text:
Home > China Destination > Xinjiang > Korla > Korla Attractions > The Ancient City of Loulan
The Ancient City of Loulan – now the Ruins of Ancient Loulan – is situated on the western shore of the now dried-up Lake Lop (Lop Nur) in Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). Lake Lop itself is located at a point roughly equidistant (about 200 kilometers) from the border with Gansu Province to the east and the border with Qinghai Province to the southeast. The disappearance of the ancient city of Loulan – like the similar disappearance of numerous other ancient Silk Road cities of the Tarim Basin (think: Khotan (aka Hetian), Miran and Niya) – is most likely linked to the disappearance of Lake Lop itself, that is, the disappearance of Lake Lop's water. In other words, these ancient cities seem to have disappeared (were covered in sand) due to the same aridification/ desertification that caused Lake Lop to dry up (in the case of some of these ancient, sand-buried cities, they were abandoned with such haste that archeologists speculate that the inhabitants fled in the face of a sandstorm that was nothing short of biblical proportions).
Before the human cultures that are known today to have inhabited the region, earlier humans – perhaps nomadic, Neolithic Age (BCE 10,000 – 2000 in China) hunters – either lived or passed through here, for arrowheads dating to circa 7500 BCE have been found in the area. A treasure trove of other artifacts have been unearthed here, including manuscripts, pottery, woolen and silken garments, bronzeware, glassware, ancient coins and of course ancient dessicated corpses called mummies, as the next section reveals.
Indeed, when the Ancient City of Loulan was eventually discovered by the Swedish explorer and man of many parts, Sven Hedin, it created a sensation the world over, though nothing like the sensation that the discovery of the Ancient City of Niya by the Hungarian-born American professor, explorer – and also man of many parts – Aurel Stein, would create (see the detailed references to both of these famous explorers farther below), causing Niya to be called "the Oriental Pompeii".
As a region, the area corresponding to the Ancient City of Loulan has two cultural histories: an older history of Caucasian/ European origin and a later, Caucasoid one of Indo-Iranian origin. In fact, there is a third, somewhat less ancient Loulan cultural history: one of Mongolian origin, though we will not deal with it separately here (during the later period of the history of the city of Loulan, all three of these cultural-ethnic groups lived together in the city, apparently harmoniously).
The Beauty of Loulan: The Lake Lop Area's Oldest Cultural Roots
The earliest settlers in the Lake Lop area appear, by all scholarly accounts (think: the empirical DNA evidence of the so-called Tarim Mummies combined with the evidence (references) gleaned from the ancient Chinese historical records), to be Caucasoid peoples who stemmed from two separate geographical areas: Europe (including the Russian part of Europe), and Iran, or Persia. Chinese authorities have been very reluctant to permit foreign researchers to do an independent laboratory analysis of the Tarim Mummies with respect to their DNA identification. However, in recent years, the Chinese authorities finally acceded to outside requests for such permission, and it was this outside (of China) independent laboratory analysis that confirmed the European and Russian DNA origin of the earliest of the Tarim Mummies.
Ancient Chinese records mention a race of very tall, blue-eyed, fair-haired people – and some with green eyes and red hair – living in the region in question who had distinctly non-Chinese, long noses (or long-bridged noses, if you will, i.e., noses that protrude far from the face, whereas some Altaic (Turkic) races have rather long noses that do not protrude far from the face). The first outsiders to notice the dessicated bodies in the region in question (so-called mummies – they were "preserved" by the aridity of the Tarim Basin and the Turpan Depression alone (note that the city of Turpan, which lies in a great natural depression, is sometimes referred to as "City of Hell")) – were the Swedish geographer, topographer, photographer and explorer, Sven Hedin, the German archaeologist and explorer, Albert von Le Coq and the Hungarian-born British archeologist and explorer, Sir Marc Aurel Stein.
These three explorers were more interested in the ancient geography of the region and its archeology than in its anthropology. Hedin and Stein in particular were focused on finding the ancient Silk Road cities mentioned in the historical annals (see the reference to the monk, Xuan Zang, farther below), but which seemed to have disappeared. The anthropological quest would have to wait until an American professor and philologist specializing in Sinitic and Indo-European languages, Victor H. Mair, saw a collection of these preserved, dessicated bodies in the cellar of the Xinjiang Regional Museum in Urumqi, and decided to act.
Mair, who is more broadly recognized as a specialist in Indo-European studies (i.e., in linguistic-, archeological- and literary-related studies), took steps to have the dessicated bodies – which he immediately recognized as non-Chinese, both from their physical appearances as well as from their clothing – preserved from further deterioration (together with professor J. P. Mallory, a fellow archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist, Mair published the book, The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West). In addition, Mair invited a textiles specialist (the clothing of the Tarim Mummies, both that which they were wearing and that which they had brought along for the journey to the "next world", was remarkably well-preserved), Elizabeth W. Barber, to help identify the cultural-historical origin of the mummies, the results of which can be seen in Barber's book, The Mummies of Urumchi.
The most famous of the Tarim Mummies is a rather slight female believed to be of remarkable beauty (an artist's restoration of what scientists believe she might have looked like suggests that she was indeed beautiful), the so-called Beauty of Loulan. She is believed to be one of the oldest of the Tarim Mummies – her remains are dated to be from circa 1800 BCE. An infant Caucasian mummy from the same period was also found recently. Most of the other early Tarim Mummies of distinctly Caucasiod features are 6 feet in height and taller. Some of their clothing suggests a Celtic origin, while certain articles of their clothing actually resemble modern-day tartans (plaids).
It should be remembered that the Eurasian Steppe, at least in ancient times, was a large, east-west oriented swath of land that stretched from Hungary in the west to present-day Inner Mongolia (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) in the east, meaning that these people may not have migrated in the usual sense (i.e., of fleeing war, famine and the like) but may simply have been drawn farther and farther eastward along this "steppe highway", as long as there were pastures farther ahead for their livestock to graze on. Of course, they would have been forced to cross the rather inhospitable Pamir Mountains before entering China, but perhaps scouting parties went in advance and reported back that there was indeed "greener grass" on the other side, though this is pure speculation.
Mair and Mallory suggest that the area around Lake Lop was inhabited exclusively by the same flock of "European" Caucasians as the Beauty of Loulan for about a 1000 years, after which time Indo-Iranian Caucasoid types began to appear in the area. Some sources have suggested that these earlier Caucasians were one and the same as the historical group, the Tocharians, but in this case, the "European" Caucasians would have penetrated deeper into China proper than hitherto believed, since, according to historians, the Tocharians are quite possibly descended from the Yuezhi, and these latter were eventually driven out of their "strongholds" in west-central China by the more militant Altaic tribe, the Xiongnu, who descended into China from the north.
The Yuezhi cum Tocharians, according to these sources, then fled westward into the arid lands of the Tarim Basin. No Yuezhi or Tocharian remains have been uncovered (unless, in the case of the Tarim Mummies, we are in fact looking at them!); the only evidence from them being their language, which belongs to the broader Indo-European language family. The last word on these mysterious, "European" Caucasian migrations eastward has of course not been written.
The Loulan of the Indo-Iranians
The city of Loulan that would be the seat of the Kingdom of Loulan appears to have been founded not by the "European" Caucasians who lived in the area earlier, but by the Indo-Iranian Caucasians who lived in the area from early 2nd Century BCE onwards (their language belongs to the Saka branch of the Indo-European language family), though the city was surely built upon a settlement of sorts, i.e., a village. The city of Loulan, aka Kroran, was built in BCE 176 as part of the Kingdom of Loulan, as indicated, making it one of some 36 lesser kingdoms located in Han (BCE 206 – CE 220) Dynasty China's "Western Regions". Loulan was subjugated by the Han Dynasty in BCE 77, and became thereafter a vassal state.
The Kingdom of Loulan spanned a large, sparsely populated (except for the Lake Lop region) geographical area of some 360,000 square kilometers, from the Ancient City of Charklik (alternatively Charkhlik, Qarklik, the same as present-day Qakilik, seat of Ruoqiang County) in the west to Yang Pass in the east (Yang Pass lies about 70 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang and immediately south of the famous Yumen Pass (note that the "yang" here comes from the ancient Chinese duality concept, 'the yin and the yang', where yin can also mean "the northern side/ slope" while yang can mean "the southern side/ slope"), both passes being situated at the western extremity of the Great Wall – i.e., they are passes, or gates, in the Great Wall that opened out upon potentially dangerous "heathen lands"), and from the A-erh-chin Mountains (aka Altun Mountains) in the south to the Hami Basin in the north, near the present-day city of Kumul.
