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Let's touch a little about eating for a permanently healthy body and mind. Eating well is actually not that difficult if you understand what your body is telling you and believe me, it talks to you all the time.

I' m sure you've heard this many times; to lose weight, you need to adhere to this formula:

Less Calories In - More Calories Out = Weight Loss

It's a math equation that's easy to figure out but not easy to follow.

Increase your meals from 3 to 5 feedings a day

Since childhood, we have been programmed to have 3 main meals a day at specific times and we rarely question the norm. As children, we have constantly been told to finish our food or we won’t get dessert.(or in my case, if you don't finish you rice, it will cry). Hmm... interesting logic there.

Let’s wipe the slate clean and reprogram the way we should look at our eating habits. Most crash diets force our body to function between 800 -1,000 calories per day. Why is this BAD?

As the body does not know the difference between diet and starvation, it triggers an internal alarm to conserve energy by limiting its’ fat-burning enzymes and increases its’ fat storing capacity. One of its’ mechanism is promoting hunger and cravings which, over time, becomes hard to resist. In other words, you have lost the battle even before you begin.

In theory, you need 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat. In theory, it means that if you cut down 500 calories a day, you will burn 1 lb of fat in a week (500 cal x 7 days) and 48 lbs in one year. In the real world, however, you will see results in the short term but it won’t happen for long. The body is a complex mechanism with the ability to adapt and change its chemical properties for survival. Hence the fat-storing enzyme!

Let’s be realistic and say that your daily caloric intake is 2000 and you decide wisely to reduce your calories by 20%, which makes it 1600. Now, we will also assume that you exercise 3 times a week to boost your metabolism and tone your muscles, which we will explore in the next chapter.

To simplify calculation, let’s say you consume an average of 533 calories a meal (1600 / 3 meals) as follows:

7.00am Breakfast 400

12.00pm Lunch 600

8.00pm Dinner 600

For discussion purposes, we will assume that you are taking your snacks with your meals (or desserts). As you notice, the body does not receive its 2nd feeding until 5 and 8 hours later respectively. This action is giving your body the impression that it's being starved of nutrients in-between feedings.

So when it’s time to have your dinner, for instance, the body uses a small portion of the calories to burn and the rest is stored as fat in anticipation of the next cycle of starvation. It is worse when you skip breakfast to settle on just a cup of coffee. The body has been starving for well over 16 hours!

So what should you do? As you want to promote your metabolism to constantly work and burn calories, you need to eat smaller portions and more frequently to let it happen. But before you throw caution to the wind and plan your next meal around McDonalds, you need to ensure that you consume quality calories. Based on 1600 calories, your meals are consumed every 3 hours and ideally should look like this:

7.00am Breakfast 400 (your largest meal)
10.00am Brunch 300

1.00pm Lunch            300
4.00pm Mid day      300
7.00pm Dinner           300

As you can see, the meals are distributed equally into 5 feedings. You may add another meal (6th) but the calories must still be 1600. This is not practical for most people as the meals become smaller and you find that you are eating constantly, therefore disrupting your daily routine.

Thank you for dropping by.

Your Friend in Health,

Nina Redza
Fitness & Nutrition Professional

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