5-6 Meals A Day Is The Way To Weight Loss!

Posted By Paul on Mar 24, 2006 | 2 comments

Although it may seem unlikely, eating many small meals throughout the day — separated by 2-3 hours — is one of the most effective methods of losing weight.

Why?

Several reasons…

First, eating often helps keep the metabolism elevated. One of the worst mistakes dieters make is to stop eating altogether, or to dramatically reduce the size and number of meals they eat. While severe caloric restriction works for weight loss initially, it does not last for long, because the body to responds to a reduced calorie intake by reducing the metabolic rate. In other words, the fewer calories you take in, the slower your metabolism. Eating often helps reduce this trend, even if the meals you consume are relatively small.

Secondly, eating often helps balance blood sugar and therefore, energy levels. By avoiding huge spikes in insulin, one can avoid putting the body into “fat storage mode” — something that happens in the face of elevated insulin levels. Best of all, it helps to curtail those unbelievable craving for sweets that occur in the face of huge vacillations in blood insulin levels.

Is it easy to eat 5-6 small meals a day? No, it does require some preparation — you will need to plan and prepare your meals ahead of time, or use a meal replacement supplement (I’ve written quite a bit about meal replacements on UltimateFatBurner.com — click here to learn more about them).

How many calories should each meal be? Depends on your weight, of course. The best thing to do is to multiply your weight by 10 to 15 and divide by 5 or 6 (use the lower value if you’re fairly sedentary and your goal is weight loss — use the higher number if you’re working out and want to gain some muscle. You’ll need to tweak things a bit, of course, but this is a good place to start).

So if you weight 150lbs, multiply that number by 10 and you get 1500 calories. That translates into 5 small meals of 300 calories. Multiply by 15, and you’ve got 5 small meals of 450 calories, or 6 of 375.

Give it a try… you’ll find that despite the hassles, eating often will help you attain your weight loss goals much more quickly, and leave you energized throughout the day.