The Golden Rules for successful long term weight loss – Series 3/10
In the first blog of this series we discussed the importance of following a structured eating plan (structured eating is to eat at regular intervals and to ONLY eat during those pre-set meal times.) In this series we dive into a bit more detail about the impact and benefits of nutritious meal planning and the problems of eating between meals.
Have 3 meals a day only. Do NOT snack.
Yes, we said it bold and clear: Do not snack.
If you really want to achieve your weight loss goals and maintain a healthy weight, do not eat between meals. One of the golden rules for successful long-term weight loss is quite simply; do not snack. Now you may be thinking ‘well hold on, my dietician told me snacking will help me feel fuller for longer and will prevent ravenous hunger at the end of the work day.’
Contrary to what you may have been told, we don’t actually need to be snacking and for those of us looking to lose weight – we definitely should not be snacking!
Snacking has become such a controversial topic. A quick google search will reveal the conflicting opinions from different healthcare professionals. For example, many dieticians and fitness enthusiasts today teach that having 6 smaller meals a day is the way forward for weight loss and some even go as far as suggesting to their patients and clients to ‘eat something light every 2 hours!’ You yourself may have read that having a small bite every few hours will, for example, increase your metabolism. This is not true and there is little if any scientific evidence that supports this.
Small frequent meals vs. 3 meals a day
Snack foods have been around for many many years. But between 1970 – 2000 the snack food industry really boomed and over the more recent years the snack industry has seen significant growth with snack market sales increasing year by year.
Over the past few years, snacking has become such a common habit that unfortunately, snack foods have turned into a popular meal replacement for many of us. Its understandable that with our fast-paced and busy lifestyles its become very easy to adapt to snacking. However we must not overlook the harm that frequent snacking has on our bodies.
Our ancestors did not snack. The human body does not need to be fed every 2 hours. In fact, the human body is able to endure long periods of time without food – but with grocery stores, coffee shops and vending machines at every corner we are constantly being reminded of food and tempted to ‘have a snack.’
Dr Rebecca Leech, a postdoctoral research fellow at Deakin University in Australia has written several articles on how snacking is ruining our health. Her recent research gives evidence that following an unstructured eating pattern over the traditional 3-meals-a-day pattern may actually promote weight gain. How? Because even if we choose healthy snacks, or what we think are healthy snacks to nibble on between meals, we could end up over-eating without realizing it. If you think about it – the more meals or ‘eating opportunities’ we have during the day, the more calories and thus the more likely we are to exceed our daily energy requirement. And there is a lot of research indicating a positive correlation between eating frequency and total daily calorie intakes.
Many people think, or have been taught that snacking between meals will keep your metabolism working, thus increasing thermogenesis (fat burning) and so resulting in weight loss. This is not true. Many physicians will dispute this theory and rightly so!
Our bodies utilize fat and carbohydrates to generate energy so our cells can function effectively. When the body has both fat and carbohydrates readily available – it will always chose to utilize (burn) carbohydrates first as carbohydrates burn faster. Sugars and carbohydrates fuel the body quickly providing immediate bursts of energy. Fat is always the second option as fat burns slowly and steadily providing moderate but consistent energy for hours.
The problem is – to lose weight, the body ideally needs to burn fat from its fat stores. However, if we are constantly feeding our bodies and snacking every 3 hours or so, our bodies will utilize energy from those snacks rather than from its fat stores. Many of us have lost the ability to burn fat effectively as we are constantly feeding our bodies, and in theory, our bodies have energy at the ready all day long. Eating between meals will eventually lead to weight gain or weight plateau as the body isn’t given the ‘opportunity’ to generate fuel from its fat stores. Therefore the notion of 3-meals-a-day (structured eating) is perfect for weight loss as it forces our bodies to burn from our stored fat to keep the energy flowing between meals.
Now you are probably thinking ‘well I don’t eat junk snacks. How is a healthy snack, say a banana or a whole-wheat oats bar between lunch and dinner going to make me gain weight. Its just a banana. I’ll eat less for dinner.’ We can tell you now, you wont be eating less at dinner. Yes you will burn the banana you ate between lunch and dinner but then that’s it. Your body will not burn anything from the fat stores and this continued eating pattern will lead you to either gaining weight (or at weight plateau if you feel you’ve become more mindful of your food options).
And just to add – several studies have shown that people who eat several small meals or snack throughout the day, even if healthy snacks, consume a higher amount of sugar and less micronutrients without realizing it.
We need to reset our bodies to actively utilize fat. To do this, we just need to give our bodies a ‘fasting break’ between main meals. Our overall health and wellness will dramatically improve if we stick to 3 meals a day. Once our bodies burn fat effectively (as they were designed to) we will have better energy for our cells, more stable moods, experience better sleep, less sugar cravings and more importantly we will experience natural weight loss and consistent weight management.
The take home message here is that eating 3 meals a day only will definitely help us lose weight. Following a 3-meal-a-day only regime, we will find that in the long run we will naturally consume less food without realizing it. Not because of intentional fasting or will power but because fat is being used as our active fuel supply – and as we mentioned above fat burns slow and steady for many hours so that we wont even think of grabbing that muesli bar.
Snacking should be an exception.
Having said the above, its important to clarify one point.
We are not suggesting that you must absolutely fast between main meals in order to lose weight, or that having the occasional snack here and there is an absolute no-no. We all, at some point, will have/need a snack. The idea is to not make snacking a habit and to really understand the health risks that constant eating throughout the day has on the body; primarily our weight. Snacking should be an exception and not part of our plan to lose weight or become healthier.
Dr. Faruq Badiuddin, Consultant General Surgeon in Dubai, specialising in weight management always advices his patients “if you find yourself in need to eat something between meals, a small handful of mixed nuts is the best option – a handful of nuts is healthy and will keep you going until the next meal and it wont feel as if though you’ve ‘ruined your diet’ – nuts are full of fiber and nutrients and sparse in calories.”
So the next time you think of eating something between your meals, first ask yourself if you are actually hungry? Or has it just become a habit to have 3 biscuits and tea at 4pm? Do you really need that caramel latte at 11am because all your colleagues are having one, or maybe a bottle of sparkling water or a cup of green tea would be better if we are not really feeling that peckish at all.
In our next blog we will discuss the benefits of having an early dinner and the potential health risks of eating after 9pm.
