Snacking when hungry or ignore until main meals?

[jtvang125]

Ever since I've been eating a light breakfast I'm getting hungry again around 9ish and then later around 4. Is it best to eat a snack if I'm feeling hungry or should I ignore and wait until a main meal? I am trying to lose about 20 lbs.

 

[dlock13]

Ever since I've been eating a light breakfast I'm getting hungry again around 9ish and then later around 4. Is it best to eat a snack if I'm feeling hungry or should I ignore and wait until a main meal? I am trying to lose about 20 lbs.

I've heard it's better to eat the snacks between meals because it keeps your metabolism running which in turn helps you actually continue to burn those calories or something like that.

 

[blackdogdeek]

As long as your total daily caloric intake is between your BMR and your daily caloric maintenance amount you will continue to lose weight.

 

[vi edit]

Depends on what you are snacking on and what your meals are normally like.

For *most* people their full meals are very calorie dense, heavy foods.

If you can satiate yourself with low calorie, quality sources from planned snacks (yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, veggies, ect) then you may actually be able to reduce the amount of food you eat at dinner time due to feeling less hungry.

A well planned snack can actually help you lose weight that way since you aren't going into binge mode at dinner time on higher calorie foods.

 

[mple]

All personal preference assuming no underlying metabolic disorder or disease. Snacking is not at all necessary nor is it bad for weight loss. Track what you eat and stay consistently below your caloric maintenance. It's very normal to feel hungry when cutting weight since the body is in a net catabolic state. Increasing protein and increasing fat (all sources including saturated fats) while eating mainly fibrous carbs is what keeps me most satiated during cutting.

 

[Munashiimaru]

If you account for it in your meals, it's not bad. However, when I'm concious about controlling my weight, I usually eat one big meal mid-day and one or two small meals/moderate snacks. I don't believe what you do day to day is really going to make your metabolism tank the way most people assume. If you starved yourself for days, it'd probably have a significant effect. My metabolism is normally tanked though from hypothyroidism so I might not be a good example.

 

[Pantlegz]

I've heard it's better to eat the snacks between meals because it keeps your metabolism running which in turn helps you actually continue to burn those calories or something like that.

This is completely false. http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

I ignore it, drinking water helps some. I also don't have a lot of time between meals my first meal is typically at 11:30am and my last meal is at 6:00-7:00pm depending on the night. But between getting up at 7am and my first meal it takes a bit of willpower at times.