The tapering food diet

[JoeJustice]

I just made that up!! (The name not the diet)

I saw the following quote today from Adelle Davis:

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

To be honest, I had no clue who Adelle Davis was, but seeing as how she was quoted on a website in an article on proper eating, I figured she must be important. Well, according to Wikipedia at least, she is. Adelle Davis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelle_Davis) was apparently a kind of prototype nutritionist and that saw a lot of the problems we're having with food today coming way back when!

So with that in mind, her eating quote carries a bit more weight. It caught my eye, because this is largely the way I eat. I've not gotten very much into the whole Intermittent Fasting discussion because it's the total inverse of what I do, which is eating my heavier meals early and tapering off as the day goes on. I use to try the opposite, which was a very light breakfast and building to a larger dinner and it only got me so far. I've also tried the 6 evenly spaced meals.

Interestingly, when the whole IF thing started being discussed, Tom mentioned that you're not hungry when you first wake up. I didn't want to be the voice of decent, but that's just nor true for me. My family has always been big on breakfast, but I am a country boy and the traditional meal is biscuits, gravy, sausage, hasbrowns and eggs. (Wonder how I got so fat?) The way things used to work back when manual labor was the way of life, was the men ate a huge breakfast and carried a light lunch with them. Then they'd have decent sized dinner. But as far a calories go, I'd say breakfast was probably the king of meals.

I remember when I first read Paul Bragg's works and he talked about how bad eating a big breakfast was and how he ate light salads and that was it. The fact he talked about it must mean that in those days it was very common to have a very large breakfast. Obviously this is an argument that goes way back and has plenty of world renowned folks on both sides.

But for me, I'd have to say a big breakfast within an hour of waking up (usually follow a light workout), a light lunch and a decent dinner is the way to go for me. Also not eating 3-4 hours before going to bed has a really positive effect all the way around. My breakfasts are usually omelets made with a few eggs, some cheese and a little salsa, half a cup or so of some kind of beans and a little sweet potato. Not as many calories is biscuits, gravy, sausage and hashbrowns, but it fills me up and keeps me satisfied all morning.

-Joe

[omad0n]

I'd like to second Donna on everyone find their own way. Glad you posted a bit on your diet Joe, I think it might be helpful to some out there. For me, I don't eat a heavy breakfast, but try to eat a heavy lunch and a lighter dinner. The logic was something along the lines of "give your body more time to digest the heavy stuff" which is also why I try not to have a dinner too late after 7pm, especially if pasta is involved.

[MikeNY]

Joe breakfast was always easy for me to skip, I always preferred a large breakfast as a lunch at lunch time. I usually had a fresh bagel and cream cheese for breakfast or ceral. That might just be my natural cycle though. When younger I worked steel and construction and didn't eat breakfast or had ceral. I was six feet tall and shaved at 12 and little later accidently lied about my age to get my first summer job lol accidents happen :eyeroll: But the money was great and I did look 18 or older.

Like Donna said, it just seems to be natural for some to skip breakfast.

[tom]

Interestingly, when the whole IF thing started being discussed, Tom mentioned that you're not hungry when you first wake up. I didn't want to be the voice of decent, but that's just nor true for me.
Life would be so boring if I knew all the answers. My question that first enters my questioning questionable brain is whether it is real hunger, habit hunger, you smell the coffee hunger, etc. That's a self-question that everybody has to think about. Nobody else can answer it. I will fall back on my general thought: if you have a true hunger, feed it.

There are some important variables you put in there, too: exercise right off the bat, not eating long before going to sleep. If a person doesn't eat anything after six, and then doesn't eat breakfast until eight, that is a long, decent time of letting the stomach rest. Fourteen hours is much better than the too-often eight hours of nothing in the stomach.

My breakfasts are usually omelets made with a few eggs, some cheese and a little salsa, half a cup or so of some kind of beans and a little sweet potato. Not as many calories is biscuits, gravy, sausage and hashbrowns, but it fills me up and keeps me satisfied all morning.

