One Meal Per Day

[Alfonso Crawford]

I'm looking to start a new diet-plan: it's similar to my old diet-plan, but the new one is meant to be a conscious ordering of the haphazard precedent. For the past few years, I've not consistently eaten more than one square meal per day. My finances haven't been stellar, so hey. I'd like to continue the regimen, but replace its contents. I've grown rather accustomed to the slow metabolism, and I generally enjoy sloth: I approach it with a Zen-like attitude.

As it may be known, I'm curious about a raw-food diet. If I can keep a bulky physique, that'd be grand, but I'm not wholly dedicated to it. I'm mostly interested in not cooking and not dying of things like scurvy: call me simple. I forgot where—I think it was around these parts, even—I read that a monotonous diet is good for slowing the metabolism, and I'm surely going to benefit from an effect like that, with a plan like mine.

I currently live in Florida, so oranges are cheap/free. I don't know much else about what'd affect anything. I frequently catch hauls of food from the McDonald's at which I work; and, while I'm not pleased with relying on it, I suppose it's important to note, eh? Any tips and suggestions are, as always, appreciated. While the idea is to condense and simplify my intake, I'm not against good snacks.

[Dreamline]

I guarantee if you go raw, you will not be pleased with one meal per day. In fact, you'll probably go insane with hunger. But you won't get scurvy. You probably won't stay bulked though, with the amount of thought and effort it seems you contribute toward diet.

I could live on one meal per day. I also have a reluctant metabolism. I'm also a blood type O which is kind of paleo-hunter/gatherer DNA, accustomed to large spans of time between meals. But I gorge myself with two whole meals a day. Three would be just ridiculous.


Jennifer

[KazeCraven]

Hmm. I'm blood type O too. Maybe that's why I found it so easy to just cut out meals from my diet. I've been sleeping much better without the pesky dinner meal.

I eat mostly raw, but if I don't eat any cooked grains, my weight melts off fast. What have you been eating to stay on a one meal/day diet?

[Dreamline]

It's not an everyday thing. First of all, I never eat breakfast unless my hubby cooks it for me. In which case, I skip lunch. Always eat dinner unless my husband, who kills me with food, is away. He's the chef.

So it's more like a meal and a half. But I don't eat raw as a rule. If I have two meals, one is raw.

Jennifer

[Kasha]

I tried eating one meal a day, and while my foods weren't always 'clean' I lost weight and saw muscle definition.

My problem with it though was that I was so starving by day's end that I'd gorge on foods that weren't good for me. I've since amended it by snacking on fruits throughout the day and bulking up with a protein source at night (last night I had a 4-egg omelet).

Feels good. I like the 'hungry' feeling...keeps me alert.

[ginkgo]

I have eaten one meal a day for decades. Buddha ate one meal a day. People eat way too much food. The way to learn how little food you need is by fasting. I have found that the more food that you eat, the more food you need. The obese guy needs tons of food to not be hungry. Some foods are more nutrient dense than others. If someone wants to get more calories with less food, they can eat raisins instead of grapes.

[Dreamline]

[QUOTE=ginkgo;364491] People eat way too much food. [/QUOTE]

Truer words were never spoken.


Jennifer

[Alfonso Crawford]

I'm O+, myself. Booyar! It's nice to see my plan isn't all that radical, gingko: that's for the Buddha-argument! Normally, I have a “meat and two veg”-meal, with rice or potatoes on the side. There are slight variations, occasionally. When working at a steak-house, my meal was a (free) $12-cheesburger and/or a salad, with all the fries I could sneak.

I'm usually lost in work, at home. Being a game-developer is an easy way to ignore hunger.

I've been thinking about it, and doing some scouting, and I don't think I need to really focus on “meals” at all: I could simply eat lightly throughout the day, if I keep the food on me.

Here are the prices of fruits/vegetables that caught my eye, at a local produce-shop:

• Baby Carrots — $1.50 / bag
• Bananas — $0.50 / pound
• Broccoli — $0.50 / stem
• Cilantro — $0.50 / pack
• Dill — $1.50 / pack
• Grapes — $1.50 / bag
• Lettuce — $1.50 / head
• Onions — $1.00 / pound
• Peaches — $1.00 / pound
• Peanuts — $1.00 / pound
• Spinach — $1.50 / pack
• Tomatos — $1.00 / pound
• *Banana-Nut Bread — $3.50 / loaf

I round up expenses (and round down income), in my financial calculations. I work 25 hours per week, at $7.50 per hour. The bread is just on there for fun. I don't see myself spending $17.50 per day, eating all of that, but nor do I think I need or even want all of that every damn day. What do you suppose I could do, with the items listed, eh? I vaguely recall dill and cilantro having good qualities about them, is why they're on. I'm surprised I didn't find more citrus, now that I think about it.…

[ginkgo]

[QUOTE=Dreamline;364713]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

People eat way too much food. [/QUOTE]

Truer words were never spoken.


