Benefits of Eating Small Frequent Meals
Skipping meals, especially breakfast, may seem like the most logical way to lose weight, but it could do more harm than good. Think of your metabolism as a fat-burning machine; if you don’t give it the fuel it needs, it’ll stop properly working. When you wake up in the morning your body already has been fasting for about 6-8 hours so making sure you eat breakfast in the morning will help jump-start your metabolism. Then, eating several small meals during the day keeps it running.
Eating small, healthy meals frequently throughout the day is not only important for controlling appetite and cravings; it is also essential for maintaining healthy blood glucose, insulin and cholesterol levels.
If you don’t eat regularly, your metabolism slows down and your body absorbs and stores more of the food you eat, including cholesterol and fat. But our bodies are incredibly at adapting. If you eat more frequently, your metabolism speeds up because your body “learns” that more food will be on the way, thus burning off calories instead of storing them.
Think of skipping meals like hibernation for bears. Hibernation allows bears to conserve energy during the winter when food is short. During hibernation, bears drastically lower their metabolism in order to conserve energy stored as body fat because it doesn’t know when the next meal will come.
If you are someone that comes home from work and finds themselves starving and eating everything insight, there is a good chance you did not eat enough during the day. When you skip meals in the morning and/or afternoon, you are normally famished when you get home. No matter how great your willpower is or how many healthy foods you have stocked in the pantry, overeating is often inevitable. Eating the small frequent meals throughout the day will help control that ravenous evening hunger.
Try eating within an hour of waking and every 3–4 hours thereafter, but remember “portion control” is the key to losing weight. And remember, it is not the lack of motivation that causes weight gain; it is the lack of planning. Take a few minutes to pack healthy snacks before you head off to work in order to avoid running to the vending machine or driving through a fast food lane.
To summarize some of the many benefits for eating small frequent meals:
1. Decreases food cravings
2. Stabilizes blood sugar and insulin levels
3. Increases metabolism
4. You will feel better and have more energy
5. Lower levels of LDL cholesterol
6. Helps control hunger
7. Possible weight loss
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Five Effective Ways to Improve your Health in 2011
Health is one of those nice things to do. That’s why it goes together with New Year’s Resolutions. You make a claim for things you want to change, but ignore it the moment after it is spoken. Perhaps you’re a little better than that, and so you decide to jump in headstrong at the local gym for a week or three. Soon your trips start to decline from everyday to three times a week, until you wondering why you’re wasting your time and money since you only see the weight room at best once a week. That’s the process everyone goes through. You make a lofty goal and then charge full steam ahead right at it. You burn out and start wondering why you even began. This makes it ever so much more difficult to start over again, because you can always recall the last attempt’s failure as a reason to ignore it.
How do you fix this attitude? How do we get around the pressures of a society that expects instant gratification? As a nation we want things done as quickly as possible, and that is a proper attitude until you realize that some things quickest possibility may take months if not years to accomplish. If we treated exercise as an institution, much like education, then we can properly see an incline. You don’t start learning calculus until you’ve mastered addition. Take on your health in the same fashion and you’ll come up with a reasonable process towards accomplishing practical goals. First get a hold of your basics, then you can worry about the complexities of a rigorous diet and exercise plan, but as a place to start lets choose five effective ways to improve your health. These five will include simple techniques such as limiting your sugar containing drinks, getting a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity in each day, planning ahead to make sure each day has a healthy approach, making a conscious effort to stay away from unconscious eating, and also, keep track of proper portion sizing. A healthy start, with achievable goals, allows for everyone to find a comfort level while building these habits as a foundation towards a healthier life.
Limit Sugar Containing Drinks
The simplest way to cut back on calories is by limiting your sugar containing drinks. One 12 oz can of soda contains 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories. Now 150 calories doesn’t sound like too much but by drinking just one extra can of soda each day above your calorie limit, you may gain 15 pounds of weight in a year. If you drink one can of soda each day, you are eating about 35 pounds of sugar in a year. This also goes for fruit drinks, sweetened tea, Gatorade, or any drink that has roughly the same amount of calories and sugar as a regular soda. When you drink these drinks they are not as satisfying as solid foods and some people do not realize that there are calories in beverages and drinking too many calories can make you gain weight just like eating too much solid food can. But, if you exchange your regular soda drinks for diet-soda, water, or other calorie-free drinks, you would not be adding all those extra calories and sugar to your diet and possibly will not gain the extra weight by drinking those extra calories.
At Least 30 Minutes of Physical Activity A Day
Next, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. Sometimes the only way to make time for exercise is by treating it like a meeting, and once exercise becomes part of your daily “To-Do” list, you’re more likely to do it. Often people say they do not have time to exercise but those same people have time to spend an hour checking email, talking on their telephone, watching TV, playing on the computer, etc. You don’t have to spend every bit of your leisure time exercising; you can still get positive results with as little as 10-15 minutes at a time. If you lay out your clothes for work the night before and make your lunch for the next day, then in the morning you just opened up about 10-15 minutes to take a brisk walk in the morning. Then lunchtime or your coffee breaks would be another great opportunity to take a step away from your busy day in order to get in another quick 10-15 minute walk. Then after dinner take another 10-15 minute walk and you will have your 30 minutes or more of exercise in for the day.
