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3 meals or 5 per day: Which is Best for Weight Loss?
| Posted on Jul 22, 2011 |
Is a healthy diet 5 small meals a day or 3 large meals? Is it easier to lose weight if you eat multiple meals per day? There are many who advocate for 5 or more meals a day, but are they right? Why Would More Meals Help You Lose Weight?
One theory behind eating multiple small meals per day is that doing so increases your body’s metabolism helping you burn more calories throughout the day. This is thought to happen through the “thermic effect” of food. The thermic effect is the energy expended (calories burned) during the processing (chewing, swallowing, digesting) of food. It is one of the components of metabolism along with “resting metabolic rate”. The theory suggests that by eating more small meals, more energy is expended with the amount of energy or calories burned depending on what you eat.Eating frequently small, healthy meals throughout the day may also help control your appetite by avoiding the peaks and valleys of feeling hungry in between meals. When you hit those lows, the urge to reach for a high carbohydrate snack can get you into trouble!
By eating more small meals throughout the day, you can also add more variety to your diet and increase the likelihood of meeting your daily nutritional needs; i.e. your daily recommended servings of fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc.
Why Would More Meals NOT Help You Lose Weight?
There are many who argue against the idea of 5 small meals each day to help lose weight. These people think that weight loss depends on what you eat and how much you eat not when you eat it. One study compared 2 groups of obese men and women. One group ate 3 meals per day and the other group 3 meals per day plus 3 snacks. Each group had the same caloric intake. The end result? You guessed it, no difference in weight loss.There is also a potential danger of eating multiple meals per day. Increasing the number of meals you eat without decreasing the size of your meal can increase the number of calories consumed each day resulting in weight gain! Some of us have a difficult time eating a small meal – we want to eat until we feel full, and that can lead to more calories. If that is the case then, the more times you sit down throughout the day to eat, the more opportunities you have to overeat.
The bottom line is everyone is different. Some of us find ourselves overeating each time we sit at the table- in that case, 5 meals might not be the best approach. Others don’t have time to stop and eat 5 times a day because of their busy schedules. Some would benefit from eating multiple small meals each day to prevent the unhealthy snacking that pours on the calories. The Achieve-Life meal plan recommends 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. However, you can move the snack to the meal time or use other variations that work for you. Whatever meal plan you choose remember to incorporate whole-grain foods, colorful vegetables and fruit, lean fish and poultry, low-fat dairy and unsaturated fats.
A simple plan for healthy, permanent weight loss. Visit us to learn how the Achieve-Life weight loss program can help you achieve the life you've always wanted.
All articles on Achieve-Life.com are written by board certified physicians.
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