You will not only lose more fat eating 6 meals a day… you will also feel much more energetic
In the previous page I discussed why eating infrequent meals will harm you. But if you are still having thoughts about eating 6 times a day, consider these benefits before you decide:
1) Frequent eating speeds up your metabolism
The metabolism, digestion of food and absorption of nutrients into the blood stream requires energy. Different types of foods require different amounts of energy to be broken down. This is known as the thermic effect of food.
The thermic effect of food starts as soon as the food enters the digestive tract. It reaches the peak after about 1 hour of ingestion and begins to drop about three hours after the food is consumed.
Ingesting food on a continuous basis ensures that energy is being spent on breaking down the food.
2) Eating at regular intervals prevents stomach acidity
Many people suffer from stomach acidity and gastritis. Having small meals ensures that your stomach doesn’t stay empty for a long time and thereby the stomach acid cannot gather and irritate your stomach mucosal lining.
3) Frequent meals curbs your cravings
The stomach’s gastric emptying time is 2 hours. This means that any food you put into the stomach will be processed and moved out of the stomach within 2 hours and after this period the stomach is empty.
When you don’t have any food in your stomach for more than 2-3 hours, the gastric acids start pouring into your empty stomach and you begin to feel the hunger pangs. The sheer craving can push you to grab a quick bite of some snack and this will cause you to exceed your planned caloric intake.
4) You will feel much lighter and your energy will be well balanced
The food you ingests gets broken down to release glucose into your blood. if you ingest large amounts of food, you will release a large amount of glucose into your blood. But when you don’t consume any food over the next 3-4 hours the glucose level in your blood drops and causes you to feel dull and moody. This also reduces your productivity at work. Instead have lighter and frequent meals supplies you with a steady source of energy for the whole day.
5) Eating light meals at regular intervals protects you from chronic diseases
Eating light meals at regular intervals is not just a body building tactic. It is also a way of life that not only gives you’re the aesthetic results you want… but also prevents and wards off serious illnesses.
Let me explain…
Whenever you ingest food it gets broken down to release glucose. The body also releases insulin in order to transport the glucose into cells and muscle tissues. When you ingest large amounts of food… large amounts of glucose is released and the body needs to produce a lot of insulin to transport this glucose into the muscle tissues.
In people who have a family history of diabetes such large releases of insulin can make them more vulnerable to develop diabetes.
Starving that is followed up with binge eating is associated with associated with increased production of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream, obesity and heart disease.
6) Frequent meals help in muscle growth
When you consume frequent meals with protein content, you are supplying proteins to your muscles at a consistent rate. Proteins are the building blocks of muscles and by providing your body tissue with a consistent supply of proteins you are supporting muscle growth.
The challenge
Yes, eating 6 times a day is a challenge at the start… are you up for it?
You may not feel full after eating a small meal. This feeling will last for nearly two weeks.
We all have an appetite thermostat that tells us when we are full. But the good news is that this appetite thermostat can be reset in a couple of weeks and you will feel full with a smaller meal. Plus you will also feel highly energetic throughout the day.