Hi everyone!  Thanks for all the wonderful insights you've given me already, this group is wonderful!

I have a question regarding how often you eat.  Many nutritional books I have read recommend eating six small meals a day, rather than three large ones.  Also, I've read various things about when its important to eat when you first get up, some say within an hour at most, others it doesn't matter.

Regarding this information and the BTD or Genotype diet, what is the rule of thumb here?

I am a possible Explorer, but waiting on my SWAMI to come in to tell me for sure.

Thank you!

I think we all have different requirements....Personally I'm not someone who snacks a lot, but if you enjoy 3 meals and feel the need to snack a few times, it's fine.  You
will find your SWAMI to be very generous with variety....so if you feel hungry, you always have
the option of eating more so you're not going hungry.  I don't think you'll go hungry.   Most
of us feel we have too much food to eat.  And that's because the vegetable category is so plentiful.  My SWAMI says for me to eat 6 cups of vegetables per day.  That's a lot of food!

Some people just digest food better in smaller quantities at a time and therefore might require
snacks to get them through to the next meal.......and do better spreading out their food
all day long.

I personally have breakfast and don't eat until lunch.  When I do feel a need to snack it's usually
around 4 pm...and I might have a veggie juice, some nuts and that holds me over till dinner which
might be 2-3 hours later.  I usually don't snack after dinner, although I might have a cup of tea
some nights with a small amount of fruit.  Depends on how big my meal was.

Don't think there is a hard and fast rule.  I'm not starving when I wake up....I need to shower and
stretch a bit before I feel like eating.  I don't skip meals nor would I be eating one huge meal in
favor of 3 individual balanced meals.  But snacking is a personal choice....and many foods work
well as snacks.  Nuts, cheese, vegetables, fruit....Depends on how much you're following your
food portions and how compliant you want to be. If I don't reach my requirements for vegetables, I might eat a bunch of raw veggies as a snack.  String beans, carrot sticks, a handful of peas,
cucumber and a bean dip.

I think you have to experiment and see what works for you....what feels right for your body.
You might be happier as a grazer .....eating many light meals during the day instead of 3 substantial meals.

The advice to eat six small meals a day came out of the movement to eat a high carb diet. On a high carb diet you will be using up those carbs fast and will need to re-supply them in order to maintain a stable blood sugar.

On your swami you will not have that issue.

I eat when I'm hungry  

And Chloe always has great advice!

As an O, I do eat all day long, just small. I eat 3 small meals, like 2 oz protein on a small salad then pick at veggies, nuts/seeds, a bite or two of protein etc throughout. I simply cannot go hours without food. I tried many times and failed. IWhen I wake up at 630-7, I'm not hungry but I'll pick at something. Then between 830 and 930 I'll have some type of small breakfast. Like 2 oz protein and some veggies or salad and that continues throughout the day. Keep smy sugar steady and my stomach quite. I've tried eating larger meals and it still only lasts me about two hours but my stomach doesn't feel nearly as good as small. I think  I've always been that way. Big meals always make me uncomfortable and I just eat more because I still require my snacks. Sometimes a inch slice of celery in a tsp almond butter satisfies me more than meal. It is all about what makes you feel better. It's all about listening to YOUR body because in the end, it is the boss of us

I eat more than an hour after I get up.   By the time I feed that cats and the dog, and then take the dog out, and do other chores, and then make my own breakfast, at least an hour goes by.  And I'm not hungry at all in the morning -- I can go several hours without eating.  I have skipped breakfast without missing it.

If I eat a good quality breakfast (high-fat, low-carb and compliant) I can go several hours between breakfast and lunch without eating.

After lunch, things quite change drastically, and I feel like eating an hour after lunch.  So I typically split my lunch in half, have the first half at 2:00pm and the second half at 4:00pm.  Then I can last until 6:30pm or so for supper.  I might have a snack between lunch and supper, even though so few hours lie between them.

We're all unique individuals. Some do well on many small meals a day- sometimes  more than 6. Others thrive on 1 or 2 large meals a day, no snacking. Those are just the extremes- many people do well on 3 meals plus one or two snacks.

How big the meals should be, how spaced out, when to eat the bigger meals and when to eat smaller meals, whether or not to do "food combining" are other factors that change from person to person.  There is no "one perfect diet" that works for everybody, or even for most people. While the food lists may be fairly consistent within blood types, the "way to put the meals together" can vary widely from one individual to another. In general, As and ABs do best on more frequent, smaller meals while Os and Bs do better on fewer, larger meals, but there are lots of exceptions.