Four Meals A Day Keep The Calories At Bay

You are sure to have read somewhere or have heard from someone that eating four times a day, moderately, and spreading out the mealtimes evenly is the correct way to eat, irrespective of the fact you are on a diet or on a weight loss program.

Well, there is a science behind eating four moderate meals a day rather than two or three heavy meals and it is important that you know how this kind of timely eating can help you in your diet plans or in your weight training program.

To understand this theory, you must understand metabolism. Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories and you will be surprised to know that your body burns calories throughout the day, while you are at work or even at rest - even when you are sleeping!

It is this metabolism that is the principle behind having those four moderate meals everyday, evenly spaced out. If you try to eat heavy meals at one time, say at breakfast, thinking that you can compensate by skipping lunch, you are wrong. What you eat in the morning will get digested in 2.5 to 3 hours and all the excess calories will end up getting stored as body fat - they will not be kept aside for your calorie requirement in the afternoon.

Now, contrast this scenario with the one where you take four moderate meals every two-and-a-half hours or so. In this case, you are consuming just sufficient calories to keep you going for that much time, not extra. As a result, whatever you have consumed would be burned before your next meal and there would be no storage of excess calories as body fat.

Therefore, if you want your diet plans or your weight training program to succeed or even if you want to control your overweight condition, it is important to consume only the amount of food that yields calories just sufficient for 2.5 hours or so. Do not try to eat your lunch along with breakfast.

Of course, before declaring your diet plan to be an unqualified success, keep in mind that your metabolism/metabolic rate depends on several factors such as your genes, your diet and your eating habits and your physical activity level.

Having said that, the benefits of such a diet are many if coupled with the right kind of exercise - you will find that this kind of diet keeps you light and refreshed. Your metabolism will burn up your calories faster, leading to weight loss and, above all, you will stay fit and healthy both in mind and body.

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