Eating all your ‘treats’ and junk food in one go better than a small daily dose?

[Fortyin24]

My colleague has a small ‘treat’ eg pack of crisps, small bar of chocolate, few biscuits- every night after dinner

I tend to have a ‘bad day’ and eat whatever I want, get it all out of my system, feel a bit disgusting then don’t want to do it again maybe until the next week

Which approach is most healthy?!

Voting - YABU = little and often is better, YANBU = blow out then healthy switching is better

Eating it all at once is really just binging? This can lead to other issues, so I would say her choice is better.

I suppose it is really - but is it inherently worse for you?? You’re still eating the same ish overall

For your teeth…..much better to eat it all in one go.

Are you eating 6/7 packets of crisps in one sitting?

I think you end up eating more if you eat it regularly. Plus it feeds your sugar cravings. I'd rather binge one day (have just had a big bar of chocolate) and then try to eat carefully for the next six days.
Plus if you feel a bit sick from stuffing your face, it's easier to avoid it for a while then :-D

I would say better all in one go. For teeth yes but also for your liver and pancreas potentially. By constantly feeding glucose into your system your liver could always be overloaded and your blood sugar remains high which may effect your insulin response. It's the same principles as fasting.

Studies show that eating within certain windows (like intermittant fasting or eating everyother day for example) leads to weight loss regardless of if the calories are the same.

There's also the interesting fact that cancer feeds on glucose too so reducing glucose or restricting the time you are overeating it may make a difference there. It would certainly be an interesting experiment.

And agree with pp you will end up eating less overall.

Little and often is better but I'm a binger.

I’d rather have a bit of a binge and then be practically saintly with food the rest of the week. Normally I have a bad Saturday but make up for it during the week. I weigh myself each week as lost a lot of weight watching calories and doing it that way I still lose weight/stay on target!

I’ve never been someone who can have a couple of bites of something. If I was having little and often the little would likely turn into a lot

Binging to the point where you "feel disgusting" is disordered eating.

Having a small snack or treat each day is not.

Isn't having a small amount of food that tastes great but isn't particularly healthy, amongst an otherwise generally healthy diet, just balanced eating? A once a week blow out that makes you feel sick so you don't do it again for a week doesn't sound great

Yes.

This and the fact you want to create diet rules around this would indicate you don’t have a good relationship with food and are caught up in diet culture. You might want to take a look at that OP.

Agree.

And as for all the posts about teeth: the woman who is having a little treat after her tea, has just eaten her tea. So the food she ate for the main course of her tea is going to be affecting her teeth anyway. It would only have a more impact on teeth if you were grazing on sugary foods all day. I think people are confusing it with the advice given for it being better for children to eat a whole pack of sheets in one go- rather than spreading them out throughout the day.

Little and often. I eat those things every day, but I'm very active and eat wanky things kale and overnight oats every day too.

Me too

@BranchGold no, but I will for example have biscuits, cake, a chocolate bar and a pack of crisps in one day. Plus also perhaps an unhealthy meal like burger and chips, pizza…

I used to have a theory that if you “rushed your body” with crap that it wouldn’t be able to catch hold of all the calories so better to scoff it all in one go. However, I’m pretty sure this has never been scientifically proven to work 🤣.

I think it depends on the person - their metabolism, their attitude to eating, their understanding of what "eating healthy" really is, etc.

For me, personally, I find "sensible", moderate eating every day of my life to be joyless and unsustainable, so I find it more manageable to eat less six days out of seven, knowing I have a "binge day" to eat whatever I want, no guilt, no restrictions, to be the best/only way to maintain a healthy weight. But then I freely admit I'm fucked up about food, and having tried a hell of a lot of diets, this is the one that works for me.

If you feel disgusting after eating, that doesn't seem like a great or mentally healthy place to be in.

The quack in your name is very apt.

I don't think bingeing is a healthy mindset to have it just means the focus is always on food and not particularly healthy, the everything In moderation approach is healthier all round.