I am not digesting well?
 

Hey all,

I have around 5-6 meals a day.

Usually breakfast is at 8am, followed by a snack at 11am, then lunch at around 1:30pm then snack at 4pm then dinner at 7pm

I read that these amount of meals will fire my metabolism. But when the snack1 arrives, I still feel stuffed from breakfast! For breakfast I have 1/3c quick oats with 1c skimmed milk +cinnamon, stevia, nutmeg, and few pecans on top with blueberries. Snack is 2full tbsp of Greek yogurt with little agave nectar and high fiber cereal. Lunch is usually meat/chicken with salad, snack2 is usually a babybel light with crab meat surimi, then dinner might be another protein+veggies or egg white omelet.

I had a plan and I am failing, I didnt lose a bit this week. Would it be because I am stuffing myself a lot?? Even if its healthy food? HELP!

I do HIIT for 20min 3x week and resistance training 3x a week too!

According to a recent article in the NY Times spreading your meals/calories out over 6 rather than 3 meals does not increase your metabolism. This was a relief to me because, like you, I was sometimes still feeling full when it was "time" to eat again. I figured I have enough problems with eating without trying to force myself to eat when i wasn't hungry.

The article is here (you have to subscribe to the times but it is free (and a good source for healthy recipes and other health tips):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/he...tml?ref=health

As for not losing this week - some weeks I do, some weeks I don't. I am a calorie counter and looking at your typical day I almost wonder if you're getting too few calories. It can be counter intuitive but too few calories will really slow your weight loss.

It might be a good idea to count out exactly how many calories you're putting in your mouth--maybe it's high, maybe it's low. Then adjust from there.

Thanks all.
The thing is that my calories are low. Under my maintenance calorie intake!
Argh!
Will have to change my plan..

Different things work for different people. I eat several small meals a day
Breakfast at about 6:30, snack at about 9:30 another snack if hungry at 11:30, lunch at 1:30, snack at 3:30 and then gym so dinner is usually later, about 7:30-8 and then sometimes a little something after ;)

But I am hungry whenever I eat those meals... and its because each meal is small. Just recently when I was overseas we'd eat a big breakfast lunch and dinner and I didnt snack at all...just wasn't hungry. Despite the huge meals (and these included dessert!) I didnt gain anything.

Sticking to eating when hungry is the key for me.

Originally Posted by suzan:
Thanks all.
The thing is that my calories are low. Under my maintenance calorie intake!
Argh!
Will have to change my plan..

Your calories should be under your maintenance calorie intake. About 500 calories per day under, in fact, to lose a pound a week.

If you tell us what you have worked out as your maintenance calorie intake, and the number of calories you are eating, we may have more suggestions.

Originally Posted by suzan:
I had a plan and I am failing, I didnt lose a bit this week. Would it be because I am stuffing myself a lot?? Even if its healthy food? HELP!

I didn't see anything in your post to indicate you are failing. I assume you said that because you didn't lose scale weight this week. I would encourage you to read any one of the dozens of threads about taking too short of a view of scale weight, there are just SOO many factors, that anything short of a 3-4 week plateau if you are doing good behaviors shouldn't cause you to even tweak.

From what I've seen the whole 5-6 meal thing "firing your metabolism" is overrated. However I've seen a couple of significant benefits from eating the smaller meals when I do it. First is that it helps keep my energy level more consistent throughout the day. Second it helps me realize more what normal portions and normal meal amounts should consist of. Those are real benefits.

You should post your calories on here, many times people are off on this without realizing. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with eating frequently enough to not be super hungry, but eating again when you are "stuffed" probably isn't great. It might be just tweaking the types of calories you consume.

But my guess is that your first option should be simple patience. Focus on evaluating your behaviors not the scale in the short term.