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Health & Fitness

Eat More To Lose Weight

Many people have a hard time understanding why eating more frequently can actually help you stay leaner and healthier.

Many people have a hard time understanding why eating more frequently can actually help you stay leaner and healthier. Research has shown a correlation between meal frequency and the amount of body fat we have. One study revealed that individuals who ate four to six smaller meals per day had less body fat than those eating two to three larger meals per day. Both groups consumed about the same amount of calories. 

Bodybuilders have known this for years. As a bodybuilder diets down for a show, he or she will consume six to seven smaller meals per day. We’ve all seen how lean a bodybuilder gets when they are getting ready for a competition. Every muscle is striated and their abdominals are a rock-hard six-pack. Consuming large meals increases fat storage. It is theorized that when you eat large and infrequent meals the circulating levels of blood fats and sugars rise dramatically. The increase in blood fat after consuming a large meal encourages fat cells to take fat from the blood and this, of course, makes your existing fat cells get bigger. 

Likewise, the large increase in blood sugar elevates the powerful hormone insulin, promoting even more fat storage and preventing any fat burning. If you think about, it makes perfect sense. When you eat less frequently, your body adapts to the fact that it does not know exactly when you will consume food again. As a survival mechanism it begins to store fat in an effort to help you survive longer without food. Your body is simply adapting to its environment. If you eat smaller meals more frequently, your body will process and assimilate nutrients much more efficiently. It will have a tendency to use these nutrients, including fat, rather than to store them. On top of that you don’t get overly hungry from going so long between meals.

The biggest obstacle in meal frequency is, of course, taking the time to prepare and eat the meals.

In today’s fast-paced society, eating is often over looked. Numerous Nutrition companies have designed products specifically to make it convenient to provide the body the necessary nutrients it needs for optimal assimilation. High-Protein meal replacement products are readily available and easy to work into your program. Some meal replacements contain more nutrients than you could get from most normal meals. So there are no excuses, there are ways to easily increase the frequency of your meals and enable your body to operate much more efficiently; meaning your metabolism increases and the amount of calories your body is able to burn will increase.

When your metabolism increases and you begin to burn more calories, weight loss is obviously much easier. Remember, this all boils down to using more calories than you take in on a daily basis.

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