We’ve been brought up to believe that three square meals is the most health conscious way to eat. Recent research though might indicate that we get better weight loss when we eat more often. How much confidence can we have that this will work?
We would think more regular eating would mean weight gain, not loss. When we get that feeling of hunger between meals, we feel as though the pounds are falling off! Essentially though there’s more to it than that.
We often get really hungry if we have long gaps between each meal. So when eventually we do pick up the knife and fork, our craving is significant. This in turn can lead to us eating more than we would otherwise have done. An especially vulnerable meal for this is the evening meal. So a few hours before we go to bed, we’ve filled our body full of food.
If on the other hand we were to eat five smaller meals each day, we’d be less likely to feel so hungry. Our body appreciates the regular food input. This makes it much more efficient at processing food through our system.
If it’s not fed on a frequent basis, it has to retain fat in case it needs an energy reserve later on. Hence we can struggle to lose weight despite the fact that we’re starving ourselves.
By eating several meals before the end of the afternoon, our calorific intake is geared towards the earlier part of the day. It’s then possible to process that food when we’re burning more of it up, which leaves less in our stomach later on. If we get too hungry before a meal it’s harder to restrict what we eat as well as how much.
It makes it more challenging to eat salads and vegetables. What we really desire are pies, pizzas and pasta. They provide an instant gratification, but are counter-productive as far as losing weight is concerned! To sum up, we are much more likely to feel satisfied AND lose weight if we eat small regular meals and avoid starvation tactics.
(C) Scott Edwards. Go to WeightLossDietWar.com for in-depth ideas on weight loss programs and loose weight fast.
