Do we have to eat 3 meals a day?
Somewhere in the transition from caveman to modern human, we lost our ability to listen to our bodies and eat when we need energy. Instead we listen to General Mills and other food companies who tell us to eat breakfast, lunch and diner at 8AM, noon and 6PM (roughly).
Our thinking is flawed. Eating is a simple biochemical process. We eat because our bodies tell us we need energy. True hunger is a result of an energy shortage. I use the term true hunger in terms of eating enough food to supply our bodies energy needs, and no more.
The problem with eating at set times during the day is that we often eat according to what time of the day it is and not when our bodies are telling us to eat.
The myth of 3 meals a day (and 6 meals).
Apparently every single person on earth is supposed to be hungry enough to eat in the morning, afternoon and at night. Considering that our bodies all operate differently, this makes little sense.
What makes a lot of sense is why we continue to follow in our parents footsteps and eat the same foods at the same times as they did. Humans are habitual creatures. Eating is no exception. For 18 years most people are fed the same foods at roughly the same times. This is why the habit of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner has handcuffed the world.
Breakfast
The belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is a perfect example. I'm sure that I may be burned at the stake by all of the soccer moms out there for saying this, but oh well.
The benefits of eating a "healthy" breakfast are greatly exaggerated by one select group of people. Breakfast food companies. And why wouldn't they?
These companies have a product to sell you and if evidence (no matter how small or inaccurate) says that eating breakfast is beneficial, then they should promote the hell out of it. But their aim is at the uneducated consumer and because you are reading this blog you are not one of those people.
Our bodies are amazing. They tell us when we should go to bed, have sex and when to eat food.
It is a rather simple process. If our bodies need energy it will signal a nerve that tells the brain that it wants food. This feeling of hunger is felt in our stomachs, where a nerve is connected and our food inevitably ends up..
When we need energy we eat. Simple. Our bodies have no concept of what time of day it is.
If you are hungry, eat. If you are not, then don't. It's not rocket science.
I stopped eating my meals at a planned time every day. I now eat when I am hungry. In the process of doing this I realized, by no conscious effort, that I rarely eat breakfast anymore. I do drink a cup of coffee in the morning and that may have an affect on my hunger levels. This is not to say that I never eat breakfast. There are some days when I am hungry and other days when I am not.
By simply listening to my body, I fallen into a routine of eating twice a day. And because I eat foods that have little or no carbs and a lot of protein and fat, I never snack. I am seriously full for a minimum of 6-7 hours. It is awesome.
Some days I eat at 10 or 11 in the morning and other days I'm not hungry till 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
Other eating plans are also available.
The eat six meals a day plan is an example of one. The selling point for this kind of eating system is that eating 6 small meals, every 2-3 hours, will lead to less calories consumed and eventually weight loss.
I personally know individuals who have used this system and lost lots of weight. Unfortunately eating 6 meals a day has very little to do with why weight is lost. The kinds of calories and the amounts of calories consumed play vital roles.
Lets say I ate the same amount of food per day, yet I ate it in six small portions rather than three larger ones, and granted that the amounts would not cause weight gain, it would not matter when I ate. I would be consuming the same kinds and amounts of calories either way.
Do not feel bad for not eating a meal. I often hear that "skipping meals is worse for your health than actually eating." Really? I disagree. Granted that if a meal is skipped because of lack of hunger, this makes complete sense.
If hunger is not present, then there is a reason behind the madness. Whether it be an illness, injury or stress the body is saying that it does not want to go through the very energy intensive process of digesting food.
Again, do not fight it! If you are not hungry it is for a reason, let your bodies voice be heard.
A few other thoughts
Now I must say that if we consistently give our bodies more food that it needs, it will inevitably grow accustomed to receiving food in large amounts and at certain times. Which is why breaking this habit is so difficult.
How do you know that you are giving your body to much of a certain food or food in general? Love handles, man boobs, and double chins would be a good indicator.
Also, I would like to touch on the subject of metabolism increase that results from eating.
One common argument that many people who support eating breakfast use is that eating boosts our metabolism. Which is true. However, the benefits of this are not as dramatic as you may think.
For example, if we were to eat dinner at 6 PM and not eat anything until 8AM our bodies would go through a 14 hour fast. 14 hours is a very long time to go without food. Often overlooked is the fact that 7-9 hours of that 14 are actually spent sleeping. When we sleep, our bodies go into hibernation mode, if you will, and burn very little calories.
Think about it, the only things that our bodies need to do are actions in which we have no control. Heartbeat, breathing, snoring, ext. Our bodies do not exert any physical effort once so ever while we lay in our beds. (Unless you sleep walk. Then I guess that counts.)
Realistically, the amount of metabolism increase that results from simply eating is not significant enough to have any affect on weight loss. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. We burn 500 calories by running for an hour. How much of an impact could eating honestly have?
Don't forget that human beings survived on earth for 1.94 million years before civilizations were even created. I'm pretty certain food was eaten when they were hungry. Cavemen didn't have Rolex's to check the time.
We sleep when we are tired, we pee when our bladders are full, why not eat when we are truly hungry?
