Six/seven small meals-a-day diet – anyone other than Hobbits tried it?

[JRHartley72]

After a lifetime of yo-yo dieting I've spent the last few months taking stock of my eating to work out what my triggers are and why I struggle to stick to lose weight. I've concluded that I snack constantly all morning, despite having breakfast, and typically on very unhealthy foods such as crisps (talking sharing bags, not small ones!). After much research and trial and error – tried intermittent fasting, which triggered some major disordered binge eating – I've worked out that, like Hobbits, my body needs a second breakfast every morning to stop my major mid-morning hunger pangs (think rumbling stomach) and lots of little low/no carb meals throughout the day rather than three standard ones. I think I get so hungry in the morning because I rarely eat after 6.30pm once I've had my dinner. It's working too – I'm no longer stuffing my face with crap every morning, I have more energy and mentally I feel on a more even keel.

I'm just curious if anyone else has tried this approach? I've searched old threads and can't find anything, so I feel a bit alone in doing it!

Is this a way of eating? Like a program you’re following?

It's a WOE, but I'm not following an actual plan because I can't find one to reference. That's why I was asking if anyone else has. My snacking was terrible in the mornings so I now eat two breakfasts to curb my hunger, one at 8am and one at 10.30am and it's working. I'm eating less across the rest of the day too because I'm not snacking so much.

You need to ditch the carbs entirely - eat more fat and protein. Plenty of eggs. If you don’t buy crap you can’t eat crap.

You do not need to ditch carbs at all. Ultimate goal for fat/weight loss is to eat less right? Doesn't really matter how you do that. Less carbs, less food, fasting, meal replacements etc. It is great you've figured out your triggers to over eating so your idea of eating more often sounds like it would work for you. I would track/log it to start with to make sure your calories are in check but if your hunger is curbed then that's half the battle!

Eating small meals was v fashionable a while ago, so I’m guessing it worked for people

Only thing I would say is fibre as well as protein is v important for feeling full, which if you are eating low carb you may not get much of. So you could experiment with tweaking that as well.

If you like eating very low carb that is great.

But suggesting foods containing carbohydrates are crap, or that it is essential to eat low carb is unscientific nonsense.

5-6 small meals a day is how a specialist recommended to eat to lose weight. I guess no one solution fits all.

Many of us with recognise that hunger a few hours after a good meal. It feels as if it is a life and death need to eat again.

This happens to me when I eat a lot of starchy carbs, which might be why some people suggest reducing carbs.

Now I eat what we call a f**k tonne of leafy, green veg plus enough good quality fat and protein to make all the veg palatable.

Finally (sic) I can moderate my eating.

I can go a good long time without that 'hangry' feeling. I wore a continuous glucose monitor for a few weeks so was able to see what happens to by blood sugar levels when I eat even so called 'healthy' things like porridge oats, bananas, brown toast, rice.

A steep rise which is over corrected by insulin meaning that a low follows a high. The lows send signals to my brain saying EAT, NOW which is that desperate to eat feeling.

I'm not saying this will be the same for everyone however that's my experience confirmed by the objective blood sugar measurements.

There is a brilliant thread on MN jokingly called low carb boot camp. It's s very friendly, supportive place which can provide a lot of knowledge and support for successful low carb way of eating.

Anyone would be very welcome.

I don't agree, for lots of the reasons PP have outlined. I think it's dangerous to exclude food groups entirely. You can eat good carbs in small amounts, like brown rice, brown bread.

I am keeping an eye on calories but not logging religiously. Turns out after years of dieting I pretty much know the calorie amounts of most things anyway!

That's good advice about fibre, thanks.

That's really interesting about the blood sugar spike. I have tried experimenting with no carb breakfasts but I still got proper hunger pangs/rumbling tummy mid-morning, hence why eating little and often seems to works for me. I wonder if it's partly because I'm an early riser – I'm usually up at 6 but don't have my first breakfast until 8, so by 10.30-11 I'm hungry again.

My great grandmother used to do 6 small meals. She could do a proper meal (eg a family dinner) but would do smaller meals throughout the day. And she swam and walked everywhere.

She died in 2001 so no internet trends back then!