Do you feel hungry all the time?
You’re not alone. The diet advice you’ve been carrying around since the 80s is throwing you off your health journey.
One client of mine (I’ll call her Claire) came to me in distress.
She didn’t like how she felt or looked. She had gained weight and the pounds kept packing on even though she was eating only 6 small meals a day. She was hungry all the time and grazing throughout the day wouldn’t curb her hunger pains.
Can you relate? Take a look at your lifestyle and how you feel. Is 6 small meals a day working?
Today, you’ll learn the truth about breaking up your meals. Spoiler alert: Snacking is sabotaging your weight loss goals!
The History of 6 Small Meals a Day
In 1977, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs released a list of nutritional guidelines and “dietary goals” to the masses. Among other problematic pieces of advice, we were told to eat six small meals a day.
At the time, we were told that eating six small meals each day was the best way to elevate our metabolism. While scientific data didn’t back this up, we did know that digestion burns some calories. The group, therefore, made the assumption that increasing digestion throughout the day would increase people’s metabolisms.
It turns out that people who eat six small meals show no metabolic advantage after all!
Nevertheless, America went from eating three solid, filling meals a day to grazing on six measly snacks around the clock.
Americans Are Overfed and Undernourished
We’re eating far too much of the wrong things. We overconsume macronutrients (like fat and carbs), but we’re underconsuming micronutrients.
In America, we eat around the clock but we’re not taking in enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. Our lifestyle leaves many struggling with disease and health issues. What’s going on?
I blame snacking.
Why Snacking Is Setting You Back
Let’s look at the three big issues with the six small meals theory:
- You Can’t Stay Full on Snacks: Small meals don’t stick with us for long. When we don’t eat to fullness, we’re hungry two hours later. A solid meal with ample calories, macronutrients, and volume will fill up our tummies, satisfy our appetites, and let us leave the table for four hours.
- Snacking Spoils Your Appetite: Your mom was right! You’ll spoil your appetite for your meal if you snack leading up to it. Let’s be honest—snacks don’t offer much nutritional value. Unless you’re slicing and prepping carrots and cucumbers, snacks are packaged and processed. They leave us full of empty calories, unsatisfied, and wanting more. It’s a vicious cycle. When we load up on these foods, we’re not hungry for a nutrient-dense meal.
- Snacking Screws Up Insulin: Back in 1977, we didn’t understand how much insulin plays a role in our ability to lose weight or our likelihood to store fat. Now we know that insulin and cortisol are the two fat-storing hormones in the body.
Every time we eat, our insulin levels increase. When insulin levels are high, our bodies switch into fat-storing mode. When our insulin levels are low, we have the ability to burn fat.
Eating six meals throughout the day keeps our bodies in a high-insulin, fat-storing mode. Eating three meals a day gives our bodies enough time without food between meals for our insulin levels to recover.
We may have gotten away with eating measly meals when we were 20 (who else lived on Diet Coke and iceberg salads?). Undereating though, backfires as we get older. It’s unhealthy and unsafe. Small, nutritionally weak meals won’t even help you reach your weight loss goals.
The best way to lose weight, keep it off, and enjoy your new body for many healthy years is to eat three, filling, and balanced meals each day. Let’s look at some specifics below.
How You Should Eat Instead
The best way of eating is intuitive. It follows our natural circadian rhythms and hunger cues. Once you see it, you’ll feel silly for ever straying from it.
Here are four tips to follow:
- Eat three solid meals each day.
- Space out your protein equally between each meal.
- Fill up on protein, high-volume veggies, healthy fats, and fibers. These ingredients take 4-5 hours to digest, so you’ll be full and satisfied until your next mealtime.
- Fast for a minimum of 12 hours and up to 16 hours a day. For example, you could eat your last meal at 7 PM and breakfast the next day at 8 AM.
This way of living is so much simpler than six small meals a day. It’s hard coming up with that many healthy options! Three meals and an optional snack, if needed, keeps healthy living simple and satisfying.
Let’s make this personal:
A few weeks ago, I shared a really simple, quick, and healthy lunch option—a bagged salad with some Ahi tuna. It was a big, delicious meal with tons of micro and macronutrients that rang in at about 700 calories.
Does that number shock you?
Those of us who’ve survived 1200-calorie diets know what happens when you blow 700 calories in one meal: your next meal is going to leave you hungry. 500 calories isn’t enough to keep you full the rest of the day.
But when you gain a better understanding of macro management and calorie control, and when you’re only eating three times each day, a 700 calorie meal won’t scare you.
You’ll learn that you never need to drop your daily calories below 1600. When you’ve lost the weight, you’ll be able to maintain that weight loss by eating over 2000 calories each day. You’ll see that three meals make you feel better and see results faster than six wimpy ones. Then, a nutrient-packed lunch with 700 calories will feel like a drop in the bucket.
What Happened to Claire?
With a few simple but effective strategies under her belt, Claire’s weight loss took off! Here’s what happened after she joined my 7-week program LEAN:
“I have loved this program: the exercises, way of eating, and fasting. I never feel hungry anymore! I realize now that I was creating my hunger pains from grazing! Now, I have so much energy and sleep so well! I absolutely love this way of life!”
Learn this way of life in LEAN. Ditch the six small meals a day theory. You’ll love feeling full and satisfied again.