At its height of prosperity, the Kingdom of Loulan was home to a very diverse population of over 14,000 inhabitants, including Yuezhi/ Tocharins, Indo-Iranians, Xiongnu and other nomadic, Mongoloid steppe tribes. The city of Loulan became an important stopping-off point along the Silk Road. Indeed, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Loulan mined jade – as did their "forefathers", the earliest Yuezhi/ Tocharins who lived here – which they sold to China in order to purchase, among other luxury items, silk. Chinese emperors as far back as the Shang (BCE 1700-1027) Dynasty were quite fond of jade, while the rulers of Greece, Persia – and later of Rome – seemed not to have been particularly interested in this commodity at the time, though the whole world now prizes this unique commodity, especially ancient jade artworks.
Seen in a larger perspective, the Ancient Ruins of Loulan reveal a set of city walls surrounding numerous buildings ranging from "palaces" (relatively speaking), temples, guard towers and residential buildings. Segments of stone and adobe walls, some depicting murals, can be seen here and there, displaying remnants of woodwork, including large pillars and beams. The structures that served as houses for more ordinary people – probably for extended families –were generally made of wood; their simple walls were often clothed with straw-reinforced dried mud.
The Ancient City of Loulan was altogether a smallish, square-ish city, judging from the remnants of its ancient walls. The northern wall measured 327 meters while the southern wall measured 329 meters. Like the northern wall, the western wall measured 327 meters, while the eastern wall was the longest, at 333 meters.
The arid climate of the Tarim Basin preserved not only the corpses of the humans who had lived here 2000 years before the birth of Christ, 1400 years before the Parthenon was built and 1000 years before Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, it also preserved the wooden structures built by the earliest Caucasian settlers in the area, though it couldn't protect them from pilfering or from the ravages of war. However, quite a lot remains yet of the later-built Ancient City of Loulan.
The arguably most interesting architectural discovery at ancient Loulan is the Sanjian Fang (san-jian-fang = "three room house"), or yamen (official residence) – whose walls were built in a thick, adobe style (sand, clay and plant fibers, mixed thoroughly with a bit of water, then allowed to dry) and which house stems from the period when the kingdom was a vassal state to the Han Dynasty. The "Three Room House" served as the official residence of the region's governor. A later Loulan structure that is almost as interesting is the 10-meter-high wooden Pagoda located on the eastern perimeter of the ruins. It is octagonal – and pyramidal – in shape, with a large, square base and a round top.
As indicated above, numerous other interesting artifacts have been unearthed here, including Han Dynasty manuscripts as well as handicraft items such as bronzeware, glassware and pottery. One of the most significant of the Han Dynasty manuscripts found here is a copy of the Zhan Guo Ce, or the Strategies of the Warring States Period, which is an extensive history of the Warring States (BCE 475-221) Period of the Eastern Zhou (BCE 770-221) Dynasty that is believed to have been compiled by numerous contributors over a period of some 200 years, from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BCE.
Most of the manuscripts found at Loulan were taken from a series of ruins with adobe type walls that occupied the center of the city, prompting archeologists to suggest that these buildings housed whatever local government was present at the time, though these structures would most likely have been erected after the city became a vassal state to Han China – it is hardly likely that they stem from the same period as the Beauty of Loulan. Flanking the adobe-like structures in the center of the city are the ruins of numerous wooden structures. Some of their pillars and beams measure up to 6 meters in length. A small, underground tunnel, believed to have served as a sort of aqueduct, runs through the city, diving it into two halves.
Both the presence of the primitive aqueduct and the wooden beams are testimony to the Loulan area's past – before the Tarim River changed its course and thus changed the course of Loulan's history – as a lush oasis, abundant in trees and gardens, and prosperous enough to warrant even a system of "running water", however primitive, that was delivered to the city thanks to a cleverly built, undergound tunnel that diverted water to the city from the nearby Tarim River.
The city of Loulan seems to have "perished" (was probably buried by a sandstorm) in CE 330, or thereabouts. Several years earlier, the Tarim River had shifted its course, as indicated, no longer feeding Lake Lop, and the lake slowly dried up; without water, there is no basis for life. Why the Tarim River shifted its course is not known for certain, but it could have been related to flooding (excessive seasonal runoff from the Tian Mountains that rim the northern edge of the Tarim Basin) or to the ever-shifting patterns of the sands of the Taklamakan Desert which spans much of this arid basin (the Taklamakan Desert is constantly spreading, though the Chinese authorities have taken steps to at least slow if not block this trend).
Since the weather can be extremely cold here during winter – just as it is extremely hot during summer, namely, from a summer high of 50 degrees Celsius to a winter low of minus 30 degrees Celsius – it is likely that the buildings on the northern side of the city were of stone, rammed earth, and, later, of adobe material, though this is pure speculation (but it fits the general building pattern throughout China), given that these building materials have greater insulating properties, and the coldest winter winds blow from the north (indeed, the aforementioned "Three Room House" faces southward, or rather, its back, where there would be few, if any, windows, was to the north).
The famous Tang (CE 618-907) Dynasty monk, Xuan Zang, whose writings inspired turn-of-the-century explorers such as Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein to search for the ancient lost cities of the Silk Road, noted in his travel diary during his stay in the city of Loulan that the city was practically a ghost town even then.*
It is strange to think that this mysteriously abandoned city was once a thriving center of commerce along the Silk Road, frequented by numerous camel caravans heading either eastward into China proper – and stopping off at Loulan not just for fresh provisions, including perhaps extra (and fresh) camels, but also to pick up the jade that was so prized by the Chinese emperors – or westward toward Soghdiana, Bactria and points farther west such as Constantinople and Rome. It is stranger still to think that this ancient Silk Road city had an even more mysterious prior past that briefly linked East and West (a thousand years is but a moment in the history of man), belying the famous opening line of the poem, The Ballad of East and West, by the British novelist and poet, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936): "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
* The life of Xuan Zang, who traveled from China to India during the Tang Dynasty period in order to learn about Buddhism firsthand (i.e., from the source, since Buddhism originated in India) – and who kept a well-annotated travel diary – was chronicled in the 16th century novel, Pilgrimage to the West (alternately known as Journey to the West, Monkey King or simply Monkey). The likeable but somewhat bumbling monk (as depicted in the novel) was accompanied on his journey by three assistants – chosen of course by the Buddhist deities themselves – in order to make sure that Xuan Zang accomplished his mission.
Each of these three rather bizarre assistants, or side-kicks, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing – who were humans reincarnated as a monkey, a pig and a monster, respectively – had their own particular strengths and idiosyncratic weaknesses, but the individual members of the little team, taken together, complemented each other perfectly, which makes Monkey as modern a story today as it was fresh at the time it was written.
In fact, both the makers of Star Wars (think: the mythical Wookiee, "Chewbacca" and all of the other half-animal, half-human characters in that film) and Shrek ("Donkey", "Puss in Boots") owe a debt of sorts to the author of Pilgrimage to the West, who is believed to have been the Ming (CE 1368-1644) Dynasty author, Wu Cheng'en, who presumably wrote the work during the 1590s (the key word being "presumably"... had it not been for Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616), whose famous work, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (aka Don Quixote), was verifiably published in two volumes, the first in 1605 and the second in 1615, the author of Monkey might well have been credited with having written the world's first novel).
Information accuracy:
We try to make the information on China Travel accurate when we write/edit it. If you find any outdated information, please inform us.


text:
Regional PI Associations
Your local support and point of contact.
Institutions & Support
Technical support and certification partners.
Working Groups
Developing, standardizing and maintaining our technologies.
PI´s organizational structure & community.
You would like to become a member? Benefits, how it works & member list.
Installers, Engineers und Designer - Certified by PI Training Centres.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
IRVING, Texas -- Morris Claiborne's first two seasons have been frustrating for everybody with the Dallas Cowboys, but especially him.