That is how I recommend a person eat breakfast if they eat breakfast. Naturally it is not my original idea, I read it in Lyle McDonald's writing: protein (and I say fat, too) will keep you satiated longest. Joe, you are not giving yourself a sugar, insulin spike high with that kind of meal. I bet you feel lighter and less drowsy until lunchtime also, too.

Of course, the best gauge of whatever diet you are on is to look at your progress pictures over the last few years. That's that.

Tom

[jan]

Diet changes through the years. We used to eat bacon and eggs on a regular basis as breakfast. As a middle-aged teenager (?) I used to remove the greasy parts of the bacon. When my father saw me doing this, he said I threw away the best part of the bacon. To which I replied that it was all grease and not good for your health. He started laughing and said:"Son, when you were small, you used to eat bacon that the grease dripped from your chin. I eat bacon all my life, and I'm still ok". My father was aroung 1m75, weighing 72kg with broad shoulders, slim waist and no belly (he used to be a gymnast as well). I mentioned that in his younger days, people used to work on the land from dawn till dusk, and without greasy foods they could not keep up the hard work. But times have changed. You eat the diet people used to eat 100 years ago, and you'll be dead in no time. By the way, my father lived to be 82.

Jan

[JoeJustice]

Fourteen hours is much better than the too-often eight hours of nothing in the stomach.


I use to think a night time snack was a good idea. For a long time I held onto the "six small meals throughout the day" mantra. I have found not eating anything after dinner to be very beneficial, though. I think the digestive system does need time to rest, so one way of the other you should go at least 12 hours without eating anything, 14 is probably better.

Also there are several supplements that work great on an empty stomach. I take L-Arginine at night before I go to bed and it makes a big difference on whether I've eaten or not. The positive effects of specific amino acids really depend on them being alone in your stomach. Since I started taking it on an empty stomach, my recover time has gone through the roof, no matter what kind of workout I do I'm back at 100% the next day. Going without the L-Arginine for a few days and I notice the difference.

-Joe

[JoeJustice]

That's why I don't like supplements. Are you going to take this for the rest of your life?

The answer's based on recovery. I'm training pretty aggressively right now, so I can use the help. If I weren't training so hard, I probably wouldn't use it.

That said, there are lots supplements that are good for you and can be taken your whole life. I take magnesium for migraines and plan to for the rest of my life, I haven't had one in years. I take a multivitamin, a B complex and a joint formula with glucosamine and chondroitin, and don't see any reason to stop taking any of them.

-Joe

[Flash11740]

Interestingly, when the whole IF thing started being discussed, Tom mentioned that you're not hungry when you first wake up. I didn't want to be the voice of decent, but that's just nor true for me.

I'm always hungry first thing in the morning, except when I'm fasting. Assuming a start a fast at 1800 on Saturday then I'm hungry on Sunday morning... but that's because the fast hasn't really kicked in and my body is expecting a meal. But after fasting right through the Sunday I won't feel hungry come Monday morning. This might have been what Tom was referring to.

Like you I also tried the 6 meals a day thing and it just made me fat and in my case tired. I work best on three meals a day, and I try and keep them all roughly the same size. I also drink fresh juice before every meal. The juice consists of juiced veg and blended fruit mixed together. The only supplements I use are:

spirulina
soy lecithin
acidopholus
malkosan (fermented whey)
Udo's Oil (omega 3,6 & 9 in the correct ratio)
Wheatgerm

But they are more food supplements and I'm not precious about any of them.

[JoeJustice]

Hmmm... I've never heard of coffee affecting migraines before. Migraines and headaches aren't the same thing. If he's having tension headaches or caffeine withdrawal headaches, then magnesium won't do anything for him.

If he IS having migraines, tell him to take magnesium and a vitamin B complex every day (B-6 is the main one, but a complex will cover all bases). If it's tension headaches, he should practice neck exercises and stretches every morning and it will help him significantly.

-Joe