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Forums » General Health » General health issues
 Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Apr 7, 2008 at 9:29 AM |
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benag
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Joined: Apr 7, 2008
Last Visit: Apr 23, 2008
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Hello all,
I'm 23 and I'm trying to start watching my diet for the first time. I've always eaten fairly healthy, but I never really planned out my meals before. I'm not in that bad shape, but I want to lose a few pounds and tone up a bit. As I said, I've never done this so I was hoping someone could tell me if I'm on the right track. I've heard its good to eat several smaller meals so that's what I'm aiming for. I can't always eat a meal though, so I throw in a protein shake every now and then in its place.
6:00AM - Get up
6:30AM - Oatmeal, about 1/2 cup - I take a multivitamin, fish oil, and (for the time being) a commercial fat burner
10:00AM - Slim Fast Protein Shake
NOON - Turkey sandwich on multi - grain bread, apple, granola bar
3:00PM - Slim Fast candy bar
4:00PM - 5:30PM - Workout: I lift for about 30 - 45 minutes then bust my butt doing some kind of cardio for 20 - 45 minutes or play basketball. I drink a whey protein shake after I'm done
7/7:30PM - Eat some lean meat with fat trimmed off and some fresh steamed veggies
9/9:30 - Drink a soy protein shake
10/10:30 - Bed
It seems ok to me, I'm not hungry throughout the day or anything. What do you guys think?
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| Re: Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Apr 8, 2008 at 4:02 PM |
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Elizabeth
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Joined: Mar 14, 2008
Last Visit: Sep 8, 2008
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Hi benag,
You may think this is strange but here at the Wellness Center we eat 2 meals a day. Breakfast at 7:30 and dinner at 2 pm. We do not recommend snacks. We eat whole foods, not refined or processed. We recommend up to 4 glasses of water before breakfast and another 4 or more during the day. No drinking with meals. For breakfast we have a hot cereal like rolled oats, rolled barley, triticale, quinoa, millet, etc. We may also have muffins made with whole grain flours or whole grain waffles, maybe whole grain pancakes or tofu. Dried beans of some kind are always served also. Then there is a variety of fresh fruit and some dried fruits or canned fruit sweetened with fruit juice. We serve soy milk fresh made or rice nut milk. Spreads for bread may be date butter or apricot butter or corn butter. We make most everything we eat. Dinner is 1 or more fresh salads, a couple of steamed vegetables and a main dish which will consist of grains and nuts or legumes.
The exercise program is good. Go to bed with no food needing to be digested.
Our guests are amazed they don't get hungry but it is the fiber that helps.
Our body likes regularity so eating at the same time every day is good.
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| re: Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Jul 1, 2008 at 6:35 PM |
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carrie
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Joined: Mar 14, 2008
Last Visit: Oct 9, 2008
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Some of the diets that are available today recommend eating every 2-3 hours. This is recommended on the assumption that it helps keep your blood sugar from getting low. But, there are some problems and shortcomings to this line of logic.
The time food spends in the stomach can take anywhere from 1 to 5 hours or more, depending on how much you ate, how well you chewed your food, and what the composition of the food is (i.e. animal protein, fats, carbohydrates, plant proteins). In most cases the stomach empties in a couple of hours. The stomach is an interestingly shaped organ. When it is empty, it kind of looks like a deflated football, with lots of folds. As food is swallowed, the folded sides of the football expand. The stomach contracts and kneads, and churns the food till it is mush. Once food has been liquefied in the stomach, the sphincter at the bottom of the stomach opens and the food (now called a bolus) passes into the first portion of the small intestine. The food is treated by different enzymes, etc. at different stages in the small intestine. Each time the food is ready to be moved to the next workstation in the small intestine, the smooth muscle in the intestinal tract contracts (called peristalsis) and pushes the food along to its next destination. If there is still food in the small intestines when more food (another meal or snack) is introduced into the stomach, digestion gets a little weird. The pattern of churning that the stomach does is different than the rhythmic peristalsis that the small intestine does. The body has a hard time trying to do both at the same time, and often chaos, or ineffective movements occur in both the stomach and the small intestine. Ineffective movements set you up for less than optimal digestion!
A second big reason to not eat lots of small meals close together is that it takes the pancreas approximately five hours to reorganize digestive enzymes after a meal so you have full enzyme activity available for the next meal. Having the full complement of digestive enzymes helps you to have better digestion.
I hope this helps make sense regarding planning the timing of meals.
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| Re: Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Jul 2, 2008 at 4:56 PM |
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Roberta
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Joined: Jun 25, 2008
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Thank you, Carrie, for giving the physiological explanation of why we shouldn't eat too frequently. I know for myself when I eat 2-3 hours after a previous meal that I almost always have digestive problems. You have explained why that is. Yet there are so many "experts" out there suggesting we should graze like a cow. However, we don't have all those stomachs nor the ability to chew cud!!!!
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| Re: Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Oct 9, 2008 at 5:16 PM |
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genevieve
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Joined: Sep 23, 2008
Last Visit: Oct 10, 2008
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Can you explain what are dry beans. Are they Dehydrated beans or ?
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| Re: Is this a good diet? |
| Posted On Oct 9, 2008 at 8:00 PM |
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carrie
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Joined: Mar 14, 2008
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Dry beans are beans like pinto beans, black beans, lima beans, etc. that you buy in the grocery store for cooking with. They are called dry beans because when they are grown, rather than picking and eating them fresh (like you do regular green beans) the pods are allowed to dry on the plant. They are then harvested and broken open and the hard, dry beans are collected and saved for use in cooking later.
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