Clearing Up Confusion On Meal Frequency

There seems to be much confusion in the area of how to eat to lose fat optimally. This is mostly due to the misleading dietary advice of "starvation-type" fat loss systems. People have been programmed to "eat less" to lose weight. While this is somewhat true, we have to keep in mind that if you don't eat enough, then your metabolism will slow down.

You see, your body has been designed in such a way that makes it efficient in storing fuel. In paleolithic times, we may not have even had the opportunity to eat for a day, or perhaps in certain regions, especially that were cold, a few days at a time. So, based on this concept, your body is very efficient in storing energy if it thinks an energy crisis is coming soon.

So, this is why the concept of eating small amounts of food frequently is an EXCELLENT way to speed up your metabolic rate and crank up fat loss. To keep this simple, there are 2 key hormones we must regulate to keep fat loss optimal. First is Cortisol, the stress hormone, the next being Insulin, the fat storing hormone.

When you wake up in the morning, you have essentially been fasting for 8 hours. Your blood sugar is relatively low, but you don't feel too bad, considering your cortisol levels are at its peak level for the day. Once you eat breakfast, your cortisol levels go down, and your blood sugar rises. This is of course a good thing. Insulin is secreted in order to slowly bring blood sugar down over the next few hours. Then it is time to eat again.

If you wait too long to eat, and blood sugar levels go low, a signal goes to your brain that blood sugar is low. Hunger pains start to signal you to eat. At this point your blood sugar is already low. If you ignore the hunger feeling and don't eat, then your adrenal glands must increase cortisol levels to bring blood sugar levels back up again. It usually does this through breaking down sugars in your liver. It can also scavenge lean muscle tissue for amino acids as well.

This is why people can go through 6 hours without eating, and they say "I wasn't hungry". The fact is, they ignored the hunger signal, and were essentially riding stress hormones for hours. When cortisol is elevated, you aren't going to lose fat!

So, here is the take home. Make SURE you eat frequently. I like something called the "Clock Rule". This means that you must put something in your mouth at each corner of the clock. If you get up at 7, for example.

7 am: eat breakfast (meat + veggies+ smart fats)
9:30 am: 1-3 oz. almonds + 2 celery sticks
12:30 am: eat lunch (meat + veggies+ smart fats)
3:30 pm: 1-3 oz. almonds +2 celery sticks
6:30 pm: eat dinner (meat + veggies + smart fats)
9:00 pm: 1-3 oz. almonds + 2 celery sticks)

This is simply an example of meal frequency. As you can see, no more than 3 hours goes by without putting in some kind of nutrient dense food.

Thus blood sugar is stable and fat loss!!