All Calories in One Setting???

[slaino]

Let me preface my question by saying that I am an experienced dieter: 10% of the time a form of low-carb (Adam's Diet) and the other 90% is mostly: whole grains, low fat/fat free dairy, nuts, lean protein, veggies, fruits, avoid HFCS and trans fats and sugar. I know 5-6 small meals spread throughout the day is ideal for energy balance and to keep the metabolism stoked, but I have a serious question about Calories in/out vs. the thermic effect of food:

I am going on a 7 day business trip and I will be eating low carb (steak, veggies, no fired food or white starches) but I will be drinking (martini's and wine, no sugar-laden mixers.) Nevertheless, assuming I will be eating my 2,000 maintenance calories all in one sitting for 7 days (assume please for the sake of my question that this cannot be changed), then is it ok from the point of view of weight management to skip the other meals of the day? Forget that this is unhealthy, I just want to know if 2,000 calories at once is better than say 3,000 calories (1,000 over maintainance) spread throughout the day? Thanks guys

[Lost Dog]

My guess is that during the transition period, this will suck. Eventually, you'll get used to it.

After several years of 6-8 meals per day, even trying for 4 totally sucks now. Even if the meals are huge.

Yes. You will still do better eating less than more, from a body composition standpoint. Look at the sumo wrestler.

Let's hope your booze coincides with the food or you will also suck in the sober dept.

[mom2w]

The only example I can think of is Ramadan-- isn't that fasting all day and feasting at night? Otherwise my SIL eats like that regularly and packs on pounds like nobody's business but she does it long term.

Maybe what you need to do is take the 7 days as they come and do your best to deal with, what it seems, food/eating options that are beyond any control of your own. Free your mind so you're not overly stressed and have a plan in place to work hard the next week.

[gobbla]

1. What difference does it make? If you're going to do it no matter what does the answer really matter? Try to enjoy yourself and don't stress what you can't change anyway.

2. The details between 1 maintenance meal and 3 hyper caloric meals isn't easy to say. It's individual to a degree and there's going to be some overlap. If you're eating 2k at maintenance over 3 meals and then go to 1 you'll likely gain weight so 2k calories is no longer maintenance it's over maintenance, just like gaining weight at 3 meals at 3k calories.

1 x per day maintenance may be 1,600-1,800
3 x per day maintenance may be 2,000
5 x per day maintenance my be 2,100-2,200

[slaino]

That meal timing table is very informative, Gobbla. It clarifies something I never understood: that meal infrequency decreases the daily "maintenance" calorie number specific to the individual. So, "the longer you go without eating, the less you should eat in one sitting...." Am I correct here? Until, I assume, you can get back to spreading your meals apart again? Interesting. I never knew you can eat more by eating smaller meals more frequently, I always thought that eating smaller meals more frequently helped with energy balance, nutrient timing for muscle growth and satiety (to prevent binge eating and making bad food choices after fasting) Thanks!

[gobbla]

Remember that available energy\nutrient timing will effect how your energy is used and in turn how much is available\used at any given time.

A lot of the benefit of eating smaller meals is that you feel better so you're more active (burn more calories). If you gorge and take a nap because you're lethargic and then get up and start moving around but are tired because you haven't eaten in 4 hours you'll burn less energy.

It's all a big holistic window. A lot of "making potential" for more calories being burned\used vs actual hard X=Y. The thing to keep in mind is that the #'s and everything is primarily conceptual. If you feel as good and perform as good with 1x a day as with 5x, the actual difference in calories needed for maintenance probably isn't going to be as dramatic, but there is going to be a difference.

[RobLL]

I do read from time to time people who do very well with one meal a day. I would kind of be curious about making the transition during a time with all of the stress business travel entails. You will survive, why don't you take notes and let us know how it goes?

