There is this whole world that exists that you know nothing about.  Within each of these worlds there are communities of amazing ideas; more importantly amazing people.  To understand this world you have to be ready to receive information with an open mind and open heart. If you don’t, you’ll miss out.

What the hell are you talking about?

I’m talking about religion.  To be more specific, the religion of nutrition.

Anything I talk about in this blog post could easily be applied to many other things.  It could apply to video games, card games, exercise philosophy, body building, doctors, movies, books, sexual orientation, science and/or race.

Here’s my point: If you really want to understand a point of view, you must first be open minded to it.

This is easier said than done.  Some of us have such strong beliefs that when the ideals are challenged we get emotional about things.  Our feathers get ruffled and to put it plainly we get pissed off.

I’m very passionate about what I do.  I care so much about being able to help people change their bodies I can get pretty heated about things.  Because I’m so passionate, I only help those that ask for it – because a lot of what I believe/know to be true directly conflict with people consider healthy or “good for you.”

Such as this idea: Eating 6 meals a day will increase metabolism and cause you to burn more calories.

I say bullshhh…….

Let’s call this blog post an opinion piece intertwined with some science.

Reasons why eating 6 meals a day is a bad idea

1.  You’re teaching your body to get hungry frequently.  If you get hungry frequently, you’ll end up eating more after you stop dieting. Are you familiar with Pavlov’s Dog experiment?  That’s what you’re doing.

“I thought that eating every 2-3 hours helps burn more calories.”

There is a strong correlation between how many calories a person burns and how much they eat, but that’s only about total calories.  This study debunked the increased metabolic rate theory.

One of the reasons why this myth exists is because of the Thermic Effect of Food or TEF.  This explains that the effect of food has on calorie expenditure based on digestion.  If you eat food you will need to burn more calories to use that food.  The theory is that if you eat more frequent you will take advantage of thermic effec of food more often. This is not true.

2. Eating a higher Carbohydrate diet is the reason why 6 meals a day may be necessary.


A reason why eating 6 meals a day makes sense is because of the ups and downs of blood sugar and insulin while on a higher carbohydrate diet.  You basically need to eat every 3 hours so that your blood sugar doesn’t crash from eating carbs.

What about good carbs, those are okay right?

When someone asks that question, I’m going to assume they mean whole grains like oatmeal and whole grain bread.  Believe it or not, whole wheat bread is not much different than table sugar when it comes to blood sugar and insulin spikes.

What’s an insulin/blood sugar crash?  It’s when you eat a big meal loaded with carbs and then you get a sleepy.  They typically occur after lunch.

All carbohydrates affect blood sugar and insulin.  6 meals a day can help you get more energy just by stabilizing it.  Because so many people eat poorly they end up with their blood sugars and energy level all over the place.

What if you lowered your carbohydrate intake and/or eliminated grains?  What would happen to your blood sugar?  It will stay level after adjusting.

3. It’s a big pain in the ass.

Can you imagine having to prepare 6 meals a day every day?  Eating out of 6 separate tupperware containers just seems really inconvenient.  Don’t get me wrong, i really want a sixpack bag (becuase its hella cool) but there’s no reason to eat 6 times a day.

If there was a significant health benefit to eating 6 times a day I might consider doing it; but I haven’t been able to find a reason to do it.

Stepping off my soap box

Ever since I learned about the paleo diet and started to do more research about evolutionary science I discovered that eating every 2-4 hours wasn’t necessary for health.

If eating frequently (6 times a day) helps you eat healthy, you should keep doing it. I just want you to understand that it’s not necessary for weight loss.

 

[End of Rant]