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Nourishment Timing And Tactics

Copyright 2002, Terry Duschinski.

Our bodies operate most efficiently if supplied with a couple of hundred calories about every three to four hours. This is why newborn infants cry in the night. Smaller meals more often utilize our fueling system more efficiently.

Your daily calorie level may not be too high, it might just be arriving in two few deliveries. Metabolism is a very sensitive mechanism that speeds up or slows down depending upon demand. Just like your local Interstate highway’s vehicular traffic flow, there are only so many calories our bodies can process at one time. Averting a metabolic traffic jam results in better utilization of the ingested energy.

When we starve ourselves -- even if only for several hours -- metabolic rate slows. Picture lane closures on your Interstate due to accidents or chemical spills. It's a double whammy if this occurs just before rush hour.

Advice to eat more frequently stems from research done by Dr. Bryant Stamford, head of the Health Promotion and Wellness Center at the University of Louisville. In one study, 80 percent of the obese people surveyed were eating less than people of normal weight, but were eating it all at one meal. Dr. Stamford says one massive meal a day is about the worst way to care for the body. The second worst way, he says, is only two meals per day. Big meals tend to produce big waistlines, Dr. Stamford contends.

There are at least three reasons why one-meal-a-day dieting is a poor method for shedding fat:

·     It tends to turn into gorging.

• The body perceives starvation and thus slows metabolic rate to compensate.
• The body cannot accommodate a large amount of food at once.

Large meals trigger extra amounts of insulin to break down the food, they also promote the conversion of carbohydrates, which include sugar, into fat.

Bodybuilders training for a contest eat approximately the same number of calories, divided into the same proportions of macronutrients, every few hours. In this way, of course, they’re similar to infants.

We’ll make concessions to real life and supplement the breakfast-lunch-dinner tradition with in-between snacks.

Meal times of 6:00 a.m., noon, and 6:00 p.m., with snacks at 9:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. would be deal. Obviously, the other demands of your life will require you to customize. But to whatever extent possible, eat something every three to four waking hours. A couple of hundred calories every couple of hours keeps us on even keel -- never stuffed and never famished.

Scheduling can also help with two other eating-associated elements. What you eat and how much you eat are affected by the manner in which you perform the eating. Adherence to these recommendations will combat impulsive bingeing:

First, concentrate on eating and do not combine it with another activity, such as watching TV, talking on the phone, driving the car, or reading a magazine. Eating while doing something else builds an association between calorie consumption and the other activity.  Just out of habit, the event can stimulate appetite. How many guys like to snack while watching sports on TV?  Like Pavlov and his dog, when the game starts you’re ready to munch, hungry or not.

Another disadvantage is that you'll be only semi-conscious of your food consumption. If you read the morning newspaper at breakfast, discuss business over lunch, and watch the evening news at dinner, you're obviously not concentrating on your food intake. You'll get all of the calories, but only part of the enjoyment.

The second recommendation is similar. Eat in only one place in the house, and do nothing else there, even when you’re not eating.

Places, as well as activities, can associate themselves with food. It is, therefore, important to limit the locations in which you eat, and – this is really difficult -- do nothing else in those locations anytime except eat.

If it's a kitchen table, do not sit at it to read the newspaper, balance the checkbook, play cards, or help the kids with home work. Use it for eating and nothing else.

Establish an eating-only place at work, too, and that place obviously cannot be your desk.

The danger in eating anywhere and everywhere in the house or office is that you will then tend to feel hungry while in those places. It isn't really hunger, however, it's probably just appetite. It can even be a nervous habit.

College students study better in the library because that is the only activity they associate with the library. You should forge the same type of relationship with food.

Of course, be ready for the distractions of life. For those hard to sit down to a meal times, carry fruit, bread, or various types of so-called energy bars. Try not to rely on the calorie-dense fare offered in vending machines.

The top calorie total for any episode should be between 400 to 600 calories depending on your body size, if you’re trying to shed fat. This may be a significant reduction from the once-a-day stuffing to which you've become accustomed. If so, an activity right after the meal would occupy your attention such that you're not missing the mega-calorie encounter you're used to having. A 30-minute stroll or some light yard work might serve the purpose.

Remember, your metabolic rate can contend with a steady calorie flow in a less fattening way than a caloric rush hour.