Scheduled eating v.s. Eating when Hungry

[PandoraV]

I've heard both. I have always ate when my body asked for food, not out of boredom, but real hunger. I have a slow metabolism no matter how active I am. I've recently tried to speed up my metabolism by eating every 4 hours hungry or not.... ugh and I have put on weight.

What seems to work best for you all? Do you force feed every few hours or listen to your body?

[jypoll]

i eat as per my dietary schedule but i plan it so i can gain/lose weight as planned. obviously you need to re-assess how much you are eating.

i am currently bulking and eating every 90min-2hrs and i am still always hungry, and i always eat as planned.

[JR G lady]

I eat every 2 1/2 - 3 hours at most. From 7am - 8pm my metabolism is fairly faster now and I eat my protein,fiber, fats.
What works for me is pre-packaging my food on Sunday night for the week. That way there is no room for cheating.

[AD]

if you are eating more frequently in an effort to stimulate your metabolism, with the main aim of losing weight, you will need to be very careful of what, and how much you eat each time. as a very rough estimate, if you're eating 5-6 meals now, the total amount of food for the whole day should not be too much more than the total amount of food you were eating when it was 3 meals a day.

if you want to be really accurate, then you may need to do some calculations. have you read the sticky regarding Dieting 101:cutting?

[--->>405<<---]

I've heard both. I have always ate when my body asked for food, not out of boredom, but real hunger. I have a slow metabolism no matter how active I am. I've recently tried to speed up my metabolism by eating every 4 hours hungry or not.... ugh and I have put on weight.

What seems to work best for you all? Do you force feed every few hours or listen to your body?

Welcome to the forum pandora we have several female members who should be along at some point as well... The thing about eating more frequently u need to pay attn to is portion sizes along with food choices and timing..

As stated above i suggest u read the stickies at the top of the main page titled:

1. So u wanna learn how to diet
2. Tdee
3. How to cut

This will give u a decent idea of how to eat properly.. Once u have a starting point with ur TDEE u can then build a diet where u create a deficit in cals in order to cut fat.. Post it here for review..

Id also suggest u include ur workout schedule:weightlifting ,if any, as well as the amt of cardio ur doing including duration.. Am fasted cardio has proven to be very effective for myself as well as scheduling ur carb meals arpund ur workouts such as in: meal 1, preworkout, post workout only

The key is to design a diet using all these principles and stick to ur PREPLANNED MEALS..

[baseline_9]

Meal frequency does NOT effect metabolic rate.... Total calories do...

If u want to increase your metabolic rate train hard and do a good mix of cardio (low intensity, medium and high)

The higher intensity training may increase metabolic rate somewhat...


If u want to burn more calories then do so by doing more exercise... Simple

Other than drugs, there are not many other good ways to actually increase the meabolic rate

[RaginCajun]

Welcome to the forum pandora we have several female members who should be along at some point as well... The thing about eating more frequently u need to pay attn to is portion sizes along with food choices and timing..

As stated above i suggest u read the stickies at the top of the main page titled:

1. So u wanna learn how to diet
2. Tdee
3. How to cut

This will give u a decent idea of how to eat properly.. Once u have a starting point with ur TDEE u can then build a diet where u create a deficit in cals in order to cut fat.. Post it here for review..

Id also suggest u include ur workout schedule:weightlifting ,if any, as well as the amt of cardio ur doing including duration.. Am fasted cardio has proven to be very effective for myself as well as scheduling ur carb meals arpund ur workouts such as in: meal 1, preworkout, post workout only

The key is to design a diet using all these principles and stick to ur PREPLANNED MEALS..

Meal frequency does NOT effect metabolic rate.... Total calories do...

If u want to increase your metabolic rate train hard and do a good mix of cardio (low intensity, medium and high)

The higher intensity training may increase metabolic rate somewhat...


If u want to burn more calories then do so by doing more exercise... Simple

Other than drugs, there are not many other good ways to actually increase the meabolic rate

what these guys pointed out! welcome to the forum!

[SlimmerMe]

Welcome Pandora!

Glad to see you here. Lots of GREAT advice. ENJOY!

and as far as when hungry: just make sure you have the right food around if ya gotta grab something. This is the key.

And consistency and slow wins the race.

ENJOY THE SITE!

[JohnnyVegas]

I cannot trust myself to know the difference between real hunger (which I don't think any of us will feel eating the amount of calories we should be eating) and boredom. I need structure in order to hit my goals.

[Catdad]

I cannot trust myself to know the difference between real hunger (which I don't think any of us will feel eating the amount of calories we should be eating) and boredom. I need structure in order to hit my goals.

Same and it's even worse that i can get borderline throw up full and 1 hour later want more food

[Times Roman]

Welcome to the board luv!

your body will let you know when to eat so as to maintain it's status quo... ectomorph, endomorph or whatever.

but weightlifting is the art/science of training your body to be more than what it ordinarily would be. this is why most of us are so careful scheduling our diet, and eating every two to three hours.

the frequency of eating is very important, as it allows smaller meals per sitting, higher efficiency of macro nutrient utilization with less fat creation.

my meals are not huge, but i do find i'm eating all the time, something like 6 or 7 meals a day. the hardest meal is the one post workout, where i'm absolutely NOT hungry for two hours post. during that time, my meal comes in a shaker cup, usually protein and some raw oats. eating can be a chore!!

hope that helps?
---Roman

[Mark5]

Welcome to the board luv!

your body will let you know when to eat so as to maintain it's status quo... ectomorph, endomorph or whatever.

but weightlifting is the art/science of training your body to be more than what it ordinarily would be. this is why most of us are so careful scheduling our diet, and eating every two to three hours.

the frequency of eating is very important, as it allows smaller meals per sitting, higher efficiency of macro nutrient utilization with less fat creation.

my meals are not huge, but i do find i'm eating all the time, something like 6 or 7 meals a day. the hardest meal is the one post workout, where i'm absolutely NOT hungry for two hours post. during that time, my meal comes in a shaker cup, usually protein and some raw oats. eating can be a chore!!

hope that helps?
---Roman

That's funny that you say that, I'm usually ready to eat a calf after my workouts!

[gbrice75]

Meal frequency does NOT effect metabolic rate.... Total calories do...

If u want to increase your metabolic rate train hard and do a good mix of cardio (low intensity, medium and high)

The higher intensity training may increase metabolic rate somewhat...


If u want to burn more calories then do so by doing more exercise... Simple

Other than drugs, there are not many other good ways to actually increase the meabolic rate

^^ this.

What is your primary goal at the moment, are you trying to lose bodyfat? When i'm focused on reducing bodyfat, I don't worry about getting hungry - you SHOULD feel hungry on a cut. The feeling of hunger and true hunger (i.e. your body NEEDS food) are 2 very different mechanisms, the former being a combination of mental conditioning and hormonal activity. The idea that if you 'feel' hungry you are starving yourself is perposterous.