Eating Regularly Helps Weight Loss

The Importance of Eating Regularly


In the last post for parents I spoke briefly about diet and nutrition and mentioned the importance of eating regularly.

I know you have probably heard that eating every two-three hours is optimal for weight loss, fat loss and even muscle building but I would like to clarify why.

Let me start off by explaining your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

BMR is the amount of energy (calories) that your body needs if you were to stay in bed all day. It is the amount of calories your body needs to perform the most basic of functions- blinking of your eyes, breathing, and everything else you body does internally to stay alive.

Your BMR, or the speed of your metabolism, is determined by many things including your age, your height, weight, your daily activity, but also how frequently you eat.

The last one is very important. The more often that you eat the faster your metabolism becomes, because it has to work harder to process the food you put it in. But if you don't eat, your body hoards food, not knowing when it will be fed again and your metabolism slows down.

Many people when trying to lose weight, think that eating less is the best. This actually slows down your metabolism.

When you stop eating, or eat less your metabolism becomes like a starving prisoner that does not know when it will be fed next. Like a starving prisoner who might be fed once a week, your metabolism hoards that food and comes to a crawl.

You can't lose weight when your metabolism is at a crawl. When losing weight you want your metabolism to be going as fast as possible- processing all the food you put in it as fast as possible.

To speed up your metabolism you must eat often- every two to three hours. Not only will eating often rev up your metabolism, but it will also keep you satiated and keep you from binging.

If you are feeding your body regularly you will not have hunger cravings you have when you skip breakfast, lunch or any other meal.

When losing weight you want to speed up your metabolism and eating less is not the answer. In addition to eating more often, lifting weights and during cardiovascular interval training helps to speed up your metabolism.

To get a good idea of what your BMR is calculate it here