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Weight Loss and 3 meals a day - Confused!!

by Joanne Ford
(Perth WA)

Hi,

A couple of years ago I went to a weight loss clinic and followed their advice and diet to a T, resulting in a weight loss total of 20kg. I maintained this for 5 years.

In the past year with moving from NZ to Australia, I have put on weight, some of this due to comfort eating and some because of new foods. However I have decided to loose the 4kg I have put on but I am so confused, so much of what I read tells us to eat 5/6 small meals a day, other places tell us to eat 3 meals and 3 protein only snacks.

The weight loss clinic I went to, showed us a dvd that by having a 5 hour gap in between food, a natural weight loss hormone kicks in and we need that hormone to kick in to loose weight.

My problem is I am so sick of high protein, low carb- so if possible could you shed some light on some of the myths out there regarding the 3 meals veres the 5/6 meals.

Thank you for your website, its a great read.

Joanne

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Weight Loss and 3 meals a day - Confused!!

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Jan 03, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Meal Frequency
by: Steve

Hi Joanne,

Great to hear from you. Thanks for your comments, questions and feedback.

There seems to be quite a lot of confusion with respect to meal frequency and weight loss.

I strongly believe that smaller, more frequent meals is the best way to go to assist people's weight-loss efforts. However, there is quite a lot of research indicating that there is no advantage in doing so and there are also people who I believe should not use this principle straight away.

There are several reasons why the research may come to this conclusion. It could be because of the subjects used, i.e. overweight people with slow metabolisms or what indicators they were examining, i.e. overall fat loss, appetite markers, etc. Sometimes research comes up with conclusions that don't fit 'real world' application. Let's face it, fitness competitors and bodybuilders have been using this principle for years with great success.

I am certain that eventually there will be research that demonstrates the benefits of having small, frequent meals on weight loss, insulin response and muscle preservation.

However, if a person wants to lose weight and they currently only have 1 or 2 meals a day, it is not suitable for them to jump to 5 or 6 meals straight away. It will result in them gaining weight due to too many calories overall. However, they should have 3 meals a day and then as their metabolism speeds up, they should gradually increase their meal frequency.

When it comes to growth hormone production as a result of reduced meal frequency (5-hour gap between meals), I believe that the amount of growth hormone produced is not enough to have a significant fat-burning effect. Furthermore, the depression that occurs to your metabolism and the loss of muscle that may occur as a result of the gap between meals, certainly overrides any minor benefit.

As far as what to eat, I definitely believe you should have protein with every meal and/ or snack. However, it doesn't have to be much and I'm certainly not a fan of low-carb diets unless you have a medical condition that requires you to follow that approach (i.e. insulin resistance).

A small amount of protein from nuts, seeds, cottage cheese or a tin of tuna is certainly sufficient. Plus, by consuming carbs mainly from natural sources like, fruits and vegetables you can reduce the insulin response that results from carbohydrate consumption.

I hope this helps Joanne.

Regards,

Steve.

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