Snacking ?

[littleladyplus2]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about snacking. I know on LE snacking is not ideal, but is it super bad as long as calorie totals stay low and you're losing weight? I'm struggling with going very long between meals, but I'm definitely losing weight and keeping my overall calorie intake low. I'm also exercising for the 60 minutes 6-7 days a week which I think may be part of the reason I'm so hungry.

I am skipping breakfast with the exception of coffee with a splash of milk or creamer. I have a hard time making it until 11:00/12:00 without the coffee. Is it better to try to eat a bigger meal in one sitting or eat a smaller meal with a snack later if needed? I'm not constantly grazing but do find I needed a snack or two during the day.

Does anyone have experience with this? I'm afraid I'm dooming my sway because of needing a snack between lunch and dinner and before bed.

Thanks for any input!!


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[purpledream]

Snacking will raise your blood sugar and you definitely don't want that. You can absolutely have your coffee before 11-12, it's not considered a meal. It will raise your sugar level, but not as much as a meal and it will drop down right after. Just watch that milk-no vit A& D added, you can use fat free, skim or half-and-half, I go with rise milk and I don't even have to use any sweetener-it's naturally sweet. If I have to make a choice between snacking and a bigger meal, I'll go with a bigger meal, one of the goals of the LE diet is to go as long as possible between meals. I drink Crystal Light between lunch and dinner and if that doesn't do the trick, I get another cup of coffee later in the afternoon. You also need to stay around the top of the calorie/fat/protein intake since you are doing the exercise-I just started this week and found myself loosing too much too fast. I've run into the problem of getting all the fat, sodium and protein at level, but way too low on calories. It's fine-tuning on the go!

[Dreamofpink]

Chewing gum and diet coke are both good for distracting yourself in between meals without raising blood sugar levels. I know it's no substitute for a good hearty snack though :)

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[dreamingofwin]

I am having a coffee also and then having 2 bigger meals strictly no sacking. Id make your meals bigger. I eat a pudding after mine every day either yogurt of low fat crisps. It keeps me fuller x

[littleladyplus2]

Thanks all! I'm still fine tuning my diet, so this is all very helpful. Maybe I'll push back my attempt until the end of next month to have more time with less snacking.


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[4 blues~hopingforpink~]

I snacked.. I ate whatever I wanted when I wanted. Only thing I did food wise was in the mornings I would eat a couple hard boiled eggs (I knew they didnt contain carbs) with a cup of coffee with some creamer and equal. Other wise I ate whatever..

[maidentomother]

I think it's much better to eat larger meals and avoid snacking/more than 3 meals as much as possible. 2 meals if you can do it is probably optimal. I struggle with this too and have increased my total cals from 1200 to 1500 just so I can survive without snacking.

[odd]

If I eat large meals then I am too full so what I do is I eat 2 meals where I feel satisfied and will have a snack arond 3:30 or 4 of like a rice cake or something small ...

And then will have dinner btwn 6to 7:30.

I think snacking is more out of habit than hunger for the most part ...but at the same time, eating only when you're super hungry and starving is what counts instead of stressing out abt it

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[odd]

Oh and I get super cravings around ovulation so allow myslef one day of cheating w/o feeling guity

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[maidentomother]

Like odd I get insane O cravings so I will also do a couple (small) cheats just before O. Having a little bit of whatever I'm craving enables me to be stricter overall, too.

[littleladyplus2]

I can definitely tell when I'm having some kind of hormonal shift because my mood and my appetite are all over the place. I figure some of the moms who got girls without purposely swaying probably allowed themselves some of their cravings, so it can't be that bad right? Lol!


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[purpledream]

Chewing gum and diet coke are both good for distracting yourself in between meals without raising blood sugar levels. I know it's no substitute for a good hearty snack though :)

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You are lucky! Chewing gum actually makes me hungry so I avoid it like the plague..

[dreamingofwin]

I was hungry but have trained myself to go until 1pm lunch add 5.30/6pm for dinner. No snacks. Just think about something else or do a workout, drink water etc.. X

[purpledream]

Crystal Light does the trick, too, since it's sweet, but no calories.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thanks all! I'm still fine tuning my diet, so this is all very helpful. Maybe I'll push back my attempt until the end of next month to have more time with less snacking.


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It's just something that may help a little bit, certainly not a make or break.

Sometimes, if you postpone waiting for the perfect month, you end up never trying.

[atomic sagebrush]

I can definitely tell when I'm having some kind of hormonal shift because my mood and my appetite are all over the place. I figure some of the moms who got girls without purposely swaying probably allowed themselves some of their cravings, so it can't be that bad right? Lol!


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Yes exactly. If you're in this boat it's much better just to cheat and then be happy with that. What some people do is think "i gotta be good, I gotta be good" and then eat all their normal food, then cave in and have a cheat on top of it, then they go nutso and eat everything in the house. It's much better to just say, ok, I'm really wanting to cheat so I'm going to let myself do that and have whatever it is that you really truly want FIRST instead of trying to white-knuckle it through.

[atomic sagebrush]

Just to share what worked for me, I actually broke some of my own rules because that's what I needed to do to make the diet work for ME (and y'all should always feel free to do the same.)

I had coffee with real sugar in the morning instead of artificial sweetener and on occasion had more coffee or even a pop a few times between meals. These were total cheats for me and not what I think is best but it's what I needed to do to stay functional.

I always ate 3 meals. I have a high metabolism and I just couldn't have managed on 2. One of these was before bed because otherwise I couldn't sleep. I think 2 or 3 meals is both fine, what matters most is that nice long fast overnight + skipping breakfast, so please don't anyone think they have to stick just 2 meals if you really can't.

[littleladyplus2]

Just to share what worked for me, I actually broke some of my own rules because that's what I needed to do to make the diet work for ME (and y'all should always feel free to do the same.)

I had coffee with real sugar in the morning instead of artificial sweetener and on occasion had more coffee or even a pop a few times between meals. These were total cheats for me and not what I think is best but it's what I needed to do to stay functional.

I always ate 3 meals. I have a high metabolism and I just couldn't have managed on 2. One of these was before bed because otherwise I couldn't sleep. I think 2 or 3 meals is both fine, what matters most is that nice long fast overnight + skipping breakfast, so please don't anyone think they have to stick just 2 meals if you really can't.

Thanks so much for weighing in Atomic! I had a yogurt around 3pm today because I was ridiculously hungry and I knew I would be running for at least an hour before my next meal. I think these are the kind of things I'll need to do to make this work for me. Hopefully I'll still get a healthy baby girl in the end 🙏



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[GT77]

I had a bagel /cc 12 and yogurt everyday at 4 and the dinner around 8. And drank a ton of coffee!! I think yogurt is totally fine for a snack and that it's was nearly impossible for me not to snack! I also are a ton of ff candy that helped!! GL girls


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[carmella_marie]

Instead of snacking or bigger meals, I did 3 mid sized meals. So I would have lunch around 1 pm of 600 cals or so, then dinner at 6 of 600 cals or so, and then around 9/10 pm a big snack/small meal of 300-600 calories. This still had me not eating from 10pm- 1pm the next day, and I was getting good and hungry between meals. I could also sleep better with food in my stomach.

[atomic sagebrush]

wow I thought I answered this??

Yes, it's best to avoid snacking because you want your blood sugar to drop at least sometimes,, so eating constantly keeps your blood sugar up all day long.

But it's FINE to eat 3 meals in a smaller window, so if you postpone breakfast till 11-12 you can still have breakfast, lunch, and dinner just in a smaller window. I always ate 3 meals when I got my daughter, I couldn't manage just on 2 meals a day.