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Bigger breakfast smaller dinner?

Alexandra100

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,803
Location
West Yorkshire
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
This reaearch from the University of Tel Aviv concludes that to reduce the need for insulin, lose weight, and lower fasting bg we should eat 50% of our daily calories at breakfast. But this seems at odds with the common experience of people with diabetes that insulin rsistance is highest at breakfast, so that a high energy breakfast is to be avoided, and many Forumites prefer to fast till lunch.
https://www.endocrineweb.com/news/d...ail&utm_term=0_e6f563893f-2f9349ad4f-50543649
 
Problem I have with this is they are still wedded to 3 meals a day. Why? Who says?
By skipping either the first or last meal you'll have fewer insulin responses and assist fat burning not storage.
Also they are still stuck on calories and not nutritional density and satiety which is a big negative for the research.
 
I'm sure everyone is different, and their insulin response will vary as well, but I do think it is common that eating in a small window every day is beneficial for health.
 

That sounds perfectly logical to me...and I find skipping dinner most effective in bringing my fasting glucose levels back to norm.

The breakfast fit for a king, lunch of a prince...dinner as a pauper...

Except that these days dinner is the main social meal for the family...so a pauper dinner don't fit so well for most...
 
My meter tells me to eat a small amount of carbs with my first meal, eaten when I get up, and then not eat until late, when eating more carbs seems fine.
I was getting big drops in BG mid to late afternoons by fasting for too long - so it really is better to check on the body you've got rather than accepting advice which seems logical - like avoid saturated fats - but when tested is not proven.
 
I believe part of the problem for diabetics eating carbs at breakfast is the glucose released from the carbs just adds to the glucose the liver has dumped. The pancreas already struggles to clear this dumped glucose so adding more is not a good idea.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
I believe part of the problem for diabetics eating carbs at breakfast is the glucose released from the carbs just adds to the glucose the liver has dumped. The pancreas already struggles to clear this dumped glucose so adding more is not a good idea.
Click to expand...
So does that mean it's OK to eat carbs at breakfast if one's fasting bg that day is low?
 
Alexandra100 said:
So does that mean it's OK to eat carbs at breakfast if one's fasting bg that day is low?
Click to expand...

No, not necessarily. If we have insulin resistance or a slow pancreas, the liver dumps continue during the morning and only stop when natural insulin has caught up, told the liver to stop, and cleared the dumped glucose. I know this from personal experience as I have never had high fasting, but I have a dump after getting up that will continue for some time. Plenty on here report the same. Wearing a Libre confirms this.
 
As @bulkbiker said, fixation on the square meals everyday is just too much in calories, never mind if portion size is also too big.

Why eat when you don't need to?. Your body can cope with periods of intermittent fasting,

Adding carbs at the start of the day is not logical.
What you need is something that will satiate you, carbs will not do this! You will be looking for a snack within a couple of hours before lunch or your second breakfast! ( Lol)
 
I tried this for a while but I found it increasingly hard to stomach a large amount of food earlier in the day so abandoned it.
 
Lamont D said:
Adding carbs at the start of the day is not logical.
Click to expand...
In my case adding carbs at the start of the day would not mean porridge or muesli or toast, but rather allowing myself one 50g portion of low carb vegetables instead of two. I have not abandoned the idea that 5 portions of vegetables daily might be a good idea. If I eat two at lunch but only one each at breakfast and dinner that is only four, and as I often fail to eat three meals a day due to bad timing, it tends to end up as only three. Everyone responds to these questions as if it goes without saying that we all need to lose weight, but I need to GAIN weight, so fasting and cutting out meals makes no sense for me.
 
I presume you have tried the technique of eating a small something straight after your fasting test?
 
bulkbiker said:
Only if you don't want it to be low for long? And why would you want that?
Click to expand...
This doesn't make sense to me. If my levels are low I don't eat carbs so as not to spoil them, and if they are high presumably I don't eat carbs so as not to make them worse??? So I never eat ANY carbs ever?
 
Alexandra100 said:
This doesn't make sense to me. If my levels are low I don't eat carbs so as not to spoil them, and if they are high presumably I don't eat carbs so as not to make them worse??? So I never eat ANY carbs ever?
Click to expand...
sounds like a good idea to me...
 
Alexandra100 said:
I presume you have tried the technique of eating a small something straight after your fasting test?
Click to expand...


Yes, I have.

I tried FF yogurt with 2 strawberries or 5 raspberries. Spiked and stayed up there untl just before lunch. I did not realise this until I used a Libre.

Soft boiled egg or coffee & cream stops it in its tracks.
 
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