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Is it ok to stretch a meal in the span of a few hours?

Is there any research on stretching the time you take to eat a meal? For example finishing your breakfast in 3 hours by eating little by little.

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It may affect on how your stomach has to be constantly digesting food, but is it a bad habit for your body or a healthy one?

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Answer

I think you’re actually stretching the definition of the word meal. Really you’re just grazing on the same food for a few hours.

Not sure about research but I’ve certainly done the of an evening where I didn’t “have dinner” because it just ate all afternoon. I feel good (light) when I do it.

Answer

Interesting question. But there are too many unknown factors here to give an answer. Is the overall macronutrient profile balanced, keto, HCLF, etc.? Is there restricted feeding time in the diet plan? What is the individual’s body composition, lifestyle, and health condition? Is there an intended purpose or other reason for eating a meal over an extended meal time of several hours?

Whether stretching a meal is healthy or not, without making any other changes to the diet, will ultimately depend on the above information.

Eating a meal slowly over several hours would likely help satiety and prevent overeating in the short-term. Ferriday et al. (2015) have a helpful literature review on this (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664113/#!po=0.847458).

It’s hard to say what long-term effects there would be. The body would likely adjust anticipatory ghrelin release based on regular meal timing changes, as indicated by Frecka et al. (2008, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18187517/). Again, it’s not clear how helpful this would be as it’s unclear if weight or appetite management is a desired outcome of stretching mealtime.

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