Selected sixth overall in 2012, Claiborne has two interceptions in two seasons and missed six games last year with recurring hamstring injuries. With the offseason over, Claiborne believes 2014 will be different.
"I'm ready," Claiborne said. "Hands down, point blank, I'm ready. I feel better than I've ever felt in a long time. I'm just anxious for you guys to start asking me something else: What about the interception you made? I'm ready for those type questions."
Expectations were raised ever since the Cowboys traded up to get him and immediately said he was the highest-graded defensive back they have had since Deion Sanders. The production on the field has not matched it. He lost his job to Orlando Scandrick last season and there is no guarantee he can win it back.
But defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson has noticed a different Claiborne.
"Competing his butt off," Henderson said. "He's embraced that he's got to play better, and he's doing a good job."
Coach Jason Garrett has noticed a different Claiborne physically. He has not added weight, but Garrett believes Claiborne is stronger. He has had to rehab from shoulder and finger surgeries this offseason.
"He's more mature physically, and I think his technique is getting better," Garrett said. "I think with that, you develop some confidence, and you need confidence in any position you play, but you certainly need it if you play corner in the NFL. You're out there by yourself a lot."
With five weeks to go before the Cowboys head to California for training camp, Claiborne has a couple of weekend trips scheduled but he plans on working out through the summer.
"I just don't want to lose nothing that I have now," he said. "We have a lot of time before we actually get to camp and all but there's things that I built right now. I felt like I put so much into this offseason and I invested so much. I don't want to lose that. I'm still going to be on my grind like it's still the (organized team activities) or we're about to report next week."
It has not been perfect, but it has been better for Claiborne. He allowed Dez Bryant to sneak in for a touchdown Wednesday but later broke up a back-shoulder throw in the end zone to Devin Street. He has found himself going against Bryant daily in practice. When they weren't matched up, he pulled a younger cornerback from the field in order to be matched up against Bryant.
"Me and him talked about it before we even started up that we want to be the best and we want to go against each other," Claiborne said. "We feel like we both compete at a high level. I get good work when I go against him and it's vice versa. When I'm not up there, he's telling me to come. We're trying to help each other so we can be the best for our team."


text:
Cardiologist, author, and heart health expert Dr. Sarah Samaan offers advice on how to live a heart smart life.See all posts »
Calcium and Your Heart Health
Osteoporosis (or thinning of the bones) is a major health concern for older adults. To try to improve bone health, calcium is routinely recommended for those over the age of 50 by doctors and other medical practitioners. However, two recent analyses suggest that calcium supplements may cause more harm than good by increasing the risk for heart attacks.
As reported in the British Medical Journal in 2010, an analysis of 11 studies including nearly 12,000 participants suggested that calcium supplements could increase the risk for heart attacks by as much as 30 percent. And although calcium is supposed to protect the bones, the benefit appears to be quite weak. In fact, on average, most studies show about a 10 percent drop in bone fractures when people take calcium pills. Unlike supplements, dietary calcium (from sources such as dairy, nuts, and green leafy vegetables) seems to have the opposite effect on the heart, as there is good evidence that choosing calcium-rich foods may actually reduce heart attack risk.
Since the studies referenced in the analysis used calcium without additional vitamin D, some questioned whether adding vitamin D might reduce the likelihood of heart complications. With this in mind, a second study, published in 2011 in the British Medical Journal evaluated the results of the Women's Health Initiative Calcium/Vitamin D Supplementation Study. Over 36,000 women participated in the trial, overseen by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The conclusion? Calcium supplements, with or without vitamin D, appeared to increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by as much as 20 percent.
Exactly why and how calcium supplements may affect heart disease risk is a matter of interest and speculation, but may be linked to the way the supplements abruptly increase blood levels of calcium, exposing the blood vessels to more calcium than they are designed to handle.
There is no question that calcium is important for our bone health, yet it appears once again that you just shouldn't try to fool Mother Nature. If you have healthy bones, a Mediterranean diet along with regular weight-bearing exercise is the best way to maintain bone health. Smokers are at high risk for osteoporosis, so if you smoke, do everything in your power to quit. If your bones are already weak, talk to your doctor about medical therapies that can help to protect you. If you've been prescribed a calcium supplement, don't stop it without discussing the pros and cons with your physician. While there is no perfect solution, it appears that relying on calcium supplements may not provide enough benefit to justify the risks.
Recent Blog Posts
Nov 15, 2012
Heart Smart Living
Nov 07, 2012
Blood Pressure Medications may Thwart Alzheimer's Dementia
Nov 05, 2012
Should You Eat Organic?
Copyright © 2005 - 2017 Healthline Media. All rights reserved. Our content does not constitute a medical consultation. See a certified medical professional for diagnosis. Privacy Policy


text:
Shake Shack finds unwanted fans in Wall Street bears
Short sellers have been gorging themselves on this stock Read More
Short sellers have been gorging themselves on this stock Read More
Landlord plans 170,000-square-foot condo tower near Park Avenue South
The only native New Yorker to win the city's marathon was 74
Nearly three years into his tenure as New York's president of basketball operations, Jackson has few victories in his name
Five-year-old Rumor won after being upset last year by a German shorthaired pointer named CJ at the annual kennel championship
Founder and chief executive of the Armory Foundation tells Crain's about commitment
Meet the international event's dog whisperer
Kevin Kay was one of the first TV executives to focus on mixed martial arts
Building owners are facing huge rent increases as ground lease resets loom
New York governor will be joined by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and local leaders from the state's 10 economic regions for the announcement
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One offered flexible hiring and scheduling to reduce the estimated $5 million more it costs to produce the show in New York instead of Los Angeles
City expected to host the 2018 Grammy Awards
Katelyn Gaffney and Megan Levinson both starred as Clara in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular
New fund, Dolan Family Ventures, will be led by Kristin Dolan, who recently served as chief operating officer of Cablevision
Las Vegas-based fight league will hold its first event in the city this Saturday
Jason Robins, who co-founded the daily fantasy sports site, would serve as the combined firm's head, according to people familiar with the merger talks
Safeguards created to prevent the rise of another power broker have become obstacles to the city's progress
A multibillion-dollar sector of the city's real estate industry is nearly devoid of minorities
The cable television company will take 27,000 square feet at One Penn Plaza
This past week's top New York business news
No more planning, says the governor: An actual project to transform the nation's busiest transit hub
Can't find the information you need? Try searching for it!
Sign up for our FREE daily email newsletter. A summary of the day's top business and political headlines from the newsroom of Crain's New York Business.


text:
Felstead, Alan and Fuller, Alison and Jewson, Nick and Unwin, Lorna and Bishop, Dan and Kakavelakis, Konstantinos (2009) Mind the gap: personal and collective identities at work. Studies in the Education of Adults, 41 (1). pp. 6-20. ISSN 0266-0830. DOI UNSPECIFIEDFull text not available from this repository.
|Not from UCL IOE?
|Item Type:
|Controlled Keywords:
|Workplace , Informal learning , Sociology
|IOE Departments > Departments > International and Lifelong Education
IOE Departments > Departments > Lifelong and Comparative Education
|Depositing User:
|IOE Repository Editor (1)
|Date Deposited:
|26 Mar 2010 15:24
|Last Modified:
|29 Jan 2015 08:37


text:
There has been a LEGO awakening…and it was worth the wait!
Tag Archive: travellers tales
Lego Marvel's Avengers review for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U
Loki, Hydra, Ultron and many other Marvel villains are plotting global domination. Time to hero up!
Watch LEGO worlds collide in the new LEGO Dimensions story trailer
So how the heck is Warner Bros. going to smash together 14 of the most popular LEGO sets into one game? Here's how.
LEGO Jurassic World review for Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, PC
LEGO Jurassic World is a lot of fun, provided you're not feeling a bit burned out by the Traveller's Tales LEGO formula.
LEGO Worlds Early Access impressions
LEGO Worlds holds a lot of promise for LEGO fans, and the Early Access version of the game is certainly worth a look.
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham review for PS4, Xbox One
LEGO Batman 3 doesn't reinvent the wheel for LEGO titles, but it's still a fun return to the DC Universe.
