Meal sizes and frequency are very important. Over the years people are amazed by how much food I eat at work in a day and part of this can probably be explained by decent genetics but more importantly I make sure that I have a higher metabolism by eating more smaller meals.
Most people will eat Breakfast lunch and dinner or even less often as in the case of my parents where the only real meals are breakfast and dinner. I on the other hand eat at 7:30, 10:00 12:00 3:00 5:30 and 8:00. I have been eating six times a day for years. My only large meal is dinner the other feedings are smaller snacks even lunch and breakfast.
There are a few reasons to eat small meals often:
- One reason to eat a smaller meal is that your body can not metabolize as much food as the average North American eats so some is wasted and some is stored as fat.
- Secondly, if you go a long time between meals your body stores food as fat to get you between meals when your blood sugar drops.
- Thirdly, you blood sugar will fluctuate a lot during the day if you have a big meal then a long break and then another meal and you will feel your energy constantly going up and down.
- Fourthly, you can really vary what you eat and enjoy food more when you do not have four or five things to eat at a time.
Here is a sample of what my day will have for food:
7:30 Bagel and Natural Peanut Butter
10:00 Apple, protein bar, coke
12:00 Frozen lunch entrée or leftovers from last nights dinner
3:00 banana, chocolate bar and a granola bar
5:30 a regular dinner, Meat, vegetables and maybe desert
8:00 popcorn or fruit
You will notice that this is not the best diet, I really have some work to do still but the meals are spaced and the sizes are smaller.
One of the most important ways to look at food and meals is that you should eat six meals a day and each of these meals should have about 30 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates. This kind of meal is important as it will give you the energy you need to get through a great day including a hard workout. With a meal this size as well you should not gain weight and you should not waste any protein, your body can assimilate this much protein every three hours or so.
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