The NY Times has a piece entitled “The Claim: Eat Six Small Meals a Day Instead of Three Big Ones” and makes the following revelations:

Six meals, according to some weight-loss books and fad diets, is a more realistic approach.But don’t count on it. As long as total caloric and nutrient intake stays the same, then metabolism, at the end of the day, should stay the same as well. One study that carefully demonstrated this, published in 2009 in The British Journal of Nutrition, involved groups of overweight men and women who were randomly assigned to very strict low-calorie diets and followed for eight weeks. Each subject consumed the same number of calories per day, but one group took in three meals a day and the other six.

Both groups lost significant and equivalent amounts of weight. There was no difference between them in fat loss, appetite control or measurements of hormones that signal hunger and satiety.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There is no solid evidence that six small meals a day instead of three will speed metabolism.

THANK YOU NY Times…..it is about time someone else said it besides us “crazy” bloggers.

So for one last time….driving home the nail in this mainstream myth….eating more meals does NOT speed up your metabolism (when calories and macronutrients are the same in lesser # of meals). Anyone who has had success using Intermittent Fasting will tell you this as well.

Does not…..nope…..no way…..no proof…..not gonna happen…….anyone saying it “speeds up your metabolism” is spreading misinformation.

So please help us kill this myth once and for all!

Tell your friends…

Tell your family…

Tell your doctor…

Heck tell a trainer…

Tell everyone, and then maybe we can get back to more important aspects of weight loss and stop buying into all the multiple-meal weight loss gimicks (as they may work…but do not in any way speed up your metabolism…it is still a lower calorie thing).

To be fair, does this mean you should not eat many times a day? That is an individualistic decision depending on food choices, lifestyle,  energy and performance needs. We always say that eating 6x/day can work for losing weight, but is still because it keeps a person in a state of calorie deficit…not by magically speeding up a metabolism. Knowing this can help you create more flexibility and planning for a lasting lifestyle change.

Besides, this “snack all day” mentality may just be making more people overeat in the first place, as they think they are doing the right thing to “speed up” their metabolism (which we know is not the case). Calories matter over the whole day after all. Mindless eating is something we should all try and remove and replace with “mindful” eating.

If you still want to see more studies and information on this discussion of meal frequency and metabolism, then please read these past articles too:

• Eating more does Not speed up your Metabolism Part I
• Eating more does Not speed up your Metabolism Part II

I like to think that there is so much more to life...that worrying about eating all the time. Finding a simple and effective way to keep in shape year round is the most liberating experience there is!

Here are 25 quick and to-the-point insights about many things I have learned about intermittent fasting (IF) and eating, through my own observations and client experiences…..Enjoy, in no particular order:

