The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Finally_Losing]

I know we are supposed to take at least 15 min for a meal, but is there a time limit as well. Say if I take 45 min or an hour is that ok? And when this has happened, I count my time until my next meal from when I finish that one, even if it's takes a long time. Am I doing this right?

Amy

[Serendipity]

I think the timing is from the beginning of the meal. So 2-3 hours from the beginning of your last meal it would be time for the next meal.

I take 15 minutes or so for my bar and a bit longer for my L&G, but I never take that long to drink a shake. I'm usually in a hurry to get it over and get on with other things. I would say that it would be ok to drag it out as long as you want. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Finally_Losing]

This is not a rule for me, definitely the exception. But when I add lots of ice to it and make it like a slushy and then I get interruptions at work, it turned into an hour. Usually I try to finish it in around 15 min. But I've been counting 2-3 hours from the end of my meal not the beginning. You've lost alot (congratulations) so I think you know what you are doing I'll just make a little change.

Along these same lines.....So this will mean I'll have all 5 of my MF meals by 4/5pm. Then I'll have dinner with my family and that will be my last meal....Is that ok? We usually have dinner around 6:30 or 7. Or do I have a snack around 9?

Thanks!
Amy

[wildtrk]

I take 15 minutes or so for my bar

I wish a bar would last that long...I know that if you can do it that way it is beneficial. Shakes I can make last sometimes a little too long...30 plus minutes. But bars are opened and gone in a few minutes.

[Aerie]

I'm so busy that meals never last me that long. The one exception is soups. Those I definitely savor and they may take 15-20 minutes to eat. I wish I could slow down to relax a bit more. sigh.... As I always say life dosen't slow down for us because we are dieting. I think slower is definitely ideal, but just do your best. The scale and your energy/hunger level will let you know if you're on track.

[Karli]

I know we are supposed to take at least 15 min for a meal, but is there a time limit as well. Say if I take 45 min or an hour is that ok? And when this has happened, I count my time until my next meal from when I finish that one, even if it's takes a long time. Am I doing this right?

Amy

Hi Amy. I think you are not asking about whether it should last 15 minutes to eat, nor how to space them from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next, but if you should eat them within a certain amount of time once you have started.

I have thought about this, too. Here is my philosophy on it :

Since part of the program is to retrain us how to eat, to take more time for each meal even when eating in smaller proportions, I make EVERYTHING last at least 15 minutes. But, since I am constantly thinking about how this all pans out in transition and then in maintenance (when we are eating larger amounts of regular food again), I have decided that for me, I don't want to drag each meal out too long either... simply because I don't want to mentally nor physically train myself to be eating all day long; have the ending of one meal morph into the beginning of the next, or only half an hour between them (that spells trouble with a capital "T" for me).

I know that is probably not going to happen while in the weight loss portion of MF, but it's something I think about all the same. I do try to have each meal (including the L/G) not take much longer than 45 mins. for those purposes.

Hope that helps,

Karli

[Prancer]

I wish a bar would last that long...I know that if you can do it that way it is beneficial. Shakes I can make last sometimes a little too long...30 plus minutes. But bars are opened and gone in a few minutes.

Mine are gone that quick too. I eat mine for breakfast so they are gone in 5 min or less.

[Finally_Losing]

Actually, I do want to know when do you start your 2-3 hour count. Do you start it from when you began your meal or when your meal ended? That's where the confusion is. I had an instance where a shake lasted almost an hour....not the norm, but still, I have to figure out when to schedule the next meal. What I ended up doing was the shake at 10-11 and my next meal at 12:30....hope that was right! lol

Amy

[Serendipity]

Along these same lines.....So this will mean I'll have all 5 of my MF meals by 4/5pm. Then I'll have dinner with my family and that will be my last meal....Is that ok? We usually have dinner around 6:30 or 7. Or do I have a snack around 9?

Wow, what time do you get up in the morning? I'm confused, lol.

Here's my usual schedule:

7:00am MF
10:00am MF
1:00pm MF
4:00pm MF
7:00pm (L&G)
10:00pm MF

On a 3 hour schedule, you would have to start at 5:00am to have all 5 supplements before 5:00pm. If that is the case, then I would assume you would be going to bed a little earlier than I do and the schedule you stated above would work fine. I wouldn't go too many hours without food before bed, though. You can wait as long as 1 hour after getting up in the morning to have a supplement. If you did that, you could keep it at 4 supplements before your L&G and still have one left for before bed.

