Because the Hive Knows All- GRM Nutrition Question

Seriously, you guys (collectively) know everything so why not ask this here:
Since college, I have been eating one meal per day- dinner. I have coffee and nothing else for breakfast, and skip lunch entirely. I don't particularly want to start eating lunch, but am open to "meal replacement" type crap if it doesn't take prep. I assume it's also better to eat breakfast? My issue is that if I eat something at the beginning of the day, my body "remembers" that it likes food and I'm hungry all day- with my current schedule, I'm not hungry until dinner time. For what it's worth, on race days/when I go riding/etc I eat many small meals and feel way better, but I don't want the annoyance of doing that on a daily basis.

What say you? Eat breakfast? Some sort of lunch? Quit being a dipE36 M3 and actually eat multiple small meals per day instead of adding to my "one big meal" schedule? If it's not clear, I have no idea what I'm doing- reading material is an acceptable answer.

Eat as many times per day as you can. best thing you can do.

I'm sure you've heard this, but since you're young now, your body is pretty adaptable. As you get older, it will become less so. I'm 38 now, and I have noticed that getting on (and staying on) a routine helps with mind, body, and spirit.

With my schedule (and road tripping) eating lots of meals can be hard. But if you plan a little, it doesn't have to be. I always carry a bag of homemade trail mix with me. Get hungry? Grab a handful. Easy. Always carry a quart of water with you. Even if I'm just running to the hardware store, I'll grab my quart. In the half-hour trip, I'll drink the whole thing. I try to drink 3 or 4 quarts of just water each day. You need it.

Every day, before you do anything else, right when you wake up, drink at least 16 ounces of water. Don't drink any caffeine until you've been awake at least an hour. After you've had your water, eat a decent breakfast. Something with protein and fiber. Oatmeal- even instant- is good. Or eggs.

You don't have to go vegetarian, but most people eat way too much meat. You need like 2 to 3 ounces per day. Some days I eat 1/4 pound of meat. Other days I eat no meat. Meat's also expensive. Nuts, cheese, beans, etc are cheaper. Eat as much good, toxin-free fish as you can. And look at organ meats- a few ounces per week can have really good health benefits.

Drink in moderation.

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It's not about when you eat, so much as what. Yes, optimally, you want to eat multiple times in a day. My wife and I are into bodybuilding, which includes nutrition. I eat something at least 6 times per day. For metrics, I'm 5'9", 170lbs and about 13% body fat. It's about having the right mix of macros (protein, fat, carbs). There are endless arguments to this, but I think most people would agree that they key is eating the right foods. I eat roughly 16oz of meat per day, plus 3 or 4 scoops of protein powder and other protein sources. I do have some carbs and fats, but in moderation.

So I'd say try to eat more often if you can, but it's more about eating the right things. IIRC, Hershel Walker was famous for having a "diet" where he only ate once per day...and he was an elite athlete.

It is really hard to say without knowing more about you. Are you looking to maintain your weight, lose weight or gain weight? What is your activity level – do you do sports/run/bicycle? Are you involved in strength training? When you do eat – what are you eating?
Honestly, your diet may be right for you, but I there is a lot more to this than how many meals a day you eat.

(My wife is an RD. I am not.)

What and how much do you eat? Caloric intake, fat intake, protein, sugar, carbs, etc.? What about your vitamins?

What you're doing isn't the best. It is better to eat many small meals. But if you're eating 1 1800-3000 calories (depending on your size, activity level, etc.) in that one meal and getting the necessary nutrients then you're probably ok.

The problem is that when you get too hungry, you go into a "starvation" mode. While it may not yet mean that your body is storing everything as fat, it does mean that you're going to be craving food that is good for creating fat. Sugary stuff, fatty stuff. Is your one meal three pounds of pasta with butter and parmesan cheese, or a serving of lean meat the size of my palm, two cups of blueberries, two bell peppers and hummus, a banana, a piece of bread with some olive oil, a salad, and then a fruit parfait for dessert?