1. IFOC does not work (IF-On-Crap). You will not get the body composition you are looking for if you take that approach.
2. Eat a bit less on your IF days, don’t IF every day. Take days off, as remember it is supposed to be “intermittent”.
3. Don’t crash diet while using IF. If you do, you will just set yourself up for a weight loss stall and gain later on (like crash dieting without IF). IF is not about starving yourself…you still need to eat!
4. Eat enough healthy protein, fats, and less carbs on IF days especially for your first meal. You probably will have some increased insulin resistance after a fast. So unless you just worked out, eating a bunch of quick digesting carbs is not ideal.
5. Resistance training is key to helping your metabolism stay strong and keep your muscles around all the time….and even more so on lower calorie or IF plans.
6. Remember that IF is just a “tool” to use in your lifestyle, not some “diet” plan. There are many ways in which one can implement it and make it work, but you may also have to find a couple ways it doesn’t work out beforehand. Find your own solution that works for you.
7. Eating real foods is the rule to follow 80% of the time…then eat what you crave/enjoy here and there (and you will find your cravings will change as you go along as well…to more healthier options).
8. If you are gaining more belly fat with IF you are probably creating too much stress in your lifestyle. So cut back on your use of IF, caffeine and other stressful situation in your daily life. IF + high stress = Not good results!
9. Like said above, caffeine can raise cortisol…so maybe you need to cut back on it on your IF days if you are not getting the results you want (unless you use it right before a workout…as that can help also free up fatty acids and increase workout intensity).
10. If you are having panic attacks or anxiety issues….see #9.
11. I now use longer IF 1-2x a week, and then just use a “condensed” daily eating window (8-12hours) most other times.
12. I focus on eating enough carbs from “real foods” to keep up my daily energy and recovery needs (muscle glycogen replenishment). Those levels may differ from one day to the next.
13. You can also burn fat all day long, if you keep insulin under control (no sugar spikes). Like I’ve been telling clients for years…when you are about to eat a bunch of sugar just tell yourself “I don’t feel like burning fat for the next 3 hours”…as that is essentially what you are doing at the hormonal response level.
14. The 3 best ways to help “increase” your daily GH output are sleep, exercise (with enough intensity/volume…not duration) and some fasting. Also see #13 about eating choices (as insulin/blood sugar spikes up, GH will come down). Don’t spike your blood sugar right before bed when you are about to get your largest GH release of the day (1-2 hours into sleep).
15. Be active each day for at least 30min….just go do something you enjoy and break a sweat doing it.
16. If your eating/exercise plan isn’t working for you, change something up. Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results or quit altogether and go back to bad eating habits. Be in control!
17. IF is the best way I know for people to start to really get back an appreciation for real foods, their health and how to really listen to their body…hence I have been promoting it for all these years. Once you really become “aware” of your food and how your body reacts, the transformation lasts for a lifetime.
18. All those fasting/detox diets seen on TV/Hollywood are not even a close 2nd cousin to what IF is all about. Those are crash diets disguised as healthy ways to cleanse…and promoted by people who can’t stay lean in the first place. Ignore all those.
19. Learning to eat less often (not 6x a day everyday) is a step towards appreciating what you actually eat, and not mindlessly shoving in anything that qualifies as “food” in the low standards of today (as in all those processed things you find in the 30+ isles at your supermarket). Many people still eat 3x a day and are in great health/shape…frequency of meals is not the issue (quality and quantity is).
20. Take control of your hormones through your food choices, and you will most likely live longer and healthier.
21. Ignore people who are professional athletes or already in shape and eating junk food all day. If you are not already 5% bodyfat, training 4 hours a day, and have their genetic potential…then what they do is not something you need to worry about.
22. Skinny people can get heart diseases, cancers and many other degenerative diseases too. Just because you are lean does not you should not take steps to optimize your health (such as eating real foods, keeping active and even using IF).
23. We all get “older”…but we all don’t have to “age” so quickly in the process.
24. Learn to cook “real foods” (not microwave frozen dinners), enjoy doing it, and teach it to your kids. Use slower cooking methods, unprocessed foods and flavor with natural herbs/spices. The benefits of this for yourself and your family will go on for generations.
25. Take responsibility for your own health, question everything you hear out there (Yes, even from me), do your own examination and come up with your own answers. There may not be a quick fix out there, but there is journey of understanding that you should pursue. Keep your own intellectual independence on what and how you should eat for your own health.

If you are new to the term “IF” or “intermittent fasting” and want to know more, then you can click here and download your free ebook at the IF Life that goes into much more detail. It’s not about “starving yourself” or “crashing your metabolism”, it is about finding the freedom to eat how you want and not have to diet ever again (and seeing the truth out there for yourself, in a sea of mainstream mis-information).

Do you have your own insights to add to the list and share? If so, please leave them in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by JC of JCD Fitness.

When discussing eating habits, especially within the fitness population, the subject is often a very touchy one.  To many, eating is much more than some task we must perform in order to survive and merely function, while for a select few, it’s nothing more than simply supplying energy needs.

For those of you who’ve no idea who I am, when I first discovered this health and fitness stuff, I was a mess.  I followed all the old school dogma of eating clean and very frequently (often 6-8 meals per day).  I was obsessed with every minute detail about eating healthy but I was completely missing the forest for the trees.  After months of following strict, rigorous diet guidelines, I would go on week-long binges only to feel like a complete failure afterward.  Needless to say, I was tired of the everlasting cycle, so I sought answers.  I found my cure in the form of Intermittent Fasting (IF).

Nowadays, I am not too concerned with my food choices as long as they fit in with my current training and aesthetic goals.  I basically eat when hungry while focusing on fresh, whole foods along with some junk throughout the week.

False Hunger Cues

As creatures of habit, we often get used to a certain schedule, especially regarding our dietary habits.  Now these habits can be deemed good or bad depending on your perception, beliefs, and goals.  For the readers in America (and those outside of America who know how fat we are), I think we can all agree that the western diet is pretty crappy in terms of food selection and caloric density when compared to a diet full of fresh, unprocessed food.

I’ve found that those who are overweight and unhappy about it often have some pretty foul eating habits.  When I say foul, I’m referring to their food selection and frequency of their intake.  Their intake is normally high(er) calorie foods and they often eat as a result of false hunger cues: these cues being TV commercials, soft drink ads, co-workers bringing in donuts, etc.

There are no more “I’m truly hungry so I am going to eat now” thoughts.  It’s usually “oh, that pizza looks really good right now; do they deliver?” despite just getting done with lunch 2 hours ago.

