One of the most popular eating habits trends is eating 5-6 meals a day to lose weight. In fact, weight loss programs like Jenny Craig encourage participants to eat five small to moderate meals and one snack a day. Many nutrition experts support this approach within your daily caloric goal. It can stave off hunger, stabilize blood sugar and maintain a healthy, active metabolism.
Interestingly enough, meal spacing is nothing new. European settlers brought the three-meals-a-day habit to the new world. With the Industrial Revolution and a 9-5 workday, this habit further evolved into a before-work, during-work, and after-work meal more commonly known as breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, these New World Settlers were not the only ones considering food consumption to sustain the human body. Native Americans followed the approach of eating when one’s stomach says it’s hungry rather than when the clock reads morning, noon, and evening.
Despite the standing tradition of variable meal spacing solutions, science reveals why and how feeding the body five to six times a day may or may NOT be the weight-loss solution you’ve been seeking. As previously mentioned, when applied within one’s target daily caloric range, consuming 5-6 small to moderate meals and/or snacks per day has been shown to help with weight loss. However, other benefits have been noted as well, like:
Blood Sugar Stabilization
Typically, after about three hours without food, your blood sugar will begin to drop. After four hours, digestion of already consumed food has occurred. And after about five hours, you may begin to grab whatever food is close by because your blood sugar has noticeably dropped. Therefore, eating 5-6 smaller meals and/or snacks daily can help lower blood sugar levels in comparison to three large meals a day.
Breakfast is a Must
Creating this particular habit encourages even those who don’t typically eat breakfast to squeeze in even a small meal in the morning. Breakfast eaters not only typically weigh less than those who skip it, but they also generate energy quicker due to the 8-12 hour fasting period the body sustains during sleep. When breakfast includes a healthy protein, you may find that resisting cravings throughout the day is a bit easier.
More Energy for the Mind and Body
Eating a meal and/or snack every three hours or so will maintain a consistent intake of nutrients for the body and its systems. This provides the brain and body with proper energy to maintain all functions whether physical, mental, or those other functions in between, throughout the entire day.
Things to keep in mind when changing your eating habits:
Know your daily caloric intake goal.
Some people have tried eating similar-sized meals six times a day. Just as they would if they were eating three times a day. This typically equates to twice the amount of calories necessary for optimal fat loss. Keep in mind that calories in equal calories out. So when trying to lose weight in a healthy manner, you’ll likely have a daily caloric deficit via diet and/or physical activity.
Other meal spacing plans work for weight loss too.
Try experimenting a bit with meal spacing to find what works best for you. Consider various factors such as schedule, physical activity, nutrient needs, health conditions, and so on. In fact, Intermittent fasting is another hot topic in nutrition nowadays. No matter the trend, it’s important to talk with your physician to determine what will work best to reach your weight loss goals.
Frequent meals have not been linked to increased metabolism.
The idea is when the body is digesting food, metabolism is raised. However, what determines the energy expended while the body is digesting is actually the total amount of food or calories consumed. For example, eating three large, 600-calorie meals a day actually causes the same thermic effect as six smaller, 300-calorie meals.
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