Getting my certification in fitness, we did go thru some training regarding nutrition, and it seems that lately I’ve been talking a lot with clients about it. While I am not a nutritionist nor is this meant to replace medical advice, for health and weight loss, the experts say eating 5-6 small meals per day is more beneficial than eating 1-2 large meals per day. If you are experiencing problems, you should always seek the advise of your medical doctor or nutritionist. In the meantime, here are five reasons why this is a more beneficial and healthy way to eat.
1.) Think of your body as a furnace.
You want to constantly add wood to the furnace, or food to your body, to keep it running (metabolism) constantly. To achieve this, eat 5-6 smaller meals per day. When you eat, or don't eat enough for breakfast and decide to make up for this later, your body tries to hold onto every calorie it can. You are literally forcing your body into starvation mode.
5-6 smaller meals with fewer calories can also trick your body by allowing you to eat more, but in smaller portions. You may even be eating less calories in this way and lose weight.
2.) Get a fresh supply of vitamins and nutrients.
You get a "fresh" influx of vitamins and other nutrients 5 times a day--when you eat only twice, the body digests what it needs and "throws off", or throws away the extra in urine and stool. Humans are "grazers", which means we should eat several times a day. You're utilizing more nutrients when you eat this way, and throwing away less. Plus, you don't experience the overly full feeling by eating two big meals. Don't forget your fluids. On average you should drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water each day… If you’re trying to lose weight, add 8 more fluid ounces for each additional 25 pounds you have to lose.
3.) How big is your stomach?
If you eat large amounts at one sitting then you will stretch your stomach. When your stomach is digesting food, the food expands even more. In addition, eating small amounts helps your stomach digest food more quickly and efficiently, it basically it makes digestions easier
4.) Keep your metabolism regulated.
Eating more frequent, smaller meals keeps your metabolism at a steady level. It also helps prevent you from overeating for those fewer meals. When you only eat once a day your body thinks it’s in starvation mode and stores more of it as fat.
5.) Energize you body.
Your body needs energy. Energy comes from food. By eating several small meals, you are getting energy, then using it, getting energy, and using it, etc. If you only eat 1-2 large meals, your body gets the energy, but doesn’t need to use all of it right after the meal, so it stores it as fat in the body for later use. With the smaller meals, the energy is used, so the body doesn’t need to store any as fat, which is why "experts" say smaller meals constantly are better.
If your schedule is like mine and finding time to eat 6 time a day is difficult, carry around things like nuts, fresh or dried fruit, low-fat string cheese, or half of a peanut butter sandwich on something whole wheat to snack on, so you won’t blow it and over eat at you next meal.
Do you ever feel the need to just chew on something… what I suggest is “sugar-free gum.” It satisfies that urge to chew and even delivers a nice bonus: according to Mayo Clinic research, chewing gum for an hour actually burns 11 calories.
And I know it can be overwhelming to switch from 2-3 large meals per day to 5-6 smaller meals per day, so go slowly. In order to get to 5-6 meals per day, you may need to gradually increase the number of meals you eat each day. Start off by eating 4 meals per day. After the first week, try to increase to 5 meals per day. Give yourself a week or two to adjust and then increase to 6 meals per day.
Here’s another thing that has helped some people eat more frequent meals. Split your meals up. One of the easiest ways to add smaller meals is to just split up your existing meals. For example, instead of eating a whole sandwich for lunch, cut the sandwich in half. Have half an hour earlier than you would normally eat lunch and have the other half 2-3 hours later.
Eating more snacks can help if you watch the portion on the snack. Try to reduce the size of each meal and add some snacks throughout the day. For example, continue to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, just smaller meals, and add in snacks between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner.
Remember it’s really about calories in and calories out. There isn’t any magic pill, potion or formula… it’s really that simple. It just takes work, planning and discipline!
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