[PinkHoodie]

Do you all eat on a schedule or do you wait until you physically feel hungry? I'm not feeling my bloat go down, I'm trying to decide if its because I'm eating too much or if its the extra aspertame (sp?) that I have been having this time....

[Med School Mom]

I initially started out trying to eat lots of small meals at regular intervals like everyone says you are supposed to (and there is good logic behind this) but it just doesn't work for me. I ended up forcing my self to eat when I wasn't hungry and then not being able to eat enough when I was really hungry. I save at least half of my eating for the evenings when I am most hungry. I tried eating more during the day and still ended up eating just as much at night. Now I just wait till I get hungry (even if this isn't the most effective method) but try to never go more than 5 hours with eating. I am sure when I get a lot closer to my goal weight I may have to rethink this strategy but for now it works.

[zeffryn]

i eat 4 medium sized meals per day and don't eat after 6:30. With plenty of water, I'm never ravenous. The only rule I have is to not let myself go more than 4 hours without eating something.

The breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack plan never worked for me. i always just ended up eating way too much and even when all of the food was on plan, I just wasn't losing because it defied the laws of physics to do so.

I really love SB concepts, but think that some parts of it need to be tailored to fit each person on it. This is one of those things. Not starving yourself IS important, it might cut the numbers on the scale for a bit, but it is doing detrimental damage to your metabolism and your body. Eat when you're hungry, but keep tabs on the clock to make sure you're not going too long.

[zeffryn]

but to answer your question, yes, artificial sweeteners can cause and/or exacerbate bloating. be aware of how much you are using when you're feeling bloaty and try to cut back.

[beerab]

Overall when I'm hungry I eat- breakfast is anytime between 7-8 am, my lunch is usually at noon- but by then my stomach is like "I'm hungry!" I'm not starving but the signals start coming. I also eat a snack after I get home, before dinner, because if I wait till dinner I'll be starving. I also never go more than 5 hours without eating. If I let myself get too hungry I'll overdo it on the next meal.

[Natasha1534]

My food schedule has been screwed up for years, so going on SB was hard for me at first. I'm a night shift worker and have been for 10 years. I was used to eating 1 big meal a night and, to be honest, grazing a lot the rest of the night. I also very rarely eat breakfast. Most days I end up doing 2 meals (some times I'll take a large dinner and eat half of it for my 1st meal and half of it for my 2nd meal), 2 snacks (usually laughing cow cheese w/ crackers, an apple, or some air popped popcorn), and a sugar free dessert like a popsicle or jello pudding.

Today I actually had breakfast b/c I had to be up early to attend a mock drill. I had 3 pieces of turkey bacon which is a lot for me for breakfast. Then for lunch (ended up being 5 or 6 hours later but only b/c I was on a mock drill and you can't plan things so much on scenes like that) I had a chicken caesar wrap on a whole wheat tortilla. I had some air popped popcorn for a snack and I won't mention dinner b/c I was really bad and strayed off plan, blaming it on being tired and not having strayed in a LONG time. Surprisingly, the turkey bacon actually held me over well until lunch.