Hope this helps.

[Finally_Losing]

Now you see my predicament lol

Here is my average schedule:

5:15 get up
7:30/8:00 oatmeal
10:00 shake
12:30/1 MF lunch
3:00 bar
Here's the tricky part, my husband gets home at 6 (I get home at 4:30), we usually eat around 7. If I eat a MF meal at my regular time intervals, that's all 5....Some days I'm starving and can't space out my meals further than 2 hours some days I can.
Dinner around 7
Bed around 10

Any suggestions?

[Serendipity]

hmmmm. If you push your bar up to 4:00, then it works to have 4 MF supplements before the L&G at three hour intervals. Still room for one after dinner.

[Serendipity]

hmmmm. If you push your bar up to 4:00, then it works to have 4 MF supplements before the L&G at three hour intervals. Still room for one after dinner.

Edited to add: Remember these times are rough. I wouldn't be the end of the world to wait 3 1/2 hours or even to go a little less than 2 hours if your schedule gets in the way. Life happens, so we just roll with it.

[Karli]

Now you see my predicament lol

Here is my average schedule:

5:15 get up
7:30/8:00 oatmeal
10:00 shake
12:30/1 MF lunch
3:00 bar
Here's the tricky part, my husband gets home at 6 (I get home at 4:30), we usually eat around 7. If I eat a MF meal at my regular time intervals, that's all 5....Some days I'm starving and can't space out my meals further than 2 hours some days I can.
Dinner around 7
Bed around 10

Any suggestions?

I apologize for misunderstanding you. I have a couple of comments on what you have posted. One is that we are "supposed" to be getting in our first supplement within an hour after waking. It appears from what you have posted that you do not eat when you wake, and assuming that, it looks like you are waiting at least 2 good hours before having your first supplement. I would suggest changing that (however, all the reasons as to "why" that is we are supposed to do that, I would need to look up to find the answers).

Another point, if you know that you and your husband can eat together at 7 pm, work around that. For example :

6 am -- MF
9 am -- MF
12 pm -- MF
2 pm -- MF
5 pm -- MF
7 pm -- L/G


and being in bed by 10 would mean to me that you would not *have* to have another supplement. However, if you are up and you are starving, perhaps you could add a 6th if you need to. People seem to do that when needed with little or no affect on weightloss.

One last thing... when I first started (not too long ago) I also kinda went by my feelings of hunger. I would wait and see if I needed to eat a supplement between 2-4 hours apart... and that meant I was eating at different times everyday. I kept feeling tired and then sometimes quite hungry during the day... and so I decided to put myself on more of a regimen.

I decided that I would eat at the same exact time everyday (to the best of my abilities), it has become my big priority for now, so that way I knew exactly what to expect, and so does my body. Sometimes I get a little hungry before the next meal, but most the time, I actually really *like* that. If I am feeling really low though (which doesn't seem to happen at all anymore) I will have a permitted snack (though I have only needed to have maybe 2 diet sodas the whole time I have been on).

I think that if you were more regimened in your schedule, it would help to kick the hungries and even things out altogether.


Karli

[Sarya]

Here's my schedule if it helps. These are all start times. I may stray a little on the times, but not much:

8:30am breakfast supplement
11am midmorning supplement
1:30-2pm lunch supplement
4-4:30pm afternoon supplement
6-7pm L&G
8:30-9:30pm evening supplement

[Finally_Losing]

I'm sorry, I didn't put it in my post but I always get the 5 supplements and my L&G. I've been doing well so far and usually my meals are 2-3 hours and around the same times each day. There is no way I'll be able to eat within an hour after I get up, 7:30 is the earliest. So far that hasn't been a big problem and it's been consistent and I'm really not hungry until then. This just came up today because it took me so long to drink my shake. Now I will start counting my times from the beginning of my meal and go from there. And the worst thing could be that my husband has to eat alone on occasion lol.....I do try to save one meal for after my dinner though and I usually have pudding.

Thank you so much.

Amy