I call BS on the "Three Meals a Day" philosophy -

Disclaimer:

The following has worked for me.

It may not work for you.

I'm wired a little weird, so maybe this doesn't work for most people.

But this is what I've discovered about my body at age 69.

I'm pretty sure the human body only really needs to eat once a day.

Really..

My body actually likes it better on one meal a day.

It apparently functions better too, on just about any level you can name.

I discovered this after retiring.

I never was one for eating breakfast. Coffee in large quantities (please…), but I usually did not eat breakfast. Sometimes, but probably not more than 10% of work mornings.

But I would always eat lunch. It was just what you did in the work world — break for lunch.

I was in sales, so sometimes eating lunch was a "social" event (ie — I would sometimes take customers to lunch).

Then I would come home where we would eat supper with the family.

But upon retirement, I would wake up and, just like normal, would not eat anything for breakfast. Just coffee.

Someone told me this might be why this all works (drinking up to eight cups of coffee before noon). She told me coffee is functioning as an appetite suppressant.

Maybe… Don't stop now…

But anyway, after I drank the last cup at about 11:00, I would be going about my day normally. Suddenly, I would notice it was like, 3:00 pm or later. I had not eaten breakfast or lunch. So, at 3:00 pm, I would just decide to wait until dinner to eat something. I was sometimes vaguely hungry, but not the sharp hunger that you cannot ignore.

So, I ended up only eating dinner. That's it. Just one meal a day.

I discovered if I did eat anything at all for breakfast or lunch (even a minuscule amount), that would actually screw me up internally.

For some reason, if I eat anything at all for breakfast, then I would HAVE to eat something for lunch. If I did not eat something for lunch, I would get "shaky" — ie — I get this weird nervous internal feeling around 3:00. I'm sure it's related to low blood sugar, or something. It is a most unsettling feeling — I hated it. If I then quickly drink some juice or eat something, the feeling subsided.

BUT — if I did not eat either breakfast or lunch, I would be absolutely fine until dinner. No shaky feeling, and no hunger pangs (or only vague, easily ignored ones). It's almost like if you don't eat anything for breakfast or lunch, it sets the "bias" of your system, to use an electronic term. In other words, eating absolutely nothing until dinner leaves your system in some weird state where it's not needing or expecting anything. And it's fine until dinner! Absolutely no shaky, nervous feeling.

I do usually feel normal hunger close dinner time, but not before. I've never tested this, but I sometimes think that if I ignored the hunger pangs at dinner time, I could just skip dinner entirely and just keep going into the new day! But, you do have to eat something every daily, right? (Right?)

And again, this only works if you eat ABSOLUTELY NOTHING before dinner. Not even a handful of crackers or anything. Don't even chew gum, or drink anything! (Except coffee.)

I'm certainly not a doctor or nutritionist, so please take this with a grain of salt. "Your Mileage May Vary".

A friend told me what this is can be called autophagy.

Whatever…

I only know my body likes it better.

So, this became my normal routine — wake up, walk on the treadmill (more below on this), shower, and drink large amounts of coffee while reading the paper, etc., proceed with the rest of the day and eat absolutely nothing until dinner.

So far, I've lost almost 40 pounds living like this. At the end of 2017, my BMI was 31.3. Today it is 26.5.

I'm 5' 10". I remember being 5' 11" as a teenager, so I must have lost an inch somewhere…

My goal is to get at or very close to a BMI of 25.

Now, here's the second half of this process which undoubtedly has hugely helped out — I also took a new job.

This job is "working on the Botty"…

Monday through Friday my morning routine involves my old treadmill in the basement. I've found if I quickly go at it as close as possible to waking up, my body is too sleepy to put up much of a fight…

I walk on the treadmill. This body needs to walk. A lot. I'm now up to 45 minutes a day on it — at a maximum of 3.2 MPH. That speed may not be accurate — I have doubts about the treadmill's measurements. I don't think either its speed or total mileage are accurate — it varies widely from my Apple Watch which I wear religiously. I don't know which is more right — the treadmill or the Apple watch. Perhaps neither. But anyway, it's a good, solid 45 minutes at probably 3-ish miles an hour. Usually 5 days a week. I take the weekends off. Sometimes I "call off sick" from my job and take Mondays off (especially if I've played in the band over the weekend which sometimes puts me through the ringer…), but usually, it's 5 days a week.

But, I kind-of think this whole eating one meal a day thing is what helped out the most. Think of the calories that are NOT getting "into my belly" that used to.

And here's the single greatest secret about this whole one meal a day thing.

Don't tell anyone, but I don't even have to watch what I eat for dinner! I probably should, but I don't.

I can absolutely eat the most (supposedly) unhealthy big juicy burgers, fries, etc. And I do mean etcetera. I rarely give a thought to what I'm putting into my system during this single daily meal.

Fast food? Ok by me…

Red Robin burger with an actual fried egg on top of it?

Yumm!

That last point may sound horrible to most normal people, so maybe let's just keep it to ourselves, OK?

Anyway, I was thinking the other day that the whole "three square meals a day" thing perhaps grew out of the depression era, or one of the World Wars, or out of the fifties or something. After all, the entire Earth used to smoke cigarettes back then, too. Maybe the three meals scenario was simply a marketing thrust from the food industry. I don't know.

Whatever.

I'm just thinking this whole three meals a day thing may be total BS… At least for adults, anyway.

I think my body is much happier if it has to digest (and store) only one meal a day. I absolutely feel the best I've felt for decades!

Many, if not most of my little aches and pains have subsided. My low back pain which has dogged me for decades is hardly there anymore! My sciatica pain is literally gone, and I sleep much better.

Years ago I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was prescribed a CPAP machine (which was a game-changer for me). But I've recently discovered by accident that I can sleep just fine without it…

My cholesterol numbers now are at or near the minimums on the ranges shown on my 6-month lab workups. I'm thinking of maybe asking my doctor to re-look at my prescriptions in light of my new botty… Maybe something needs to be changed, rather than just renewing all my old prescriptions, which were originally prescribed for some other guy.

Some guy who saw through the ruse, and doesn't live here anymore.

Oh, I also had to go out and buy all new underwear, going down a size. All my old tighty-whiteys seemed to turn into the boxer style. The "boys" had become a bit unsettled, accustomed as they were to a more, let's just say, "snug" reality their whole life…

OK, well that may be a bit TMI there…

Anyway, I don't know the origin of the Three Meals a Day philosophy, but I think I have discovered it is total BS.

At least it's not the best way today for humans that were engineered 30,000 years ago on the plains of Africa….

At least, not this human!

YMMV….