Some other tips to sneak exercise in during the day include: during your lunch break you could bring dumb-bells to work, do sit-ups or push-ups or any other office appropriate exercises. Buy a pedometer and wear it while you work and try to get 10,000 Steps/day (The goal of taking 10,000 steps in a day is a rough equivalent to the Surgeon General’s recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. It should be enough to reduce your risk for chronic diseases and help you lead a longer, healthier life). TV watching time can also be exercise time. If you did some exercises during every commercial that would equal about 15 minutes of activity during a one hour show. Take the stairs instead of the elevator; park your car further away; walk a little faster and farther between stores while shopping; or walk on the beach instead of laying there (you will still get your tan and you will get in your exercise at the same time!). Choose whichever way works best for you. The more energetic the activity, the more calories you will use. The main thing is just remember to actually go and do it.
Plan Ahead
In order to succeed in weight loss or living a healthier lifestyle you need to plan and be organized. Take 5-10 minutes the night before or in the morning and pack your lunch so you are not rushing into last minute decisions or running to vending machines or fast food restaurants. Prepare salads and cut up fruit and vegetables the night before for quick healthy snacks. Check out restaurant’s websites or places you often eat before you go in order to make healthier food choices. Make a grocery list for your planned meals and stick to it. Break the habit of just throwing unhealthy foods into your shopping carts. Bring a healthy snack wherever you go. Carry fresh fruit and vegetables, almonds, pretzels, whole-grain crackers, or whatever healthy snack you like in your bag. When you plan regular meals and snacks it is much easier to eat healthier.
Be Aware of Unconscious Eating
Be aware of unconscious eating. Make eating a single activity. Eat all your meals at the same place and while sitting down at the kitchen table. Do not do anything else while eating, don’t watch TV, read or do office work because this leads to the unconscious eating and extra calories without realizing it. I am sure many of us could agree that we’ve sat there watching TV and just ate out of a big bag of chips without even thinking how many chips we’re actually were eating. Instead of eating out of the bag, measure and package snacks to serving sizes, Ziploc baggies work well; this also helps with the mindlessly grabbing handfuls that may equal more than a portion size.
Watch Portion Sizes
Portion control may be one of the biggest factors causing the rising rate of obesity in this country. The Super-Sizing of American food has caused many of us to suffer from “Portion-Distortion”. The biggest nutrition problem in America is not what we eat but how much we eat. The key to healthy eating is to downsize your portions. Use measuring cups, spoons, and a food scale to help you learn about the portion sizes you eat. Learn to stop eating before you are stuffed. You can still enjoy your favorite foods, just in moderation. Awareness of what you’re eating is what matters. Here is the bottom line: No matter what you eat, no matter how healthful it is, no matter what the label says (low-fat, low-sugar, low-carbohydrate), the bigger the size, the more calories it has. And if you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. It doesn’t matter how many carbohydrates you eat but what does matters is calories in verses calories out (energy balance).
Change takes time; pick one or two goals to work on first and once they become habit for you, then you can pick a few more to work on. Consistency is the key to successful weight loss so do not get discourage if you have a road block, just re-gather and find another way around your obstacle.
Why Athletes are Encouraged to Eat before they Exercise in the Morning
Skipping breakfast is a common practice among athletes who exercise early in the morning. If you climb out of bed and eat nothing before you start exercising you will most likely be running on fumes. During the night, you can deplete your liver glycogen, the source of carbohydrate that maintains normal blood sugar levels. When you start a workout with low blood sugar, you fatigue earlier than you would have if you had eaten something, you could also feel weak, faint, sluggish and lightheaded. Low blood sugar could also affect your mental ability causing a slower reaction time, which is not something you would want while spotting your teammate bench pressing.
If you eat before you workout you will have the endurance to lengthen your workout, you will perform better by having a delay in the burning feeling in your muscles, and your effort will be less rigorous than those who have fasted before exercising.
How much you should eat varies from person to person just pay attention to how you feel during your workouts and adjust accordingly. The pre-exercise meal should be predominantly carbohydrate because it empties quickly from the stomach and becomes readily available to be used by the muscles. If you will be exercising for less than an hour, snack on foods that are easily digestible and settle comfortably. For example, if you exercise right away in the morning you could try eating a granola bar or a small bagel, toast, dry cereal, yogurt, piece of fruit or even drinking a sports drink will help. Limit high-fat sources of protein (hamburgers, fried chicken, cheese omelets) because they take longer to empty from the stomach. Allow adequate time for digestion. The general rule is to allow 3-4 hours for a large meal to digest, 2-3 hours for a smaller meal, 1-2 hours for a blended or liquid meal, and less than an hour for a small snack, according to your own tolerance.
If you are an athlete who has been trying to exercise in the morning without eating, I encourage you to try and at least eat a small snack with some carbohydrates to see if it can help your performance. Your team and coach will thank you.
Christie Achenbach
Christie Achenbach RD, CSSD, ACSM-CPT is a registered dietitian (RD) in Tampa Florida who specializes in nutrition for exercise, health and weight loss management. Christie is also board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD). In addition to her credentials as a registered dietitian she is also a certified personal trainer and certified wellness coach through the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and certified in adult weight management by the American Dietetic Association.
Christie received a full-athletic scholarship in track & field and cross-country from Michigan State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in dietetics. Then she completed her internship to become a registered dietitian at Spalding University in Louisville Kentucky.
Christie’s areas of specialty include:
- Sports nutrition
- Weight loss/maintenance/gain
- Wellness and disease prevention
Christie’s qualifications include:
- Registered and Licensed Dietitian
- Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD)
- Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Wellness Coach through ACSM
- Certified in Adult Weight Management by the American Dietetic Association
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Christie Achenbach
Christie Achenbach RD, CSSD, ACSM-CPT
