Dieting: It May be All in the Timing

You begin your typical day with a croissant and a coffee. By
mid-morning, you’re a bit overwhelmed with work and so you eat
some potato chips. At lunch, you’re starving again so you eat a
few slices of pizza and more potato chips. By mid-afternoon,
you’re bored again, so you decide to sneak in a candy bar.
Dinner means a multi-course meal of steak, potatoes with sour
cream, some pasta, and strawberry ice cream. Right before bed,
you decide to sneak in another candy bar.

Of course, there are obvious problems with this kind of diet.
But, aside from the questionable nutritional value of the food,
there’s also the problem of the timing of the meals and snacks.
When dieting, it’s not only a question of what you eat. When you
eat also matters. But, if you’ve been conditioned to have three
square meals a day and as many snacks as you want, how can you
go about changing your behavior?

To begin with, you should only eat when you’re actually hungry.
This means you should not eat out of boredom, sadness, fear, or
for any other emotional reasons. Food exists as fuel to help rev
up your body for the challenges you face each day. You should
not look upon food as a means of comfort or a path to love.

At times, you may notice that you reach for a snack because you
just want a break from your routine. Maybe your work is getting
to you, or your children are trying your patience. You have to
recognize the fact that eating for emotional reasons is a
learned behavior; so, in order to reverse course, you simply
have to unlearn the behavior. It may take some time, but
eventually you’ll find that you are able to limit your eating to
those times when your hunger pains start.

But you should also know that just because a person eats often,
that does not necessarily mean that he or she is overeating. A
number of reputable diet plans recommend eating five or six
small meals a day in order to keep your metabolism humming and
to ward off hunger. However, these meals should be carefully
planned in advance.

Otherwise, you could find yourself packing on the pounds
because of your frequent snacks. For instance, you might plan to
eat bran cereal for your first meal of the day, a bowl of
strawberries for your second, some light turkey on whole wheat
bread and some apricots for your third, a cup of yogurt for your
fourth, some low-fat cheese and crackers for your fifth, and
lean roast beef, green beans, and jello for your sixth meal of
the day.

When should you eat your small meals? They should be scattered
throughout the day–no more than four hours apart. In this way,
you can keep your metabolism up, enabling you to burn calories
consistently throughout the morning and afternoon. Generally
speaking, however, you should only eat when you’re actually
experiencing hunger.

A survey conducted in 1999 found that 60 percent of Americans
skip breakfast. However, you should be aware of the fact that
eating breakfast can be a key to losing weight. If you don’t
skip breakfast, you’ll find that you’ll burn calories faster,
leading to weight loss.

Try to avoid eating late-night snacks. This is because your
body will probably store the calories rather than burn them off.
Again, your snacking may not be the result of actual hunger but
simply because you have nothing better to do at that time of the
night. Simply changing your nightly routine may help you to keep
away from food at the midnight hour.

No doubt, it can be quite difficult to change your eating
routine. You may have eaten three large meals all your life, and
you find it difficult to stop. However, just a few subtle
changes will help to transform both your day–and your appetite.
If you find yourself reverting to your old routine, forgive
yourself, and start again. If you are kind to yourself, it’s
more likely that you will eventually be able to find a diet plan
you can live with–one that will not only help you lose weight,
but keep you satisfied as well.

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