Often, among different recommendations on weight loss there is this: “eat in small portions, but more often.” Just one unnoticeable phrase among a stream of advice, many of which we remember by heart. So we ignore it, reasoning approximately like this: “You can’t get enough of small portions! It’s better to eat 1-2 times a day, but more thoroughly. The daily total calorie content of what you eat is the same...”.
That is why we do not lose weight (and often even accumulate excess weight), completely trusting the teaching about the calorie content of foods and knowing nothing about what our body actually needs.
So, here's a secret that nutritionists don't bother to inform us about: the break between meals should not exceed 5 hours! Before this time expires, our stomach must wake up and acquire food. Moreover, it doesn’t even matter whether the food is fatty or dietary, our body just needs to know that there is enough food, it is supplied constantly, so there is no need to accumulate fat “in reserve”.
What do we do if we have not received such valuable instructions from our dear nutritionists? We try to eat as little as possible; We rejoice if, due to lack of appetite or urgent matters, we skip lunch, or we find the strength to refuse dinner, because someone voiced the thesis: “after 18 o’clock you can’t eat, and in general dinner should be given to the enemy.”
How does our body react in such a situation? After 5 hours of “downtime,” the stomach begins to ring all the bells and, in upset feelings, telegraphs to the body: “Hunger is coming! Let’s stock up!” When, after a long break, food is finally received, our body squeezes out of it maximum quantity calories. After all, it is necessary to provide energy not only for urgent needs, but also to put at least something else “in reserve”, just in case, because hungry times have come!
Undoubtedly, people with normal metabolism do not experience such difficulties, but people who are prone to obesity, due to circumstances, need to treat the whims of their neurasthenic body with due respect. Feed him constantly, at least every 4-5 hours, and he will calm down, sighing with satisfaction: “The hungry days are over!”
By acting in this way, we kill two birds with one stone: we calm the body and, if we like to eat tasty and a lot, reduce the feeling of hunger. It is ravenous hunger and the appetite that develops as a result of infrequent meals that force us to quietly eat more food than we need.
Proper nutrition is the key healthy body for many years. It is important to eat not only healthy food, but also monitor its quality and quantity. Most people today live in a constant rush. Finding time for a full lunch or breakfast is becoming increasingly difficult.
Constant snacking on prepared foods, eating on the run and, as a result, evening overeating. All this is a direct path to gastrointestinal diseases such as gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
To eat right, you need to follow a certain regime, thanks to which a person will always be energetic, cheerful and successful in his affairs. Diet usually refers to the number of meals, the specific time and intervals between them. Let's look at these points in more detail:
For proper functioning of the metabolism in the body, it is necessary to eat rationally. When determining the number of meals, age, daily routine, and health status are taken into account. Optimal for an adult is 4 meals a day. For people with gastrointestinal diseases, the amount increases to 5-6 times during the day. The same applies to children; they instinctively ask to eat often, but little by little.
Repeated meals evenly load the digestive system and provide the body with nutrients in a timely manner. Rare meals (1-2 times a day) contribute to fat deposition and increase blood cholesterol levels. They also provoke disruptions in work thyroid gland.
The duration of the intervals depends on the time required for complete digestion of certain foods. For an adult, it is enough to wait 4 hours after the last meal. Longer abstinence stimulates excess production gastric juice, which irritates the gastric mucosa and can cause inflammation. A very hungry person is prone to overeating.
Too short intervals, on the contrary, can impair function digestive system. After the last meal, digestive juices cease to be produced in the same volume. All energy goes into digesting existing food. Therefore, it is not advisable to eat 1.5-2 hours after the last dose.
In addition, the digestive system needs at least 10 hours of rest during the day.
Eating food at the same time is very important for the body. All functions of the digestive system adapt over time to a given regime. At a certain time, the food center is excited and a feeling of hunger arises, which provokes the production of gastric juice. On average, it takes the body about a week to adapt to a new diet.
Breakfast energizes a person for the whole day and should never be neglected. Best time for the morning meal, it is 6 - 8 hours. It was at this time that all organs digestive tract show the greatest activity. To feel full before noon, you should give preference to a protein breakfast. And carbohydrates should be avoided, because... they quickly fill you up and very soon you will want to eat again.
It is better to have lunch from 12-14 o'clock. On average, this meal accounts for 40% of the total daily ration. Traditionally, people eat soups, salads, fish or red meat for lunch. To avoid bloating and heaviness in the stomach, it is better to avoid desserts and tea parties with sweets.
