Eat More to Weigh Less

Many people are surprised to see that I instruct them to eat 5 to 6 meals a day when I give them a diet plan.  The first question is usually, "why do I have to eat so much"?  Understanding a little bit about metabolism and survival mechanisms will give you some clarity on this. 

Eating 5 or 6 small meals a day keeps your metabolism higher because you burn calories as you digest the food you just ate. Here's what happens in a nutshell.  Your body will only utilize a certain amount of nutrients at a time. Any excess will be stored as bodyfat if it isn't needed right then or burned shortly after.  I'll use the three square meals example.  Assuming you ate breakfast at 8am, your body takes in protein and carbs needed to replenish glycogen stores from the night time fast. Any excess will be stored as bodyfat.  Three hours later, a starvation mechanism kicks in.  Your body needs nutrients to repair and rebuild itself, so if nutrition isn't available in the form of food, it will pull protein from your muscle tissue and keep fat in storage.  This will continue until you eat again, four or five hours later, with more hunger.   Again you consume a large meal and the same process repeates itself.  Dieting to lose weight or not, your goal should be to keep as much muscle as possible.  Muscle is a calorie burning tissue and the more muscle you carry, the faster your metabolism and more fat loss is possible.  By eating smaller, frequent meals every three hours, you provide your body with nutrients when their needed, keeping your muscle intact and burning fat, instead of storing body fat.  So if your goal is 1500 cals a day, 5 meals consisting of 300 calories is what to shoot for.

Assuming your eating a balanced diet by stacking and cycling your carbs, (eating them early in the day or after workouts) eating small and frequent meals will help keep blood sugar under control.  If you eat more than your body needs in excess calories, your blood sugar rises faster.  The more calories eaten, the higher your glucose and insulin levels.  When you dont eat for four or more hours, glucose levels plumet, leading to hunger.  You now have a yo-yo effect of sorts of blood sugar and insulin.  Not where any of us want to be!  So small, frequent meals actually help stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels.  Another benefit of lower insulin levels is lower inflamation!  Chronic inflamation is known to cause arthritic disease, heart disease, type II diabetes and more.

With a little planning and preparing, food can be brought with you to work, the gym or where ever you go so you are always prepared to have your meals when you need them.  It only took me a few weeks to get used to the prep and cooking to form my new style of eating.  I honestly don't diet anymore, this is now the way I eat.  Weight loss or maintenance and better health is well worth a little prep and cook time, at least to me. Give it a shot.