I am not a breakfast person. I used to be able to function with tons of energy until noon or 1 pm before eating anything. I have been following protocol, and eating breakfast but on most days I am not hungry. I also eat dinner late, 8-9 pm some nights. When I finish dinner at 9 pm, I am still full from the night before until noon. Can I go back to starting to eating late breakfasts and later dinners? I also think that I will do better with fighting off the evening urges to snack if I eat later (these urges are really sapping my energy, I am in a constant battle with myself).
What about a shake in the morning? I mix a chocolate shake with coffee some times. I eat breakfast later some days. But I find once I'm really hungry it is hard to turn it off and I over eat.
I, too, never feel like I can eat early in the morning. I used to gulp down a small bowl of cereal every morning as I got ready for work or grab a cereal bar to eat on the way.
Now I get up, hang out for an hour, and then make a pina colada, mango, or pineapple drink and slowly sip it as I finish getting ready. It fills me up, but I don't have feel I'm eating a lot. I agree with usmavet. Try the kind of shake you like.
Explore - I've been thinking something a bit similar the past few days in that ... I find myself eating quite late in the day / evening. Sometimes it's due to my work, sometimes other things but either way, I often find myself eating dinner at 9pm, 10pm. I don't know if it makes a difference or not.
I was wondering if that's too late to be eating ??? so I'm making a firm effort to get those dinners in earlier.
Either way, whether you're a breakfast person or not, don't skip your meals - that for SURE, cant be a good. I don't think you should ,make anything prevent you from sticking to the program.
Quote:
Originally Posted by explore
I am not a breakfast person. I used to be able to function with tons of energy until noon or 1 pm before eating anything. I have been following protocol, and eating breakfast but on most days I am not hungry. I also eat dinner late, 8-9 pm some nights. When I finish dinner at 9 pm, I am still full from the night before until noon. Can I go back to starting to eating late breakfasts and later dinners? I also think that I will do better with fighting off the evening urges to snack if I eat later (these urges are really sapping my energy, I am in a constant battle with myself).
I think it important to have something to keep the fat-burning engines fueled...
I have a shake around 9Am usually and take my vitamin and potassium/cal and a bottle of water to get that out of the way (haha)!
Just force yourself to down a shake...its fast, easy, and puts "something" in your stomach. I don't know enough about the so called "starvation mode" topic to even speak about it...but one thing I remember is to always have some fuel in your engine, so to speak...so maybe thats a factor to force a shake down, not sure...but its what I do at any rate.
hey...good luck and drop those pounds!
Cheers
Jake
I hope nobody minds if I drag out this old thread... it's something I've been wondering about & thought maybe others might too... I've never been a breakfast-eater & even a shake is sometimes more than I want that early in the day... when I did IP 5 years ago, I had breakfast almost every day & since I restarted 4 days ago I've had a shake first thing in the morning... but today I just didn't feel like it & here it is after 10:30 & I'm still not feeling like having one... only an hour & a half 'til lunchtime, so it seems pointless to force myself to have breakfast now...
I know "conventional" wisdom (?) says we should eat breakfast... but what about those folks who have great success with intermittent fasting?.. not eating breakfast doesn't seem to harm them, does it?.. is the point getting all your protein, veggies, calories in for a 24-hour period?.. or is it getting a certain amount in hour-by-hour?.. I read once that daily calorie-counting was not as important as weekly calorie-counting... who's right?.. are we meant to blindly follow "science's" dictates or should we instead get to know our own body & its responses to different ways of eating?..
Okay, enough rambling... as for me, yesterday I switched lunch & supper & had my cooked protein for lunch & a shake for supper... it seemed to lessen the cravings I had been having in the evening... think I'll try that again today...
Hope everybody is having a TERRIFIC Thursday... hugs to all.....
Last edited by Aunt Sheshie; 08-27-2015 at 12:42 PM.
The basic premise of eating the four meals is to keep your blood sugar at an even level. That is hard to do when eating is sporadic, and we are on a severely restricted carbs-from-sugars diet.
Yes, there are people who diet by intermittent fasting (in fact, one of the popular diets in the UK at the moment is the 5/2 5 normal eating, 2 close-to-fasting days per week) but I'm not sure I'd regard it as healthy while on IP.
You could try starting the day with a glass of hot water with a tbsp of lemon juice to wake the stomach up. Many people do this and swear that it helps get the body ready for food.
Alternatively, have something handy (like a couple of hard boiled eggs or half a chicken breast) to eat the minute your stomach is ready.
On the subject of daily versus weekly calorie counting, I'm honestly not sure. I know that I can have two days in a week with excessively high caloric intake and provided the rest of the week is within my metabolic caloric rate it doesn't seem to affect weight loss. Don't know how helpful that is, as I believe we're all different in how our bodies react.
