There has to be a connection with this principle I found on Blood Sugar 101:



And this is where I think our metabolic state comes into play. If someone has considerable insulin resistance, they are going to need more insulin to do the same job. Insulin resistance would be working against the 2 big meals strategy, and its big insulin release. The first step in fixing insulin resistance might be training our pancreas to release less insulin; by triggering it with smaller meals. Once we get that release down we can start to reverse the insulin resistance.

Small meals would trigger smaller insulin in the first place: small meals make the body expect to need less insulin. The blood sugar will rise more slowly and to a lower level; so the second phase is also less intensive.

I think it's important that both Merpig and Seejay (first page,) found this worked for them with five equal-sized meals, NOT the three meals + 2 snacks that so many people are used to. The equal size of the meals is the key whether it's me & cmnLisa & krystalr, or Merpig & Seejay. That's what we all have in common.

And that still makes the case against "snacking." Varying the size of our meals pushes our body off-balance. In the classic each-meal-followed-by-a-smaller-snack strategy, this alternate size situation is going to keep our body guessing wrong!

Each and every time.

Well, TPTB tell us to eat low-fat AND eat 5 to 6 times a day. My point with that example was to show that eating that way would likely mean you would have to have snacks. Everyone is different, but my guess would be that the majority of adults out there are like me. They would do better to have 2-3 nicely sized, nutritious meals with plenty of protein, fat, and good carbs, instead of 5 to 6 small, incomplete "mealsnacks."

BTW, this is how most people ate in the US until the 80s. And having lived in Austria, Germany and Italy, I can tell you that plenty of people in the world still eat this way.

I woke up this morning and my ears were burning

This topic comes down to the individual. PERIOD.

Eventhough I like the idea of eating 5-6 equally small meals, this wouldn't work for ME. The more often I eat the more hungry I am. The more often I eat the more obsessed I become about my next meal in 2 hours. Thru eliminating snacks hs enabled me to learn about myself what the difference is in "REAL" hunger and what is "PSYCHOLOGICAL" hunger. A valuable learning tool when trying to conquer all the baggage of why we got fat in the first place--usually a mixed component--never just one entitity.

This is where the indiviudal has to be the experiment of one and base their decision on the results--whether it be weight loss, equalized blood sugars or whatever.

Mer--seems like your 5-6 EQUAL sized meals is what your body was looking for. Congrats on your losses.

My motto--if it ain't broke don't fix it.


Progress not perfection.

Lisa

Interesting post. I'm finding that if I snack, even with low carb items, I crave more food and haunt the cupboards at night. I have started CAD and it seems to be working for me, but it may not be for everyone, just us carbohydrate addicts.

Huh, You guys have me wanting to experiment with different meal patterns. the thought of "training my pancreas" seems really interesting.

I dunno... without thinking about it much, I have about 4 small meals a day anyway. Usually, bfast is a couple of eggs with some kind of veg(today its lindas spinach lasagna with extra eggs and a few slices of bacon), lunch is 4-5 oz protein with a little veg (today its a slice of meatloaf with prob 1/4c sauteed zukes, dinner(at 5ish) is usually the same as lunch(tonight prob pulled pork with coleslaw but usually its really light, a slice of brie and maybe a few bites of chicken, I hate cooking in evening) and by 8/9 pm Im feeling snacky so I have a baby bell and a handfull of pecans.

Its rare when I eat a BIG meal anymore. I went for a splurge breakfast the other day, eggs benedict and hashbrowns. I avoided as much of the english muffin as I could and I was STUFFED before I could even finish the egg. used to be Id be licking the plate clean and thinking about a side of sausage and oranges.

SO Im probably in the "many small meals" camp. It just seems to come naturally. And according to werebear's post, (If I understood it correctly) putting small loads on the pancreas is better than BIG loads, right? definately a YMMV thing.

hmm. much to think about. I need to get a glucose meter.

Not quite: if I had five small meals a day, I'd be sending a constant flow of insulin to my cells; it would be constantly mopping up the blood sugar, and constantly making me hungry!

At least, that's how it was before I tried the 2 big meals a day. I used to eat breakfast, which made me ravenous by lunch. Then I'd try to eat the famous "sensible dinner" only to be haunting the kitchen before I went to bed five hours after dinner; not raging hungry, but definitely peckish and disgruntled at times. I was eating low carb, I was happy, but I was also stalled.

The thing that made me try IF was that I am never hungry in the morning. It's really easy for me to skip breakfast; and be no more ravenous than usual at lunch, either way. This seemed to set me up for a bigger than usual dinner; and NO peckish feelings before bed!

