In this brief video, Dr. Michelle May answers the question, “How often should I eat?”
Should I eat small frequent meals or three meals a day?
Transcript: How Often Should I Eat?
As we are building our new Mindful Eating Community, I asked you to share your challenges and questions about mindful eating.
In honor of International No Diet Day on May 6th, I want to start by answering this question that was emailed to us by Lorine:
“Is it better to eat small meals and small snacks, or plan three meals and avoid snacks?”
On the surface, this might seem like a straight-forward question—and it is if you are just looking for a rule to follow. In other words, a diet might give you rules about how often to eat, for example, “Eat every 3 hours, so you don’t get hungry.”
However, even when diet rules seem simple, they often backfire because they are difficult to stick with long term.
When you try to eat by the rules, you have to spend a lot of time and energy thinking about food and eating. (“When am I allowed to eat? Is it time now?”)
Over time, you start to feel deprived, especially if you’re hungry but it’s not your allowed meal time. That leads to cravings, giving in, guilt, and a vow to do better tomorrow. I call it the eat-repent-repeat cycle.
So, although I could give you a rule to follow about when and how much to eat, if it’s unsustainable, what’s the point?
Instead, mindful eating is an inside-out approach. Instead of someone outside telling you what you should do, mindful eating is about learning to listen to your own inner wisdom to make decisions about eating.
That may seem impossible or even scary! Nearly everyone I work with has been on countless diets, sometimes for decades. Because of the eat-repent-repeat cycle, you may have come to believe you can’t trust yourself.
But once you learn how to make eating decisions mindfully and fearlessly, you don’t need rules anymore.
So, back to the question, should you eat small meals and snacks, or three meals and no snacks?
That depends…
Your body is constantly giving you information that helps you take care of it. For example, when you are thirsty, you need… water. When you’re tired, you need rest… When you are hungry, you need fuel.
So, by learning to recognize your body’s signals of physical hunger, you will become the expert on how often and how much you need to eat.
In other words, you don’t need me (or anyone else) telling you what you should do! With mindful eating, you’ll learn to listen to your body’s wisdom and trust yourself to make decisions that work for you!
