Irregular eating

[Eternal Sunshine]

Does irregular eating have negative effects on health?

 

When I am absorbed into something or stressed, I tend to forget to eat. Some days I calculate that I eat 500-600 calories a day. But then I will usually be extra hungry the next day and compensate the calories. My weight remains stable.

 

My weekly caloric intake stays roughly the same while it oscillates greatly from day to day...

[fujidabruin]

Does irregular eating have negative effects on health?

 

When I am absorbed into something or stressed, I tend to forget to eat. Some days I calculate that I eat 500-600 calories a day. But then I will usually be extra hungry the next day and compensate the calories. My weight remains stable.

 

My weekly caloric intake stays roughly the same while it oscillates greatly from day to day...

 

ES, I think you already know the answer to your question.

 

But, so long as your caloric intake is not constantly fluctuating wildly and you are still balanced with proper nutrition, I think you probably have it under control.

 

I know I would be totally fatigued if I only took in 500-600 cals/day as my metabolism is high. I need to prepare snacks for every 3 hours of a 12 hour working day.

[ctxinfl]

I don't know the long term ramifications, though your body needs more than 500 - 600 calories per day assuming you weigh more than 60 pounds.

[MidwestUSA]

I operate that way all the time. I do find that when I stop and eat a good meal, it's as if my body is saying 'hey, I needed that YESTERDAY'. So, I'm trying to work on it.

 

So far tho, no major life consequences, I'm still kickin'.

[EasyHeart]

I think that's pretty normal.

 

Think about how our ancestors lived. When they were wandering around the savannah, they didn't get exactly 1800 calories every day. They ate what they could find.

[Hope Shimmers]

This could actually be considered very positive.

 

Speaking as an endocrinologist here.

 

There are a lot of very recent data that say that short-term 'starvation' (your low-calorie days) followed by your higher-calorie days are associated with positive benefits. That flex is what keeps your metabolism going at an optimal state.

[TaraMaiden]

I eat when I'm hungry, and don't when I'm not.

This leads to what many may call "irregular eating".

To me, it's absolutely natural, and better than following a regimented schedule.

 

I also find that occasionally, what I consider to be 'hunger pangs' are actually thirst pangs.

 

The two are extremely similar, but I distinguish this way:

If I drink, and no longer feel hungry after about 15 minutes, it's a thirst pang.

If I drink, and I DO feel hungry after about 15 minutes - it's a hunger pang.

 

The fluid I intake is not an unhealthy one by the way. This way, no harm done, the body is hydrated and I feel fine.

 

Works for me....!

[Eternal Sunshine]

Yes Tara, it seems pretty natural to me. Why eat just because it's "lunch time" when I am not actually hungry?

[melell]

Does irregular eating have negative effects on health?

 

When I am absorbed into something or stressed, I tend to forget to eat. Some days I calculate that I eat 500-600 calories a day. But then I will usually be extra hungry the next day and compensate the calories. My weight remains stable.

 

My weekly caloric intake stays roughly the same while it oscillates greatly from day to day...

 

I am exactly the same and have thought about this before- I think that as long as your weekly net calories are reasonable then it is really fine. Metabolically I haven't come across anything that suggests it would be damaging, I don't think your body gets a chance to adjust to low calories if it is only a day or so.

 

There are some studies floating around that have linked intermittent fasting (and similar) to reduction in fertility- that might be a little concerning if it is having a hormonal effect. Not sure how reliable the articles are but there are some that are journal published.

 

I haven't run into any issues so far, and have been eating this way since I was pretty young. I do find my energy levels are much much better if I get a decent percentage of fats when I eat a large meal. Going from a few hundred calories one day to 2000 of mostly carbs the next = crash for me.

[Els]

You don't necessarily need to eat regularly (research is still at odds with this), but your body ideally needs more than 500 calories a day to function at its optimum (this has been proven). Eating the next day may compensate in a way (as in, you won't die of starvation), but it still doesn't change the fact that on the days where you are not eating enough, your body isn't functioning optimally, and you are causing unnecessary stress to it.

 

You probably don't need a strict regimen (a lot of it is just baseless hype anyway), but you should strive to get a healthy # of calories everyday.

[Grumpybutfun]

If you do this just make sure you are eating foods packed with nutrients, minerals, etc. Try not to eat empty calories or you may over time lack some important vitamins your body needs for functioning.

