The Importance of Meal Timing

Posted December 17, 2010 in Diet 11 Comments »

The Secret To Boosting Your Metabolism, Sticking With Your Diet, And Melting Fat Fast

By Shannon Clark

The Importance of Meal Timing
The Importance of Meal Timing

As you go about your weight loss diet or weight loss program, there are many different factors that go into the diet equation that will all influence how quickly you see results.

If you’re someone who wants to make progress as quickly as possible, one key factor that you cannot be leaving out is meal timing.

While what you eat is definitely going to have a huge impact on the progress you make, when you eat will also influence your results as well.

Let’s have a quick look at the most important reasons why meal timing is something that you absolutely must be paying attention to.

Boost To Your Metabolic Rate

The very first reason to schedule your meals regularly and frequently rather than just using the three squares a day like traditional diets may have called for is because doing so is going to keep your metabolic engine running very efficiently.

Think about it this way, when you go for hours on end without eating a meal, that’s a signal to your body that it had better start to conserve fuel. It doesn’t know when the next time it’ll get a meal will be and as such, it slows down the amount of energy its burning off.

This allows it to prevent starvation and be that much more effective at storing body fat.

If you eat very often though throughout the day, then the body knows food is coming again soon and will begin to speed up the metabolism as it burns off calories at an incredibly fast rate.

Since weight loss comes down to how many calories you burn over the course of the day, you should be able to easily see why this is so effective.

Greater Control Over Hunger

Second, another very big reason to make sure that you’re eating frequently throughout the day is because it’s going to give you very good control over your hunger level. Quick question – what’s the single biggest reason most people cheat on their weight loss diet?

If you said hunger, you’d be correct. They’re all fine following their scheduled meal plan when they aren’t hungry, but as soon as hunger rears its ugly head, all will power goes out the window.

If you’re eating very frequently throughout the day, hunger should never be an issue so neither should reaching for that box of cookies in the pantry or tub of ice cream in the freezer.

Steadier Energy Levels

Finally, the last big reason why you should focus on frequent meals with your diet is because it promotes steadier energy levels. When you eat a very large meal and then don’t eat again for hours, you’re going to get a huge energy spike followed by a dramatic energy crash.

When you crash you’re going to be left feeling hungry, irritable, and craving more food.

Not exactly what you’d call a good time.

With regular meals though you keep your energy level on an even keel all day long so not only will you feel a hundred times better throughout the day but you’re also going to be that much more likely to get those workout sessions in and therefore more likely to see success.

So as you can see, starvation diets and diets that have you eating only two to three times a day don’t work. If you want results fast, you must increase your meal frequency. Aim to eat five to six mini meals throughout the day and you’ll be on track to a leaner version of your current self.

Guest post by Shannon Clark from SlimmingResources.com

Share the Swole!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

11 Responses to “The Importance of Meal Timing”

  1. I agree, I don’t buy into the who “starvation mode” thing either. Maybe if you went without eating for a week, but missing a meal for a day or two isn’t going to do it.

    Greater control over hunger, and steadier energy levels, yes, but not the starvation mode stuff.

  2. Ok, missed the cheating starvation mode part. However, I do believe in feeding metabolism. I have always eaten many small meals per day and have always been thin and lean. Other family members have not and are not so genetics is not only at play here.

  3. This article has been linked by Quake Fitness!
    A link has been published on Quake Fitness back to this article.

    Connecting Fitness and Health Blogs!

  4. Unfortunately, I agree with the other comments posted here.
    Eating frequently to prevent ‘starvation mode’ is definitely baloney.

    • Yeah, I’ve come to believe that eating frequently really only applies to gaining weight. I no longer see a problem with 3 meals a day or even going with the intermittent fasting route, when trying to lose weight. Eating 6-8 meals a day when trying to lose weight seems to be more of a fad that has come and passed, at least for those of us with open minds. Of course it will remain a nutrition myth for the rest of eternity that you have to eat 8 tiny meals a day if you want to lose weight.

    • Also Clint, have you registered with Comment Luv? You post comments here once in a while and you’d get a nice backlink to your most recent post if you signed up at ComLuv.

  5. A lot of good information. You are so right about frequency of eating.When you are training regularly the need to eat more frequently seems to increase with the depth of hunger.

  6. Meh. Studies shows there’s no difference between three meals versus six. It’s part the quality of your food and how many calories you end up eating. Somehow I doubt the body breaks down muscle in a pinch just because you’re a tad peckish.

Leave a Reply