Jennifer

Since you mentioned it, in the 70s, I read every book on nutrition that I could find. They disagreed on many things but all agreed that the less you eat, the longer you live (note that that does not take into account physical and mental diseases).

Now I hear that a study shows that the average Chinese person eats one seventh (1/7th) the amount of food of the average American. A Japanese woman told me that they eat a fraction of what Americans eat and produce a lot less trash than we do. Then I hear that the only conclusive study on anti-aging was that when they fed rats less, they became younger and lived longer. Americans prove they are the richest people ever. They are the fattest people to ever live on the planet. Obesity is now an epidemic in America. That is why I have a website on losing weight: Losing Weight-Weight Loss In A Healthy, Easy and Fast Way

[Alfonso Crawford]

By the way, I meant to say “thanks for the Buddha-argument.”

Am I missing out on any important nutrients, with the list? I'm going to start conducting experiments, when I next get paid (later today). My first test will be how long I can make peanuts last. I'll buy a decently proportioned bag, then put it's length of survival against its weight. I'll be eating normally, but further tests will be compounded onto their precedent, weaning me off of my standing diet.

Wish me luck!

[Alfonso Crawford]

I just spent $6.00 ($5.92) on the following:

• 0.89 lbs. of peanuts
• 4 oranges
• 1 box of strawberries
• 1 bag of baby carrots
• 1.86 lbs. of bananas

I'm now going to see how many days it all lasts. I'm only using the above as a supplement to my current meal-plan: it'll expand to take over my entire diet, in time.

[Dreamline]

Food choices often dictate how much you eat. The more simple carbohydrates you choose, the more you will feel you need to eat because of insulin spikes. Our obsession with the food pyramid has killed more people than all the wars put together.

When my sister was pregnant with twins, her OB whipped out the food pyramid and because she was having twins, literally expected my sister to eat ELEVEN servings of grains (bread) A DAY as well as massive amounts of the other choices on the food pyramid. She ended up losing one of the babies in utero at 27 weeks and used to cry about all the food they expected her to eat. The stress of it was incredible on her. I have never heard such an unnatural pile of crap diet advice in my life. Of course, she developed gestational diabetes in her last couple weeks. Who wouldn't have with that nutritional advice?

She is also an O, by the way.

Jennifer

[Timothy Smith]

I don't think this is a really good idea. Breakfast is about the most important meal of the day.

Meals of the day from most important to least important:
1. Breakfast
2. Dinner
3. Lunch
4. Snack
5. Midnight snack

So you could cut on the lunch.

[SarahJaynee]

Alfonso one thing sprung to mind if you are on a budget is make sure you freeze the bananas and any berries one they are too ripe that you wouldnt enjoy eating them whole. Then you can use them to make fruit shakes another time. The bananas will go black in the freezer, but once the skin is peeled off the inside is fine for juicing.

[Alfonso Crawford]

Two meals per day, eh? With how much food I got with six dollars, I don't see that as a problem. My experiments will continue. I'm none too worried about preservation, Sarah—although the tip is something I see saving my ass, later in life—since I plans to promptly eats the daylights outta my haul, you dig?

Uh, I don't know what to say to Dreamline. “That's a horrifying insight I'm glad to have?” I'm shocked to read that the food-pyramid is actually fatal. If the stars ever align such that I become a parent (and since Mrs. Pavlina says there's not much evidence for the existense of Satan, I'm sure they won't), your post will likely never fall very far back from the forefront of my mind. Just… damn…!

[Kasha]

Originally Posted by Dreamline

Food choices often dictate how much you eat. The more simple carbohydrates you choose, the more you will feel you need to eat because of insulin spikes. Our obsession with the food pyramid has killed more people than all the wars put together.

When my sister was pregnant with twins, her OB whipped out the food pyramid and because she was having twins, literally expected my sister to eat ELEVEN servings of grains (bread) A DAY as well as massive amounts of the other choices on the food pyramid. She ended up losing one of the babies in utero at 27 weeks and used to cry about all the food they expected her to eat. The stress of it was incredible on her. I have never heard such an unnatural pile of crap diet advice in my life. Of course, she developed gestational diabetes in her last couple weeks. Who wouldn't have with that nutritional advice?

She is also an O, by the way.

Jennifer

I talk about the food pyramid in an article I just wrote: Do metabolic factors really determine body weight? | Ask Kasha

The reader read a book that claims that certain 'metabolic factors' prevent certain types of people from ever reaching their fitness goals. Well, when the gov't tells you to eat 6-11 servings of grains how can most people lose weight? There's something wrong with this picture.