Fractional meals for weight loss. How often should you eat to lose weight? Diet

Probably, at different stages of life, each of us was worried about the question: how many times a day should we eat? The diet may change due to diets, weight loss, and treatment of diseases of the digestive system. Unfortunately, the modern rhythm of life does not allow us to follow the correct, appropriate regime. And unhealthy snacks on the go have become the norm, commonplace. The question of diet worries every parent, athlete, common man. Therefore, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different eating patterns.

What are the benefits of eating three meals a day?

Eating three times a day is a habitual routine for everyone. This is how most of us eat since childhood. Meals three times a day include breakfast at 7:00 am, lunch at 13:00 in the afternoon, dinner at 18:00 in the evening. This diet is suitable for those people who do not have any health problems and do not want to lose or gain weight. Eating three times a day is a mandatory food requirement for the body.

But it is not always possible to follow this diet. The popularity of three meals a day is due to the 8-hour work schedule. But, in addition to banal convenience, eating three times a day also has a number of advantages. Most nutritionists insist on small, frequent diets. This is due to the fact that the fractional mode allows you to control your weight and helps you lose weight. Recent studies have shown that this is not entirely true.

So, it has been proven that if you eat three times a day, you can also lose weight. And it is not at all necessary to divide calories into 5-6 meals a day. Other studies have shown that eating 2-3 times a day increases the level of good cholesterol in the blood, which improves lipid metabolism. This is very useful for people suffering from obesity. Moreover, it has been scientifically proven that eating three meals a day has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the cardiovascular system. The same cannot be said about the fractional mode.

Therefore, if you eat three times a day, you can not only maintain the health of the digestive system, but also improve the function of the heart and blood vessels. This diet is suitable for the following categories:

People with a work schedule from 8 am to 5 pm, when it is not possible to eat every 2 hours;
When there is no opportunity and time to cook a lot of different foods;
People who are accustomed to such a diet and do not have diseases of the digestive system;
When there are no attacks of hunger throughout the day.

But, if a person is trying to lose weight, experiences a constant feeling of hunger, and ends up passing it on, the three-times-a-day diet should be abandoned. You need to find other options for how to eat during the day.

Principles of fractional nutrition

IN Lately It is precisely this regime that has gained enormous popularity and distribution. Most nutritionists and gastroenterologists insist on following a split meal regimen. In this mode, you need to eat often, but in small portions. The entire daily calorie requirement is divided equally into these meals. How many times this will happen depends on the person’s capabilities. As a rule, such nutrition consists of three main courses a day and three healthy snacks.

So, in general, a person eats up to 6 times a day. How to correctly calculate your portions? For example, if the body needs 1500 kcal per day, one serving should not contain 500 kcal, but no more than 250. 250 kcal are contained, for example, in 1 apple and a glass of kefir. This option is an excellent snack between main meals.

Eating up to 5-6 times a day is recommended for those who want to get rid of extra pounds, no matter how strange it may sound. The main advantage of this regime is that by eating often, a person does not experience bouts of hunger. Due to this, there is no overeating, no food restrictions. And the body regularly receives the calories and nutrients it needs. An experiment conducted by scientists proved this fact.

So, two groups of subjects were given the same number of calories. Only one group consumed the entire portion at once, and the other in parts at intervals of one hour. People from the second group gradually learned to control their appetite, which saved them from overeating. Also, if you eat small portions, the level of bad cholesterol and blood sugar will decrease. Therefore, this meal is suitable for people with diseases of the endocrine system and pathologies of the pancreas.

In general, people with the following problems need to eat up to 6 times a day:

Having excess body weight;
Availability of opportunities to eat every 1-2 hours;
Frequent attacks of hunger during the day;
Overeating in the evening;
Availability higher level cholesterol;
The presence of chronic diseases of the digestive system, diabetes.

Is it possible to eat 1-2 times a day?

Until the end of the 19th century, many people ate two meals a day. With this diet, the first meal occurs around 10 am. At the same time, getting up, as with any other mode, is at 6-7 in the morning. For breakfast it is customary to eat whole grain bread, fermented milk products, fresh fruits. But, you cannot mix incompatible products with each other.