G

[melell]

I have these fortisip drinks that are meant to be complete nutritional support and weight gaining drinks- they are quite often prescribed for people with eating disorders(I buy them). It might be worth looking into something like this if you would prefer to have more calories. Ya just have to be careful with them, I gained almost 5kg drinking them like they were water for a fortnight.

[Els]

I have these fortisip drinks that are meant to be complete nutritional support and weight gaining drinks- they are quite often prescribed for people with eating disorders(I buy them). It might be worth looking into something like this if you would prefer to have more calories. Ya just have to be careful with them, I gained almost 5kg drinking them like they were water for a fortnight.

 

Ha, I never understood the point of those, barring for patients who need a liquid diet. I mean, food is so much yummier!

[FitChick]

My preferred way of eating is to snack all day. At home I will break up meals, i.e. ate a chicken leg then two hours later ate a sweet potato. I only get into trouble when I stress eat and then it's candy, cakes, cookies.

 

One reason I don't like eating out too often is because I cannot eat a lot of food at one sitting.

 

I also have always taken lots of vitamins to fill in any nutritional gaps.

[TaraMaiden]

Yes, 'grazing' is another way of staving off the hunger pangs and still having a nutritious intake.

 

I cook some glutinous Thai sticky rice in my rice cooker.

I add:

Star anise

Cloves

Green cardamom pods

Dried, crushed orange zest

cinnamon bark

a vegetable stock cube

a little salt

a small nugget of coconut butter.

 

And of course, the right amount of water.

 

When it's cooked, I allow it to cool, incorporate the seeds from the cooked green cardamom pods, and form walnut-sized rice-balls.

I coat these in a ground savoury mix (the sticky rice is perfect for doing this!) which consists of:

 

2tbsps ground sunflower seeds}

1 tbsp ground pumpkin seeds}

1 tbsp ground linseeds}

 

(toast the ground above ingredients in a dry heavy-based skillet until evenly browned). add:

 

1 tbsp ground toasted corn kernels

1 tbsp ground tsampa

salt

chilli flakes to personal taste.

Mix thoroughly.

It's delicious sprinkled on any savoury dish, from scrambled eggs to pasta dishes.

 

But coated on the rice balls and eaten as occasional snacks, with a chilli dip - my goodness, they're abso-yummy-lootely!!

[Anela]

I lost my appetite a couple of weeks ago, and lived on tea and smoothies. My weight didn't change much, either. Every so often, I'll have a day in which I won't feel like eating anything - I listen to my body.

[thefooloftheyear]

Metabolically speaking, the "peaks and valleys" of feeding oneself is about the absolute worst thing you can do...

 

An adult human being(yes, even a tiny woman) cannot properly nourish a typical day on less than..say...1500 calories..You wont die, but its not doing yourself any good..A good sized man would need a lot more than 1500..I would imagine that the blood sugar swings would create havoc...

 

I eat 8 times a day... somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 calories of clean food/day...I can maintain about 12-14% bf on this amount of food-which is pretty lean....I am a pretty big man and am active, but id think an active woman of 110# might need at least 2000...

 

YMMV

 

TFY

Edited April 3, 2014 by thefooloftheyear

[Els]

Metabolically speaking, the "peaks and valleys" of feeding oneself is about the absolute worst thing you can do...

 

Totally agreed with this.

 

An adult human being(yes, even a tiny woman) cannot properly nourish a typical day on less than..say...1500 calories..

To be fair, the minimum for women is 1200 or 1300, according to medical folks. This is because the average 5' woman eating 1500 cal a day would still need to work out for a couple of hours every day if she wanted to lose weight, because 1500 is already her BMR.

 

Also, I don't think any petite woman can sustain 2000 cal a day without gaining weight, unless she's a competitive athlete or hardcore bodybuilder. 500 cal is a lot to burn off on a daily basis. ES is fortunately reasonably tall for a woman (if I recall correctly), so I'd reckon her BMR would be somewhere between 1600-1700.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Elswyth

[thefooloftheyear]

Totally agreed with this.

 

To be fair, the minimum for women is 1200 or 1300, according to medical folks. This is because the average 5' woman eating 1500 cal a day would still need to work out for a couple of hours every day if she wanted to lose weight, because 1500 is already her BMR.