I hope nobody minds if I drag out this old thread... it's something I've been wondering about & thought maybe others might too... I've never been a breakfast-eater & even a shake is sometimes more than I want that early in the day... when I did IP 5 years ago, I had breakfast almost every day & since I restarted 4 days ago I've had a shake first thing in the morning... but today I just didn't feel like it & here it is after 10:30 & I'm still not feeling like having one... only an hour & a half 'til lunchtime, so it seems pointless to force myself to have breakfast now...
I know "conventional" wisdom (?) says we should eat breakfast... but what about those folks who have great success with intermittent fasting?.. not eating breakfast doesn't seem to harm them, does it?.. is the point getting all your protein, veggies, calories in for a 24-hour period?.. or is it getting a certain amount in hour-by-hour?.. I read once that daily calorie-counting was not as important as weekly calorie-counting... who's right?.. are we meant to blindly follow "science's" dictates or should we instead get to know our own body & its responses to different ways of eating?..
Okay, enough rambling... as for me, yesterday I switched lunch & supper & had my cooked protein for lunch & a shake for supper... it seemed to lessen the cravings I had been having in the evening... think I'll try that again today...
Hope everybody is having a TERRIFIC Thursday... hugs to all.....
In ketosis, the morning jump start isn't as important.
While weekly calories are probably more important in a traditional diet, daily ones are important for IP. It is already very low calorie. The bigger priority though is that you need the protein. IP is designed to fuel your body with enough protein so that you burn stored fat instead of muscle. If you are regularly too low on protein, you will loose muscle mass, which will make maintaining your goal weight harder.
If you find a shake is too heavy for breakfast, try one of the fruity drinks diluted in your water. Mix it up in your shaker then pour a splash in your water each time you get another glass. That way you'll get your protein in without feeling like you are sitting down to a meal that you don't want. Plus, your water will be a bit more interesting.
Disclosure: I don't have any experience with IP, but I follow 5:2 and have for a couple of years. I've also never been a breakfast eaten which is why I love IF.
Yes, in SOME people, skipping meals can have an affect on blood sugar, but not everyone. It's one of those things you have to try and see how you react. I know IF is not recommended for those with diabetes for this reason, but I know many pre-diabetics who have had a lot of success with IF.
Most of the studies on the topic of eating breakfast show a pretty loose correlation between people who eat breakfast and people who are a healthy weight, but there are no studies to my knowledge that show a causal relationship. Feel free to do your own research on that... (Also, totally different for kids! They need that boost in the morning!) In my opinion, if eating breakfast works for you, eat it. If not, don't. I used to throw up my breakfast when I tried to eat too early, so there's that...
You are following an costly diet with a lot of specific protocols and I would imagine sticking to it as closely as possible is in your best interest. But I also see no harm in playing around with it for a week and seeing how it affects your weigh-in and generally how you feel. It sounds like you are supposed to eat 4 meals in a day - since you eat a late dinner, can't you eat those 4 meals at times that are just different from the average person? I'd also imagine if you've always eaten a late dinner your body is probably used to that, but you could always make an experiment out of eating earlier if you're not getting the results you like.
Every body is so different. I'm always one to recommend trying new things until you find something the works and is something you can stick to.
Don't ketone bodies sorta take the place of blood sugar?..
From Dr. Tran Tien's book:
Quote:
What Happens During Ketosis?
When you follow the protein diet, your pancreas rests because there is no sugar for it to detect. As a result, it no longer secretes insulin (only a small amount of insulin is produced for vital functions). Consequently, the over-heated furnace cools down and resets. As long as the body is producing virtually no insulin, it is in a state of ketosis. It burns fat (and protein, if protein intake is inadequate) because it has no glucose for fuel.
After the body has depleted its reserve of carbohydrates, it is faced with an emergency: it must immediately find glucose in order to keep its vital organs functioning (the brain, heart, kidneys and red blood cells all need glucose). Once its glycogen reserves have been depleted, the body begins to convert the amino acids found in muscle protein into glucose. This process – called gluconeogenesis – provides the body with precious glucose to replace the rapidly depleted glycogen reserves.
Glucose, however, is not the only useable fuel. The body also derives energy from its immense reserve of fatty tissue (fat cells). Fatty acids obtained from triglycerides in fat cells can be used by muscles, but not by the brain. Therefore, the body converts most of its fatty acids into substances called “ketonic bodies”, which can be used by the brain.
I'm not suggesting it's okay to skip breakfast every day, just wondering if it could throw off the diet if I skip every once in a while...
How important is breakfast?