Afternoon snack at 16 - 17 hours, ideal time for a snack. You can eat yogurt or fruit.
The optimal time for dinner is 18-20 hours. It should be light but filling. It can be fish or white meat with a vegetable side dish.
In order for the digestion process to occur correctly, the food temperature should be no more than 60°.
When following a diet, it is important to eat good mood. It is better to refuse distracting sources of information, such as TV, the Internet or a book, and focus on the meal itself.
You need to give yourself enough time to eat so that you don’t have to rush. After all, the digestion process begins in the mouth, when a person carefully and slowly chews food, mixing it with saliva. High-quality processed food is easier for the body to process and helps prevent gastrointestinal diseases.
The concept of diet is quite broad and includes the following components:
Due to failures in hunting, the most ancient people ate approximately three to four times a week.
The ancient Greeks, like the ancient Romans, adhered to two meals a day.
As time passed, the number of meals increased. Breakfast first appeared among noble ladies who took chocolate in bed.
The food practice of holiday homes, sanatoriums, and pioneer camps is four meals a day.
Different nutrition systems and programs may offer two, three, or four meals a day.
IN in this case We will look at rational nutrition, which is based on the principles of balance and calorie theory.
The word "rational" translated from Latin language means science, reason, there are also meanings such as accounting, counting, counting. Rational nutrition is a scientifically based, precisely calculated supply of human food, enhances the body’s resistance to the effects of toxic substances and infections.
The principles on which rational nutrition is based:
Four meals a day for healthy person considered the most rational.
Power multiplicity or the number of meals affects the body's metabolism. Factors to consider when determining the frequency of meals:
Benefits of multiple meals (four meals a day):
Disadvantages of two meals a day with a large interval between meals (up to 7 hours or more)
Rare meals cause an increase in blood levels, promote the accumulation of fatty deposits in the body, and reduce the active functioning of the thyroid gland and tissue enzymes.
In most cases, a person eats it right away large number food, ultimately fills the stomach, stretches its walls, limits mobility, and, therefore, impairs the mixing of the contents and its processing by juices, the process of evacuation of food from the stomach is slow.
Stretching the organ can adversely affect the functioning of the heart. An overfilled stomach raises the diaphragm, complicating cardiac activity.
In the first hours of digestion, a large food load inhibits the functioning of the gastric glands, reduces the secretion of juice and lengthens the period of digestion. Chronic overeating leads to obesity.
In addition, eating a large amount of food can cause strong muscle contraction. biliary tract and significant painful sensations in this area.
In addition, due to the fact that excess quantity blood fills internal organs, it gets worse functional state brain blood. Therefore, performance decreases, weakness and drowsiness appear.
Also, rare meals, when the breaks between them reach 8-10 hours, worsen the rhythmic activity of the intestines, leading to constipation.
The duration of the intervals is determined by the period of time that is sufficient for the digestion, absorption and absorption of nutrients.
Long breaks in eating can provoke:
The intensity of the synthesis of digestive juices decreases significantly in the first hours after a meal, is restored by the 2nd hour, and reaches its maximum by the 4th hour. For this reason, eating earlier than two hours after the previous meal is not advisable.
During short intervals there is not enough time for the complete digestion process and absorption of nutrients to next appointment. This can cause a disorder in the motor and secretory functioning of the digestive canal.
In addition, it is important next factor. A healthy stomach is a muscular bag that can stretch and contract. However, it lacks the ability to grab food, turn it over and process juices unless it has a certain volume. Therefore, the statement “eat more often and little by little” in the absence of pathologies of the digestive tract is not true.
The most optimal intervals between meals for an adult healthy person the intervals are four to six hours. In addition, the digestive glands need rest for 6 to 10 hours per day, when the ability of the digestive organs to function normally the next day occurs.
Food temperature
In order for the digestion process to be carried out properly, the temperature regime of food is important. The temperature of hot food should be no higher than 50 - 60 degrees, cold food should not be lower than 10 degrees.
Eating regularly at the same time is extremely important. A conditioned reflex of appetite stimulation to the time factor is formed. By a certain time, a feeling of hunger arises, which excites the food center and triggers the reflex secretion of gastric juice. Clear, organized, correct mode nutrition is most beneficial for digestion and absorption. In most cases, two to three days are a sufficient period for the body to adapt to the diet. In some situations, it is difficult to strictly follow the regime; some deviations from the usual eating hours are possible - optimal - within 30 minutes.
