How frequent to eat?

[Constantin74]

In terms of blood sugar control , is it better /advisable for a diabetic to eat something, say, every 20 minutes or half an hour, or eat meals like every 3 hrs and absolutely not consume anything in between? Assuming that the same total number of calories will be consumed in both courses of action.

[Granny Shanny]

In my opinion, every 20-30 minutes is a little too often. Three hour intervals should be okay. Going too long between meals/snacks can send the wrong signals, rewarding us with a liver dump & higher BG anyway.

[Moonglo]

I do best when I eat every 3-4 hours. As Granny says, if we're not careful, our bg can spike if we don't eat often enough, but if we eat too often, our bg never has a chance to fully recover from even the smallest of spikes.

[sumi]

My eating patterns vary a lot. On days when I am particularly hungry, I could easily eat 7 times. One thing I like to avoid is having a large meal at any time, so dinner may be broken into 3 parts, salad, an hour later, my entree, and some blueberries an hour or so after that. When first diagnosed and testing constantly, I did not do this, as I was looking for drops in my very high bg readings. After about 6 months, I found that my readings stayed quite level all day, regardless of meals or snacks. I think you must do whatever makes you feel most comfortable, with the deciding vote going to your meter .

[princesslinda]

I eat 3 meals/day most days, just as I did prior to diagnosis. I will sometimes have an evening snack as well. That being said, this weekend we only averaged 2 meals/day and an evening snack, as we slept in and stayed busy most of the weekend.

[dbaratta]

In terms of blood sugar control , is it better /advisable for a diabetic to eat something, say, every 20 minutes or half an hour, or eat meals like every 3 hrs and absolutely not consume anything in between? Assuming that the same total number of calories will be consumed in both courses of action.

I know some who get great success from 6-small meals a day. Basically take your 3 meals and cut them in half and consume them thru out the day. I can't really do that myself because of my job. I do try though. It is supposed to be great for weight management also.

[Bull]

I eat at 7:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 5:30 pm
With a healthy snack at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Sometimes I will also have a small snack at 10:00 am.

[genie86333]

I eat at 7:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 5:30 pm
With a healthy snack at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Sometimes I will also have a small snack at 10:00 am.

I usually eat 4 times a day: 12-2 pm (depending on the day because I go to work either at 1 or 3 p.m.) 5 pm, 10 pm (snack when I get home from work because I'm hungry but don't feel like cooking yet) & about 2 or 3 am before I try to get some sleep. It's what seems to work for me.

[Constantin74]

Many thanks for info of yr personal experiences. I am more comfortable breaking meals, like Sumi said, into 2 -3 and eating many times during the day. But then I read somewhere that in that case the pancreas can never rest; there would be several spikes, as Moonglo said. But I can not really reason as to why there should be a spike when I eat a small thing.. Like a salad or half an apple..
I believe my pancreas is still producing insulin; I am in fact at a relatively earlier stage of diabetes, and I am probably LADA, so my insulin system should be able to cope with small eatings..(!) On the other hand scientific claims say a diabetic should definitely eat only like every 3 hours and each one of them should be full meals, with carb fat protein etc..
Maybe I should try to adapt to that because of the obvious logic..

[yscn]

I agree with your opinion

[genie86333]

I agree with your opinion

As do I.

Yes, your pancreas would have to deal with food more often... however, it wouldn't have to deal with large spikes all at once - and insulin resistance tends to increase the larger the spike is, so you *may* (remember everyone is different) have to produce more insulin overall with 3 large meals than you would for several small meals.

Also, I should have said in my earlier post that while I eat 4 "meals" they tend to be more grazing on what I've made than sitting down to eat all at once.