Perhaps my pancreas (and I don't know where it would have gotten this idea {grin}) expects big meals, every single time, and any size meal will open the insulin floodgates. It would explain why snacks just makes me hungrier; and why eating a big enough meal for the insulin flood takes care of me for hours and hours. The flood comes, has plenty of food to work on, and then IT'S DONE.

It doesn't hang around and drop my blood sugar and make me hungry; as would happen with a too-small meal or a snack.

HOWEVER: with a different kind of pancreas, it would work as I gather it is "supposed to" which would be letting out enough insulin for the last meal. This is actually a "smarter" pancreas; it remembers the last meal and releases accordingly; but that might not be the right thing.

Suppose we start the morning with a good breakfast. If the last thing we had the night before was a bedtime snack because we were hungry, the Smart Pancreas will release SnackSizedInsulin.

However, SnackSizedInsulin is not enough to cover GoodBreakfast. So then Smart Pancreas releases more; and if we have insulin resistance, it's used to releasing a LOT more for such "mopping up," because it takes so much more to get insulin into our cells. So it overshoots, lowers blood sugar, and makes us HUNGRY.

So, mid-morning, we snack to get us to lunch.

And we set it up to expect a snack, and when we have a real meal at lunch, it releases what it expected from the last meal: which is SnackSizedInsulin. Which isn't enough. Repeat.

And that's how you can have blood sugar rollercoasters; even on low carb. And then stall. Sure, you have lost weight and feel great; but the insulin is just high enough to keep us at our present weight. And we stall.

As I said earlier in this thread, I have never been a snacker during the daytime much. But get hungry for a snack late night. I have always eaten 3 normal meals around 6am, noon and 6m, before Atkins; and during my 2+ years on Atkins. Tried the mini-meals and it just made me have to think about what to fix for the next one and it was never a real meal IMO.

Recently I eliminated ALL snacking, even the late night one. That late one has been hard to give up, so I often go to bed early to avoid caving.

But this absolutely no snacking of any kind has broken a 17 month long stall!! I've lost 10# since June 19th, which is phenomenal for me. So I, for one, won't be snacking again, at least not until I'm at goal weight.

It got lost as my brain began working overtime on my theory, but what incredible news for Merpig & Buttoni! I am so happy for both of you.

Thanks WBear. I may stall again, but I know snacking is out of my life for good. Just serves no "good" purpose for me.

I've been looking seriously into this whole leptin sensitising thing and have been following Dr Jack Kruse's 'leptin prescription' which in addition to totally eliminating snacking gets you to eat a minumum of 50grams of protein for breakfast within half an hour of rising.

http://jackkruse.com/my-leptin-prescription/

He tells us to play with the protein levels to find an amount to eat that has us hungry for our next meal 5 - 6 hours later .. for me it seems to be a little higher than 50grams seeing as I'm getting hungry at around 4 hours.

I'm doing this in conjunction with a few other things, and it is very early days yet but so far so good. My sleeping is getting better (one of the main reasons I started this) and really weirdly I've suddenly had a MASSIVE reduction in cellulite on my legs... everything just smoothed out lol

I've been battling with this. Snacking is definitely my downfall. I've taken two vacations this summer where I ate 2 or 3 meals per day with no snacking. I ate alot "off plan" too and did not gain anything and had not issues with constipation that I deal with so often. I am totally convinced it was because there was no snacking involved. I just need to do this at home. I think I don't eat enough at my meals to keep me full long enough which leads to snacking to make it to the next meal.

Thanks for that link, there's so much wonderful information there! It's so great that it is working for you; just like Dr. Kruse says.

Actually, I've implemented Kruse's LR prescription, but am not eating Paleo. Been doing it about a month. But since I had already eliminated coffee, tea, most dairy, and sweeteners also to accomplish this profound stall bust, I'm about as close to doing Paleo as you can get at the moment. I have trouble getting a full 50g protein in at breakfast, but 35-43 is my average lately. But I'm still hungry 9-10pm. Just can't move past that. So I'm going to bed early (hungry) a lot these days. But I'm impressed with his theories and hope funding and research is forthcoming to substantiate it. Sure makes sense, what all he is saying about Leptin Resistance preceding insulin resistance. I continue to read regularly on his website. like that he's not pushing products either.

I'm not completely paleo either - in fact I'm in the middle of a round of HCG which is COMPLETELY not paleo. I just think that all of these things can work together synergistically to improve health over the long term.

Well I'm sure hoping they do, Abbey.