Eating Often

One of the glorious things that I have learned on my journey to fitness fun land, lol…is that I love to eat!!!  Yes I know, it was very obvious when I was tipping the scales at 228 pounds, but I now have a new appreciation for eating.  Why do I have a new appreciation for eating?  Because I have discovered that doing what I loved to do in the first place could actually make me LOSE FAT…and FAST too!

All of us love to eat, and if you dont, you’re a weirdo.  What I have learned about eating though is that it is crucial to your results that you time your meals properly.  Studies show that people who eat 5-6 smaller meals per day actually burn more calories than those who follow the status quot of 3.

I am on my 3rd round of P90X now, and still eat 6 meals per day perfectly time between 2.5 and 3 hours apart.  During the fat shredder phase of my nutrition plan, I was eating 1900 calories per day, distributed across those 6 meals.  The purpose of timing these meals is to keep your body fueled, speed recovery, and keep energy levels up without storing any of it as fat.  This is quite the deal!  Eat more often and lose more fat!  What more could you ask for?  At a certain point though once I reached a certain level of fitness, my metabolism caught up to me at 1900 calories per day.  I started noticing a plateau in my fat lass.  Why?  My body’s metabolism was speeding up and 1900 calories just wasnt cuttin it anymore so my body starting going into emergency conservation mode.  It was thinking that I was starving, so it was doing everything it could to hold on to what fat I had left for energy.  Solution:  EAT MORE!  Ha!  I love this stuff!  I bumped my calorie intake to 2300 calories and began to see the fat melt off once more.

Some people cant fathom taking in 1900 calories per day, let alone 2300.  But when you are fueling your body with the RIGHT FOODS, you will be surprised at how fast those foods will metabolize when you split those calories into 6 meals.  So what does my meal schedule look like?  Lets take a look at my 2300 calorie schedule.

7:30am – Breakfast ≈ 600-700 calories

10:30am – Snack ≈ 200-300 calories

1:00pm – Lunch ≈ 500-600 calories

4:00pm – Snack ≈ 200-300 calories

6:30pm – Dinner ≈ 500-600 calories

9:00pm – Small Snack ≈ 150-200 calories

As you can see, my tank never hits empty!  In fact, my empty warning light never even has a chance to come on, lol.  I continually keep my body fueled so my metabolism never has a chance to slow down or get near that emergency mode of conserving fat for energy.  There is a gross misconception that eating less will produce weight loss, and I was on this same roller coaster before starting P90X.  I would eat a weak breakfast, a terrible snack mid morning, then eating a weak sauce lunch (usually a lean cuisine), then go into starvation mode until dinner where I would have 2nd and 3rd helpings.  On top of the dinner time pig out, I would snack until bedtime!  It was a lifestyle of eating that leads to an early grave.  Not only was this unhealthy, but I felt tired, cranky and hungry all the time.

Like I said before; now I fuel my body every 2.5 – 3 hours and I dont have the feast and famine cycles that so many are used to these days.  Do yourself a favor and do more of what you already love….EATING!  Time those meals precisely and choose foods that you know will benefit your overall wellness and support your new active lifestyle.  Not only are you going to lose fat faster than you ever thought possible, but you are going to FEEL amazing too!  Your energy levels will be off the charts!  Doing more of what I already love doing and getting the benefits of fat loss/consistent energy/not feeling hungry all the time…You cant beat that!