[Mrs.Rucker]

Ok, so I am interested in knowing if any of you do the 5 small meals a day. And if you do, how do you do it? Like what do you eat, when and how far apart?

 

[Shanny]

Since I'm retired & home all day, my habit is just grazing throughout the day. I don't know how many times I eat - I usually just eat one thing - not a meal. I keep carb-free foods handy & snack on them prob'ly every coupla/three hours. We had dinner tonight about 5:30pm - I had a small chef salad & sugar-free jello. Now at 8pm, I'm having the 3-minute chocolate mug cake.

Earlier in the day I had smoked oyster dip on a GG crispbread - I think I had one at noon & another one about 3pm before I went grocery shopping so I wouldn't be hungry in the store.

There are so few carbs in all of this that I don't even keep track anymore, and I don't schedule either, because I don't have to - I'm here all day & don't have to plan around anything else, except getting an evening meal ready for my husband.

 

[jwags]

I am at home all day too, so it is easier to do the mini meals. When I wake up around 7 am I usually have coffee and some nuts or nut butter on celery. Sometimes I make low carb muffins or cookies and will have some of them with my coffee. Around 10-11 I have a bigger meal like bacon and eggs or a pizza made on some tomatoes, low carb crackers with veggies. I usually eat lunch around 2 pm. It is usually raw veggies in a salad with some protein and cheese. Late afternoon around 5, I usually will have veggies and cheese or hummus. We eat dinner late around 7:30. It is usually a meat or fish portion, a salad and a veggie. Dessert is usually a Breyers Carb Smart ice cream bar.

 

[Mrs.Rucker]

Thank you!! This help me get some ideas!! Having a hard time eating 3 big meals!!

 

[smorgan]

Personally, I don't like that at all and it doesn't work for me. I prefer to have at least 6 hours or more between meals and mostly without snacks, although sometimes I do snack if I feel like it. This large gap ensures, among other things, that my blood sugar definitely has time to go all the way back to baseline. It also give my digestive system and related organs time to "rest".

It's just my personal opinion, but to me it feels like just another symptom of our modern, spoiled, everything-always-available culture. I highly doubt through our million years of evolution if many humans ever ate that way - and most don't now. I don't think it is natural or appropriate. It's also part of how we ate (along with too little fat and WAY too many carbs) which gave us this disease in the first place.

But, that's just my opinion and I have nothing to base it on except for the way I feel.

 

[Shanny]

Mrs. R? I keep things like deviled eggs, hot wings (not breaded) & cream cheese spreads handy all the time so there's never any shortage of low/no carb choices. The GG bran crispbreads are the vehicle for the spreads.

My main cream cheese spreads are smoked oyster dip & smoked salmon spread, but any good cheese ball that you like which isn't loaded with carbs is good.

I understand why you'd need long stretches between meals, Salim, since you keep your glycogen depleted, you aren't at risk of a liver dump. Most of us run that risk when we go without eating too long. As for the evolutionary basis, this modern, spoiled, everything-always-available thing was never true in my household unless I produced it from scratch myself, because I sure wasn't going to give good money to some grocer for it. We ate plenty of fat, because we had access to raw milk, so we had fresh cream & churned our own butter - we grew our own hogs & had the lard rendered. That is what "spoiled" really means - being able to cook with the real components of nutrition. Having to contend with the self-proclaimed experts who say it's bad for us is particularly odious when you know from the ground up what honest good food is.

 

[smorgan]

Mrs. R? I keep things like deviled eggs, hot wings (not breaded) & cream cheese spreads handy all the time so there's never any shortage of low/no carb choices. The GG bran crispbreads are the vehicle for the spreads.

My main cream cheese spreads are smoked oyster dip & smoked salmon spread, but any good cheese ball that you like which isn't loaded with carbs is good.

I understand why you'd need long stretches between meals, Salim, since you keep your glycogen depleted, you aren't at risk of a liver dump. Most of us run that risk when we go without eating too long. As for the evolutionary basis, this modern, spoiled, everything-always-available thing was never true in my household unless I produced it from scratch myself, because I sure wasn't going to give good money to some grocer for it. We ate plenty of fat, because we had access to raw milk, so we had fresh cream & churned our own butter - we grew our own hogs & had the lard rendered. That is what "spoiled" really means - being able to cook with the real components of nutrition. Having to contend with the self-proclaimed experts who say it's bad for us is particularly odious when you know from the ground up what honest good food is.

Nice! Except for the hogs and lard which I don't eat for religious reasons, you're making me HUNGRY (and I just ate)!

 

[Patdart]

Salim, I thought you ate barbecued ribs, or am I confused? Maybe beef ribs?

 

[smorgan]

Salim, I thought you ate barbecued ribs, or am I confused? Maybe beef ribs?

Yup, only beef ribs.

 

[CarolSue]

I understand why you'd need long stretches between meals, Salim, since you keep your glycogen depleted, you aren't at risk of a liver dump. Most of us run that risk when we go without eating too long.

Shanny, can you expand on the above comment? What is meant by "keep your glycogen depleted" and what is a "liver dump." When I go longer than usual between meals I seem to have a much better BS reading.

 

[foxl]

I eat TWO meals per day -- using insulin, it minimizes peaks, and shots.

If I try to graze, I never go down!

 

[VeeJay]

If I try to graze, I never go down!

I find that to be the case most of the time. Unless what I'm eating is just fat and no carbs or protein.

Some days I can go hours between eating. Other days I seem to be hungry all day, or at least all morning - and then I do graze but try to be prudent with my choices.

 

[grammaB]

I basically only eat two meals a day too. I'm a night owl as are many of us here. I don't normally go to bed until after 2AM so I am getting up around 10:30/11:00AM.

I don't get to breakfast until around noon. It is a high fat and less than 3 gr of carb meal. For a long while I was forcing myself to eat a lunch around 4-4:30PM but about a month ago I basically gave up that meal and if I feel hungry at all will have an ounce of cheese or a handful of nuts or perhaps a couple slices of pepperoni or salami. I'm just not hungary enough for a meal.

I have my dinner anywhere from 8:00PM to 9:30PM. Again a fairly high fat meal and the meal with the most protein in my day. My daily carb count is almost always under 20 and often under 15. Yesterday's was 9 gr carbs. I really don't snack other than "lunch" which is more snack than meal. But then again there are some times when I will feel like a snack, so have one. I too am home all day, so I could eat anytime I feel like it, but following the above schedule seems to work the best for me.

I must add I am deeply in ketosis and as Shanny said, don't have a lot of glycogen circulating for my liver to dump. I like Salim's idea of giving his digestive system and related organs a chance to rest. I guess I have been doing that although unconsciously!!

 

[skb]

Shanny, can you expand on the above comment? What is meant by "keep your glycogen depleted" and what is a "liver dump." When I go longer than usual between meals I seem to have a much better BS reading.

What she means is that since Salim eats only low carb - high fat, he is in a prolonged permanent state of ketosis. In this state, the body learns to depend on ketones rather than glucose for fuel. Once in this state for a long time, the glucose reserves (glycogen) of the body get depleted. Once that happens, the liver is not able to give you a glycogen dump everytime you run low. This seems to be what is happening to you when you don't eat between meals for long periods.

 

[MCS]

I've learned to go with the flow of things and can do so because of being in ketosis. If I'm hungry I eat, if I'm not, I don't eat. Some days a cheese stick for breakfast is adequate followed by a handful of walnuts and more cheese for lunch with no snacks between meals. The one constant I have is I'm always starving at dinner time. Do not snack hardly at all between meals any more.