time-for-food-300x210 Have You Fallen Victim To This Common Diet Myth?

Are 6 small “mini” meals really better for your metabolism than 3 solid meals a day?

NO! Just the opposite is true. In the hopes of weight loss and keeping metabolism revved up some people believe eating 4-6 “mini” meals or grazing is the way to go. This approach is a major diet myth.

The REAL truth is by grazing around the clock your are preventing your body from burning fat.

Small frequent meals WON”T help you lose weight. Eating frequently throughout the day does NOT balance your metabolism. After a week or two of grazing, the body adapts to meal overload by pumping out the fat storing hormone insulin and simultaneously lowering fat
crushing hormones like glucagon, testosterone and human growth hormone.

Basically what this means is that the insulin in your body is storing sugar — and not letting other enzymes in your body release sugar to break down fat.  If you eat too many meals,
aging increases, fat storage skyrockets and you slowly become insulin
resistant…. This is a metabolic nightmare!

Eating constantly does NOT help your metabolism and interfere’s with burning fat.

If you’re hungry in between meals then there is something wrong with your food choices. Most likely you are way to reliant on carbohydrates and not eating enough healthy fat and protein. Every mini meal you eat you are spiking insulin and glucose creating insulin resistance that leads to more hunger and keeps this vicious cycle going.

Another pitfall of mini-meals is that you can often lose track of what you are eating. You become consumed with eating and prepping food for the next mini meal. Food becomes a “process” and not enjoyable. Micro managing meals can leave you frustrated.

For people suffering from food addiction or trying to seriously lose weight mini meals are a disaster. If you focus on three meals a day then you only have to work at “stopping” eating 3 times.  If you are grazing on multiple mini meals then you have to face trying to stop many more times.  Once you STOP this process you are forced to LIVE the other parts of the day!  When living you are put back in the stream of life and are not as consumed with eating.

BOTTOM LINE: The BEST way to eat for weight loss or weight maintenance is three solid meals a day with a 4-5 window in between meals. This allows the body to burn fat easier and more efficiently because insulin levels in the body are low.

The 4-5 window between well balanced meals forces the body to
rid itself of food-induced insulin response, and then produce fat burning,
muscle building hormones between meals.

Another great health tip is to finish your last meal of the day 3-4 hours before bed so you get a good fast overnight.

This approach may take some time to get used to but overall you will be happy with the long-term health benefits!

Remember nutrition is highly individualized so listen to your own body! We all have different nutritional needs! Keep in mind that caloric needs may need to be much higher for some facing  medical conditions, the elderly, children, elite athletes, and pregnant/nursing mothers so this must be taken into consideration.

Be Well 🙂

Susie R.