Training & Nutrition - eating smaller meals

I started eating smaller meals throughout the day a few months ago, and I loved it. But lately(past week) it has just gotten annoying. Like today after I ate yogurt I was still really hungry and craving more food even after I chugged down 2 bottles of water before and after I ate. Then earlier tonight like around 6pm I ate a big meal and I felt full and content after. I know that eating smaller meals is better for my metablism, so what is going on with me? Do I just need to take a break from smaller meals for a while? Ugh I don't want to gain the weight back I lost from biking!


I should also mention that I usually bike 1-2 hours a day. But on Tuesday I started biking 3 hours a day. Today I took the day off to make sure my body gets some rest, but I'm going again tomorrow.


haha it's almost 9pm and I'm hungry again! Too bad for me tho, I make sure I don't eat after 7pm!

help!

I fight the same battles. Try keeping track of total calories for the day and see where you are at that way. Also, with the same food log you can get a sense of total proteins fats and carbs and see where your balance is. Aside from feeling satisfied and full, your cravings may be related to total calories or to some nutritional imbalance. Also, at least for me carbs during the day seems to lead to a cravings for carbs at night.

I started eating smaller meals throughout the day a few months ago, and I loved it. But lately(past week) it has just gotten annoying. Like today after I ate yogurt I was still really hungry and craving more food even after I chugged down 2 bottles of water before and after I ate. Then earlier tonight like around 6pm I ate a big meal and I felt full and content after. I know that eating smaller meals is better for my metablism, so what is going on with me? Do I just need to take a break from smaller meals for a while? Ugh I don't want to gain the weight back I lost from biking!


I should also mention that I usually bike 1-2 hours a day. But on Tuesday I started biking 3 hours a day. Today I took the day off to make sure my body gets some rest, but I'm going again tomorrow.


haha it's almost 9pm and I'm hungry again! Too bad for me tho, I make sure I don't eat after 7pm!
help!

in my experience this didnt matter. its about the total calories and doesnt matter when you eat them. calories are calories. i tend to eat 3 main meals and 3 snacks. i have my last snack after dinner before bedtime around 830 to 9pm. i dropped 70 lbs last year counting calories and eating in this manner. good luck. later.

You're at too much of an extreme. Your small meals are too small and your big meals are too big. Splitting the difference and the timing would be best. Yeah, it's really the total calories per day that matters and you should track your total each day. You'll find an interesting trend when you've got a lot of data recorded to analyze.

+1 to Danno. I changed nothing about my diet back when I was F-A-T and dropped 30 pounds in 3 months just from going to 5 meals a day instead of 3. You do get an extra metabolic boost, as well as a steady supply of blood sugar, instead of the spikes that cause you to pull over into the fast food drive-thru.

The log is the key. You have to track until you really know what you are eating and how many calories. Pay close attention to portions so that you can get an accurate count of the calories. The challenging part is when you know you've had enough calories for the day, but still feel cravings. Then you have to start looking at what you are eating and how it effects your feelings of satisfaction and cravings. +1 to Danno, you need real data to establish the patterns.

I'm using FitDay http://www.fitday.com/ to help me stick to the plan my nutritionist layed out. I eat every 3 hours, & if I get really hungry & need to binge a bit, I can at least see what it is I need to binge on. A couple of days ago this happened & I still needed to catch up on fat, so I ate 4 pieces of whole grain toast with 3 tablespoons of Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread, it put me a few hundred calories over my ideal limit for a rest day, but at least I hit my protien/carb/fat percentages pretty close. I refuse to let myself starve & many days I'm well under my calorie limit.

I am still very new to all this & am learning to eat smart & how to balance my diet daily . It seems that if I save my protiens till later in the day, I don't get as hungry at night. For instance, yesterday evening I made a triple decker (Big Mac style) solid white albacore sandwich. I mix 3oz of nonfat greek yogurt with the 6oz of tuna, sliced up a couple of dill pickle spears, a little Grey Poupon & spread it between 3 slices of whole grain bread. 575 calories, 66 grams of protien, 71 carbs, 9 fat. Awesome meal before I went to the Gym that carried me through the rest of the day other than a recover drink. It will take me a while before I can consistantly hit the 15%pro/55%carb/30%fat goal the nutritionist set for me, but trying is half the fun.

Nice work, Schrup. Stay the course!

I've found that time makes a huge difference -- once you get used to eating differently, even a little, it becomes much easier.

thanks for all the advice. When I started eating smaller meals, I also started counting calories. I also have been using fitday.com. This past week was just a mess, I continued to mostly ate big meals to kind of experiment what it would do to me since I hadn't eaten large meals in a while now. So I found out that I NEED to eat smaller meals. The large meals just messed me up. I gained 2.5 pounds back this week from eating larger meals! Even though I was watching my calorie intake and biking, the weight just came back. So today I started eating smaller meals again and I'm glad to be back on track :)