We all know being physically active is good since it burns calories. What some people don't realize is that you can train your body to burn calories when you're not active as well. Your metabolism does the work while you're sitting on GRM, and it can be trained to burn more or less calories. It's one of the most important contributors to long term health. The best analogy I've seen treated your metabolism like a fire that you try to keep going. The food you eat is like a fuel source for the fire, but you have to be cautious about what you're burning, as well as the amount.

So, say you need to keep this fire (your metabolism) going for 24 hours. I give you 5 decent pieces of firewood or 5 balls of crumpled newspaper to use at your discretion. The firewood represents small meals with a good protein base. The newspaper would be junk food/carbs. The firewood will burn longer and more steadily while the newspaper burns hot, but for a very short time (this is why you get hungry shortly after eating junk food). If you dump all of the logs on the fire at once, it will likely smother the fire, so the idea is to gradually add one piece of firewood at a time throughout the 24hours to keep the fire burning well without smothering it. I think you see the point, but just like adding the firewood several times per day, eating smaller healthy meals with a good protein base, and eating them more often will likely give you much better results than eating junk food several times per day, or eating one huge healthy meal.

Klayfish wrote: It's not about when you eat, so much as what. Yes, optimally, you want to eat multiple times in a day. My wife and I are into bodybuilding, which includes nutrition. I eat something at least 6 times per day. For metrics, I'm 5'9", 170lbs and about 13% body fat. It's about having the right mix of macros (protein, fat, carbs). There are endless arguments to this, but I think most people would agree that they key is eating the right foods. I eat roughly 16oz of meat per day, plus 3 or 4 scoops of protein powder and other protein sources. I do have some carbs and fats, but in moderation. So I'd say try to eat more often if you can, but it's more about eating the right things. IIRC, Hershel Walker was famous for having a "diet" where he only ate once per day...and he was an elite athlete.

I'm of similar size (a bit shorter at 5'7", but the same weight and composition) with similar interests and I've experimented quite a bit with diet over the past decade or so.

Out of boredom I put myself into ketosis over the past week and am doing it properly so I'm not miserable this time. I usually do the one meal per day thing, but I eat before work.

Seems to be leaning me out more and, unless yesterday's workout was a fluke, I've actually gained strength and energy as opposed to the typical reaction to keto.

I'd say give keto a shot, the results can be surprising.

Went through this myself. Used be twice a day eater. Usually lunch and dinner during the work week and brunch and dinner on the weekends. Then got nailed as pre-diabetic. Went through counseling for that and learned to eat better with more smaller meals throughout the day. Now 3 meals a day plus an afternoon snack. The meals are smaller and more nutritious than I used eat. Ended up loosing 25 pounds and straightened out the blood pressure issues I was having. Admittedly I don't count calories or even fat content, I pay more attention to sugar and carb content and just eat less more often. Been able to keep the weight off for going on 2 years now. Skipping meals or splurging too much does mess me up though.

I spend an hour helping a tire shop mount up some rally tires for me and get a bunch of well though out responses- you guys are awesome! I will try to fill in information which was requested or seems relevant:
-5'11" ~180 lbs
-Not terribly active, I spend almost all my free time working on cars/bikes and have a desk job. When I was lifting regularly, I found the constant soreness interfered with my ability to wrench, not to mention the time it took (how's that for GRM?)
-Would like to lose some fat and generally feel better (more non-caffeine energy, less aches and pains)
-I don't drink alcohol but am solidly addicted to caffeine (I get migraines starting about 3 hours after waking up if I can't get any)

My one meal a day is typically not the best. Say 2000-3000 calories of stuff that isn't great for me- I occasionally have a "good" day where I feel like a fatass and eat nothing but salad, fruit, etc. but this is usually the result of eating terribly for a week straight.

I guess what I'm looking for is the best "bang for my buck" change I can make- I think I'm getting plenty of calories, since my weight is pretty consistent and I'm not losing muscle, but I know what I'm doing isn't good for me. The aversion to lunch is twofold- I don't like taking the time in the middle of the day, and I typically commute on a motorcycle and don't like bringing anything that doesn't fit in my pockets.