The second time you can eat only after 18:00. Thus, the interval between meals is quite long. Eating only high-quality products, even in small quantities, ensures maximum absorption of all nutrients and improves the functioning of the digestive system. Therefore, you can eat twice a day, but it must be high-quality, only natural food.

Principles of intermittent fasting

Nutritionists have the concept of short-term fasting. When following this regime, a person does not eat anything for 18 hours, but drinks only water. The rest of the day you can eat whatever you want. Of course, with the exception of junk food and overeating. There is another option for short fasting - you need to eat as usual 5 days a week, and fast twice a week.

In some cases, such nutrition may be beneficial. Thus, short-term fasting has the following effects:

Reducing cholesterol levels;
Increased testosterone levels;
Reduced insulin levels;
Normalization of the cardiovascular system;
Reduced leptin levels in the body.

Some scientists are of the opinion that fasting lowers the level of inflammatory markers in the blood and slows down the aging process. Also, rare fasting increases memory and learning ability.

Also, experiments were conducted to study the benefits of short-term fasting. People suffering from asthma and obesity took part. The trial found that subjects lost up to 9% of their body weight within 2 months, and symptoms of asthma were significantly reduced. Moreover, blood tests showed a significant decrease in the levels of markers of stress (oxidative) and inflammation.

The benefits of fasting have also been proven for brain function. If you don't eat for hours on end, the body will begin to consume reserve energy from the fat layer. This way, fatty acids begin to enter the blood, which has a positive effect on the cognitive abilities of the brain. Therefore, the practice of eating this way protects brain cells from destruction.

Short-term fasting will be useful in the following cases:

When trying to lose weight;
If there is no hunger in the morning;
In the absence of breakfast;
If you don't want to cook.

How many times a day should you eat to gain weight?

The problem is not only to get rid of extra pounds, but also to gain weight. Gaining body weight is required after serious illnesses or surgeries. Also, athletes and bodybuilders strive to gain weight for rapid growth muscle mass. In this case, the amount of protein consumed per day plays an important role.

There is an opinion that the body can only absorb 30 grams of protein. Anything above this value goes unnoticed by the body. One may not agree with this opinion. To date, there are no strict doses of protein required for the human body. It all depends on individual characteristics. But, nevertheless, it has been proven that an excess of protein in the body reduces the speed and degree of its absorption.

When trying to gain weight, it is recommended to eat smaller meals. The number of meals per day should reach 6 times. This is explained not only by the level of protein, but also by the level of calories. It is quite problematic to fit a large number of calories into 2-3 adequate servings. A more even distribution of food will allow it to be absorbed as much as possible. So, when gaining weight, the main emphasis is on energy value food, and not on the number of times it is consumed.

The concept of “diet mode” includes:

quantity and time of food intake during the day
distribution of the daily diet according to its energy value, chemical composition, food set and food for breakfast, lunch
intervals between meals
time spent eating

The human body is extremely complex. The harmonic balance of this complex system, under constant influence of the external environment, is what we call health.

The rhythm of nutrition plays an important role in maintaining the normal functioning of the body and its health. The human body is designed in such a way that at a certain time the entire digestive tract prepares itself for food intake and signals about it. A person accustomed to a certain diet can check his watch based on signals from his stomach. If for some reason the next meal does not take place, the body is forced to rebuild, and this entails negative consequences.

At the hour allotted for eating, or some time later, when thinking about food, gastric juice begins to flow into the stomach, which has great digestive capacity, and if at that time there is no food in the stomach, the secreted juice begins to act on the walls of the stomach and duodenum. Frequent eating disorders lead to the formation of ulcers, gastritis and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. To avoid such consequences of a violation of normal nutrition, it is recommended to eat something during normal meal hours if it is not possible to eat normally.