LEGO Batman 3 has a Season Pass trailer
The Dark Knight, Batman's 75th Anniversary, and the Man of Steel are just some of the DLC packs featured in LEGO Batman 3's Season Pass.
LEGO The Hobbit review for PS4, Xbox One
LEGO The Hobbit marks a fun, but unnecessary return to the LEGO rendition of Middle-Earth, seen through the eyes of Director Peter Jackson.
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins review for 3DS
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins shows that portable LEGO games can be just as good as their home console brethren, with a little effort.
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins – New Screens
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins gets a bunch of new screenshots just in time for the release of the game on the 21st.
LEGO The Lord of the Rings review for Xbox 360, PS3
Traveller's Tales/TT Game's LEGO series continues its trend of open-world, LEGO smashing improvements with this adaptation of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes review for Xbox 360, PS3
Traveler's Tales wastes no time in capitalizing on the DC Universe LEGO license with LEGO Batman 2. While Batman and crew are still the focal point, the expanded use of heroes like Superman and Green Lantern, along with an impressively large hub world, help make this the best LEGO title yet.


text:
Summary and Discussion
In summary, the Great Lakes Region States that intensified enforcement during the Rural Demonstration Project in conjunction with their Friendly Cop media program, experienced significant increases in seat belt usage during that phase. In addition, these States experienced overall increases in their rural targeted areas that were greater than statewide increases (w3-w1). These findings suggest that, under these conditions, the RDP was effective in increasing usage in rural targeted areas and appears to have contributed additional impact to the Click It or Ticket efforts that followed.
Statewide seat belt usage increased significantly in all States following the implementation of both phases of the mobilization. There was a median 5-point increase (w3-w1) and this change was similar for primary and secondary law States. In general, increases following CIOT were greater than those following the RDP. This was likely due in part to the lack of enforcement during the RDP in three States and possibly due to more intense enforcement and a harder enforcement messaging during the CIOT phase.
A comparison of rural targeted and nontargeted areas in Indiana provided additional evidence of RDP impact. Targeted rural areas experienced significant increases in awareness and usage during the RDP, while there was no measurable change in nontargeted areas. Following CIOT implementation, there were additional increases in the targeted areas and substantial increases in the nontargeted areas, providing a reasonably clear suggestion of impact regarding both phases of the mobilization.31
It is clear that males, younger occupants, and pickup truck occupants had lower use rates than females, older persons and occupants of other vehicles. Perhaps one of the most important findings was that usage among all three groups was significantly increased when intensified enforcement was present, whether as part of the RDP or CIOT.
This mobilization was comparable to past benchmark mobilizations, such as the 2001 CIOT Program in the southeastern States and the 2003 National CIOT mobilization. The levels of media and enforcement activity were similar in each of these efforts, especially during the CIOT phases; increases in awareness of general and enforcement messages were comparable; and there were significant increases in seat belt usage in all participating States.
31 A different outcome was found in Minnesota where increases in targeted areas did not reach significance during the RDP but where increases in nontargeted areas were significant. This comparison is somewhat less robust, however, since the sample sizes were very small (less than half those of Indiana) and the baseline usage rate in the nontargeted area was about 20 percentage points lower than the baseline rate in the targeted area.


text:
NCAA Regional Preview
Tyler, Texas
Friday, May 9 / Saturday, May 10
vs. Texas Lutheran (3:30 p.m.) - May 9
vs. #3 Texas-Tyler (6:00 p.m.) - May 9
(@ETBU_Softball) #ETBU #ASCsb #ETBUGameDay
LISTEN: ETBUSportsNet (etbusports.com/fanzone/ETBUSportsNet)
LIVE STATS: client.stretchinternet.com/client/uttyler.portal
LIVE VIDEO: client.stretchinternet.com/client/uttyler.portal
GAMENOTES (pdf)
NCAA Regional Website (UT-Tyler)
NCAA Tournament
Making their fifth tournament in six years, ETBU was ranked #2 in the final West Regional poll and received an at-large bid into the tournament. They have received at-large bids in 2009, 2010, and 2014. They made it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2011, 2013 with an automatic bid winning the ASC Tournament.
NCAA Tournament Record
Entering the 2014 tournament, ETBU has a 17-13 (.556) record in seven appearances. Last year, they went 3-2 falling in the regional championship game. Their longest winning streak came in 2010 when they won eight games in a row after playing in the elimination game in the regional tournament in Louisiana. The winning streak led them to the national championship und head coach Janae Shirley. ETBU is 8-7 vs. nationally ranked opponents in the touranment, too. They have also recorded six shutouts in seven appearances.
Overall Record: 17-13
vs. ranked opponents: 8-7
Longest Winning Streak: 8
First Round Games
In seven tournaments, ETBU is 5-2 in opening games. They won their opening games in 2002, 2004, 2009, 2010, and 2013. In their first-ever tournament, they went 2-2 overall with an opening win over LaVerne, 7-0.
In four of the five opening day wins, ETBU has recorded shutouts. They have shutouts over LaVerne (2002), Linfield (3-0; 2004), and Claremont Mudd Scripps , twice (9-0; 2009) (3-0; 2013). They have scored 27 runs and given up nine runs in the opening games.
ETBU NOTES for NCAA TOURNAMENT
8 NCAA Tournament Appearances
For the eighth time in the NCAA Tournament, ETBU is tied for most appearances in the ASC with Louisiana College. They are one ahead of UT-Tyler who is making their seventh appearance. ETBU has played in 30 NCAA Tournament games with a 17-13 record and are 14-7 under Janae Shirley.
Last Appearance
ETBU made the NCAA Tournament in 2013 after missing the 2012 tournament. ETBU went 3-2 last year playing in the regional championship game falling to UT-Tyler. Both losses were to UT-Tyler. All five games last year were against ranked opponents.
NFCA National Rankings
In the latest NFCA national rankings, ETBU moved up two spots to #6. They have never dropped out of the top 10 this year and been ranked as high as fifth. They have now been in the NFCA national rankings for 23 straight weeks dating back to week 1 in 2013 where they debuted at 25th.
The West Region, who is the only region hosting two three-team regionals, has three teams in the top 10 as Linfield moved up to #2 and UT-Tyler is #3. Clarmont-Mudd-Scripps is #22 and Redlands, who is hosting the other regional, is 25th.
NFCA National Player of the Week
For the second time this year ETBU had a player named the national player of the week. Jayme Perez, a freshman, was given the award after hitting five home runs in the ASC Tournament. Earlier this year, Shelby Parker won the award as the pitcher of the Week.
ASC Players of the Week/Awards
Eight times this year ETBU won ASC Player of the Week awards. They won four pitcher of the week awards between Shelby Parker (2) and Kelly Jo McLendon (2). Lacey Lindsey (2), Alyssa Romero, and Lacy Liles also won the hitter of the week award.
ETBU then led the ASC with seven first-team selections in Lacy Liles, Lacey Lindsey (freshman of the year), Alyssa Romero, Kelly Jo McLendon, Shelby Parker, Jayme Perez, and Kayla Garcia. Making third team were Mallory Westbrook and Kaitlyn Hollinshead.
20-Game Winning Streak
From March 22 through May 2 ETBU put together a program best 20-game winning streak going 12-0 in April. In that run ETBU recorded 14 shutouts with six in a row from April 4-17. After giving up one run on April 18, ETBU pitched five more shutouts and had a perfect 5-inning game in that time. In the 20-game run, ETBU outscored opponents 166-9 and hit 27 home runs.
NCAA Record
ETBU tied the record for most home runs hit in an inning when they hit four in the first inning vs. Sul Ross State in the final game of the year. They finished withe seven in the game which is third all-time in NCAA Division III.
