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Eat 6 Meals a Day for Maximum Weight Loss
Severely
cutting your calorie intake is NOT the key to permanent
weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Instead, you should be
eating 5 to 6 small meals and drink at least 8-10
glasses of water a day for maximum weight loss.
Read on to find out why.
There are so
many people who think losing weight is about slashing your
calories to ungodly amounts. However, I'm here to tell you
that this is all wrong. You've been lied to.
How many people do you see on the roller coaster diet?
Probably too many to count. Why is this? Simply because
diets don't work. Most diets restrict your calories and slow
down your metabolism. This causes your body to go into
starvation mode. In starvation mode, your body burns very
few calories and experiences extreme hunger pangs.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Eat 5 - 6 healthy, small
meals per day. Men should shoot for 6 meals a day while
women should try to get in 5 meals per day. Yes, you heard
me right and you may have heard it before, but please take
notice this time. Frequent, small, healthy meals provide a
number of benefits that will help you reach the highest
fitness level possible.
Increase Your Metabolism
Eating 6 meals a day will boost your metabolism, helping you
to burn more calories all day long.
In fact, by eating super-clean, high protein foods at each
of your six meals, you will find that your metabolism goes
into overdrive, becoming extremely efficient at burning off
calories.
Burn Calories with the Thermic Effect of Food
Frequent eating revs up your metabolism due to the thermic
effect of food. This is because the breakdown and absorption
of food itself requires a substantial number of calories.
This is known as the thermic effect of food. Foods have a
thermic effect ranging from 3% to 30%. Protein foods create
a thermic effect of up to 30%. This means that 30% of the
calories from foods like turkey, tuna, and salmon are burned
simply by digesting them. Complex and fibrous carbohydrates
burn about 20% of their calories through digestion. This
includes broccoli, spinach, corn, green beans, etc.
On the other end of the spectrum are fats and refined
carbohydrates. They have an extremely low thermic effect of
about 3%. This is one of the reasons that dietary fat is
stored as easily as body fat.
As you can see, what you eat matters even more than how much
you eat.
Maintain Peak Energy Levels
You will feel 10 times better by eating smaller, more
frequent meals. Your energy level will soar and your hunger
cravings will be destroyed.
This is because eating 5 to 6 meals per day helps maintain a
balanced blood sugar level, preventing hunger attacks.
This is in direct contrast to the calorie depriving diets
that send your blood sugar levels into havoc, with too many
peaks and valleys.
Build Muscle
You will also find it easier to build and maintain muscle.
The more muscle you develop, the faster your metabolism
becomes.
Frequent meals help promote muscle growth by regulating
insulin levels and providing a steady flow of amino acids
into the muscle cells.
By eating approximately every three hours you are constantly
delivering a steady output of insulin, which is necessary
for muscle growth and glycogen storage.
Insulin plays a major role in transporting glucose and amino
acids into the muscle cells where they can then be used for
recovery and muscle growth. Are you starting to see the many
benefits of eating 6 meals a day?
Frequent meals also allow for more efficient use of vitamins
and minerals. Your body simply becomes much more effective
at processing these vital nutrients.
To reap the full benefit of this lifestyle, be sure that you
eat on a consistent schedule. This requires a bit of meal
planning, but it is certainly worth it. It is very important
to get your body into the habit of knowing when it will be
supplied with nutrients. This way, your body won't fall into
dreaded hunger attacks and cravings. Instead, it will always
know that a steady flow of nutrients will soon be supplied.
The key is to center your diet on lean protein, fruits,
vegetables, and healthy fats.
By eating 5 to 6 small meals per day, you will increase your
energy levels, accelerate muscle growth, and speed up your
metabolism without storing fat. In fact, frequent eating
will actually allow you to eat up to 50% more calories
without storing an ounce of it as fat.
To really burn the fat, you will need to combine this
healthy eating plan with cardio work
and strength training.
Combine those three and you will turn your body into a
fat-burning machine.
By Kim Roach
Kim
Roach is the Fitness Reporter at HealthyEveryDay.com, where
you will find healthy diet recipes, fitness articles, and
information. |