Human nutrition is regulated by the central nervous system. This is controlled by the so-called food center (appetite center) in the brain. And for normal and proper operation this center is extremely important correct mode nutrition. You need to eat a certain number of times during the day and at certain, strictly established intervals, if possible, correctly distributing food for each of the meals (both in volume and calorie content, and in the composition of nutrients).

As mentioned above, a person who is accustomed to a developed diet begins to feel hungry at a certain time and develops an appetite. But you need to know that hunger and appetite are not the same thing. Hunger is a physiological state when the amount necessary for the normal functioning of the body ceases to enter the blood. nutrients. Appetite can appear at the mere sight or even at the memory of tasty food (although physiological need in a new portion of food in the body in this moment No).

It also happens the other way around - there is no appetite, although the body already needs the next portion of food. Both increased appetite, not caused by physiological necessity, and its absence are a painful condition, most often caused by a systematic violation of the basic rules of nutrition. A normal food reflex is developed from childhood, when the body is formed and eating habits (including harmful ones) are formed. You need to know that in children the food center (reflex) is especially easily excited not only by the sight of food, but also by the mention of it. Satisfying every manifestation of appetite that is not justified by physiological necessity will inevitably lead to disruption of proper digestion and overeating.

The question of how many times to eat a day, at what intervals and what caloric amount of food to take during each meal is one of the problems that is carefully studied by specialists, including the Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Research by scientists has shown that one-time meals are generally unacceptable: with such nutrition, the human body is under tension, not only does it not work properly digestive system, but also all other systems and organs of the body, especially the nervous system. Eating two meals a day also makes you feel unwell. A person with such a diet experiences severe hunger, and the digestibility of the most important part of the diet - protein, on average, is no more than 75 percent of what enters the body. With three meals a day, a person feels better, food is eaten with good appetite, and protein digestibility increases to 85 percent. With four meals a day, protein digestibility remains at the same 85 percent level, but a person’s well-being is even better than with three meals a day. In an experiment, scientists proved that with five and six meals a day, appetite worsens and, in some cases, protein digestibility decreases.

Conclusion: for a healthy person, it is most rational to eat 4 times a day; acceptable and Three meals a day. As for therapeutic nutrition for obesity, gastritis, colitis and other diseases, the diet and diet are prescribed by the doctor.

Now about the intervals between meals. Ideal from a physiological point of view, it would be to start the next meal only when the digestion of the food eaten at the previous meal has finished. To this we must add that the digestive organs, like any other organ human body, need periods of rest. And finally, digestion has a certain effect on all processes occurring in the body, including the activity of the central nervous system. The combination of these conditions leads to the fact that a person accustomed to a measured diet develops a normal appetite at the right time.

One of the indicators of the duration of the act of digestion is the time it takes for food to be removed from the stomach. It has been established that when normal operation stomach and other digestive organs, the process of digesting food lasts about 4 hours. Each meal leads to a more or less pronounced change in the state of the central nervous system. After eating, especially a large one, some apathy sets in, attention decreases, the will relaxes, the person tends to sleep, that is, in the language of a physiologist, conditioned reflex activity decreases. This state of the central nervous system, which occurs immediately after eating, lasts, depending on the abundance of food taken, for an hour or more. Then all these sensations smooth out, and finally, by the end of the fourth hour, the food center returns to its normal state - appetite reappears. And if a person who is accustomed to the regime does not eat in a timely manner, he becomes weak, his attention decreases, and his performance decreases. Moreover, in the future, appetite may disappear. If you are systematically late with food or eat on a full stomach, the normal activity of the digestive glands is disrupted and digestion is upset. A longer period between meals occurs during the period of night sleep, but it should not exceed 10-11 hours. General rule is the following: the intervals between small meals can be short (2-3 hours), but eating earlier than 2 hours after the previous meal is not advisable. On average, breaks between meals should be 4-5 hours.

The distribution of the daily diet, that is, the preparation of a menu, is of great importance. This combines issues of food quantity, its quality composition and consistency in taking individual dishes.

