Do you ever wonder why you hear professional trainers say, "Eat every 3 hours"? It's really not a gimmick. Consider your metabolism as a fireplace and food is the wood you stoke it with. We all realize that in order to keep a fire going you need to continue to put more wood in the fire to keep it from going out. Our body works much the same way.
Digestion of food begins immediately as our saliva mixes with the food we eat. Once the food hits our stomachs and intestines our body goes hard at work to breakdown the food to absorb, store, or excrete what our body needs (and doesn't need) to function and survive. On average, it takes our body about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to process our meals. If you continue to eat a small meal or snack every 3 hours then your body will continually be processing foods and operating at a higher metabolic rate (just as re-stoking the fire will keep it from going out and give continuous heat). This enables your body to function at a higher level, it helps you to avoid binge-eating, and will also provide you with the energy you need to get through your day.
On the other hand, skipping meals and snacks cause your body to slow down into survival-type mode. Remember our bodies were built to survive and heal ourselves...we have very smart systems in place to handle flight or fight situations. The longer you wait to eat between meals, the more our body goes into this survival mode, thus slowing the metabolism to function at a lower level. This lower level of functioning is in place to ensure our internal systems will survive and live off the nutrients that already exist within our own body until the next time we eat. Eating like this causes our body's metabolism to yo-yo up and down throughout the day. (Like a fire that isn't stoked - the fire keeps going out and needs to be re-started again which we all know is very inefficient.)
Continuing to eat sporadically causes our metabolisms to habitually function at a much lower level because our body is never sure how long it will be until the next meal. This also explains why most crash diets fail and we end up gaining more weight back once we resume regular eating. If you are limiting the foods that you're eating (such as carbs) or just limiting the frequency of your meals, you are sabotaging your efforts to have your body operate efficiently.
So plan to eat every 3 hours and stoke your fire! REV up your metabolism, avoid binge-eating, and reap the benefits of a more energetic you!
Be happy, stay active, live healthy! ~Amy President and Elite Trainer Fit To Go Inc.
