In theory, the food plan is a healthy one, but the point of the mechanical part is just to get us eating regularly even if it’s not a healthy diet. Our therapists also have encouraged us to eat more (healthy) fat and protein; almost everyone in my group didn’t eat enough.
In mechanical eating you MUST eat your meals/snacks at prescribed times, about 3 hours apart regardless of whatever else has gone on. It doesn’t matter that you just ate 12 donuts. If it’s time for snack, it’s time for snack.
The idea behind the mechanical eating is that we don’t know when we are hungry and we don’t know when we are full. Supposedly, normal, healthy adults eat every 3 hours. My children also do best on this schedule, and our daycare follows it. Anyway, the mechanical eating is supposed to reset your hunger/saity signals.
Finally, since mechanical eating keeps you from getting hungry, you are much less likely to binge which means you are much less likely to purge.
Anyone else trying to do mechanical eating? Have you been successful? Can you do it at all?