The total amount of food consumed by a person per day, together with liquid dishes and drinks, is on average about 3 kilograms. Breakfast is the first meal after sleep. During the night's sleep, everything eaten the day before was digested, all organs of the body, including the digestive ones, rested and favorable conditions were created for their further work. Scientists involved in nutrition issues are unanimous that it is necessary to have breakfast, regardless of whether a person is engaged in physical or mental activity. We can only talk about what part of the diet should contain breakfast. It is believed that if a person is engaged in physical labor, then breakfast should contain approximately 1/3 of the daily ration, both in volume and nutritional value. If a person doing physical labor eats a small amount and nutritional value breakfast or, worse, starts work on an empty stomach, then he cannot work at full capacity, and his performance drops significantly. It has now become fashionable, especially among knowledge workers, to limit themselves to a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast. They refer to lack of time and appetite. Both are the result of an incorrect lifestyle, general regimen, including diet. Putting order in your diet (as, indeed, in your entire lifestyle) is entirely within the power of a person, and anyone who wants to can overcome the bad habit of eating poorly, and by the way, give up bad habits, such as alcohol abuse and smoking.

Nutrition is the biological supply of the body active substances regulating life processes.

What should you eat?

The body needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and microelements. But so that there is a large amount of food and an appropriate amount of calories. Therefore, you should include vegetables and fruits in your daily diet and just remember that the body needs proteins and vitamins. Moreover, the magnitude of the body’s immune response, in particular to infection, depends on the quality of nutrition. The more complete the food, the closer to the optimum the content of proteins and vitamins, the more resistant our body is to infection.

What does the concept of “proper diet” mean? First of all, this is regular food at certain intervals.

Research by physiologists has shown that when food is taken at the same time, conditioned reflex connections are developed in the body. Automatically, 30-60 minutes before a meal, the body begins preparatory work: the secretion of gastric juice increases, substances that play an important role in digestion are released. The body prepares for food intake and when it enters the digestive organs it immediately begins to process it. Thanks to this, food is well digested, well absorbed, turns out to be more useful and even seems tastier. No wonder I.P. Pavlov said that “you need to eat in such a way that food gives you pleasure.” Here it is appropriate to quote lines from “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin.

I love the hour
Define lunch, tea
And dinner. We know the time
In a village without much fuss:
The stomach is our faithful breget.

Interesting studies were conducted at the Institute of Nutrition, which were reported in the Health magazine.

“The daily ration was divided into two equal parts. The first was given at 8 am, the second at 8 pm. In this regime, with a 12-hour break between meals, the experiment participants experienced a strong feeling of hunger. Proteins were absorbed only by 75 percent.

In the second series of studies, the same healthy people ate 3 times a day: breakfast at 8 o'clock, lunch at 2:30 am, and dinner at 8:30 pm. There was a good appetite, but no feeling of hunger, proteins were absorbed better - by 85 percent.

Then four meals a day were offered: breakfast at 8 o'clock, second breakfast at 11 o'clock 30 minutes, lunch at 14 o'clock 30 minutes and dinner at 20 o'clock 30 minutes. In this case, health and appetite were also good, protein digestibility remained at the same level as in the second series of studies.

After eating five or six times a day, my appetite decreased somewhat. As you can see, research results eloquently indicate that for healthy people It is best to eat three or four times a day.

Some overweight or overweight people tend to sit down at the table less often. And completely in vain. On the contrary, obese people need to eat more often - five, six times a day, but little by little. With long breaks, an increased appetite develops, and this is what you need to watch out for if you are overweight.

However, in order to properly organize your nutrition, it is not enough to know how many times a day to sit down at the table. You also need to distribute your food according to calorie content throughout the day.

If you start work early - at 7-8 am, it is more rational to stick to four meals a day. Breakfast before work should make up 25-30 percent of the total calorie content of the daily diet: it is necessary to create an energy reserve in the body for the duration of intense and prolonged work.

Second breakfast - during the break. Its calorie content is approximately 10-15 percent of the total for the day. It is enough to eat scrambled eggs or eggs, or sandwiches, or sausages and drink a glass of tea, kefir or coffee. The most significant part of the daily caloric intake - from 35 to 40 percent - should be lunch.