Wow- when I put it that way I feel like a real Bob Costas, maybe I just need to have more self control

mtn wrote: ...you're going to be craving food that is good for creating fat. Sugary stuff, fatty stuff.

This is me, every day, dinner time. Sometimes I fight it well, other times not so much.
UNLESS it's a race day- then it's all salads, lean meat, etc. But without the motivation all I want is garbage.

It may seem a bit cultish, but I found this to be an informative and fun read: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread17722.html

I would recommend starting each day with some deep bodyweight squats, pull ups and pushups, in that order. Before drinking any coffee. Grab a quart or so of water like the guys above said and drink it while you exercise.

As you age, if you haven't already established a habit of daily exercise (not wrenching :) ) it will become exponentially harder to do so.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: ...and I typically commute on a motorcycle and don't like bringing anything that doesn't fit in my pockets.

Magnetic tank bag?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:

mtn wrote: ...you're going to be craving food that is good for creating fat. Sugary stuff, fatty stuff.

This is me, every day, dinner time. Sometimes I fight it well, other times not so much. UNLESS it's a race day- then it's all salads, lean meat, etc. But without the motivation all I want is garbage.

It sounds like you don't need a complete overhaul, just some tweaks.

Start the day with an egg and a piece of ham. Protein! Also add in a banana--sugar and carbs, so good for the short burst you'll need in the day. If you can make the time, make it an ommellete/scrambled eggs, or even a sandwich using an English Muffin or a sandwich-thin--and put in as many vegetables as you can. Peppers, onion, spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes are the common options, but squash and other things work well too.

Sometime mid-day, eat something like nuts, or jerky, or a can of tuna--again, high in protein. I'll also recommend a fruit and vegetable, but I don't do that myself.

Then, when you get home, eat some protein before you have your dinner. This will cull your appetite. Protein fills you up the best, since it takes the longest to digest.

You don't need meals (although I do recommend the breakfast meal, high in protein), but take a minute or two to grab a snack here and there so you don't come home and eat like a teenage athlete.

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

Nope, all my bikes have plastic there- but I have a bag for the Buell, and everything else has a luggage rack. It's about the annoyance of dealing with it, I'm aware it isn't a valid excuse.

Hmm. Lot of different ideas, some good, some......questionable.

VCH, I'd suggest that you are over hydrating. Not terrible but not helping you much either.

Ketosis/Adkins diets work short term but are really hard on your kidneys. I can't say as I reccomend them at all.

If you look at the evolution of man, the idea of sitting down to a well balanced meal two-three times a day just isn't how it was done. We ate what was in season and when it came to us, might be all at once, might be small handfuls spread out over the day. While people take everything too far (vegans, paleo, Adkins, et al) a well balanced diet with less processed food is pretty clearly the best route to take.

For me it's coffee first thing, yogurt or similar amount 9:30, leftovers or healthy sandwich for lunch, and dinner around 7. Dinner at the Allroad house runs toward the healthy end of the spectrum but again, nothing extreme but not prepackaged and junky either.

For the record, I've taken several college level nutrition classes, was a medic, a college cheerleader, and am quite fit at 5'9" and 185. Massive amounts of working out early in life led to plenty of muscle mass which helps fuel my metabolism so I don't have to "watch my weight".

OK, so the overall message I'm getting is as follows:
Don't eat garbage for dinner. To help do that, eat something healthy w/ protein for breakfast, and something else that isn't garbage during the day if you can/if you need to. Work out in the morning if you can.

Klayfish wrote: It's not about when you eat, so much as what. Yes, optimally, you want to eat multiple times in a day. My wife and I are into bodybuilding, which includes nutrition. I eat something at least 6 times per day. For metrics, I'm 5'9", 170lbs and about 13% body fat. It's about having the right mix of macros (protein, fat, carbs). There are endless arguments to this, but I think most people would agree that they key is eating the right foods. I eat roughly 16oz of meat per day, plus 3 or 4 scoops of protein powder and other protein sources. I do have some carbs and fats, but in moderation.

