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This is the ninth article in the Get Started Eating Every Three Hours series that outlines how to start eating every three hours and the benefits of such a diet.
Congratulations! You now know how to get started eating every three hours. As with other things in life, knowing how to eat every three hours and actually doing so are two different things. The following is advice that I can offer based on my own experiences with transitioning to this diet. I trust it can be of use to just about anyone willing to get started.
Think of it as a lifestyle
Most people tend to think of going on a diet as a short-term adjustment to the food they are eating. This is fine if you want only short-term results. If you desire to make long-term physical changes you should approach your diet from a long-term perspective.
Approach eating every three hours as a lifestyle. You know it has become a lifestyle when you can’t picture yourself eating less than 5 or 6 meals a day. Another sign of a successful transition is if you get cranky at the prospect of missing a regularly scheduled meal. If you are consistently skipping meals or making poor food choices, you are not “there” yet.
Start with a short-term goal
The prospect of viewing this diet as a lifestyle can be daunting for the uninitiated. Considering that, it may be easier to start with a short-term goal. I recommend setting a month long goal in which you eat every three hours consistently for a month. I feel a month is easy to wrap the mind around and is long enough for you to see and feel the results from your new diet.
My personal reason for eating every three hours was to lose weight and stop being drowsy at work. Given the overhead involved in this diet, I decided to give it a solid month of compliance; only then I would decide if the diet was worth it for me to continue. At the end of that month I had lost 12 pounds of fat and I was wired at work. From there it was easy for me to continue.
Give it time to create a habit
Looking back to when I first started eating 6 meals a day, It was very difficult to stay on schedule with the meals. Prior to this diet I was only eating twice a day. This was a big change and the transition was not as easy as I originally thought.
Making drastic changes in your schedule and existing habits will take some effort on your part. However, you can take comfort in the fact that it will get easier with time once the new good habits start to form. Giving it a good month tryout is necessary to give the habit enough time to properly get established. You must be consistent in your efforts for this to work!
Leo Babauta at ZenHabits.net has a great article on forming habits that can easily be adapted to eating every three hours. Take a look and see if there are some tips that can help you.
Routine, Routine, Routine
Following the advice given in previous articles from the Getting Started Eating Every Three Hours Series will help you establish a routine. Establishing a routine that works for you is essential to successfully transitioning to this new lifestyle.
I am a person that is generally stuck in my ways. I put off starting this diet for months, mainly because I did not want to make adjustments to my schedule. I ended up tossing that schedule out the window and creating a new one that made eating every three hours mandatory. Doing so was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Be flexible, stuff happens
Life will eventually throw a wrench into the best prepared plans. Work, meetings, traffic, kids or spouse can all cause you to be late for a meal or miss it all together. You will not die when this happens. If you have not yet started eating every three hours it may seem like no big deal, but once your body is tuned to getting fed at regular intervals, it will let you know when feeding time has come and gone. The main indicator will be your mood. Trust me.
Don’t listen to the naysayers
With constant media bombardment of fad diets and so called “common knowledge” regarding nutrition, there is no shortage of people willing to offer diet advice, especially in regard to weight loss. Once your family, friends or coworkers learn that you are eating every three hours there will no doubt be times when you must defend your decision to eat in this manner. I especially enjoy nutritional tips from people with a gut that looks like they swallowed a large tire.
What you should do in these situations is simply explain what you are doing and why. Leave it at that. Some folks will want to learn more about it, which is good. Tell them what you know or direct them to this website. Other folks will think you are being too strict with your diet. Dismiss those people and carry on with your day. Don’t let negativity bring you down.
That concludes this series. I hope you find the information useful to get you started eating every three hours. There is much to learn about proper nutrition, eating healthy, and adapting food to this diet. I look forward to passing on what I have learned to each of you through many upcoming articles.
I cant eat every three hours! I’m not hungry yet. I just started this eating plan, every three hours. I eat 1 1/2 cup of fresh cut veggies and a lean peice of chicken or turkey (the size of my palm). I feel full, uncomfortable and overwhelmed. I’m beginning to feel teh “mood” issues @ the time it is to feed again, but it isn’t hunger.
I need advice…..will this end?
Hi Lara, thanks for commenting. It’s difficult to give specific advice without knowing more details of what you are trying to accomplish (weight loss or maintenance).
Generally, your body will adapt to the eating schedule. It may also take time to adapt to eating lean protein and vegetables if you don’t consume those on a regular basis.
I recently wrote an article that may provide you some options. Here is the link http://www.eateverythree.com/2008/09/i-cannot-eat-that-much-food/
Please comment again under that article if you still have questions. You may also email me at james@EatEveryThree.com
sometimes between the three hours i find myself hungry. is it ok to eat a light snack or fruit between the three hours and should i still eat something when the three hours is up.
Finding yourself hungry between the three hour meals is not uncommon.
There is nothing wrong with a little snack in between the meals to help with hunger. Just be sure to count the calories!!
If you are hungry between all of your meals every day, your calories may be too low. You might want to try bringing them up a little.
I started eating every three hours again this Sunday. However, I have found myself being hungry in between meals to the point where my stomach is grumbling. I am relieved to find out that my calories may be too low.
I am 111 lbs with 20% body fat with a gut! I started working out yesterday so I will continue doing so and hopefully will be able to eat more. :)
I love eating every 3 hours. I’m never not hungry when its time to eat. I count protein shakes and protein bars as meals though. I’ve never felt better, every meal always includes protein whether it be fish chicken steak whatever it always has some source of protein.
OK, I went off the eating plan. My problem is that I am UBER busy running a huge national company. I actually dont have time to consider ingesting anything every three hours!! Its actually easier for me to NOT eat anything all day long, sucking down coffee and tea, then catch up at night usually after 7pm!
I need help.
Any suggestions on how to maintain a demanding life AND eat every three hours. My goal is lose weight. I’m 5′9″ 149#, wanting to get back to 130#. I exercise 5 times a week, somehow, sometime..running, weights, etc…
Hey i feel were on the same wave of thinking as all the people who know sports, now i dont need more convincing just a good meal plan for a week,
currently im training a muscle group everyday for an hour/hour and a half and running 30 min afterwards, i always eat a pack of good tuna before gym and have a rich protein breakfast and dinner. still from the weightloss point of view i didnt do much for a guy whos running everyday for 2 months from 20 to 30 min a day and not touching cholocates or any kind of sugary/ carb foods.. just a little carbs with the protein meals because i heard the protein needs carbs to be absorbed better in the body and especially when u run and train like rocky and without his steriods or supplements just normal food without oil (rice / 3-4 egg whites breakfast/ 5% yellow cheese 1 piece/ 1.5% yougurt/ small pieces of bread with each meal/ tuna/ non fat meat/ lots of fruits-peaches watermelons grapes) those are my foods all day but still i lost maybe fat but my body mass maybe is bigger a little…. i think my genetics are not perfect so i got to fight them with a good meal plan, im not a bodybuilder but still im living like one ..
with your help maybe i can do it
best regards
rocky
Hi. I have read every article published so far and I have questions. How do you calculate the calories of certain foods that don’t have labels? For example, the fruit you buy and raw veggies? I want to get into this diet but I don’t know how to work on that. If you have a list of the foods you eat that I kan see I’d most appreciate it. I’m not a food fanatic and I don’t mind too much what I eat as long as it’s food so to follow your list as a start will help me out tremendously. I hope you please respond.