 

Also, I don't think any petite woman can sustain 2000 cal a day without gaining weight, unless she's a competitive athlete or hardcore bodybuilder. 500 cal is a lot to burn off on a daily basis. ES is fortunately reasonably tall for a woman (if I recall correctly), so I'd reckon her BMR would be somewhere between 1600-1700.

 

Hmmm....`1500 sure doesnt seem like much food, when you break it out over a typical 24 hour period.. But Ill submit to your expertise here...I do know that no two people process food the same...I remember eons ago, I dated a girl that was a true size 0 and weighed 100# soaking wet...All she did was eat...and junk food even!...Id imagine she was well over 2000....

 

Either way....its always best to avoid the long gaps between meals...We arent reptiles...As warm blooded creatures, a surprising amount of energy is expended just trying to maintain 98.6....

 

TFY

[Anela]

Hmmm....`1500 sure doesnt seem like much food, when you break it out over a typical 24 hour period.. But Ill submit to your expertise here...I do know that no two people process food the same...I remember eons ago, I dated a girl that was a true size 0 and weighed 100# soaking wet...All she did was eat...and junk food even!...Id imagine she was well over 2000....

 

Either way....its always best to avoid the long gaps between meals...We arent reptiles...As warm blooded creatures, a surprising amount of energy is expended just trying to maintain 98.6....

 

TFY

 

When I eat solid food, I throw up. It's progress that I haven't thrown up the smoothies - not long ago, that wouldn't have been the case (and, no, I'm not throwing up on purpose). My smoothies have mostly been made with greek yogurt, coconut milk, almond milk, coconut oil or flax oil, and frozen fruit, as well as bananas. When I feel hungry, I eat.

[Els]

Hmmm....`1500 sure doesnt seem like much food, when you break it out over a typical 24 hour period.. But Ill submit to your expertise here...I do know that no two people process food the same...I remember eons ago, I dated a girl that was a true size 0 and weighed 100# soaking wet...All she did was eat...and junk food even!...Id imagine she was well over 2000....

 

Either way....its always best to avoid the long gaps between meals...We arent reptiles...As warm blooded creatures, a surprising amount of energy is expended just trying to maintain 98.6....

 

TFY

 

Yeah, 1500 is not very much at all. The plight of the short small woman... There are definitely folks who are the exception to the rule, of course.

 

Definitely important to get a decent amount of calories (and nutrition) in everyday. 500-700 cal a day is very unhealthy in the long run, even if it's compensated with binges the next day.

[Els]

I think that's pretty normal.

 

Think about how our ancestors lived. When they were wandering around the savannah, they didn't get exactly 1800 calories every day. They ate what they could find.

 

Our ancestors also bathed a few times a year, tried to cure diseases by letting blood, got surgery done at the barber's without sterilization and anaesthetics, and started procreating as soon as they hit puberty...

 

Sure the human race survived til now, but that doesn't mean that it's optimal to follow what they did.

[TaraMaiden]

Our ancestors also bathed a few times a year, tried to cure diseases by letting blood, got surgery done at the barber's without sterilization and anaesthetics, and started procreating as soon as they hit puberty...

 

Sure the human race survived til now, but that doesn't mean that it's optimal to follow what they did.

True.

But fortunately, we're still evolving, still on a learning curve, still learning about how old ways were a mix of good and bad and things we thought were bad, are in fact good, and things we thought were good are in fact bad.

 

For example, we used to promote cigarettes as being healthy and good for you.

Within living memory.

Now, packets are required to carry death warnings.

 

Information changes as we become more and more knowledgeable about how "things work".

 

And our choices become more and more diverse accordingly.

[Els]

True.

But fortunately, we're still evolving, still on a learning curve, still learning about how old ways were a mix of good and bad and things we thought were bad, are in fact good, and things we thought were good are in fact bad.

 

For example, we used to promote cigarettes as being healthy and good for you.

Within living memory.

Now, packets are required to carry death warnings.

 

Information changes as we become more and more knowledgeable about how "things work".

 

And our choices become more and more diverse accordingly.

 

True. But rather than consider the vast range of possibilities (I mean, in the future they might possibly find out that being obese or drinking 10 bottles of beer a day is good for you! ), I'd rather work with the medical information we have now until there is good data disproving it.

 

500 cal/day isn't recommended for anyone except very obese patients who need weight loss badly, and even then it is done in the very short term and under close supervision.

[Haydn]

I can eat a huge amount and not eat for 3 days,just snack on chocolate. Been this way since my teens. Weight has remained stable.