104: Why I Switched from 2 Meals to 3 a Day

MK: So I've decided to going back to eating three meals a day with snacks in between so I can better control my blood sugar. Welcome to the Primer Shift podcast. I'm kidding. Sort of here is the thing. I actually did decide to eat more frequently. I used to eat two meals a day for the past several years, and I've been doing very well with that.

But I decided I needed one extra meal. So breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And in this episode I'm gonna tell you why that is. What are the pros and cons to either of those approaches? So help you maybe decide, you know, whether or not your current eating, timing and strategy makes a lot of sense, or if there is maybe room for adjustment.

Before we get into that, let's just very briefly touch upon the idea that you should be eating three meals a day with snacks in between to maintain. Stable blood sugar levels. You know, the thing is blood sugar doesn't crash if you're metabolically healthy and not constantly eating refined carbs. You know, most people think that they're preventing blood sugar drops, but they're actually just managing car addiction and blood in a blood sugar rollercoaster caused by, you know, they diet in the first place.

And. What actually keeps the blood sugar stable is avoiding sugar refined grains and ultra processed foods. It's not really any, you know, any, any, anything, uh, any revelation there that's pretty obvious. Most people know that. And so if you prioritize protein and fat and just eat carbs, you know, as strategically as a source of fuel, you're gonna be perfectly fine with your blood sugar.

And chances are you don't need to eat very often because protein and fat are very sat ing and so you. Naturally gravitate towards eating less often, and that's what I've experienced as well. And what I have however, noticed, you know, despite all of the benefits of consuming only two meals a day, and for me that typically meant late breakfast.

So we would go work out at maybe eight 30 or so until nine 30 we come, would come back, and then somewhere between 10 and 11 we would have. Breakfast and those, that breakfast was typically then fairly large. You know, I like to eat, I eat a lot, and I also weigh a lot. I weigh 10, 210 pounds, and I burn through a good amount of not only calories from an energy perspective, but I also have a good amount of lean muscle mass that needs to be maintained, that needs to be refueled with protein.

And most of my energy is actually coming from fat and not carbohydrates. And so that combined. Meant that my breakfast would have to be fairly large and then I would not be hungry until fairly late at night. So with a 10:00 AM big breakfast, I would not get hungry. Until five or six. My bad time is usually around nine.

I mean, now in summer that it doesn't, the sun doesn't go down until nine 15 or so. We've been pushing it a little bit back by maybe half an hour or so. Sometimes. You know, I was crazy and went to bed at 10, but usually. Especially in winter between eight 30, let's say nine 30. That's my my usual bedtime. We need to interrupt this episode for a quick shout to our sponsor, one Skin, because let's be honest, nobody wants the skin cells checking out early.

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Now, back to our regular scheduled program before any more cells decide to retire. And so what I've noticed is that by eating only two meals a day. I managed to have incredible insulin sensitivity, and what that means is basically from a metabolic perspective, that my pancreas only needs to release a little bit of insulin to remove any glucose from my bloodstream.

That was, you know. Caused by either a stressor like exercise or sauna bathing or cold plunging, those would typically cause a, a trigger, a spike in, in glucose because the body makes available energy to deal with that stressor. Um, or because of, because I ate carbohydrates and so only a little bit of insulin and the glucose was back to baseline, so I was very sensitive to the, or my cells were very sensitive or have been very sensitive to the signals of the hormone.

Insulin. That's a good thing. That's a good, that's a metabolic, uh, that's an indicator that I'm very metabolically healthy and so great. The other advantage of having only those two meals a day was that I had quite a bit of break between those meals. Obviously, you know, I had a huge break from dinner to breakfast the next day, typically.

16 or so hours sometimes, you know, even a bit more if I, if I had an early dinner and late breakfast. Uh, and then from breakfast to dinner as well, another, I don't know, maybe eight hours or so, or six hours at least. And so that gave my digestive system a lot of rest. That gave, obviously, that helped me maintain stable, uh, and uh, and low blood sugar levels in between.

And it also allowed my body to a degree, you know, to focus on resting and digesting and repairing without having to, well, not so much digesting, but resting and repairing and not so much on digesting. So all of that was great and has really helped me to maintain. A lean physique, you know, a lot of low body fat, around 10% sometimes, you know, as low as 8% depending on, you know, what I've been experimenting with from a dietary and exercise perspective and incredible metabolic health.

