Fat makes you fat right? Meats and eggs contain too much fat too, right? So to lose weight you need to eat small meals frequently throughout the day that are low in fat and low in calorie content, right? And of course follow the Food Guide Pyramid, which by the way is no longer a pyramid (it's a triangle with pie shaped segments representing how you "should" eat).
Not Exactly! Following this is actually one of the best ways to gain body fat.
One of the biggest lies that the fitness and weight loss industry has told people was to eat 5-6 small meals every 3 hours. We used to recommend this, while we never went as far the Food Guide Pyramid does to recommend that people eat a high carbohydrate, low protein, low fat diet, which puts you on the fast track to weight gain and obesity. We did recommend that you eat 5-6 times per day. This was thought to keep your metabolism running higher and more efficiently. It was thought that if you skipped a meal your metabolism would slow and stall and you would go into fat storing mode.
Recently, there has been a lot of research done in this area of nutrition and what we are seeing is that it doesn't matter how frequently you eat throughout the day, less frequently is showing to work better. What matters is the quality of food that you are eating and making sure that you are eating enough calories each day.
Here is what happens when you eat, especially carbohydrates, insulin is triggered, which then triggers fat storage. So while you still need to eat sufficient calories each day and make sure not to starve yourself, you don't necessarily have to eat every 3 hours.
With the old thinking of eating frequently every few hours this is what typically happens. You have a bowl of oatmeal or cereal for breakfast, then in and hour and a half you're starving so you eat something (probably low fat and low calorie), then in another hour and a half you're starving again so you do the same thing. And this pattern repeats itself all day, until eventually at the end of the day when you are burned out and all will power is gone you give in and grab that bag of chips or pint of ice cream. Even if you manage to get through the day without "cheating" you end up eating way more calories than you need.
The whole 5-6 meals per day idea was the result of the 80's and 90's low fat and fat-free craze, when you eliminate fat the only thing left to eat is carbs so in order to not be hungry you must eat every couple of hours.
So here is what the most current and up to date findings are showing:
- Focus on eating high quality foods (non-processed).
- Eat a higher fat content diet - good fats from meats, eggs, nuts, etc., not fried greasy foods.
- Eat high protein foods.
- Eat as many veggies as possible, with some fruit.
- Eat calorie dense meals - roughly 600 - 750 calories per meal.
- Eat a large breakfast and dinner with a small midday snack.
A typical day would look like this.
Breakfast:
-3 eggs (whole egg)
- veggies - as many as you want and as many types as you want
- a few pieces of breakfast meat - nitrate free bacon, ham, sausage
- cheese - not the fat free kind
- this can all be made into an omelet or we prefer egg bakes, that way you have them ready to eat all week.
Snack:
- Recovery Shake - on workout days
- Apple or other fruit with almond butter - on non workout days
Dinner:
- 5-6 ounces of meat
- as many veggies as you can eat
Eating like this will keep you full for hours afterwards and help eliminate cravings throughout the day, which are actually the result of not eating enough at each meal and triggered through frequent eating. You also end up eating less calories at the end of the day than if you are eating smaller meals more frequently.
Also, if you you want a baked potato or some quinoa every now and then that is fine, just have the majority of your calories coming from starches.
Yes, this is very different from what we have been taught over the past couple of decades. But so was the idea that strength training was more effective for fat loss than the treadmill and cardio exercise. And that has been proved over and over to be true since the first finding in 1994.
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