NOTES vs. TEXAS-TYLER
Series: UTT Leads, 24-22
Last Meeting: UTT 5, ETBU 4 (8) 2014 ASC Championship
vs. ETBU in NCAA Tournament: 2-1
Last Meeting in NCAA Tournament: UTT 7-6 (9) 2013 Regional Championship
Duke/North Carolina Series of D3 Softball
These two teams (ETBU, UTT) have met 46 times overall since UTT started their program in 2004. In 31 of the 46 games played both teams have been ranked with 18 of the games being Top 10. In the last two years, UTT has a 10-4 record vs. ETBU and in the those games there have been seven have been one-run games. UTT is 6-2 in those games
Last 14 Meetings UTT leads 10-4
One-Run Games Record vs. UTT: 2-6
Last Meeting
ETBU played UTT twice on Sunday, May 4th, for the ASC Championship. ETBU won the first elimination game, 4-2, breaking a six-game losing streak to the Patriots. In game two, for the championship, ETBU fell in eight innings, 5-4. ETBU had 4-1 lead heading into the top of the seventh inning but allowed three runs to score that tied the game. ETBU then left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and UTT scored a run in the top of eighth for the lead. With two outs, ETBU was threatening to tie the game when a ball hit down the right field line was called foul on a controversial call. Two pitches later the game ended on a line out.
Top 10 Meetings
These two teams have met 17 times when both were ranked in the NFCA Top 10 rankings. ETBU is 8-9 in those games and the last eight meetings have all been Top 10 meetings with UTT holding a 7-1 record.
There has been only two meetings when a team was ranked #1 and that was last year. ETBU, who was ranked 12th, won both games in the ASC Tournament, 10-9, and 6-2 for the ASC Championship.
National Ranked Meetings
Over 30 times these two teams have met when both nationally ranked. They have met 31 times when both teams were ranked and UTT holds a 16-15 record. In the last two years, UTT is 10-4 in the nationally ranked meetings.
One Run Games vs. UTT
In 21 of the 46 meetings, the game has been decided by one run. ETBU is 10-11in those one-run games and is 2-6 in the last two years in one-run games. Five of the last seven games have been one-run games as UTT is 5-2 in that time.
Runs Scored
There has been close to 400 runs scored in all the meetings between these two teams. UTT leads the overall runs, 192-175.
NOTES vs. TEXAS LUTHERAN
Series: ETBU Leads, 11-5
Last Meeting: #9 ETBU 3, #20 TLU 1 2013 ASC Tournament
vs. ETBU in NCAA Tournament: first meeting
Last Meeting in NCAA Tournament: none
Former ASC Matchup -- East vs. West
Former ASC opponents will meet for the second year in a row this time in the NCAA Tournament. ETBU has met TLU 16 times with ETBU holding a six-game advantage, 11-5. ETBU has won the last four meetings dating back to 2009. TLU last defeated ETBU in 2007, 6-2.
TLU left the ASC after the 2012-13 year to join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and did not play ETBU this year.
Last Meeting
The two teams played a top 20 match up in the second round of the ASC Tournament. TLU held a 1-0 lead after four innings only to see ETBU score two runs in the bottom of the fifht inning and then adding a run in the sixth inning for the 3-1 win. Kelly Jo McLendon received the win for ETBU while Carmichael took the loss for TLU. Alyssa Romero had one hit for two RBI giving ETBU the lead.
Post-Season Meetings
ETBU has met Texas Lutheran just twice in the post season in the ASC Tournament and hold a 2-0 lead. They met last year in the second round winning, 3-1, and then played in 2004 taking a 6-1 win.
Runs Scored
In the 16 meetings, over 100 runs have been scored between the two teams. ETBU leads the runs scored category, 69-33.


text:
Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I'm 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we've assumed to be true about health and wellness...Tell Me More
The issue of meal timing is a dense thicket of conflicting advice, a mix of conventional wisdom dispensed from USA Today articles, broscience on Internet forums, and confusing physiological feedback from a dysfunctional metabolism. How can one wade through it all and stay sane? You've been told your entire life that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but then you hear about intermittent fasting, Warrior Diets, and skipping breakfast while thriving. The buff/cut/shredded/ripped/insert-increasingly-violent-adjective-to-describe-one's-leanness-here (what's next, "flayed"?) dudes at the gym insist you should break up your eating into at least six small meals (and if possible, maintain a steady IV-drip of Muscle Milk throughout the day) to "boost" your metabolism. Some say three meals a day works just as well, while others say it's even superior. Others try to simplify things. They suggest listening to your own body, to eat when hungry and fast when not, which makes sense, but what if you're overweight and hungry all the time – can your body's metabolic signaling really be trusted?
These are common concerns. I don't profess to have all the answers, but I think I can make navigating the meal timing issue a little easier for people. Let's go through a couple of the most common questions and explore what might work. I think you'll find that context is key.
It's true that epidemiology shows habitual breakfast skippers trend toward being fatter and less healthy than traditional breakfasters. People who skip breakfast are more likely to be dieters (meaning they're overweight) and lead generally unhealthy lifestyles (since skipping breakfast is widely seen as unhealthy, they're more likely to engage in other unhealthy activities).
Is this true for you, though? Are you technically skipping breakfast, only to grab a Frappucino on the way to work and eat a couple stale donuts in your office at 10 AM? Are you skipping breakfast intuitively, simply because you're not hungry? Or are you skipping breakfast while mustering up all the willpower you have and ignoring your body's cries for sustenance? These are two very different physiological states. I'd argue that the intuitive breakfast skipper is not skipping breakfast at all. Instead, he (or she) is in tune with his body. He's still breaking his fast, just at a later time. The tortured breakfast skipper is fighting against his own satiety hormones, a battle he cannot win over the long haul. He's living in perpetual metabolic discord. What do you think he's more likely to eat for lunch – a Big Ass Salad whose contents he lovingly and thoughtfully prepared the night before, or a Big Mac combo?
If you're of the former category and a traditionally-timed breakfast simply never occurs to you, you're fine. Stick with it and eat when you get hungry, especially if your fat-loss efforts are succeeding.
Others might want to eat a protein-rich breakfast. Overweight teens who habitually skipped breakfast ate either a high-protein breakfast (50 grams protein) or a breakfast with normal amounts of protein (18 grams) for seven days. Three hours after their last breakfast on the seventh day, researchers measured the teens' neural responses to pictures of food. The high-protein group displayed the least amount of activity in areas of the brain associated with food reward. According to brain imaging scans, the high-protein group was more sated and less interested in the idea of food than the low-protein group. Of course, the usual caveats apply here: these overweight teens were not skipping breakfast so they could do their afternoon squat session fasted, they probably weren't interested in fasting-induced cellular autophagy, and I doubt they skipped breakfast spontaneously because they were happily humming along on stored body fat energy. In short, they are a specific demographic whose results may not apply to you. But if you're the type who's tried to skip breakfast and failed miserably – or did it and felt miserable and ravenous – you might try eating a high-protein breakfast. Add some fat to that protein and I bet you could maintain satiation for longer than the three hours described in the study.
To graze or to feast? According to many fitness "experts," grazing is supposed to "stoke the metabolic fire," while infrequent meals "slow your metabolism." The idea is that eating many small meals keeps your metabolism plugging away at a high rate for the entire day, helping you burn more fat. Conversely, going too long between meals slows down your metabolism, so that when you do eat, your body is sluggish to respond to the caloric load and you end up storing it as fat.
It's a neat-sounding theory, but it isn't true.
First of all, there is no metabolic advantage to eating multiple meals. Yeah, your body expends metabolic energy to process and digest food, but it doesn't matter when or how it's eaten. You could eat a steak in a single sitting or the same steak cut up into five pieces, each eaten an hour apart, and the total energy expenditure required to process and digest the steak would be identical in both cases. So, assuming macronutrient ratios and caloric content are identical, eating more frequently doesn't make your metabolism "burn" brighter. If it did, this study would have ruled in favor of increased meal frequency as an effective tool in weight loss for obese patients. But it didn't.
But wait: eating more frequently keeps you sated, right? If you're eating more often and keep a cache of snacks on hand, you should be able to keep hunger at bay. This must be true because those 100-calorie snack packs of cookies and chips are so successful, and I always see the trimmest, sveltest folks happily snacking away on them. Why, I remember seeing a cubicle garbage bin positively filled to the brim with 100-cal snack wrappers. Its inhabitant was off for lunch at the time, but with all that healthy snacking, I imagine he or she was fit as a fiddle!
Ha, no. A recent study actually suggests that eating more frequently reduces measures of satiety and fullness in overweight and obese men (the population that most desperately needs satiety, mind you), while eating less frequent, higher-protein meals increases satiety and reduces hunger. This is buttressed by the hordes of anecdotes I receive in my inbox from folks who only achieved freedom from constant hunger when they started eating real, substantial Primal meals and stopped obsessing over frequent, smaller meals.