So all good, all great. And I've been really. Thriving with that approach, with that, you know, dietary framework. And Kathy, my wife, you know, was the same thing. And in, in reality to a large degree also, the kids, you know, they kind of caught onto that. And not because we asked them or we told them, but very often, you know, they, they would not eat significant.

They would not eat more of meat. You know, sometimes, especially a little one would've a snack in between or something. And by snack I mean like a beef stick or you know, something that's appropriate, um, or a fruit maybe. Um. But nonetheless, you know, we all kind of thrived on that framework, but there was one thing that I've noticed, and that was a meal or a dinner in particular that was heavy in protein and fat, which most of my meals are, uh, led to.

My digestive system being active for several hours, and I'm not talking about two or three hours, or even four hours, but longer, up to six hours, and that negatively impacted my sleep on the one hand, um, where I was just still feeling full. You know, with a full stomach when I went to bed at nine, let's say, and I had a heavy dinner at maybe five 30, you know, finishing, I mean, starting the dinner or starting the dinner at five, but then finishing it at five 30 or even six.

And that would really only give my body about three hours to digest. And that was not enough, you know, and so I've noticed I went to bed, my heart rate was still elevated because of the, you know, the digestive process going on. My body was working actively to digest all the protein and the fat. I would then.

Occasionally if I had then, you know, water or liquids, uh, before going to bed, almost like an acid reflux because my stomach was still so folded, you know, any liquids that what I would, you know, drink would then be, I would, you know, kind of feel it in my throat. And if I would lie down on my back, obviously to sleep, I would sometimes have acid reflux.

And my HRV I've, I noticed, you know, would be just lower by a few points. My resting heart rate would be a little bit higher, my respiratory rate would be a little bit higher. And I just imagine if a four, you know, a heavy meal, a big meal, and then you need to lie down. You can, you can tell you're breathing a little bit, you know, it's harder to breathe or you breathe more often, your heart hardware is up, et cetera.

So all of those things I've, I've noticed and I'm like, okay, what can I do? Well, one thing I can do is just have. And even earlier dinner, but even at four 30, you know, I would still not, I would still not feel completely done digesting. When it was time to go to bed, and in reality most days, I wasn't hungry at that time.

So I'm like, okay, I can force myself to eat at four or at three 30, but it doesn't make any sense to eat when I'm not hungry. I mean, that would be the, the exact opposite of what I am, you know, preaching, you know, eat when you're hungry and. Don't when you are not. And so that didn't really make sense. And also not from a, you know, like ancestral like, you know, perspective.

None of it made sense because it felt forced. I'm, I'm, I was trying to override how my body would, would, would do naturally, you know, without me thinking strategically about meal timing. And so I, I didn't like that idea. And then, you know, obviously I could shift my breakfast a little bit earlier, but I'm like.

I'm not hungry in the morning either, you know? So it was a little bit of a chicken and egg problem. You know, what I'm gonna do first and, and how I'm gonna change all of that. And I came to the realization that well maybe have a smaller breakfast, have then a small lunch. A smaller dinner, you know, just spread out the 4,000 calories or whatever, what I'm eating and you know, don't get hung up on calories because I'm not counting my calories.

I'm just, you know, so you have kind of a point of reference or my 180 grams of, of protein and 200 grams of fat or whatever, whatever metrics you want to use, but spread 'em out over three meals instead of two. And I'm like, well, I think that makes a lot of sense. And I've started experimenting with that and I, it's, it's still a, a little difficult for me to kind of hold back because I am, I've gotten used to eating until I'm four and then.

Topping off almost, you know, I mean, I, I'm really eating a lot because I feel like, you know, and I'm not getting fat or anything. So whatever I've been doing has not negatively impacted me from a, you know, body fat or whatever perspective. I've, you know, my body has been using what I fed it. Um, even though some, maybe you could make the argument that, you know, because I felt, especially at night, you know, like warm or really, I felt like I was running hot a lot.

That that was really my body's way of, of burning. Of burning or converting calories, extra calories that were not needed in the form of heat. You know, that's one of the body's ways to dispose of extra calories. And if you're metabolic, you're super healthy, then you know you, you're not gonna get immediately fat.

I mean, eventually you will if you consistently over consume. Um, but there is a way to compensate for the body by. You know, exhaling ketones, for example, or just burning off the extra energy as heat. And so, but regardless, you know, so I was, I'm still struggling a little bit with, you know, holding back with really eating less.