In case of violations diet the conditioned reflex begins to fade. Food enters the stomach, which is not prepared for digestion. This affects the food center - appetite decreases and digestion is poor food mass. Irregular and disorderly nutrition distorts the physiological rhythms of the digestive glands, reduces digestibility and in some cases provokes the development of diseases - gastritis, cholecystitis, etc.
If the choice is made in favor of one or another human diet, it is necessary to strictly adhere to it, since sudden changes in nutrition and food stress are not indifferent to the body.
Fractional meals (the secret of frequent meals)
Fractional meals are the most important tool for burning fat. You need to eat every three hours. This is not an absolute dogma, but the interval between meals should not be more than 4-4.5 hours.
Of course, you can eat 3 times a day and achieve certain results, but remember that 3 meals a day is a regimen tailored to the working day, which does not mean that such a schedule is ideal. Until you eat 5-6 times a day, you will not be able to spin your metabolism to maximum capacity.
As you remember, food has a thermal effect, i.e. The body spends energy to digest it. If you don't eat anything, then your body has nothing to burn except its muscles and fat. When fasting, fat will burn much slower than muscle.
Most best way stock up on fat - go on a low-calorie, carbohydrate-free diet or fast.
It doesn't take long for the body to adjust to a calorie deficit (4-4.5 hours between meals is enough for the body to turn on the emergency light). If skipping a meal is a “serious crime,” then skipping breakfast should be punishable by “death penalty.”
Let's do the math. For example, your last meal was at 7 pm. You woke up at 7 am, you have no appetite, you drank a cup of coffee, ran to work, and only at 12-13 o’clock did you get to the dining room... It turns out that the time interval between the last and first meals is 16 hours. During this time you will burn a large amount of muscle. In addition, if you eat this way, your evening meal will usually be very large, because the body will already throw all its energy into feeding itself and its fat reserves. full program, because the next day and the next and again you will torture yourself with 16-hour fasts.
Frequent meals are a strategic solution to control appetite. In which case do you think you will eat more? What if the last meal was 7 hours ago or 3 hours ago? Think back to your big dinner and think about why you eat so much? Obviously, the body simply demands its own. Remember, a strong feeling of hunger is the first signal that the body has begun to prepare to store fat.
You may ask me: “Okay, if 5-6 meals are good, then 7-8 or 9 would be even better?”
Not really. Digestion of food takes from 2 to 2.5 hours. If you eat more often, you will simply pile food on top of previously undigested food. If there were 40 hours in a day, then yes, you would need to add 2-3 meals. 5-6 times is the optimal number of meals, taking into account a 24-hour day.
Get rid of the stereotype that our grandmothers and mothers instilled in us, that we should not suppress our appetite and not eat before meals. Results good appetite You can very well observe it in nature in the spring, when people, after hibernation, expose their bellies, gained over the winter, to the sun.
In addition, during one meal, more than 500-550 Kcal in the morning, 300-350 in the afternoon and 250-200 in the evening are not absorbed (the excess goes partly into the toilet, partly into fat). You will not be able to saturate your body with the necessary nutrients in 1-2 large meals, but you will saturate your fat with quality fat cells. A higher calorie intake in the evening is only necessary if you had an intense strength training session in the evening. More on this later.
Conclusion: Eating every 3 hours is necessary in order to maintain a stable and high level of metabolism and prevent the use of muscles as fuel, and also prevent the body from going into emergency economy mode. This is especially true for those who lead active image life and simply necessary for those who engage in serious training.
Why does the body burn mostly muscle and not fat?
The answer is simple. There is always less fat in the body than muscle. Muscle cannot store as much energy as fat, so fat is needed to sustain life. There is no need for muscles because you are not moving or eating. This is an interconnected process that is quite understandable if you know the simplest functions of adipose tissue.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with the fat storage mechanism. This is a normal process aimed at survival in extreme conditions. Without it, a person would not survive even a mild hunger strike. Hunger strikes further strengthen this mechanism to make it easier to endure hunger in the future.
