How Often to Eat for Steady Weight Loss

Eating used to be so simple when you were a kid, didn’t it? Hungry? Get an adult to make you something, such as your favorite Mac & Cheese, ham sandwich, or bacon and eggs. You didn’t have to think about what or when to eat. All that mattered was feeling full and eager for the day ahead.

Then tragedy – adulthood began. To lose weight, you’ll need to eat in a calorie deficit. Furthermore, studies now believe that you may need to micromanage your meal schedules. That’s not everything. Worse, they can’t seem to agree on how often you should eat!

Some dieticians recommend eating every 2 hours (six to eight meals per day) to increase metabolism. Others, on the other hand, believe that in order to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, you should consume two meals a day, with no snacks in between.

How perplexing. So, which strategy of how often should you eat produces the best weight loss results? Let us investigate.

How many meals a day to lose weight?

Many specialists believe that eating breakfast kickstarts fat burning and that eating 5–6 little meals each day keeps your metabolism from slowing down.

However, studies indicate inconsistent results, and it is unclear whether eating more frequently helps you lose weight. The metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns in a particular amount of time.

A common fallacy is that eating more frequent, smaller meals enhances metabolic rate. It is true that digesting a meal modestly increases metabolism; this phenomenon is known as the thermic effect of food.

However, the quantity of energy used during digestion is determined by the total amount of food consumed. It’s a persistent myth that eating more often and in smaller portions raises metabolic rate.

True, the process of breaking down food increases metabolic rate (a phenomenon known as the thermic effect of food). However, the total amount of food eaten is the primary factor in determining the caloric expenditure of digestion. The thermic effect of eating three 800-calorie meals is equivalent to eating six 400-calorie meals. Actually, you can’t tell the difference between the two.

Numerous studies have compared the effects on one’s metabolic rate and the total amount of fat loss as a result of eating many smaller meals as opposed to fewer larger meals and have come to the conclusion that there is no significant effect.

Eating smaller meals more frequently does not increase the metabolic rate overall or the total number of calories burned throughout the day.

Should I eat every 2 hours to lose weight?

There’s no danger in experimenting with eating every two hours unless your doctor has instructed you otherwise. The worst-case scenario is that you realize this method isn’t for you and try something else instead.

Even better, there are a few methods you may apply to avoid the possible downsides of this eating habit, gathered largely from the research’s contradicting study designs.

Begin by establishing and adhering to a calorie budget. If you don’t, it’s all too easy to munch your way into a calorie excess and end up gaining rather than losing weight.

You can establish an adequate calorie goal by reviewing the Department of Health and Human Services’ table of estimated calorie needs based on your age, gender, and degree of physical activity.

The values you find there are for weight maintenance. To lose weight, either reduce your total calorie intake or increase your physical activity, or both, so that you burn 500 to 1,000 calories more per day than you ingest.

That calorie deficit positions you to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, which is the rate recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as both healthful and sustainable.

Between what times should you eat to lose weight?

The truth is that determining the optimal time to eat in order to maintain your weight might be difficult. According to one study, late lunch eaters (those who eat after 3 p.m.) shed less weight than early eaters.

Another study discovered that reducing your eating hours to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. can cut your overall calorie consumption by 244, showing that a lengthier overnight fast can help you lose weight.

Meanwhile, according to a report, the optimum times how often should you eat breakfast, lunch and breakfast are:

• Breakfast: after 7 a.m., with 7.11 a.m. selected as optimal.
• Lunch: between 12.30 p.m. and 1 p.m., with 12.38 p.m. being the optimal time to eat.
• Dinner: between 6 and 6.30 p.m., preferably about 6.14 p.m.

It’s been said that eating dinner after 8 p.m. can increase your waist circumference. These meal times were determined by the findings of a poll done by diet business Forza Supplements, which asked 1,000 dieters what the ideal time to eat for optimal weight reduction was. We hope the recommendations above will assist you in timing your meals and achieving your weight loss objectives.

Why starving yourself is bad for weight loss?

How exactly does going into hunger mode affect your metabolism and the rate at which you lose weight? Suppose you have begun counting calories or have significantly reduced the amount of food that you consume on a daily basis. In that case, it is unlikely that your body will go into extreme starvation mode.

When a person is severely malnourished and has very little body fat left, they are said to be in a state known as true starvation mode. This is because their bodies are making a desperate effort to hold onto any fat that they still have before they die of famine.

However, you can be depriving your body of what it needs to function even if you are not shedding hair or passing out from exhaustion and low blood sugar levels. Neither of these symptoms is required. If you deprive yourself of food for an extended period of time, your metabolism will be affected, albeit to a much lesser extent than if you actually went into starvation mode.

When there are not enough calories in your diet for your body to produce energy, your metabolism will significantly slow down in order to conserve the energy that you do have. It is highly likely that this is the exact opposite of what you had in mind.

So, does abstaining from food cause an increase in one’s weight?

If you deprive your body of food on a regular basis or even just occasionally, it can cause confusion in your body, which can lead to weight gain.

Because of your sluggish metabolism, you are not burning any calories or fat at all. In addition, starving yourself can result in later episodes of binge eating due to the extreme hunger that you experience.

If you are malnourished because you are not giving your body the nutrients it needs and you do not have enough fat on your body, you may experience symptoms of famine such as hair loss, weakness, exhaustion, fainting, low blood sugar, low blood pressure, organ failure, and even death.

Malnutrition can occur when you are not providing your body with the nutrients it requires because you are not providing the body with enough fat on your body.

When you read this, you will undoubtedly feel anxious because you are convinced that you are not eating enough food and that you are not losing weight. This happens to a lot of people, and you should know that you are not alone.

Sources:
https://blog.gymstreak.com/how-often-should-you-eat-for-weight-loss/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-many-meals-per-day#TOC_TITLE_HDR_3
https://www.livestrong.com/article/322698-how-to-eat-every-2-hours-to-lose-weight/
https://livea.com/blog/2022/03/02/why-starving-yourself-is-bad-for-your-weight-loss-efforts/