I recently created a video called “My Three Favorite Things About Intermittent Fasting.” (You can watch it here!)
As I was considering what my very favorite things about IF really are, I was surprised to hear the “full meal instead of nibbles” thought over and over. I hadn’t realized how important it was for me to not have what I call “nibbles.”
My definition of “nibbles” is those little 200-400 calorie bites or drinks that a person who wants to lose weight but eats or drinks 6+ times a day has to have
In other words, if you are trying to lose weight and, theoretically, you need 1800 calories per day to get down to said goal weight (I don’t normally count calories…but bear with me…), you have to divide that 1800 calories among six eating or drinking episodes.
Those are “nibbles.”
Research shows that we WAY under-report eating times when self-reporting (another reason why I like studies done in metabolic wards not self-reported food intake ones!)…..yeah, like WAY under-estimate.
Research also shows that we consume calories 7-10 times in every twenty-four hour period of time (not Intermittent Fasters, obviously).
Research additionally shows…..I’m almost done with these…lol….and this one was hard for me to swallow….but research shows that calorie counters, trackers, lists, etc., are off by 25% either direction OFTEN. (In other words, we think we are eating a 240 calorie taco, and it is really a 305 calorie taco). Wowsie!
Anyway….back to our “nibbles”!
You drink a 300 calorie latte (is there such a thing..not sure how many calories they have!) first thing. You grab half a muffin mid morning. You know you need to eat light at lunch, so you eat a 600 calorie salad. In the afternoon, after being so good at lunch, you eat a 250 calorie candy bar to give you a sugar rush. On the way home, you eat some of your little guy’s goldfish crackers and grab the apple and granola bar in your purse for another 400 calories. Then you don’t have much left for dinner, so you eat 300 calories of cottage cheese and turkey. And suffer all evening….
AND THAT IS FOR SOMEONE WHO TRULY STAYS ON THEIR 1800 calorie weight loss plan.
Usually, because we’ve spiked our insulin all day—and never gave our body a chance to be without food or drink–we are hungry non stop, and we don’t stick with the 1800 calorie plan.
Our “nibbles” become more like mini meals in terms of caloric load, taking us up to 2500 calories or more–because let’s face it, it is hard to eat or drink 300 calories or under each of those six times. (Of course, most of us can’t lose weight on 2500 calories….)
So in considering my VERY favorite things about Intermittent Fasting (there are soooo many things I love!), I kept coming back to “not having to eat ‘nibbles.'”
Ray Baby and I have settled in to 18:6 most of the time (with a 20 or 21 hour fast thrown in here and there to offset a 16 hour one on a family day). We have settled into 2MAD (two meals a day—one smaller one and one “regular” one).
NO NIBBLES!
I don’t want a cheese stick and six Wheat Thins. I don’t want a latte. I don’t want an apple with peanut butter. I don’t want a granola bar and yogurt.
I want a real meal…..
So that is one of my favorite things about IF.
Whether we count calories, carbs, points, fat grams, macros, or nothing, we still have to create a calorie deficit to lose weight and stay at that caloric load to maintain it (though we can strength train to help us be able to eat more in the future—stay tuned!).
(We “don’t count calories or macros; we count habits and real foods”! But for example’s sake…)
So the question is, do you want to create that deficit through “nibbles” and continual hunger and lack of satisfaction?
Or do you want to create it through taming grehlin, controlling insulin, hearing leptin…..and eating REAL, more satiating foods?
No nibbles for me….
Fasting for life,
Donna
P.S. I can teach you everything I know that has led to this empty-nesting, 56/60 year old couple becoming “The Minus 215 Pound Pair”! Join my October course!
