Nobody likes the idea of "dieting"... let's be honest. We know that eating right is essential for maintaining a healthy body. However, I have noticed that many people have this preconceived notion that eating healthy means starving yourself and eating next to nothing (i.e. tasteless veggies, grains, etc.)
However, one of the most effective diets that someone could adopt is the Six Meal A Day diet. This diet allows you to eat almost anything while giving your body the energy and nutrients that it needs to stay healthy. One of the MOST important ways to lose unwanted fat is to keep your metabolism in full gear by constantly keeping food (calories) in your system. Not eating is one of the WORST things someone can do when trying to lose weight.
Why it Works
Your body's natural instinct is to protect itself from malnutrition. Therefore, when you take in just two to three meals a day, some of that is stored away as fat. The amount of fat that is stored is largely based on what foods/drinks you are eating during that time.
However, when you eat six small
meals throughout the day, your body will begin getting used to that schedule... which results in a higher % of digest and a lower % of fat storage. The meals are not your typical size of the meals that you would consume eating three meals, but the more consistent intake of food allows your body a greater opportunity to obtain the nutrients from that food.
Another important health "indicator" is cholesterol levels. bad cholesterol levels will negatively affect your cardiovascular system and may cause premature health issues and/or death. Many different studies have concluded that eating six small meals a day will significantly improve your cholesterol levels (LDL & Total).
Six Meal Plan
Eating six meals can seem daunting at first, but it really isn't any harder than consuming three large meals. The key is planning. I am not a very good meal planner... in fact I'm still not... but planning, even if its minimal, will help this plan work to its fullest.
The meal ratio that I use is a combination of sacking and small meals. Typically, you should follow a eat-snack-eat-snack-eat-snack routine throughout the entire day. It is important that you maintain an idea of how many calories each meal/snack contains (
see calorie information below) because eating too many calories a day will defeat the whole purpose of this diet. It is best if you eat higher calorie
meals during your most active times (i.e. morning and afternoon) and then less calories for less active times (i.e. dinner). This allows you to use the calories (energy) during the day and not at night when you're less active.
Calories Per Meal and Snack
I'm not a big fan of counting calories but there is some logic behind it. In order to maintain a healthy weight, it is important that you understand the correlation of calories and weight.
EXAMPLE:
Female A's current weight is 160 and she wants to reach a targeted weight of 135.
In this situation... I would recommend that Female A not only begins a six meal a day diet, but also does not intake anymore than 1350 (target weight x 10).
So, a generic eating plan may look something like this:
- Breakfast - 375 calories
- Mid-morning snack - 100 calories
- Lunch - 350 calories
- Mid-afternoon snack - 100 calories
- Dinner - 225 calories
- Late snack - 100 calories
Keep in mind, the above example is one a small female (160 lbs.) would use who is trying to lose weight (target weight 135 lbs.). My constant target weight is 185-190 lbs. so I take in approx. 1850-1900 calories a day.
Start Slow... It's an Adjustment
One of the most common mistakes in dieting is starting "too fast." Migration from a bad diet to a good diet can be very difficult, especially if it's drastic. For example, if a 250 lbs. man, who is currently eating whatever and whenever he wants chooses a target weight of 180 lbs... it would not be smart of him to begin eating only 1800 calories. A "step-ladder" approach would be much more effective (220 lbs./2200 cal., 200 lbs./2000 cal., etc.) because it would be much less drastic.
Stay Focused
Staying motivated and focused isn't easy but by understanding the benefits related to the Six Meals a Day diet, in addition the the visual results, I have found this diet to be the most effective way of losing unwanted weight.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me @ iifitnessii@gmail.com or comment on this blog. I will try to get to every question that I can.
Good Luck!
Rob Farmer
Cheeseburger Pie
