Why 6 meals a day

Protein shakes made with fruit, yogurt and protein powder as well as added flax seeds, wheat germ or tofu , for instance, count as a meal and may be particularly helpful if you're often on the go during lunch or dinner. Aim to eat at regular intervals, such as every two to three hours, and don't be afraid to go for unconventional times.

You might have salmon for breakfast or a green salad as a snack — a six-meals-a-day plan doesn't have to look "traditional. Nutrition Diets Healthy Diet. Andra Picincu is a certified nutritionist and personal trainer with more than 10 years of experience. Her mission is to help people live healthier lives by making smarter food choices and staying active.

In her daily life, Ms. Picincu provides digital marketing consulting and copywriting services as well as nutrition counseling. She owns ShapeYourEnergy, a popular health and fitness website.

In , she launched a local nutrition office and partnered up with local gyms to help their clients take the steps needed to better health. From the ancient Romans, who believed that a single meal per day was the path to good health, to a Canadian study in the s that touted the benefits of a "nibbling diet" of 17 snacks per day, the question of meal frequency has long been a topic of great fascination.

The premise behind eating smaller and more frequent meals is the control of blood sugar, also called blood glucose. This refers to the glucose, a type of sugar that is extracted from the food we eat.

When digestion is complete, glucose is carried by the bloodstream and throughout the body to supply our cells and organs with energy. When blood glucose levels drop, hunger and cravings spike. By eating six small meals per day, the thinking goes, you're ensuring that blood glucose is available at all times. By controlling the trigger for cravings, you'll eat less and won't be as likely to give in to the siren song of that bag of chips or chocolate bar.

While the logic is solid, results have been mixed. The problem with limiting yourself to eating fewer times each day is that you get overly hungry by the middle of the day, and then all bets are off. Eating six times a day might sound counterintuitive, but it's a strategy that Harvard Health says works well for many people. As long as your meals are small and about half the calories of full-sized meals, eating six times a day is an easy way to stay full and satisfied throughout the day, so you're less likely to binge at night.

Planning the right meals and snacks is important when you're trying to eat six small meals a day. Because your meals will be small, it's important that they're also filling. Meals based around vegetables, fruits, and protein will be nutrient-dense and low in calories, but also filling.

To plan your meals, figure out how many calories you need to lose weight. For most people, that's about calories less per day than what they're currently eating. I grew up with a less is more mentality, as in the less often you eat, the less you'll weigh. As a body-conscious teenager, that translated into me ignoring my hunger pangs until well past lunchtime.

When I finally caved to the call of my angry stomach, I'd end up practically shoveling food into my mouth. I may have been eating only one meal a day, but that meal was a giant one.

Fortunately, I grew up. I went through therapy, went vegetarian, and became a mom. I started eating breakfast with my daughter before I put her on the school bus, had lunch at my desk, and ate dinner with my family. I thought I had gotten into a pretty good rhythm, but recently I noticed a shift. As I'd gotten swamped by deadlines and found myself working longer and longer hours, I was once again forgetting to eat until my stomach starting screaming at me to eat something—anything!

If you eat plenty but always feel starving, these 4 things could explain your hunger. That "anything" rarely turned out to be a healthy salad or veggie burger. Instead, I'd grab whatever was handy, and eat a lot more of it than I would have if I was just mildly hungry.

The result: I gained 10 pounds, and I felt as sluggish as I had back when I had a newborn 11 years ago! Got 10 minutes? Try Prevention 's new minute workouts and minute meals to lose weight and feel your healthiest ever. Get Fit in Slim and Strong for Life now! With spring on the horizon, I decided it was time to force myself to get healthy. Some studies have found eating as often as six times a day helps to reduce hunger, which certainly makes sense.

Research has also suggested that eating regular meals at the same time each day can boost your metabolism. My hope was that if I wasn't waiting until I was ravenous, I'd make healthier choices and stop eating when I felt myself hitting the "full point" rather than eating well past it.

I resolved to test my theory for a month.