Muscles consume a lot of energy, so in order to reduce costs, the body first gets rid of “energy-wasting tissues.” This makes it clear that to speed up your metabolism, you need metabolically active tissue (muscle). But gaining muscle is not as easy as you think. If you only eat 3 times a day and train intensely, then in almost 90% of cases you will lose a lot of muscle, because in 3 times you will not be able to eat and absorb enough of the necessary nutrients obtained from food. In addition, you remember that with large meals (especially when eating harmful products) insulin levels spike, which sends calories not to glycogen, but directly to fat, still leaving you weak and lethargic.
Simply swallowing meal replacements, such as protein bars, will not be enough, because... Such substitutes contain a lot of sugar and calories, but they are empty calories. In addition, such products do not increase the metabolic rate. IN best case scenario they only cover energy costs. Meal replacements should only be used when as a last resort when you have emergency, and you just can't get to the food. However, in this case, remember that you only prevented muscle burning, but did not increase your metabolic rate, as would have happened with regular healthy food. To put it bluntly, a meal replacement is the lesser of two evils.
Now let's talk about things like calorie tapping and calorie targeting.
In the morning, your metabolism wakes up in a great mood and demands its calories, which it voluntarily abandoned at night. Overnight, the body's glycogen stores are depleted and the body needs to be refueled.
In the morning you should eat a lot and plentifully, like a king (this is fundamental rule, which is not even discussed). 500-600 Kcal for breakfast is great. It's like a gas station before a big road. In the morning you can eat everything, even sweet fruits. Of course, if you are on a fat burning cycle, then fruit should be consumed in moderation, even in the morning.
Large meals should be taken before and/or after energy use, a direct indicator of which is glycogen levels.
Breakfast, pre- and post-workout meals are ideal times to eat a large meal.
For convenience, let's divide the day into 5 time periods:
7:00
10:00
13:00
16:00
19:00
This is the ideal cycle for women. Although the time of meals, of course, can be shifted plus or minus 30-60 minutes, depending on the circumstances.
For men who need to eat more calories, I suggest a slightly different schedule:
7:00
10:00
12:30
15:00
17:30
20:00
Now, let's take 1500 Kcal that you need to consume in order to lose weight.
When should you eat the most? That's right, in the morning, because 12 hours have passed between 19:00 and 7:00, which even in a state of sleep, when almost no energy is spent, is enough to exhaust internal resources.
Further, if you have a workout in the morning, say at 9 am, then it is clear that costs are added after, so breakfast becomes simply necessary as air. Next, after training, you should definitely eat well at 9 o'clock in the morning, because there is still a whole day ahead and you need to stay fresh and alert. Next, you gradually reduce your meals so that at 7 pm you eat a light dinner and 3 hours later you fall asleep with an empty stomach, just in time for your metabolic rate to drop. This system is called calorie taping, i.e. narrowing calories.
With this type of nutrition, you wedge in the maximum amount of carbohydrates in the first 2-3 meals, and by the evening you stick to a protein-vegetable diet. Proteins should be present in every meal. However, this diet plan is only good for unemployed and free people and those who train on weekends in the morning or early afternoon.
This nutrition plan will be simply ideal for you. With the right training program, you will be simply amazed at the rate at which your body changes without hunger or weakness.
For women who consume 1500 kcal per day, the calorie distribution in the case of calorie tapping will look like this:
(5 meals)
Reception 1: 375
Reception 2: 300
Reception 3: 300
Reception 4: 300
Reception 5: 225
For men who consume, say, 2400 kcal per day, the schedule would look like this:
(6 meals)
Reception 1: 500
Reception 2: 400
Reception 3: 400
Reception 4: 400
Reception 5: 400
Reception 6: 300
If you exercise after work in the evening, say at 7:00 pm, then you need to use the calorie targeting method (i.e. calorie targeting). It's obvious that good workout, on which you gave your all, requires additional recharge both before and after.
Don't be afraid to eat after training, even if it's in the evening. After you have caused microdamage to the muscles, you definitely need to restore them, because if you don’t do this, the muscles will simply begin to burn. Of course, fat will also burn, but do not forget that fat contains much more concentration calories, so even with equal amounts of calories sacrificed from fat and muscle, muscle mass will be more than fat.
Simply put, 50 grams of fat, which contains 450 kcal, will be equal to 450 calories of muscle, but 350 calories of muscle will weigh 100 grams. And do not forget that fat is restored much faster than muscle. Also, as I said before, the amount of muscle you have in your body directly determines your metabolic rate.
