Four Corn Flakes for Breakfast and a deep-fried Buffalo for Lunch

[craigharper.com]

Most of us are 'three square meals a day' people.

Research tells us (I hate that expression, but it's true) that our bodies actually function optimally on more frequent, smaller meals, rather than less frequent, bigger meals. Our body isn't built to run on a sporadic mix of whopping meals, tiny meals and 'normal-size' meals...or one or two gigantic meals.

When we eat small, similar-sized meals, more often, we are:

* Less likely to gain fat
* More likely to keep our blood sugar levels in a healthier range
* More likely to keep our metabolism elevated (the rate at which our body uses energy)
* Less likely to overload our digestive system and feel sluggish
* Less likely to have blood-sugar-related cravings (and do stupid things)
* Less likely to have energy peaks and troughs
* More likely to stay mentally sharp
* More likely to have the body we want

To my knowledge, there is no scientific evidence which indicates that a mix of bigger and smaller meals is ideal for a human body, yet that's how most of us eat; four Corn Flakes for breakfast and a deep-fried buffalo for lunch.

Stupid.

A small farm animal for dinner, followed by a crappy sleep (because our digestive system is grumpy with us) and no breakfast the next day (because our body is still trying to deal with the cow from the previous evening).... Clever aren't we?

If you are typically not hungry at breakfast time, it's probably because you're eating too many calories, too close to bed time. We often eat our biggest meal, when we are moving into the least active phase of our day.
Instead, try eating a small, low-fat dinner (300-500 calories) about four hours (yes, four) before bed time.

You'll be hungry in the morning.

If (for example) you were going to eat 2,000 calories per day, you would be better served to divide your food into five meals of 400 calories, as opposed to consuming the exact same amount of food in two whopping meals of 1,000 calories.
It's not only what we eat (fat, carbs, protein, cals) which is the issue, but when we eat and how we structure our meals over the course of a typical day.

The woman who eats five small meals per day, while her identical-twin sister consumes the same amount of calories in two large meals, will (over time) be leaner, lighter and healthier (discounting the other variables).

Your dinner doesn't have to be as big as a Hyundai and served on a plate to qualify as a meal. A meal might be an apple and a yoghurt.... or a handful of chicken (not a whole chicken) and a salad. We need to change the way we think (about food), as much as we need to change the way we actually eat.

We eat big meals..... 'cause that's what we've always done.
We don't need it... we just do it.

We're educated, we're intelligent (allegedly) and we're fat.

America, Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand; more educated and informed than ever before (about nutrition, obesity, lifestyle, health issues)... all getting fatter by the year.

If you want a rough guide as to how much food is ideal at each meal, look at the size of your fist and that is about the volume of food you can aim for (if you exercise a lot, you may want to increase it by fifty to a hundred percent). Of course the fist thing is not a scientific standard but it can give you a starting point and seems about right for most people.

I know; right now you're wishing you had bigger hands.


*If you are an elite athlete or you have the metabolism of lion, you may want to igonore this article and pass it on to a chubby, two-meals-a-day friend...

[jkmuller]

I have to agree with you, last night I didn't eat for about four hours before I went to sleep and I was quite hungry when I woke up. I haven't really noticed a direct connection between eating soon before sleeping and feeling sluggish, however I will be on the lookout from now on. I also like the idea of eating smaller meals throughout the day. Very interesting!

[Conan Stevens]

Excellent post. True. Though I have nothing against eating meat at bed time, in fact a high protein/moderate fats meal last in the day is optimal final meal as it will digest slowly through out the night providing your body with nutrients, and leave you hungry in the morning.

6-8 meals a day for about 16 years now for me.

Also this is the way that people in Thailand eat, smaller lighter meals often.

Western girls always get hugely embarrased / angry over how much food a tiny petite Thai girl will eat in a day.

Difference is they don't eat pizzas, gallons of soft drink or McDonalds though