If you have tried the 6 meals a day system or any other food eating system please let us know how it went by leaving a comment!
In the words of Oscar Wilde "Everything popular is wrong."
-Ryan
PS: If you are looking for an "easy" way to break your habitual eating cycle, try fasting. Fasting puts us in tune with our natural hunger system. We become more aware of when and what we eat and most importantly why we eat. If you would like to learn more about fasting, check out the following articles.
3 reasons why we shouldn't eat food
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Food is the answer, not Men’s Health
Through out this post I am going to again reiterate the fact that if we want to lose weight, food is the answer. Even though we are often led to believe otherwise.
I came across a couple of articles written by Stephan Guyenet Ph.D. He runs a blog called Whole Health Source.
First, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention does a survey every few years called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Dr. Guyenet pointed out that from 1976-2006 the percentage of people who were inactive fell from 50%- 24%! (See the article here) Although these surveys are based on self reporting accounts, the numbers are still compelling; considering that the rate of overweight and obese individuals has increased.
Second, the British Heart Foundation has a website that gives all the statistics gathered on weight, exercise and all other aspects of health within the British population. Dr. Guyenet found some rather interesting parallels while digging through the data.
From 1992 to 2006 the percentage of male obese British went from 14% to 25%. During that same time, the amount of men exercising, at recommended activity levels, increased from 31% to 40%. (Check out his article here)
While the length of time spent exercising in the UK increased, the percentage of obese Brits increased as well.
Hmm More exercise and an increase in overall rates of obesity....
If exercise does not help our populations, as a whole, lose weight, then what will?
Well if exercise doesn't, then the only logical solution would be the food we eat!!
I understand that I am forcing the nutrition idea down your throats. I believe it to be important enough that I am going to continue to do so!
If nutrition is so important then why are we told to exercise in order to lose weight?
Considering that the majority of our health information comes from the newspaper, magazines or the television it is no wonder that we have all been led astray.
SELF, Men's Health, Women's Health, Shape, Cosmo and countless other mass media magazines fill our brains with false hopes and broken promises. Magazines have one goal: to get us to buy them. They do not give a shit about whether you or I are healthy, they only want to make money. How are they going to get us to buy their magazine? By promising in each new issue that the head of the bicep muscle will become Arnold like if we change the grip on our pull up by 1 inch or that our waste will shrink 3 sizes in 3 weeks by doing these 3 breakthrough yoga moves! BS!
I used to hold Men's Health on the wellness pedestal. Everything that was written turned to gold right before my eyes. I soon realized that their exercise programs and routines did not deliver on their promises of bigger arms and flatter stomachs. I had these huge expectations after reading each new issue. "Mathew McCaunghey does this work out and he looks that good? I have to try this!" actually went through my head. I know it goes through the heads of everybody who reads these kinds of publications as well. That's the reason why models and sports figures plaster the covers.
Magazines and pretty much all mass media that try to deliver information on health and wellness piss me off (obviously). Their motives are not to make us healthier people. They are only in existence to make money.
I must say this. Although food is the main player in attaining weight loss, the genetics that our parents passed down to us play a very large role in how our bodies react to food and exercise.
Some of us are very sensitive to insulin (sugar and carbs) and immediately turn that blood sugar into fat. Others can eat only 1500 calories a day and still gain weight. While some can gorge themselves all day every day and still be skinny.
Some of us can go to the weight room, do a set of curls, leave and some how gain muscle. Others (like me*) can work out every day (used to) and see little our no improvement.
*When I was in high school I used to lift weights 3-4 times a week for an hour and a half at a time. The gains that I saw were minimal and heart breaking.
I know overweight individuals who decided to walk every day and lost lots of weight. There are others who can run marathons (my lovely mother) and actually gain weight!
No single lifestyle change is universal. Yes the food we eat is much much more important than how much we exercise, but one diet is not going to be the right answer to an entire populations weight loss needs.
Take your health into your own hands. Stop taking advice from sources that only want what's in your wallet. Find your own diet and don't be afraid to experiment a little.
When I became a vegan I told myself that I would try it and see how it went. I was not hand-cuffed to that lifestyle. I allowed myself to break away anytime. Knowing that gave me the reassurance that I needed to get through initial transition period*. And 10 months later I did break away. Aided by the knowledge of a new kind of food system.
*Switching from the Standard American Diet to a Vegan diet pretty much over night, was the hardest thing I have ever done.
I love to experiment on myself. Changing the way I eat and exercise brings about new hopes of results and change. My willingness to experiment led me to try a Vegan diet. And I lost lots of weight even though that was not even my intention. I am currently on a hybrid diet. Low-carb with a mix of vegetarian.
Knowing where my food actually comes from is very important to me (no, food does not come from the grocery store). Therefore, I will not eat any meat from fast food restaurants or grocery stores. How meat was grown, slaughtered and packaged sickens me beyond description.
If my new hybrid diet results in weight gain (which it won't...hopefully) then I know that I can go back to eating vegan. Experimentation is a good thing. It allows us to personally try new diets and workouts and make our own assessments based the needs of our bodies.
