Three meals a day,do we need them?

[sugartoohigh]

What a "popular" athlete with type 2 diabetes? What the popularity of the an athlete has to do with the subject is beyond me.

Why would anyone with type 2 be wanting to put weight on, unless they wanted to make their condition worse.

 

[donnellysdogs]

I'm never hungry enough to eat 3 meals a day. I wish I was, but thought of breakfast -ugghhh!! I've kept slim so I dont think there is need for 3 meals a day personally. I eat all my 7+ fruit and veg a day but thats mainly from picking up an apple or pear during day as a snack or having apples, sultanas, toms, cucumber, lettuce, onions, peppers and grated carrots in my salads as evening meal.


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[sanguine]

I've only just started testing, but one question arises from the above - if you have 3 meals a day, or especially if grazing, doesn't that impact on the 1 hour before dinner test results which as I understand are meant to be a BG recession benchmark?

 

[zand]

I went for a short while having just two meals a day. I found it was OK and an easy way to cut carbs and calories. (I am T2). I am a lapsed low carber and need to find the will to get back to it. When I do I will have 2 or 3 meals a day, depending on how hungry I feel. Like you, I used to be hungry all the time (even after a heaped plate of Sunday Roast), Paradoxically, I find the less often I eat, the less hungry I am.

 

[Opalshards]

I only eat twice a day. Mainly because I am a night bird and don't get to bed till 2 or 3 am.. So I don't get up till 10 or 11 in the morning. Before going back on healthy eating I would go all day and just have an evening meal. Not that it helped with the weight issue. But then I wasn't trying to lose weight. Now I have Brunch usually coddled egg on seeded toast. We are all different I don't think you can generalize .

 

[sugartoohigh]

Funny enough Zand I've found that if I'm very busy and away from the office , miss a meal .I can feel less hungry for that day. But I worry in the long term it can't be too good for me. But its a beggar to get the balance right, but we all try.

 

[Brunneria]

I think good blood glucose levels should take priority. The risk is that with 2 large meals rather than 3 smaller + snacks! then you would have bigger extremes of glucose fluctuation.

I guess everyone is different - if you are sure that 2 meals a day won't screw things up, then go for it!

 

[George1951]

Hi Sugartoohigh,

I'm sorry I found this thread so long after you started it. I was thinking the same thing: Who says three squares are best, or instead, five to seven nibbles but only during daylight is the right formula? Would two meals work? What about just one? None at all? That's where my questioning turned into a personal experiment. Reading that reducing carb intake and thinking that long bouts between meals would impede the development of Type II diabetes, I began fasting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and eating low carb meals on days between. My morning blood sugars dropped into normal territory right away. They had started at the boundary between Pre-diabetic and Diabetic at the beginning of this year. I'm charting the whole thing at

http://web/ncf.ca/fx536

For two and a half months now my morning blood glucose readings have been normal. Oh, and the pounds just dropped off on their own. To lose weight had not been an objective; it just happened. So, I don't know, maybe you'll find the data and my comments about them interesting. Take a look.

And me too, no agenda.

Bye for now,
George F.

 

[Kat100]

3 small meals a day for me...sometimes a snack ....depending .....

I have gone really low hypo on metformin ...a 3 and I was in hospital at the time ....it was all actions go....scarred me..
I don't want hypo symptoms ....I try to keep things balanced....not always easy though ......:/

 

[hanadr]

A lot depends on how much food constitutes a meal. I eat 1 main meal [of modest size and low carb, I use a 20cm dinner plate] each day at lunchtime. Breakfast is usually just a tiny portion of meat, cheese or egg [without bread or toast] and evening, one slice of burgen toast with something on like cheese. Sometimes I might have a cup of Marmite soup in the evening. Later evening I have a square of chocolate. 1 square! You could call this three meals a day or you could call it one, depending on your point of view. It's certainly enough for me, with several coffees and teas during the day. I'm losing weight very slowly and I need to. I do about 7 to 8 hours of formal exercise per week and have no problem with having enough energy.
Hana

 

[Robbity]

I rarely used to eat breakfast when I was working, but always had lunch. dinner, and supper. My doctor bitched at me (pre diabetes but overweight) about my suppers, but I've always done this. If I don't eat then, I wake in the night ravenous, and often can't get back to sleep, until I've had a "midnight snack". Now I also try to eat breakfast because I find that if I miss it and don't eat till around lunch time my blood sugar reading will go right up. I seem to do best if I try to eat 4 (1 main and 3 smaller) meals evenly spaced.

So I think it must be an individual thing.

Robbity

 

[sugartoohigh]

Sorry folks I've not been on the site for a while busy with others things but thanks for your continued interest. George 1951 some interesting results,wonder if anyone in the medical profession would look at a trial with a test group to see if this is more than one persons reaction to life style changes? Ever since finding the sight I've always said that everyone's body responds differently to treatment , diets etc. Though there are common trends.

Maybe some hard data from a study group would be useful to the overall treatment?

I was advised at an NHS education day that the loss of fat its self helps the body process sugars better. So the drop in sugar levels in the blood could be a by product this? As always a field open to more research. But one word of caution that the NHS keep drilling in me, your own testing ( which I encourage for all, even though they don't ) isn't accepted by the majority of doctors. They only accept your HbA1c taken on a periodic basis. Bless their caring hearts and fixed minds