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Originally Posted by Mark Dexter
No. It's pretty much 100% true.
In other words, you're burning fewer calories, which leads back to what I said.
While I think there's probably some merit to this, there's still no medical consensus on this subject.
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Health and Fitness Tips: Lose Weight By Eating More Often!
Seem counterintuitive?
Probably, since most of us have been conditioned to associate weightloss with starving, or at least with eating as little as possible.
Surprise! The perfect diet for weight loss and maintenance is based on 5 or 6 sensible meals.
Women in particular have been socialized to believe that eating less is the only way to achieve weight loss. Do you struggle to “be good” by starving throughout the day only to lose control and binge at night? This overwhelming hunger is actually an inevitable reaction that has nothing to do with a lack of willpower. In fact, depriving yourself of food all day in the hopes of controlling your weight will always be a losing battle.
When you skip meals, your body reacts like it did way back when we were living like the Flintstones.
Your body gets this signal when you don’t feed it often enough: “Uh Oh! That lazy-*** Caveman Clod didn’t hunt down any grub today – we’re gonna starve!”
Your body is infinitely intelligent - it reacts to what it senses is an imminent famine by slowing down your metabolism so that it can hang on to its existing fat stores and essentially go into hibernation, so that it burns as few calories as possible.
Today, we have no problem getting quick calories. One drive-thru burger, fries and shake at Carl’s Junior is all it takes to meet our entire daily caloric requirements. However, our bodies retain this ancient, protective reaction and it can really hamper weight loss if we try to circumvent our own wiring.
Eating More Frequently Protects Lean Muscle Mass
Another reason it is imperative to eat frequently is that when we do not eat often enough the body runs out of fuel to burn and then turns to muscle as a fuel source. If this catabolic state sounds a little like cannibalism it’s because that’s essentially what it is!
We know that the more lean muscle we have, the higher our metabolism and the more calories we burn. Don’t skip meals! Don’t sacrifice your muscle!
Several Small Meals Help You Reach Weight Loss Goals
Eating 5-6 sensible, smaller meals a day accords with our genetic programming and is crucial to maintaining energy levels and boosting metabolism.
But don’t go getting your Nabisco “snack packs” all lined up in a row quite yet. I am talking about several PROPER (in both content and portion) meals and snacks - combinations of protein, healthy fats (olive oil, peanut butter, avocado) and complex carbohydrates.
For example, a perfect snack is a small apple, a slice of whole grain bread with a tablespoon or two of all-natural peanut butter.
Eat Up!