something about your body that is not very nice (i.e. trouble spots), you'll go into a frenzy of doing everything and anything humanly possible to change that about yourself. At least that is what it is like with me at the moment.

My upperbody is particularly thin. But what I hate about myself are probably my thighs. Seeing those who hardly move their feet throughout the day or ever break sweat throughout the whole year having a pair of tightly toned and slim legs/thighs really gets on my nerves. Here I am working day in and day out to try to look better, and yet they always seem to be looking more and more spectacular everyday. No matter how much I try.

Maybe it's jealousy. Maybe it's obsession. But what I do know for a fact (and I don't deny this blatantly) is that my way of thinking is not right. And a hell! It's not healthy either.

It's this simple step of accepting yourself, being happy with what you look like and who you truly are, that is the heaviest, most difficult step that I presume I must take.

I understand that food is vital. And to a certain degree... but it doesn't change that at the end of the day, I always think I could have done better, when I'm probably already at my limit.

I eat about six times a day...

It really does work, but only if you keep each meal fairly under 200 calories, depending on what your calorie target is. (mine's 1200)

I hate it when people assume I have a fast metabolism because they see me eating all the time...far from it  If I'm sedentary, I only burn about 1300 calories a day being sedentary, so I gotta work out for about 45 minutes on my ski machine to create a good deficit. (Yup. I drag it in front of the TV.) But I don't eat five or six meals every day...some days I just feel like eating more calories at one particular meal, so I adjust everything else I eat that day. It doesn't really matter when you eat or how often, as long as you burn more calories than you eat (or the same number if you're maintaining), so it all really depends on how you like to eat. The only question is whether three square meals of about 4 or 500 each calories satisfies you, or a bunch of little meals of 2 or 300, because the weight will only stay off if you eat like this forever. (when I first heard 'eat like this forever' I panicked, but it's really not hard when you think about it, and you can have little splurges if you make up for it the rest of the day.)

Food is fun =D

Have you gotten your bodyfat % checked?  Usually they can do that for free at the gym.  If you're physically the right weight for your height, the problem areas that concern you might not be gotten rid of by any kind of dieting, even dieting geared toward metabolism (though I agree with the other posters, keeping yourself from being hungry is ALWAYS a good thing for your body).  You say you do a lot of exercise, but are you on a weightlifting regimen or is it just cardio?  Building up your muscle mass might help toward lowering your bodyfat % which will make you look slimmer at the same weight, and maybe build a little of your confidence since you'll be a stronger, even more kick-butt woman than you already are!

Ah, if only I could get my bodyfat % checked around here. I've been meaning to do these sort of check-ups. But, I know for a fact that although I'm slim, I have a tremendous muscle mass. My sisters are physically both older and bigger, yet I weigh more than they do. And I've always heard that muscle weighs more than fat, unless I've mistaken that for some sort of myth or something.

Still, my obsession with perfecting my trouble spots really goes off the roof. I'm crazy. End of story. =P

And I assume that once you start doing something (like taking on a 5-meal-a-day-plan) you can always get used to it. It's just the thought of maintaining and then sticking with it for the rest of your life that really does get to me. I hope that you're right though, puppyluff, I hope it gets easier. =)

Another question; how do you know how many calories you consume? How do you count them and then keep track? Personally; I haven't got a clue.