In the evening, you should not eat meat, fish, beans, peas - food rich in protein. It lingers in the stomach for a long time, requiring vigorous juice secretion. Spicy foods, strong tea, and coffee are also not beneficial in the evening - they have a stimulating effect. It is best to eat porridge, cottage cheese or a vegetable dish and drink milk, kefir or weak tea.

Eating four meals a day is not convenient for everyone. Some people only eat three times a day. But even in this case, the principle of food distribution throughout the day remains the same: a hearty breakfast, a three-course lunch and a light dinner. What can you recommend to those working the evening shift?

Since their dinner is shifted to a later time - 11-12 o'clock at night - and immediately precedes sleep, it should be light - make up 10-15 percent of the calorie content of the daily diet.

The rations are distributed differently for those who work the night shift. The peculiarity of their diet is that they have dinner before work, and after breakfast they go to bed. To preserve the body's energy reserves during work, the bulk of calories should come from dinner. Before going on shift, it is recommended to eat a meat or fish dish and drink tea, coffee or cocoa. Breakfast for night shift workers should be nutritious, contain 25-30 percent of the daily calorie intake, but not voluminous - after all, after eating, a person who comes home from work needs to sleep.

In general, eating a lot at one time is very harmful. The fact is that the muscles of the stomach walls contract when it is emptied and stretch when it is filled. When the stomach is often full, the muscles can become persistently stretched, and it is very difficult to fight this.

On the other hand, it is harmful to eat too little: the tone of the intestinal muscles may decrease and constipation will begin.

How much should a healthy adult eat per day?

On average, from 2.5 to 3.5 kilograms per day. At the same time, you should regulate the amount of food you eat and not eat too much. A feeling of heaviness in the epigastric region, shortness of breath, and drowsiness indicate that you have overeaten. You should never put yourself in this state.

“He who eats when his stomach is full digs his own grave with his teeth.”, says a Turkish proverb.

Most often we overeat on holidays and weekends. On these same days, we also sin by violating the correct diet: we have breakfast late and, tempted by snacks, gourmet dishes, we sit down at the table more often. It brings nothing but harm. Try, if possible, to adhere to the established rhythm of eating, not only on weekdays, but also on weekends.

A controversial topic is how many times a day to eat when trying to lose weight. Nutritionists tend to consume food at least 5 times a day, otherwise they will lose excess weight it'll be hard. Is it true that in the morning you are allowed to eat whatever you want, but in the afternoon you need to strictly adhere to calories?

How many times a day should you eat to lose weight without harming your health?

Research on this topic has shown that it matters total number calories consumed from food during the day. Be sure to watch how many times you eat, as well as what kind of food you eat.

Beware of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index. These are confectionery products, baked goods made from premium flour, and sweets.

These products quickly raise blood sugar levels, and their decrease also occurs in a short period, so a deceptive feeling of hunger arises. And this, in turn, encourages extra snacking.

Do you think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and has a direct impact on your metabolism? There is no scientific evidence for this fact. Therefore, it’s okay if for some reason you missed several breakfasts. This will have little effect on the weight loss process.

Intermittent fasting is a revolutionary new and increasingly popular trend in weight loss. Its meaning is that you refuse breakfast and eat only from 12:00 in the afternoon until 20:00 in the evening. The body fasts for the remaining 12 hours. The advantage of this method of losing weight is that you do not need to count the calories consumed. Whether this method of getting rid of extra pounds is correct and safe for health is up to you to decide.

Do you feel like a victim of hunger and powerless against it? The more you eat, the more you want to cram something into yourself? The reason for this irrational behavior is in the products you prefer. Large quantity fiber (vegetables) instead of simple carbohydrate foods (sweet tea and a sausage sandwich) will relieve hunger for a long time.

Still, how many times a day should you eat?

For proper nutrition divide your daily diet into 7 meals in small portions. This is the ideal nutrition plan. But how to bring it to life? Make snacks every 2 hours, but not everything you can get your hands on. Prepare food for each reception in advance. Of course, this is quite a troublesome task and takes a lot of time! This schedule also has its drawbacks: due to the fact that insulin is constantly at a high level, fat burning occurs extremely slowly or stops altogether. If the stomach is stretched, then overeating cannot be avoided.