I need to start tracking my macros... I got down to 15-16% and then started traveling for work and it all went to hell..

The first question is what are you trying to fix?

In reply to MrJoshua:

I have more fat on me than I'd like, most of my energy during the work week comes from caffeine; those are the main things anyway. Of secondary importance is joint pain (this is to be expected, I have arthritis), reducing that would be nice.

KyAllroad wrote: Hmm. Lot of different ideas, some good, some......questionable. VCH, I'd suggest that you are over hydrating. Not terrible but not helping you much either. Ketosis/Adkins diets work short term but are really hard on your kidneys. I can't say as I reccomend them at all.

I like to tinker with my diet kind of like a project car, just to see how it works for me. I've grown to hate the term but I'm a big fan of the Paleo diet. That's pretty much the only "diet" I try to stick to long term. For this experiment with keto I'm going to carb up for one or two days every two weeks or so.

But, then again, I have always had to "watch what I eat". I was a fat kid and I've been a fat adult a few times, topping out at 220+ two times, once as a musclehead with a 50+" chest and 32" waist and 27" quads, and the other time is what I refer to as my "triangle man" period. :)

When the wife was training for her powerlifting meet and I was hitting the gym hard and heavy 4 days per week using 5/3/1, we both ate 2,300 calories with the same high protein, moderate carb macro spread. She lost weight while I gained fat. :/

Very slow metabolism.

The_Jed wrote: I like to tinker with my diet kind of like a project car

This is the absolute opposite of me. If your diet is a project car, mine is the daily driver- I don't want to think about it, I don't want to work on it, and I hate dealing with it when I do have to work on it.

I keep snacks at work. I'll list the stuff you can grab a handful of and be on your merry way. Krave jerky, cashews, almonds, peanuts, bananas(you can peel and freeze them-Still delicious), cheese sticks, protein/and or fruit smoothies, and seaweed paper.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: My one meal a day is typically not the best. Say 2000-3000 calories of stuff that isn't great for me- I occasionally have a "good" day where I feel like a fatass and eat nothing but salad, fruit, etc. but this is usually the result of eating terribly for a week straight.

I think you already know this, but when/if you start eating throughout the day you are going to have to really cut down on that evening meal. Regardless of how/what you eat, if you want to lose fat you need to run a calorie deficit. This could come from increased calories burned, less taken in or a combination of the two.

I've been a personal trainer for over 20 years and have helped people lose as much as 100lbs and gain as much as 50lbs. The following is fairly basic advice:

How aggressive do you want to be? If you want to be as lean as possible as quickly as possible then a calorie counting, strictly monitored diet is your best option. The type of nutrients (carb heavy, protein heavy, all natural, etc...) isn't as important as being consistent with whichever version you choose and never ever exceeding the allotted calorie level. If you stick with low calories spread over 3 meals and two snacks you will drop fat amazingly quickly. You also need to strength train, hard, 2-4 times a week.

If you just want to have better control of your health and eat more often because it is better for you and you are comfortable with reasonably paced results that is another story. I would recommend aiming for 3 meals a day and eating healthy stuff each meal. Center your meals around your protein/fat source and your fruit or vegetable, the starch should be complimentary not central. That means small amounts of bread, pasta, potatoes, etc... Eating every 3 hours or so is better for keeping your blood sugar levels steady which should help limit your cravings, but it is also easy to get in the habit of eating all the time which is horrible if you are not watching what you eat. Because of that I recommend being very specific about what is a snack and what is a meal. Snacks are single serving items that already have the portion controlled for you and you get only one. Fruit, cheese sticks, and the like work. Nothing that you get handfuls of. If you are doing the healthy eating diet with calorie control coming from making healthy choices instead of calorie counting you can afford a bit more exercise. You should still strength train at least 2 times a week but you should also add some sort of specific cardiovascular work at least a few times a week.