After training, if you ate a lot (but not too much, but taking into account the total daily 20% deficit), then the muscles, like injured tissue, will need treatment. A team of proteins, fats and carbohydrates will go to do this. Fat will not be stored because the emergency light that the body has been sharply limited in calories is not turned on. Fat will be stored only after the lesion (injured muscles) is restored. But if you don’t have enough calories in your diet (but the deficit is no more than 20%), then the lack of energy for muscle recovery will come from fat. This is how the indirect fat burning mechanism works. Those. During the workout itself, you create conditions for further fat burning. However, looking ahead, I will say that strength training is not best methods burning fat. Yes, a certain amount of fat is burned when the body replenishes the calorie deficit from its own reserves. Target strength training– preserve the muscles that are necessary to maintain high level metabolism and for burning fat directly during cardio training, when fat is burned in the muscles (more details about the mechanism of fat burning will be discussed later).
So, if you exercise in the evening, you need to fuel up before and after your workout. During the day, when you sit at a desk at work, additional energy will not be needed, so we slightly reduce breakfast and distribute calories as follows:
For women
Reception 1: 300
Reception 2: 250
Reception 3: 250
Reception 4: 350
Reception 5: 350
For men
Reception 1: 500
Reception 2: 400
Reception 3: 300
Reception 4: 300
Reception 5: 450
Reception 6: 450
When it comes to cardio training, things will be a little different.
Later, in the chapter on cardio training, I will tell you how to eat before and after cardio training, taking into account its timing.
Need to add important point. Perhaps after you count the number of calories you need and then count the number of calories you ate lately, you will be surprised at the difference.
Generally, people mainly fall into two categories:
1. Find out they eat too much
2. Find out they eat too little
Whatever group you find yourself in, don't make sudden changes. If, say, you've been eating 3,400 calories for the past 5 years and then you find out you need to eat 2,200, don't cut your calories right away the next day. The body may behave inappropriately and turn on energy storage mode. Reduce your diet gradually, 100 kcal per day.
The same applies to those who consume 800-1000 Kcal per day (especially those who sit on strict diets). A sharp increase in calorie intake can cause fat accumulation, because... your metabolism has slowed down a lot. Gradually increasing or decreasing your diet while starting to exercise will eliminate the risk of fat gain.
Many generally suggest switching to two meals a day, citing the fact that this is inherent in nature. Some, referring to the doctrine of calorie content, believe: “What’s wrong if I eat enough twice, I daily requirement I won’t exceed it in calories, I’ll just divide it into two doses.”
A balanced diet(correct) suggests 5-6 small tricks meals a day - main ones (lunch,) and snacks between them, this is the only way to run ours at full capacity.
Regular eating leads to the formation conditioned reflex when by a certain time the desire to eat appears.
In our body, each organ is busy with its own work. At certain intervals, bile is produced in the gastrointestinal tract. It is produced in order to digest the food we eat. If we eat with too many breaks or irregularly, this is fraught with serious problems for our health.
From a physiological point of view, it would be ideal to start the next meal only when the digestion of the food eaten at the previous meal has finished, but since the body does not give us such a signal, the most optimal intervals would be from 3 to 3.5 hours. Such intervals provide normal work digestive system.
And it is absolutely not permissible to take a break for more than 4.5-5 hours, otherwise the body will think that it is being put on a “starvation ration” and will begin to stockpile. That's why we gain weight by eating a couple of times a day.
Another important point is that the body spends energy to digest food. If the break in eating is very long, then the body can only burn fat and muscle, and the muscles burn faster, but the fat remains.
So, if the breaks between meals are too long, then this can lead to the following consequences:
Therefore, if you want to lose weight, it is very important not to allow too long intervals between meals.
It is not always possible to have a snack if you are away from home or office, so always carry some food with you that will replace a snack or even lunch. The Herbalife company has products suitable for this - and.
Dietary supplement Not a medicine.
It also happens that you eat right, but are haunted by hunger between meals. This may be due to a shortage. Drink your normal amount of water (30 ml per 1 kg of body weight) and everything will be fine.
Too short intervals are also not welcome. On average, digesting food takes about 2.5 hours and if you eat more often, this can lead to upset digestive processes.
Anyone can eat right if they have the desire.
I, an Independent Herbalife Partner (nutrition consultant), can help you figure out how to eat properly, what foods you can eat and which ones to exclude from your diet, which will help you easily switch to a balanced diet. Contact, write, call... I will try to answer without delay.