Another study, featured in a recent Weekend Link Love, reveals that 25% of Americans' calories now come from snacks, half of which are sweetened beverages. Sure, drinking soda and eating chips in between meals is obviously terrible, but that doesn't really apply to Primal snackers and their macadamia nuts, beef jerky, and berries. Or does it?
For certain groups, I think healthy snacking, or smaller, healthy meals, may be warranted. If you're starving, it's definitely better to reach for the beef jerky than the cookie. Chris Kresser wrote about how infrequent, larger meals and IFing (even in the context of a "paleo-type" diet) cause wild blood sugar swings in some of his patients, most notably the stressed-out ones with cortisol disregulation, so that's something to consider. In my experience, whenever I've had a bad night's sleep or am going through a particularly stressful situation with work or life in general, I like breakfast; I get hungrier more often and skipping breakfast or fasting simply doesn't feel right, so I don't. Rather than tough it out or power through it, I listen to my body in these situations and eat if I'm hungry. I strongly suspect that trying to fast when your body doesn't "want" to does more harm than good. Problems arise when this becomes chronic, when you're always stressed out, always hungry, and always snacking. But in the short term? Eat when hungry.
If you must snack, include some protein. As to why, I'll draw your attention to a brilliant post by J. Stanton, entitled "Why Snacking Makes You Weak, Not Just Fat." Stanton explains why eating a carb rich snack without protein is inherently catabolic: the insulin spike stimulates muscle protein synthesis, for which the body needs amino acids, and without dietary protein the body must draw on muscle protein stores. Once or twice this wouldn't be a problem, but if you're snacking on protein-deficient carby foods throughout the day, every day, you're eventually going to see muscle wasting. The classic example is the skinny-fat cyclist or jogger with a fanny pack full of dried fruit and a bandolier of glucose gel packets.
Personally, I like my buddy Aaron Blaisdell's slogan: "Not IF, but WHEN (When Hunger Ensues Naturally)." Let hunger happen. Don't force the fasting. Don't fight hunger just because your official "eating window" hasn't arrived yet, and if you feel it's "ensuing" unnaturally, do some investigation. Are you sleeping well? Are you training too much, or not at all? Is your 80/20 turning into a 60/40? If all that stuff is under control, consider that you may need a few days to entrain your ghrelin secretion to your eating schedule. Ghrelin? It's a hormone that precedes and indeed predicts mealtimes, induces hunger and is secreted when you're about to eat. Your ghrelin secretion schedule follows your eating schedule, and it's a fast responder, so a few days should be plenty of time to get things lined up. In the meantime, you may have to deal with a little extra hunger at your previously normal mealtimes.
In the end, it all comes down to doing what works for you. I'll admit that IF is a great tool for people who thrive on it. I like throwing in a fast here and there, because it works for me. You have to consider how these strategies work within the confines of your physiology. If something isn't working for you, don't "stick with it" just because it worked for others or there's a big blog post listing all the benefits with links to rat studies and human trials. Eat a big breakfast if you need it. Eat food before your workout if you find you perform better with something in your stomach. Your needs are the bottom line – all other considerations pale in comparison.
Of course, your needs will change, especially as you continue with the PB lifestyle. Once you start sleeping, eating, dealing with stress, and moving well, things get easier. You might get hungry a little later in the day. You might find you even have enough energy for a quick workout before that first meal. You might look up from your plate and realize that it's noon and you haven't eaten in sixteen hours – and you feel fine. When that happens, go with it. Don't force it, but let it happen if it will. The good news is that this is all contextual, and nothing is written in stone.
How do you handle meal timing? Have you noticed any changes since adopting a Primal lifestyle?
If you'd like to add an avatar to all of your comments click here!
192 Comments on "Meal Timing Concerns: Breakfast, Frequency, and Snacking"
Great article! I personally try to avoid snacking and feel an occasional fast has helped control my hunger.
Conversely, allowing oneself to get hungry…knowing what it feels like without panicking…is a good thing. Snacking all day leaves me too bloaty and the psychological feeling of having to constantly put something in my mouth definitely leads to weight gain for me. I'm definitely in favor of 2 or 3 meals rather than 6 or 7 mini-meals. (although those bodybuilders do get pretty darn lean that way…).
I am a 4;30 or 5 am runner though, so I always have a protein shake after my shower…waiting til noon is no option here!
"(although those bodybuilders do get pretty darn lean that way…)"
I'm afraid I can't take too much notice of studies, when the evidence is walking around and talking to me in the gym!
Same with protein. The "studies" tell us we only need maybe about 20 grams per day. Any more is wasted.
Tell that to ANY successful bodybuilder?
Generally I love Mark's blog but found this post unconvincing. Do what feels good, as and when you feel like it, while ignoring what is proven to work for bodybuilders?
No thanks.
Bodybuilders? Step a few feet back and
take a good look at bodybuilders…alot
look like giant, plastic insects…do
you really consider that a role model of health and the way humans ought to look? "Successful bodybuilder?" what is
One last comment…aren't we all trying
to build our bodies?
We may be building our bodies, but we aim for health and strenght, while bodybuilding aims specifficaly for maximum muscle hypertrohpy.
wrong site pal. bodybuilding with the help of steroids and artificial whatnot is not healthy. mark's not a bodybuilder. neither are most of the primal people. we go for health, strength and leanness, not building muscles for muscles sake in unnatural ways.
if you ate only half the amount of food (by weight) compared to the amount of crap ya wanna serve us up with thru BLOG you should be right with the required
I'm sorry but this is incoherent.
Hahaha why is it that people who are always angry or trying to make a point tend to misspell or misspeak?
I'm a recovering grazer, and appreciate this compilation of excellent info. The combo of my local Crossfit gym, Mark's Daily Apple and pregnancy-induced hypoglycemia helped me see the light.
I'm finding it much easier to eat well when I don't have to plan to eat ALL THE TIME. Which is what I was doing before!
Recovering Grazer. I believe that's my problem. Grazing. I'm never full and eat constantly. I'm not overweight but keeping my diet in check is a major struggle. Maybe all I need to do is stop grazing and eat my three meals a day. That will be my goal for the rest of this month and leading into the next. I think I can do it 🙂
Hi Mindy
How is your fat intake? Consider upping it ….I had hypoglycemia and had to snack all the time…I was eating good protein but it wasn't until I upped the fats and really lowered carbs that I resolved it for good – no more snacking 🙂 well maybe occasionally! But I feel satisfied from meals now, not hungry an hour afterwards.
Whatever meal you eat after not having eaten in a while is breakfast, no matter what time of day it is. Just because you don't eat right after you get up in the morning doesn't mean you've skipped breakfast.
I know I'm getting a bit technical but I think understanding the difference between a morning meal and "breakfast" is important.
In your situation (and you husband's) you just like to keep your fast going a little longer before you break it.
Chris, it's people being way too literal and technical like that in response to basic conversation that makes people stay away from the site. Yes, most people get that any time you eat after waking is technically breakfast because you are breaking your fasting state…but we all know what people mean when they say breakfast.
I think maybe I worded my post wrong. After re-reading it sounds harsher than I intended. I was only commenting because you said that you, "started skipping breakfast." No worries.
I personally think there's a psychological difference between thinking you are skipping breakfast vs. putting it off till noon or longer.
I like your point on the psychological difference, and will be using it on myself. I had a tiny amount of guilt that I had been "skipping breakfast" lately, and I think that mind shift will do it in.
picky picky..relax nomad1
it's people like you, who turn others off with your scrutinous remarks
I'm totally with you on this one Chris. I always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – but it doesn't matter what time of day you eat it. I usually eat mine around 4-30pm.
I'm the same way! If I eat breakfast, I generally think about food all day. It's insane. But if I don't eat it, my morning is just the same!
No worries Chris:-)
I get what you mean about thinking about it differently. If you consider it skipping, you mentally might associate with a feeling of depriving yourself.
I like the feeling of working out on an empty stomach too, I seem to have more energy.
YAY for you!!!! I started only 6 weeks ago–I am finding 2 meals a day totally works for me late omelet most days (around 11a) and dinner around 6 with a handful of nuts around 4 or so. I work from home so I have the luxury of making a quick meal in the middle of the work day. I am sticking with what works too!
