Eating 6-8 times a day.

[BobTheBuilder]

I don't think I can do the 6-8 meals a day thing. I have pretty nasty acid-stomach-reflux and my doctor recommeneds that eating only 3 times a day is a good preventative. I'm also cutting down on salt and chili big time.

What should I do?

Thanks

[lovestolift]

How is your diet otherwise? I get indigestion if I eat a lot of carbs. Cutting them down helps. That being said, it really doesn't matter much if you eat 3 times or 8 times, as long as you can fit it all in.

[itsbruce]

That's bizarre; eating smaller, more frequent meals is one of the recommended methods of mitigating reflux. Do you know what caused the reflux? And why does your doctor think eating larger meals will help?

I know this board is full of people who think they know better than doctors about diet, physiology, saturated fat etc. But your doctor's advice sounds bizarre to me.

[Mehdi]

More greens can help with the acid thing (read on alkaline-acid balance). Increase amount of greens like spinach and lemon/lime juice.

I know this board is full of people who think they know better than doctors about diet, physiology, saturated fat etc. But your doctor's advice sounds bizarre to me.

You start to understand why?

[Bman1]

Re: acid reflux - If your reflux is that bad, you should definitely be getting a full checkout by a good gastro doctor to find out why and how damaged your esophagus is. This will probably involve an endoscopy and may involve a barium swallow. I suffered for years before getting it checked out - even got reflux from drinking water. Turns out I have a hiatal hernia and only long-term solution was daily Proton-pump inhibitors (e.g., Prilosec). Definitely get the full check-up if you haven't already because regular reflux can do some pretty significant damage to your esophagus (mine was very scarred and would sometimes stop working mid-swallow - not a pleasant feeling at all) and is believed to be one cause of esophageal cancer (very fast spreading with very low cure rate).

[BobTheBuilder]

Thanks for the replies,

I've had the stomach acid reflux thing for awhile now and it comes and goes from time to time. I'm 22. I suspect a dodgy meal out I had not so long ago triggered it. As it happens, my brother has had similar problems and even took 10 anti-acids per day during one period and was given some strong medication that resulted in those man-boob things!! He's 24. My Grandmother actually survived eosopthical cancer.

I think I'll take it seriously now so I don't get in trouble down the line.

Also, should I stop lifting until I get it sorted out?

[itsbruce]

Thanks for the replies,
Also, should I stop lifting until I get it sorted out?

If your digestion problems prevent you from getting enough food into you, you're only going to damage yourself if you keep up a strenuous strength regime. You probably do need to take it easy at least until you know more or things stabilise.