You can experiment with 4 meals a day. This type of diet allows you to avoid overeating and control the number of calories consumed every day. By eating 4 times a day, you will allow fat reserves to disappear faster. Insulin will not be produced after food is digested, and its absence will provoke the breakdown of fat. Over time, the body will get used to this diet, so that the feeling of hunger will arise closer to the time of the planned meal. There is also a disadvantage of eating 4 times a day: food entering the body in large quantities at one time is poorly absorbed.

How many times a day to eat in order to lose extra pounds without harm to health is determined purely individually. If you are afraid of overeating and are not sure that you can control the amount of food you eat at one time, then eat 4 times a day.

What foods should you not eat for breakfast?

Many people consider breakfast the most important meal of the day. By eating the wrong foods, you provoke chronic fatigue syndrome (overeating) and already at 11 am you will want to eat again.

We have prepared a list of products that are absolutely not suitable for breakfast:

Low-fat yogurt is not at all suitable for breakfast. Although it is low in calories, it contains many chemicals and little protein. And it is protein that prevents you from starving for a long time.

Bagels and other baked goods. One rich bagel is equivalent to 4 (or maybe more) pieces white bread! This does not mean that you don’t need to eat the baked goods at all. Choose whole grain baked goods and eat with protein-fortified foods (eggs, cheese, salmon). Just don’t grease the baked goods with butter or melted cheese!

Pancakes are a source of fast carbohydrates, so they are not suitable for breakfast. And pancakes sprinkled with syrup and jam will definitely give the body a blow from an excess of sugar. But hunger will still come quickly!

Energy bars made from cereals and dried fruits are a bad way to start a new day. Typically, bars contain a lot of sugar and chemicals. Therefore, there is no benefit from them!

Freshly squeezed juices are very healthy, but they are not suitable for breakfast. A glass of freshly squeezed juice is good to drink between meals, for example, instead of an afternoon snack. Still, this is a source of carbohydrates, and you need proteins for breakfast!

Muesli is also healthy, but not suitable for breakfast. The reason is the same: low protein content and a huge amount of carbohydrates. It's better to eat yogurt with raw nuts.

Fast food is everyone's favorite but unhealthy food. Total harm and no benefit from fatty, overcooked food!

Why is it rarely harmful to eat?

The reason lies in the fact that the habit of eating rarely, but in large portions, makes you gain much more calories than during frequent small snacks. With the second option, it is possible to constantly maintain a feeling of satiety in the body.

The dependence of hunger on blood sugar levels is known. If you eat rarely, your sugar level drops, you feel unwell, lack of strength, and whenever possible you pounce on food. Since the feeling of fullness occurs only 15-20 minutes after the start of eating, you eat much more than you should, swallowing in chunks.

If you are on a diet, you should maintain your sugar level at approximately the same level throughout the day. Do not allow a strong feeling of hunger (when you suck in the pit of your stomach). The rate of metabolic processes slows down within 5-6 hours after eating. That is why when losing weight you should eat little and often (4-6 times a day). It is also good to count calories to eliminate the possibility of overeating. Chew your food thoroughly and slowly. This is necessary so that as little food as possible fits into the stomach before feeling full.

The three- or four-meal eating model is suitable for those who cannot control the portions of food eaten at a time and cannot snack every 2 hours.

If you lead an active lifestyle, regularly exercise according to a special program, then you can eat 5-7 times a day.

Whatever nutrition option you choose, remember the importance of a balanced diet. Give up fast carbohydrates in favor of slow ones. Eat more vegetables, fruits in moderation, protein and be sure to drink at least 2 liters of water per day.

Every time we want to lose weight, thoughts about multiple meals creep into our heads. Allegedly, 5-6 times meals lead to fast weight loss, acceleration of metabolism and other positive bonuses. But is it? Let's try to understand everything in more detail.

