Eat Three Meals and Two Snacks? WHY?

Monday, February 20, 2012

Most of us grew up eating three meals a day with our largest meal in the evening. Have you ever noticed though that the leanest people you know seem to be eating all of the time. My mother and daughter are like this - they are grazers. They never eat huge meals, but they are always fueling themselves.

When I first started regaining my health and losing weight, I saw a nutritionist. I told her that I defied the laws of physics - that I simply did not eat enough to weigh as much as I did. I didn't understand how I could eat 1000-1200 calories a day and weigh 255 pounds. I understood what a calorie was, I understood nutrition components and knew that because I had been very ill and not exercising that I could not eat as much as when I had been active.

She explained this to me. It's simple and the reasoning behind why Spark asks you to eat 3 small meals and 2 snacks a day.

THIS IS IMPORTANT IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT.

1. If you do not eat enough regularly, your body perceives that there is a food shortage and slows down, hoarding as many calories as it can - in fat. It does not trust you to feed it, so it hangs on to every last calorie. You will not lose weight.

2. A calorie is not just a calorie. Your body is very smart and know what nutrition it requires to keep your body healthy. if you eat 1400 calories of sugar and fat a day, it will hold on to that looking for the protein and vitamins that it needs. You will not lose weight.

3. You body will process up to 400 calories of what you eat into fuel and use it over a period of a few hours. If you eat 2 700 calorie meals, you body will use 400 of those calories between the meals. It will store the other 300 calories of each meal (600 calories total) as fat because it cannot burn them. You will not lose weight.

4. If you eat 3 meals and two snacks spaced evenly through the day, you body will recognize that it is being fed regularly and well. It will burn off up to 400 calories at a time, so if you eat 1200 calories divided into 300 at each meal (900 calories) and 150 for each snack (300 calories), your body will use the fuel and won't store up the calories as fat. YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT.



I was skeptical but tried it and by adding 600 calories to my food intake and eating 3 meals and 2 snacks, I have lost over 50 pounds. When I forget, backslide and eat one or two meals a day, even consuming fewer calories, I do not lose weight. Of course, your activity level can speed up weight loss or slow it down, but this is a very short, abbreviated look at the reasoning behind eating 3/2/7/52. 3 meals, 2 snacks, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. And remember, your body also knows when it is getting nutrition and when the calories are empty - it's a very sophisticated machine.