If you enjoyed this article, and would like to join me on my wild and crazy ride to uncover the truth behind food and physical fitness, subscribe to me via the RSS Feed button at the top of the screen!
Also, if you would like to contact me personally, feel free to email me at bryantheryan@gmail.com
“How do I lose weight?” Focus on food!
*At the end of my last post I said that I would be talking about weight lifting. I am going to switch things up a bit and focus on the importance of nutrition in weight loss instead. I did this because I feel that the number one goal of many people out there is to lose weight. Nutrition is far more important than exercise in regards to weight loss (and overall health in general). So I will begin with nutrition and how it relates to weight loss.
If nutrition is so important in weight loss then why are Tony Little and Denise Austin millionaires? Why are we told that walking 30 minutes a day will help us drop pounds?
It is harder to stop eating food than it is to exercise.
Weight gain was not caused by physical inactivity, it was caused by the food that we ate. Food caused it, food is the solution.
However, eating to lose weight is far from easy.
This is because food that is cheap, convenient and tasty is incredibly bad for our health. Most of these foods contain massive amounts of carbohydrates, sugar and salt.
Why do salty and sweet things taste so good?
As humans have evolved over the past 2 million years we have been exposed to very little salt and sugar. Why?
Have you ever taken a walk in the woods? Nature does not provide animals with large amounts of sugary and salty foods. Rather it provides dwellers with a lot of protein, fat and cholesterol (via other animals, nuts and some leafy vegetables). Considering that the human race has spent 1,990,000 years evolving and surviving off of what the natural world gave us, its no surprise that we easy fall victim to sugar and salt ridden foods.
Major food companies know that we are easily susceptible to sugary and salty foods. A majority of these foods are marketed towards children. For example, breakfast cereals are laced with insane amounts of sugar. Cereals like Trix, Captain Crunch and Cinnamon Toast crunch all have product mascots that are aimed to seduce children into eating their brand of cereal.
If you don't believe me that this kind of food is addictive then buy a box of Oreos (my personal favorite) or a tub of cookies and cream ice cream. Set it in front of you and eat one cookie or take one bite. Only people with the strongest of will power will be able to say no to another. I know I would (and have!) eatin an entire row of Oreos without consciously knowing that I did.
What's wrong with foods that are high in sugar, isn't it the high fat foods I should be worried about?
Sugar is the devil. When we eat sugar the amount of sugar in our blood rises (obviously). When this rise occurs, our bodies release a hormone called insulin*. Insulin digests and processes the sugar in our blood. If our bodies have meet our sugar needs for the day, then that sugar is stored as fat. Considering that we meet all of our daily needs for sugar via carbohydrates (Carbs = Sugar) then any excess sugar we consume is turned into fat.
*If a person is diabetic, their pancreas does not secrete enough insulin to take care of the sugar in the blood. This sugar is left in the blood and can have devastating effects on the entire body. This is why diabetics take medication that acts as insulin. These meds lower the glucose (sugar) levels in their blood.
Sugar = Fat = Weight Gain
* Focus on cutting out processed sugar immediately. Sugar is far worse for our health than dietary fat is.
Because addictive food is easy to find and costs less, we consume far more of it than we know is healthy. We turn to exercise to "make up" for the excess calories we consume. Unfortunately, exercise fails to deliver on its so called promises of weight loss.
In January of 2008 the New York Times published an article entitled Does Exercise Really Keep Us Healthy? Within the article, author Gina Kolata mentions Steven Blair, and exercise researcher at the University of South Carolina, and his view of exercise. He has run marathons and runs every day, yet he admitted that "I was short, fat and bald when I started running, and I'm still short, fat and bald." Why is he still short fat and bald? " it is much easier to eat 1,000 calories than to burn off 1,000 calories with exercise."
If your goal is to lose 10 pounds, get ripped abs, or to just stay skinny, the answer lies in what you eat.
I have always been somewhat fit. Like I have mentioned before I used to run 10-15 miles a week, as well as lift weight 2-3 times per week. I did this for two reasons. One, to stay skinny. Two, I really wanted a six pack of abs.
I would do ab circuits every night of the week until my abs felt like they were going to tear away from my stomach. I exhausted my abs almost everyday for over two years. Their was never a work out when I did not do some form of ab exercise. Did I get the washboard stomach of my dreams? To my utter dismay I did not and I could not understand why.
Not until I ate a strict vegan diet and lost 15 pounds did I realize why. When I was running and doing crunches till I cried I was also eating and drinking like crap. The idea of proper nutrition being my key to a Ryan Reynolds ab canyon never occurred to me . After I dropped 15 pounds was I finally able to see the definition of six abdominal muscles on my stomach (Ryan Reynolds's abs are un-humanly awesome and I will never have abs like him. Click here to see).
In my next article, I will continue to write about the importance of nutrition over exercise but I will bring in some scientific studies to back up my claims.
If you enjoyed this article and would like to follow me on my wild and crazy ride to find the truth about exercise and nutrition, subscribe via the RSS feed button at the top of the screen!
Also, if you would like to personally contact me feel free to email me at bryantheryan@gmail.com
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