Metabolism & Cheat Days

[Mr Trophy]

Afternoon all,

Looking for abit of help if possible please. I've heard from loads of people that you need to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism "burning" & and you should never feel hungry.

I've also heard that it's a lot of rubbish and it doesn't matter.

So, what do you guys think? Is it true aswell that you should have a cheat day once every two week's to shock your body?

Sorry if the above has been done to death / silly questions.

Simon

[evo4a]

shock your body into what?

[GBDG]

Does it speed up your metabolism - NO
Is your body highly evolved to handle almost any meal frequency and keep itself supplied with fuel - YES
Does eating more frequent smaller meals make you less hungry - YES
In my person experience, is it worth doing - YES

So in summary - it doesn't have any physical benefits, but it may have some psychological ones. It's particularly good for fending off cravings and preventing you from binging/cheating. I've done it, and other than being a pain in the arse, I found it enjoyable.

Again, with cheat days, there are psychologically beneficial, but I doubt they have any benefit in terms of your metabolic rate. UNLESS you're doing low carb/high carb and using it as a way to replenish glycogen stores.

Edited by GBDG on Monday 21st January 13:45

[amare32]

I eat every 3/4 hours a day with the biggest meals being my breakfast, lunch and post workout meal.

I do eat a little bit of what I like at the weekends and only drink when I go out.

It's completely open to debate if it works for everyone. All I'll say is that it's helped me get ripped with a physique of a middleweight boxer at 6% bodyfat and maintaining it.

Fasting is something I haven't tried as I'm quite active so fat loss is not my goal and I need to fuel up for my training.

[didelydoo]

evo4a said:

shock your body into what?

Some kind of electric boogaloo I hear?

[pilchardthecat]

GBDG said:

Does eating more frequent smaller meals make you less hungry - YES

I disagree. Eating frequently makes you hungrier due to grehlin response.

[GBDG]

pilchardthecat said:

I disagree. Eating frequently makes you hungrier due to grehlin response.

I'm talking from personal experience here, but from my knowledge of the science behind it, I do't understand the basis of your statement.

[pilchardthecat]

GBDG said:

pilchardthecat said:

I disagree. Eating frequently makes you hungrier due to grehlin response.

I'm talking from personal experience here, but from my knowledge of the science behind it, I do't understand the basis of your statement.

Grehlin is a hormone. One of its effects is to make you feel hungry. It is released cyclically, ie - if you routinely eat at 8am every day, your body will release grehlin at 8am every day, thus making you hungry at 8am. If you eat every 3-4 hours for a period of time, you will find that you feel hungry every 3-4 hours.

You can manipulate grehlin rhythms easily by simply changing your eating habits. You will be hungry to begin with when skipping meals that you previously enjoyed, but after a week or two your body will stop producing grehlin at those times, and you wont feel hungry anymore. People who dont eat breakfast, and claim that they "never feel hungry in the morning" are experiencing this

[goldblum]

pilchardthecat said:

GBDG said:

pilchardthecat said:

I disagree. Eating frequently makes you hungrier due to grehlin response.

I'm talking from personal experience here, but from my knowledge of the science behind it, I do't understand the basis of your statement.

Grehlin is a hormone. One of its effects is to make you feel hungry. It is released cyclically, ie - if you routinely eat at 8am every day, your body will release grehlin at 8am every day, thus making you hungry at 8am. If you eat every 3-4 hours for a period of time, you will find that you feel hungry every 3-4 hours.

You can manipulate grehlin rhythms easily by simply changing your eating habits. You will be hungry to begin with when skipping meals that you previously enjoyed, but after a week or two your body will stop producing grehlin at those times, and you wont feel hungry anymore. People who dont eat breakfast, and claim that they "never feel hungry in the morning" are experiencing this

Grehlin response is thought to be diminished by insulin release. More carbohydrates eaten - more insulin released - less grehlin. As most people who eat frequently through the day are involved in physical activity at some level they tend to
ingest carbohydrates in different forms throughout the day to keep energy levels up, therefore the grehlin response is not a major factor in adherence to this kind of diet. Maybe if the insulin levels were low..for instance a high protein diet might affect hunger levels more.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/367.full.pd...
"Little is known about how ghrelin concentrations are modified by dietary factors"

GBDG said:

Does it speed up your metabolism - NO

Yes of course it does. Your basal metabolic rate increases when the body digests food.

[Hoofy]

It doesn't subside that quickly, though. ISTR that it takes 3 days of fasting for your metabolism to noticeably drop.

[goldblum]

Hoofy said:

It doesn't subside that quickly, though. ISTR that it takes 3 days of fasting for your metabolism to noticeably drop.

Yes quite possibly and in truth the increase in BSR when you do eat isn't exactly huge.

[pilchardthecat]

goldblum said:

pilchardthecat said:

GBDG said:

pilchardthecat said:

I disagree. Eating frequently makes you hungrier due to grehlin response.

I'm talking from personal experience here, but from my knowledge of the science behind it, I do't understand the basis of your statement.

Grehlin is a hormone. One of its effects is to make you feel hungry. It is released cyclically, ie - if you routinely eat at 8am every day, your body will release grehlin at 8am every day, thus making you hungry at 8am. If you eat every 3-4 hours for a period of time, you will find that you feel hungry every 3-4 hours.

You can manipulate grehlin rhythms easily by simply changing your eating habits. You will be hungry to begin with when skipping meals that you previously enjoyed, but after a week or two your body will stop producing grehlin at those times, and you wont feel hungry anymore. People who dont eat breakfast, and claim that they "never feel hungry in the morning" are experiencing this

Grehlin response is thought to be diminished by insulin release. More carbohydrates eaten - more insulin released - less grehlin. As most people who eat frequently through the day are involved in physical activity at some level they tend to
ingest carbohydrates in different forms throughout the day to keep energy levels up, therefore the grehlin response is not a major factor in adherence to this kind of diet. Maybe if the insulin levels were low..for instance a high protein diet might affect hunger levels more.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/367.full.pd...
"Little is known about how ghrelin concentrations are modified by dietary factors"

There are quite a few studies on grehlin actually
Certainly people who eat very high frequency are likely to become more insulin resistant, since they will be triggering an insulin response more often, and have higher blood glucose for more of the time than someone who eats infrequently. To me this is just another argument in favour of infrequent meals.
I have carried out some fairly scientific trials on myself (admittedly a statistical sample of one more often than not, so not really suitable for peer review!) but the anecdotal evidence (rather, outcome) is quite remarkable. I am not alone either.
But as you say, opinion is divided

[Hoofy]

goldblum said:

Yes quite possibly and in truth the increase in BSR when you do eat isn't exactly huge.

BMR, right? Otherwise, what has blindswelledrat got to do with anything?

In any case, I can't comment as apart from IFing, I don't tend to not snack between meals so anyone who advises to snack between meals, I wholeheartedly support because it sounds like a jolly good idea.

[goldblum]

Hoofy said:

goldblum said:

Yes quite possibly and in truth the increase in BSR when you do eat isn't exactly huge.

BMR, right? Otherwise, what has blindswelledrat got to do with anything?

Haha yes.

[Regiment]

Always been told the best is to just have 3 square meals a day, anything more is pointless and makes no difference.