I also don't wanna stop eating before I feel satisfied because again, that's not really natural. Um, you know, nobody, no animal in the wild stops eating before they are. Full if there is food in front of him. So it doesn't make any sense either. But I suppose also you could argue that, well, you know, now we live in an an environment where we always have food available.

That's also not natural because there are days, you know, naturally where, you know, if you're out in the wild hunting or gathering or foraging or whatever, be it, you know, as a human or as an animal, sometimes you don't find food. You know, so. I think that's then again, where fasting comes in and where, you know, intermittent living at the end of the day comes in.

And that's kind of the strategy that I'm pursuing right now. Um. Eating just a little bit less, not obviously I'm not starving myself, but just trying to spread it out a little bit and get to a cadence where, yes, I feel, you know, when I feel hungry in the morning, I eat some a little bit later. Then around, you know, maybe lunch, early afternoon if I feel like hungry or I need for fuel or for protein again, you know, I eat a little bit and then in the, in the evening, you know, again, when I'm hungry, I eat, but I don't overeat.

And I think especially in the evening, I had a tendency to. To really eat, eat, and eat protein and fat. That is not crappy food, you know? But nonetheless, I might have even eaten more than I needed. And so all of that contributed to, you know, more of a sleep disturbance. Not I've ever slept bad or poorly, but it could have been better.

And so by making those changes, I think I'm on a better path. And funny enough, a couple of years ago I read, uh, Rob Wolf. Did the same thing, and I'm like, huh, interesting. Why would he eat three times a day? I'm not even hungry three times a day. Well, obviously not because I've been eating so much twice a day that I would not be hungry for a third time.

But now that I've, it stripped it back a little bit, I actually find myself gravitating to some protein around lunchtime and then having a slightly smaller dinner. It's gonna be a process where I have to, I don't wanna, you know, make drastic changes overnight, but by. You know, over the course of maybe a few days or a few weeks, you know, stripping down how much food I consume before bedtime, that makes me just, and, and I've just noticed in the first couple of days of doing this, I go to bed and the feel lighter.

Um, my heart is a little bit slower. My HIV is a little bit higher, my respiratory rate is a little bit higher. I mean, they're not, you know, dramatic changes, but just by a few points, and I've noticed a positive impact. And I also notice that I wake up then maybe a little, a little bit more refreshed. I mean, again, I wake up energetic every single day.

But there is a difference between being 90 or 95% and being a hundred percent or 98%. You know, I'm not saying that you know it, it's a hundred percent no. Uh, I'm not seeking perfection, but making those small, listening to your body and making those small improvements, I've noticed have had a positive impact on how I feel.

And so I encourage you, you know, I know that there are a lot of opinions out there about how often you should eat. There are people who ultimately eat. Eat only once a day. I mean, honestly, I don't know how I would stuff the amount of food, uh, into a single meal that I consume on a daily basis that my body needs.

Well, maybe one could argue, you know, you should have, if you had fewer muscles, you know, you would have, you could get away with eating fewer protein. True. Um, you know, there is an, there is an argument for that, but just based on my current body composition, I feel like. You know, eating a little bit more often, one time more often, uh, is beneficial.

So I encourage you also, you know, listen to your body and regardless of what you hear out there, what you know, the, someone tells you, you know, the PhD or influencer or anyone in between on how often you should eat and what's good and what it's bad. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how do you feel, you know?

Does it make you feel. Great. Or do you feel like there is room for improvement? If there's room for improvement, you know, disregard of what you've heard, what you've been told, and just experiment. You know, that's a, it's, it's fun to experiment. Don't go nuts with it. Don't get stressed out about it, but, you know, make changes and see how they make you feel.

And if it turns out that, hey, eating three times a day makes you feel better. Then eating twice a day, do it. If it turns out that eating only once a day makes you feel better than eating twice or three times a day, do that, you know, at the end of the day you need to figure out what works for you. Um, that's what I'm always doing and I'm sharing what has been working, what has not been working, you know, so hopefully you can learn and, you know, maybe take shortcuts, uh, in, in a good sense, you know, and, and find out quicker what might work for you and disregard what you know is likely not gonna work for you.

And with that, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks again for. Tuning in, uh, share this maybe with someone who is, who is stuck on a certain, you know, frame, who thinks they need to eat three times a day with snacks in between for stable blood sugar control. Or maybe for someone who thinks that if you eat more than once a day, you're gonna die sooner.

Um, you know, and maybe give them a different perspective. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Until next time.