Today, we are giving you a sneak peak at some information I KNOW you will be interested in.

There has been a LOT of activity in our Triage Militia Facebook Group. Now, one of the exchanges that we had with one of our members was incredibly valuable, so I thought that you might like to have access to this information too.

Here was the exchange!

Member X

Opinions on irregular eating? I often tend to not eat say from breakfast to evening eg 7am-4p.m/ 8-5 (about 8 hours between meals) then kind of “binge” at night. Thinking the main thing that matters is the amount of calories consumed. I don’t place as much importance on meal timing or even eating pre workout. I know in your article about protein timing you say protein feeding is optimal every 3-4 hours. But say if I want to cut and lose body fat, how relevant is eating regularly?

Gary

Hey….…

There are actually multiple articles that we have written that cover this pretty well - Fasting, Carbohydrate Timing Series & Calorie Timing.

The amount of calories that you eat dictates the change in your bodyweight, but it doesn’t end there when it comes to body composition. 

If you want to optimise training performance, strength or muscle gain, then you should opt to eat a meal 1-2 hours prior to training, along with spreading your protein across 3-5 meals per day.

If you want to cut and lose body fat, then the number of meals that you eat isn’t going to really change the amount of fat that you lose directly. But, if you do not have as much energy throughout the day, especially for training, then you may not perform quite as well when you train. Along with this, if your protein isn’t distributed throughout the day, then you may not gain/maintain quite as much muscle mass.

However, the most pressing issue that we constantly discuss is the idea of borderline binge eating. If you feel the need to have most of your calories in 1-2 meals to satisfy the desire to binge, then that would be a bit of a red flag for us and one that we would like to see people work on.

So yeah, does calorie timing “matter”?

If you want to optimise your results from training and have a sustainable, healthy approach to nutrition, then I would say yes.

If you just want to change your bodyweight and don’t really care too much about your performance or relationship with food, then not really.

Now, if you can consciously tell yourself that you just do better with less frequent meals because you feel better throughout the day (maybe you are very busy for example), then that is completely okay.

Finally, I would add that eating most of your calories at night can make for a more difficult time with digestion and blood glucose/lipid regulation and/or compromise sleep, so I would just make sure that these large meals are not within 1-2 hours of sleeping.

Paddy

I would add that people often do feel “lighter” or more clear headed while not eating and that is because you aren’t spending your energy resources digesting food. However, it doesn’t mean you are actually adequately fuelled for thinking/working. They are energy intensive things too so food does actually increase productivity unless you eat large meals, feel bloated and then sleepy.

For women it is of slightly more concern, especially if they are dealing with amenorrhea as energy availability is the (usual) main issue. 

If no hormonal dysregulation is present, I would still be concerned with the binge eating mentality as it is a hard cycle to break and really sets you up poorly in terms of long term results. You start enjoying these really big meals, and then if you ever try to eat on a normal schedule you still want the really big meals and end up easily knocking back 1-2,000 extra calories per day. 

It’s not to say it’s bad physiologically, certainly isn’t optimal, but mainly it has a high potential to be psychologically bad.

Member X

Oh wow thought provoking thanks paddy.. might really reconsider my ways now. 

And it’s interesting you’ve touched on Amenorrhea. I’ll put this out there for any ladies here who may benefit as we all suffer from similar problems. I’ve lost my period in like 2015 when I first stared severely under eating and severely over exercising. 

The only way I got my period back was with anti contraceptive pill. I’ve tried to regain my period naturally by eating a lot and often a few times. I only got fat and that was it.. 

So I’m back on a pill with “artificial” periods. Do you think that allows me to cut my calories low again because I have that “safety net” and want to lose body fat? I know binge eating is very bad mentally but say for now I want to prioritise working more on my body image which i also important for mental health.

Gary

To be honest, I don’t think working on having calories low for short term body image returns is worth the trade off of not re-regulating your menstrual cycle. The thing is, it’s not just about having a period or not, it’s about protecting yourself against the health risks (e.g. osteopenia/porosis, cardiovascular disease) that come with amenorrhoea. So I 100% would not recommend chasing body composition goals over your health.

If your goal is to prioritise health, then having even distribution of your calories across the day is undoubtedly a better option. As Paddy said, the female body is much more sensitive to low energy availability, even if it as acute as a short term fast. So, in your case it’s more of a priority.

The articles on Diet, Training & Supplementation for Amenorrhoea would be highly recommended, just to get a better insight into how these things affect your physiology. 

Honestly, I can tell you from experience that we both have with working with ladies who have lost their menstrual cycle that regaining that regularity as a pillar of your health is honestly so rewarding. Knowing that you have put in that work to get your health in check again will bring you a lot more value than just trying to get leaner.

One more thing I would add is that if you are going to commit to regaining your menstrual cycle, you need to be willing to commit 3-6 months at the least. It’s not going to be an overnight thing, so sometimes it is just a case of sidetracking your fat loss goals in the short term. You will also have a much more enjoyable fat loss experience if you do not already have a lot of hormonal dysregulation. 

So yeah, we can’t tell you what to do after all, as it’s ultimately up to you to decide whether fat loss or health is the priority right now. Like we always say, having some clarity in your goals is incredibly important.

The pill is ultimately a bit of a plaster when it comes to the case of masking amenorrhea, but that is obviously something to be discussed with your doctor as opposed to us. He/she could have a targeted reason as to why the pill was appropriate in your case, but I would generally like to ensure that all other avenues have been explored for a long period of time.

—-

We thought this was a pretty interesting exchange. We are pretty proud to have built a community in which we can have such exciting conversations about real world issues. Some people think that the Triage Militia is just about learning extensive amounts of theory, when in fact, our goal is simply to help people. That goes beyond just written content, as the Facebook Group activity almost excites me more sometimes!

If you would like to be a part of our community, CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED!

Got questions? Feel free to respond to this email!

Otherwise will speak to you soon!

Yours in Health,

Gary McGowan