Tip #2 on SURVIVING the holiday season:
Eat a HEALTHY Snack
For so long, I tried to avoid snacking. I’d determined that my snacking
problem was the “evil” that was keeping me from losing weight. Though
snacking has sometimes gotten a bad rap, it’s making a huge comeback in
the weightless world. Many nutritionists now encourage people to eat 5-6
times per day to get the best fitness and weight loss results.
According to a study from the University of Ottawa, eating 6 times per
day, as opposed to 3 times per day, had NO effect on weight loss (Web
MD). So why would I include those statistics in a post encouraging you
to eat more frequently??? The secret is in how our bodies respond to
hunger.
Whether you eat 6 times per day, or 3 times, or even 1 time,
the number of calories you eat makes the difference. You could eat 6
healthy meals for a total of 2,000 calories, or one big meal from
McDonalds at 2,000 calories. You are still getting the same number of
calories (I’m NOT arguing that all calories are created equal by the
way. That’s a different topic though). According to Amy Petonic,
registered dietitian out of Cleveland, “After about 3 hours without
food, blood sugar begins to fall. And after 4 hours, your body has
already digested whatever you sent down earlier. Once you’ve crossed the
5-hour mark, your blood sugar begins to plummet, and you grab whatever
you can to refuel.” Therefore, when we eat every 2-3 hours, we keep our
blood sugar levels regulated, and we are more likely to avoid that
hunger feeling that leads to frantic ravaging of the pantry (Hence why
breakfast is so important after you have been sleeping for 7-8 hours
with no food).
Now, the caveat. Eating more frequently is a tool
to help avoid getting overly hungry or lowered blood sugar. But let’s
think about this. If I’m going to eat 6 times per day, that doesn’t mean
I can eat the same size meals I would eat if I were eating 3 times per
day. The key is to eat much smaller (AND HEALTHIER) "meals," spaced
closer together.
Personally, I find that I’m most successful when
I plan and calculate my meals and my snacks. Here is why. I know that I
need to eat six times throughout the day; breakfast, snack, lunch
snack, dinner, snack. So when I get home after work, it’s time for a
“snack.” But if I’m not careful, my “snack” (especially at that
3:00-5:00 time) turns into much more than a small snack. I tell myself I
need to eat, (which I do), but if I don’t have planned what I will eat,
that snack turns into way more calories than it was supposed to be.
Let’s apply this to the holidays since this post is about holiday
survival. If you know you are going to eat a larger meal for dinner on
Thanksgiving, you will need to adjust the number of times you eat and
your portions. On that day, a typical meal plan might look like this:
Breakfast-veggie omelet
Snack-veggies and hummus
Lunch-chicken salad (no fries, no croutons, little or no dressing, the simpler the better)
Snack-Shakeology
Dinner-Turkey dinner (we’ll talk about planning your plate later)
Snack-SKIP
What I use to do, and what was VERY bad, was “save up,” as in, not eat
all day saving up my calories for dinner. Then, I would probably just
eat those 2000 calories in one huge, carb-loaded meal, later in the
evening. A smarter way is to eat very small, low calories meals
throughout the day leading up to the meal, and keep under control (yet
still satisfied) at the meal.
To summarize, eating smaller,
healthier meals/snacks more frequently doesn’t make you lose weight.
Rather, it’s a management tool to help keep our bodies satisfied, blood
sugar regulated, and to combat the real feeling of hunger that occurs
when we go 4-5 hours without eating.
(Source:http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6_meals_a_day)
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