[Defiant1]

I'm curious to see how it works out for you. I read an article on T-Nation once that talked about eating 3 "larger" meals per day as opposed to 6 "smaller" meals a day. If I recall correctly the author was making a point that with 3 larger meals, it takes longer to digest and may have more satiety. I've often wondered about this. I've always kind of thought that the 6 smaller meals a day is suggested as a better way for people to control their portion sizes and limit their caloric intake in the process. You may burn additional calories through TAF with 6 smaller meals, but I wonder how much of a difference it would make throughout the day.

[Jason B]

How are you going to eat 2,000 calories of steak and veggies in one sitting? That's a HUUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE meal.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Jason B

How are you going to eat 2,000 calories of steak and veggies in one sitting? That's a HUUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE meal.

i could do it.

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by Alcoholiday

i could do it.

When did we get invaded by hobbits!

[JoshDunn]

All I can say is fuck that. Eat 3000 even though its over your maintainence. Its for 7 dam days. You not going to wake up 400lb at the end of it.

[Aoife]

Will you even break down and use all that food if eaten at once? Or will you just poop more of it out afterward, undigested? (I always wonder just how much the body can take in at one time, if one eats waaay more than one usually does at one sitting... does one really use all of the calories eaten?)

Would you be able to handle a meal that big and not feel any ill effects if you're used to eating more often much smaller meals? I find that if I eat over a certain amount in a sitting I'm miserable afterward.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Cynic

When did we get invaded by hobbits!

[Espi]

There's a bunch of people over at bodyrecompostion.com who are experimenting with intermittent fasting. Most popular set up = fast for 16 hrs and eat in an 8hr time window.
Personally I'm having better results with a Ramadan-like setup except that I don't eat before the sun rises (that'd be around 4am by now) but am using a 12hr time difference between breakfast and dinner.
Reason being that in my experience, metabolism tends to really tank if you skp breakfast, which is noticeable by a drop in body temperature. b/f has about 40% of total calories for the day.
Mind you, on training days I'm preferring to eat multiple times/day, though some eat as infrequent on training days as well.

Some people do very well on just one meal/day. Actually mankind would never have made it till today if they didn't. On the average caveman ate once a day and infrequently twice and if they did, they had a smallish breakfast.

[slaino]

Ok, so I didn't completely fast during the day, but I stuck to little snacks like string cheese and slim jims (less than 600 calories total before dinner and drinks. Dinner was steak or seafood and vegetable sides most nights. I avoided all starch, sugar and processed foods. I had cocktails every night but stuck to martinis and white and red wine (martinis have no carbs and red and white wine have 10-25 grams of carbs per bottle respectively.)

Result: I stayed at maintenance - attribute it to: 1) snacks prevented me from making bad food choices at dinner 2) the alcohol stalled weight loss, but the dearth of carbs allowed me to get away with a few more calories eaten overall and mostly at night when my metabolism was slowest (and slowed further by the alcohol)

And on top of it all...everyone should try low carb dieting even if only for the fact that you never feel bloated...I loooove that.

[Espi]

Originally Posted by gobbla

1. What difference does it make? If you're going to do it no matter what does the answer really matter? Try to enjoy yourself and don't stress what you can't change anyway.

2. The details between 1 maintenance meal and 3 hyper caloric meals isn't easy to say. It's individual to a degree and there's going to be some overlap. If you're eating 2k at maintenance over 3 meals and then go to 1 you'll likely gain weight so 2k calories is no longer maintenance it's over maintenance, just like gaining weight at 3 meals at 3k calories.

1 x per day maintenance may be 1,600-1,800
3 x per day maintenance may be 2,000
5 x per day maintenance my be 2,100-2,200

Where did you get these numbers from? Just pulling them out of .. or is it based on research or experience.

I've been on 2 meals/day for 4 days/week for a while now (did 3 meals before) and it almost seems correct. Mtn dropped towards 2000 kcal from around 2300 kcal. But there are too many confounding factors going on to be 100% sure. A much much more influentail factor is eating allergenic foods. Stay away from those and mtn goes up considerably! Been eating a few too many of these allergens (esp dairy) .

Any others who've seen this drop happen?

[gobbla]

I just made them up...I always just make stuff up