I have very much been testing this
2 meal a day theory for a few weeks…
I think it is the way to go…especially the older you get…and if you have a sedentary job…
I bring eggs with me to work that I cook
when I get up have them around 10-11am and like to have a big ass salad at 6pm….
Yay! I'm so glad you said that! I landed on this post today because I am usually an intermittent faster, having my first meal at 1 or later, but this morning I was hungry. So I ate a healthy breakfast, protein, fat and veggies and was ravenous 2 hours later! I always check with Mark to figure things out. 🙂 Going back to skipping breakfast!
Interesting post Mark. I have always been a grazer, in the sense I always ate when I was hungry and this happened to be every 2-3 hours. Maybe I'll try eating larger more infrequent meals and see how I do.
Jaybird – I think you may have missed the point (though I really can't speak for you OR Mark). It seems from the article, you would keep doing what you've been doing, since the main focus of the article is to listen to your body, eat when you're hungry, and eat plenty of protein. It does not seem to me that Mark is ADVOCATING large meals, as much as he is just saying that they are not the true evil.
I agree with you, I think that is the point he's trying to get across. I am a big believer in switching things up though. Maybe I have always eaten that way because I have trained my body to be hungry at those times. Every sports nutrition class I took certainly drilled 2-3 hours in my head. I guess all I'm saying is I think i'll try it out and see if it is better or worse than my current plan. If it works, it works.
There is something to be said for training your body. For most of my life I have eaten every 2-3 hours and would get headaches if I didn't eat but since going primal and lower carb I have trained myself to not eat breakfast because I like having two BIG meals in a day instead of three medium sized ones and I no longer get hungry in the morning.
Apparently it only takes about a week if skipping breakfast to get used to it.
There is an article on the leangains site about breakfast. It's great.
I must say, one of the most beneficial aspects of living primal for me has been the freedom from being hungry all the time. I used to eat every 3 or 4 hours, and if I didn't I'd get very irritable and unpleasant to be around. The ability to be flexible with my meal times has definitely improved my quality of life in general.
I completely agree. It is so nice to not be constrained by finding/cooking food all the time. I do that enough with three kids! 🙂
Gah- I know! Especially during the summer… I feel like my entire day revolves around fixing my two girls food or cleaning up.
God, I love the freedom of not being hungry all the time. I did not realize that my hunger was such a burden.
What you described used to be me.
I was one of those always hungry six-meal-a-day adherents, and had to pack snacks if I knew I was going to be out and about during a feeding time. It's much, much nicer to only need three meals a day (not to mention tastier; bacon > unsweetened oatmeal bar). I have found that I do need to eat breakfast, though, and unless I've had an unusually large meal, IF isn't really for me.
I will admit to being way too amused by the fact you used the word "broscience" and by that "flayed" bit.
i have ibs type stuff and large meals mess me up(still) but i hate snacking all day. i haven't eaten since yesterday evening and it's 2 pm texas time. just not hungry. i still dont know how to handle my meals times well but i DO know that the more i center my diet around fat, the better i do overall. less hunger, less ibs symptoms. fat rules.
+1 for the fat….it fixed my hypoglycemia !
Mine too! And +1 for not being hungry all the time! Hypoglycemia was ruling my life! I love not wasting all that time preparing food and making sure I have snacks with me where ever I go.
good for you, really envy you. I am constantly hungry. I also have IBS, but for me the more fat I eat the more unbearable the pain and symptoms are. all you on this board who can eat as much fat as you want, you have no idea how lucky you are.
"sub-cum" did you really mean to say that?
Why do people put eggs in the dairy category? EGGS ARE NOT DAIRY PEOPLE!
It's that crash in the afternoon that was doing me in. Whenever I ate carbs (pasta, rice, etc.) I would get very sleepy within just an hour of eating. Sometimes I would have to pull over when driving because I could feel myself nodding off.
Ever since going primal I have had no problems with that. In fact, I'm more alert than ever before. No matter what time of day I eat.
Hey Mark,
Great post!
Any thoughts on timing if you're trying to put on muscle? I found that I'm natually less hungry,but need to hit a goal of 3500 calories to sustain muscle growth. Should I eat even if I don't physically need too? And should it be in large meals or spread out via snacks?
I've been following the warrior diet lately and I love it, I feel more focused during the day and not having to worry about food frees the mind up during the day.
Perfect Timing, I've been thinking and researching this subject all week. Just breakingmyfast now 11:45PST, up at 6am walked to the train, took the 5story stairs to the cubicle, but only just feeling hungry, so I ate and enjoyed it (3eggs with ham)
Dinner tonight when I get hungry and same thing tomorrow, has been a trend this week, tons of energy and blasting through my workouts.
Not losing a damn pound though after being strict primal for 10days now. Giving myself 3wks before possibly adjusting.
I was just talking with a friend of mine who is a Gluten-Free Life Coach. She told me that she lost weight and started to feel amazing when she got happy! In other words, she worked on her stress responses and cortisol situation before struggling with the other aspects of a restricted diet. In fact, she said that it was easy, even though she has many food allergies. Because of her allergies, she's basically primal and feeling great. This is her website: http://janelleholden.com/
Big Ass Salad–just sounds wrong.
but tastes so delicious! 😉
I just blogged about this topic this morning 🙂 I'm starting to wean myself off the traditional meal schedule I've been on. I've realized I'm eating snacks three times a day, just because that's what I've always done, even when I'm not hungry. I'm going to start listening to my body, and only eat when I'm truly hungry!
Cortisol is the biggest 'trip' factor for me with slipping into 'grazing'. Stress obviously generates it but I find that disrupted sleep is also a big culprit – lots of people underestimate or don't appreciate the connection between poor sleep habits (episodes) and eating patterns. Lots research out there now about how inter-connected the hormones are between sleep and appetite.
Check out Emily Deans evolutionarypsychiatry blogspot for various articles.
Keep it simple. Eat when you are hungry.
I think that is a little TOO simple. It might work for some people, but definitely not for all. If some people ate every time they felt hungry, they'd be eating all day long and taking in way too many calories.
True. But, the statement is true for fat adapted primals.
Yes when you are on the carbohydrate roller coaster you could eat all day, but when you are using fat as your primary source of fuel your metabolism is just so stable! You really can just eat when you are hungry. 🙂 Loving the Primal life!
Great post! I've noticed since going Primal that I am not tied down to eating at specific times or specific meals. I just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. I've also noticed that I don't have to eat every 3 hours to keep my energy up (I can go for hours not eating and I'm fine). I feel like I have mastered my metabolism, rather than be ruled by always having to "graze" on things such as those low calorie snack packs.
You are probably snacking on your fat stores in between meals:)
Food seems to taste better when I eat fewer times a day (2-3). I feel more sensitized to subtle flavors of meat, veggies, fruits and spices. A candy bar or a slice of pizza tastes over-powering and repulsive.
sorry typing fast while 4 yr old bugging me for the computer! LOL
my = me
slipping = skipping
you = you are
i'm under the impression that the body won't bring significant fat out of storage if there's much glucose OR insulin in the bloodstream…. if one is snacking constantly, the two of them are NEVER low at the same time, no?
This is true, and even eating large quantities of protein without eating carbs can keep enough glucose circulating (via gluconeogenesis) to prevent fatty acid metabolism.
You can read this guy's scientific workup of why the morning is a fat-burning wonderland until you eat something that increases glucose and/or insulin.
(It's in the free report.)
I follow leangains. 16 hour fast followed by an 8 hour feeding window. I've been doing this for more than a year now and never get hungry outside of 12pm-8pm. I usually eat 2 big meals, one to break the fast and one just before starting. The only times I ever go outside of this is during very stressful periods or when social time/family time calls for it which I can usually nudge more in my favour.
Since dumping grains and sugar from my diet, I've found it difficult to GET hungry. I found that skipping meals just made my body go into starvation mode, even though I wasn't hungry, and the scale would not budge for weeks at a time. So I've started increasing my carbs up into the PB "sweet spot" rather than in the ketogenic area, and I keep my fat intake highest – and my weight loss is once again on the move.