Diet plans for weight loss can differ dramatically from each other, but the body practically does not feel the difference. The body does not care how often you eat, because the assessment of energy and plastic resources occurs in 3-4 days, and not every day.

It is believed that frequent meals boost metabolism. But not everything is as simple as it seems. Metabolism is not a wheel that can be spun. This is the rate of metabolic processes and a whole set of various chemical reactions that are difficult to characterize with just one term. We will not go into the jungle of biochemistry and physiology. Instead, let's just look at the science.

Acceleration of metabolism

Eating food actually speeds up your metabolism. The problem is what people imagine metabolic processes in the form of a steering wheel or wheel, which you just need to spin and fat burning will begin by itself. We never tire of repeating that losing weight is a calorie deficit, nothing else. It doesn’t matter how many meals you have per day, what your metabolic rate is, etc. But where did the information come from about the benefits of frequent meals in the context of boosting metabolism?

The digestion of food and subsequent processing requires energy - the thermic effect of food (TEF). After each meal, the body spends energy to process the food received, but this “acceleration” of metabolism directly depends on the amount of food eaten: less food means less energy.

For example: a dish with 300 kcal will spend 50-60 kcal on absorption, while a light sandwich with 150 kcal will require only 15 kcal for full absorption. That is, the amount of “acceleration” of metabolism directly depends on the amount of food, namely on its total calorie content and difficulty of absorption. Let us remind you: fats and proteins are more difficult to digest than carbohydrates.

As a result, by eating small portions often, you speed up your metabolism, but not so pronounced. The amount of energy expended is minimal. In the case of large meals, the TEP coefficient is much higher.

At the end of the day, there is no significant difference in how many times you ate. From the point of view of general TEP there are no differences. You will spend the same amount of energy, and this has been proven by numerous studies.

Researchers tested what would happen if different people with the same daily calorie content different dishes. One group was given small snacks throughout the day, while the other group was given only 2 large meals of comparable caloric value. The result in terms of the number of calories spent for absorption was identical, that is, the TEP of both groups was the same.

So in theory, yes, the acceleration of metabolism occurs more often with frequent meals, but the expenditure of calories becomes less. Rare meals lead to a more pronounced "acceleration" of metabolism, that is, to a more significant expenditure of calories to digest food.

So how many times is there?

The number of meals is globally unimportant for the body. Calorie balance and lack of calories are key factors in weight loss. However, in fairness, let's note a few simple truths:

If frequent meals make it easier to follow a diet, you will lose weight, because it is easier to follow a diet;
If frequent meals make it difficult to control your diet, you will gain weight, because in the end you will break down;
If infrequent meals complicate the calorie deficit, this will prevent you from losing weight;
If rare meals do not cause discomfort, this will help you lose weight.

Therefore, it is impossible to answer this question for everyone. Each person must independently analyze their diet, their eating habits and desires in order to understand which scheme is more comfortable for them. To lose weight, it is most effective to eat without discomfort, strictly observing a calorie deficit. Many people believe in the benefits of eating 5 meals a day, but at the same time they suffer greatly from the everyday inconveniences associated with frequent meals.

Lifehack

Most optimal scheme for us - for the residents former USSR and CIS countries there will be 2-3 meals and a small snack. Here you can have a moderate breakfast, a hearty lunch and dinner, and a fasting snack from a small amount of forbidden foods.

If you don't feel full with small, frequent meals, try drinking a glass of water 20 minutes before eating. Add more fiber and don't eat quickly. Some people feel more comfortable eating less, but more. The larger the meal, the higher the satiety factor, and the longer you stay full. Your task is to find a nutrition plan that will allow you to maintain a calorie deficit without expressed feeling hunger.

Style summary

You can eat 30 or even 40 micro-meals a day, but no amount of boosting your metabolism will help you lose weight unless you create a calorie deficit. These are the laws of thermodynamics. However, we note that some people speak positively about eating 5 meals a day, because in this way they simply stopped overeating. They began to eat less food per day and thus created a calorie deficit, that is, they started losing weight.