Personally I IF till Noon, workout on just BCAA's and eat 3 meals a day. Since I have switched to these practices I have gotten leaner and had more productive workouts.
I'm still a primal beginner, but I feel hungry a lot. I didn't think I liked meat, but I ate a giant porkchop last night and liked it. (I call my Big-Ass Salad a Kick-Ass Salad, LOL). I kind of wander around the kitchen wondering what to eat. I'm just not that into meat and probably eat too much canned fish.
I think I had that feeling too when I started. It's like you have to get used to being "not hungry", but "not full" at the same time. I was used to the full, bloated feeling that you get when eating pastas and breads, but it's just a different feeling to be full on meat and veggies, at least for me. Now on primal, after eating, I'm not hungry, but I don't feel "full" either, sorry, kind of hard to explain…
I get it. Eating all that crappola makes me feel always full… bloated and icky… but never really satisfied (so I keep grazing). I'm guessing that eating Primal is giving you a good "full" (though not what your used to) and is, hopefully, leaving you satisfied. I am always amazed at how my children will eat a big dinner, then go jump on the trampoline…I'm guessing there is some survival value in that!
do take care that your canned fish contains no soy products….
And I would worry about canned fish being farmed fish. A lot of Omega-6's, not to mention grain-fed, what we avoid. Like eating conventional beef vs. primal grass-fed, organic beef. Much better and primal.
I have been a certified fitness trainer for over 25 years and so many of my clients have struggled with the "eating breakfast rule". I never eat breakfast and start my day with an intense exercise program and encourage my clients to eat only when they are hungry. Many of my clients complain that when they do eat breakfast they are hungry all day and overeat. Without breakfast they are more successful at achieving and maintaining their goal weight.
All this time I never believed my boyfriend… I thought he was confused or fooling himself. Guess he is right.
Great post, as always. Interesting that there was no mention of the leptin reset idea, given that it's a pretty big topic on the forum at present. I was doing really well on PB, with decreased appetite and managing my IBS easily – until I starting eating when I wasn't hungry (large amounts of protein first thing in the morning). Now I'm all messed up again and it's taking ages to recover. I was tempted by the magic bullet. Sigh.
same for me, IBS, it never turns out well for me if i eat when i'm not hungry
Hey Mark. Im huge fan of intermittent fasting. I saw your interview with dr. Mercola on youtube. You talked about adaption period, getting 'fat adapted'.
This was a greatpoint. Few years ago i tried warrior diet and failed.. i think it was due to the fact that my body wasnt adapted to the new eating schedule/habbits. Lately ive skipped most "junk" carbs. Now the intermittent fasting (or warrior diet) feels good increasingly better for me. Thanks.
More then 2 years of skipping breakfast here and I love it. I keep losing inches but seem to maintian my weight. I have seen increase in my strength and stamina. I think I will be IFing for the rest of my life but then is it really intermittant.
I am so glad to read this article. I have given up trying to eat breakfast when I get up, I am not hungry. However, so many people are so shocked when I say I did not eat and am working out without any food. I do have good workouts and then usually I am hungry and have something.
Great post. I am almost never hungry for breakfast and then will grab something small around 10am. I went through a phase for years that I would force myself to eat breakfast. This usually ended up making me feel sick, but I stuck with it because eating breakfast was the "healthy" thing to do. I feel so much better (and eat so much less) now that I only eat when I'm hungry.
One of the best books on this is Mastering leptin by Byron Richards.
I eat when I'm hungry and it seems to be working out just fine for me.
I usually wake up around five and eat around nine because that's when I start getting hungry. Not always though, sometimes I'll be ravenous when I wake up and cook a massive breakfast and then not eat again all day.
I'm not sure how that works for others, but even when I was 75# heavier and eating regular (usually high-carb) meals I wasn't really hungry half the time I ate, I just ate because it was time to.
I just had this conversation with a classmate last week. I told her that I regularly skipped breakfast because I just wasn't hungry. She flat out called me stupid. Quite frankly, I find ignoring what my body is telling me stupid, but whatever rubs your Buddha…
Phew, nice to know I can discontionue my steady IV-Drip of Muscle Milk…that was getting expensive! 🙂
I decided to skip breakfast for a few days, and ended up feeling tired and unable to concentrate, so skipping breakfast isn't for everyone – just like most things. I drink a protein shake, mixed with almond and coconut milk, and a tablespoon of virgin coconut oil, and I'm set for 5 hours.
I eat once once per day. I only drink water but feast at night on paleo foods. I started this style of eating last August (almost a year ago). Since that time by weight has dropped from 320 to 218. I was hungry during the day for the first few weeks but now I rarely get hungry till dinner time. My body has adapted just fine.
I always have more energy when I do not eat breakfast.
I am just not a morning person so therefore I am not hungry in the morning.
Why force myself to eat when I feel better if I don't??
Great post!
I eat when I'm hungry and my body usually suffices with 3 decent meals. I rarely find the need to snack.
Last week I went for some blood tests and had to fast. My appt was for 11 am and I didn't get blood drawn until after noon. I had been fasting for almost 19 hours and I still felt great.
Fantastic article! I could not agree more with you in regards to both snacking and fasting!
Hi, I finally made it here–interesting site! I've had a health hobby for 30 years, and had to go with listening to my body and common sense. I loved your comment about cutting a steak up in 5 pieces and eating them an hour apart. One thing that would happen that nobody thinks about is that what's already in your stomach rots, while it's waiting for the new piece to digest (since it takes meat and some other foods much longer to process). It's good for auto-toxemia.
Nothing rots in your stomach. It doesn't take meat long to digest in the high-acid content of the stomach. The only thing that "rots" (reacts to bacterial action, that is) is undigestable grains and seeds that ferment in the colon, causing gas. The stomach doesn't "wait" for anything to digest and let other stomach contents sit.
I do tend to force breakfast, only because if I dont I get really hungry around 10am, and there are not many EASY options at work (and cant really take time that isnt 'lunch' to prepare something healthy). A moderate breakfast high in fat and proteins soothes me over through lunch, and I usually end up taking a late lunch at that and feel fine. Former grazer converted in less then 2 weeks!
I find it ridiculous people are still puzzled by this.
Eat what you want when you want Fast, 6-7 times a day doesn't matter … have a look in the mirror if you are overweight eat less .. if you are lean spot on … you have a whole life time to experiment and get it right!


text:
Published: July 31, 2010 at 10:14 AMWell looks like Dan has an early lead!
Published: July 31, 2010 at 12:11 PMHave stuck with you all along Dan, we sort of think a like and I guess that's why I like your ideas, nice work.
Published: July 31, 2010 at 8:01 PMThanks for the votes Bob!
Published: August 1, 2010 at 5:16 AMJames, I'm the same person who said I need a decent stitch ride last week, and I'm here to support you this week. START THE COMEBACK!!!!!!
Published: August 1, 2010 at 9:07 AMWow, this poll did a complete flip flop since yesterday... CRAZY!
Published: August 1, 2010 at 1:44 PMPixar Landing dominates. Go Dan.
Published: August 1, 2010 at 5:16 PMHow did I go from winning by 30 to losing by 40?
Published: August 1, 2010 at 5:45 PMI loved both ideas alot, but I went with Water Kingdom because I love the attractions and water attractions.
As for the Pixar park, I liked that too, but I thought that it really did not fit the water theme for most of the lands. However, I would love to see it as an actual park and would have worked very well on the last TPA.
Good job on both submissions!
Published: August 2, 2010 at 4:31 PMJames, I do actually. "Ohana, the Ride", the worlds first dueling water coaster. Nani and Lilo would be the track names with Nani moving slighty faster and rougher.(Stitch is not a track name, for he can't swim)


text:
Angle Corner - Blue
Product Code: CF321-552Price: Check LatestSoft attaching module mats for preschool equipment with wipe clean heavy duty 14 oz. vinyl laminated covers. Special shock absorbing 1-1/2" firm resilient foam cushions falls. Geometric pieces attach together with Hook n loop fasteners in 3 ft. soft segments. Beveled safety edge built into all outside surfaces for gradual walk-on prevents tiny trips and tumbles. Use our pre-engineered sizes or contact us for special designs. Our modular soft panels are for INDOOR USE ONLY. CF321-552 CF321-604