This is a HUGE problem and we need to fix it.

Relearn What Hunger Feels Like

So how does one actually relearn what hunger feels like?  You just don’t eat for a while; seriously.  If you want to know what hunger feels like, I encourage you to go on a 24-hour fast.  I guarantee that by the time it’s over, you will be hungry.  You might feel starved even though in the real sense of the word, this is hardly the case.  You simply aren’t used to not eating.

Hunger pangs are largely controlled by hormones in the body (ghrelin, letpin and others).  So when one is used to eating multiple times during the day and are on a constant sugar rush, hunger pangs will be at an all time high.  This is a good thing, however.

In order to change our bad eating habits, we must relearn what hunger feels like.  Once we do this we will need to be reminded of what it’s like to feel full.

Make Yourself Feel Full

Being full possesses a plethora of meanings to many people.  For some who eat slowly, it’s the immediate second their brain receives the full signal.  They will stop eating, even if their plate has remains of food energy to be consumed.  Thank goodness for refrigeration.

For others who eat very fast (like my former self), it’s after that 5^th plate of food when I should’ve clearly stopped at 2 plates.  However, I ate so fast that the hunger feeling didn’t manifest until I was on my 5^th helping.  Consequently, by this time, I need a couch to pass out on to cope with my bloated and miserable self.

We need to find a happy medium.  If you’re an athlete or very active weekend warrior, our energy demands are higher than the average desk job employee.  So our food choices may be slightly different or higher in kcal energy than someone who is not very active.  The principles still apply though.  But what are the principles?

Principles to Feel Full

When relearning what it’s like to feel full, there are a few ways I like to go about it.  I stick with whole foods and I eat only 2-4 meals per day depending on my training.  On days I’m really active, I eat more often and on the days I am sedentary, 2-3 meals will usually suffice.

Here are a few ideas to keep in mind when satiety is your sole focus.

• Eat protein at every meal. It’s the most satiating nutrient and will help preserve lean muscle mass.
• Eat lots of fibrous veggies.  They are very low in calories and provide a lot of bulk for your diet, not to mention all the vitamins, minerals and fiber they possess.
• Eat more fat. Fat is satiating but also very easy to overeat on.  I recommend nut butters, cooking lightly with butter and consuming semi-fatty cuts of red meat.
• Instead of processed carbohydrates, focus on fruit. The water and fiber content of fruit will leave you feeling full much longer than some cereal or bread.
• Eat slowly. There is no rush.

Incorporating Intermittent Fasting

If it weren’t for intermittent fasting, I’d probably still be a neurotic basket case when it comes to my nutritional protocol.  There are multiple ways to go about fasting so feel free to choose the one that will fit your schedule and temperance.

First, we have the (up to) 24 hour fast in which you eat nothing and drink only water, tea, coffee, etc. for the entire fast.  You stop feeding at one meal and then eat nothing all the way up until that same time again the following day.  This approach is best practiced only 1-2 times per week.  Always allow 2-3 days of feeding in between your fasts.

Or you have another option made popular by Martin Berkhan.  This method consists of a 16 hour fast every single day.  For most people’s schedules, it’s ideal to fast up until about 2-4 p.m. and then eat your allotment of calories in an 8 hour window.  Once you are done eating, you fast throughout the following morning/afternoon and do it all over again.  This is my preferred method of fasting as it fits well with my training and academic schedule.

After The Fast (Feeding Time)

Now if you want to drastically change your eating habits, you must learn some self control.  You will definitely feel hungry and may have a headache or what not because you are simply not used to going this long without food.  Some self-discipline will come in handy at this point.  Remember to focus on whole, natural foods as they tend to fill you up faster than processed, sugary junk.

Remember to eat slow enough to allow the full signal to reach your brain in a timely manner instead of stuffing yourself silly, only to feel miserable and regretful shortly after breaking your fast.  There is no excuse to go on an all-out binge here.

You will want to keep track of your calories just like you would on any other diet.  Fasting does not present you with a wondrous cure to eat whatever you want and magically attain the body of your dreams.  Self-control needs to be a focal point here.

However, the beauty of IF makes our diets simple and allows us to remember what it’s actually like to feel satiated and recognize real hunger cues as opposed to the false ones.

Nothing has to be set in stone.  If IF doesn’t fit with your schedule, there is no need to force fasting for the long term.  It will only take a few weeks of IFing to relearn hunger cues and to get oneself back on track.  Once you regain a firm grip on eating out of necessity as opposed to other reasons, you can resume your normal schedule and eat when you feel hungry, not when someone brings in a pizza or when you hear the donut commercial on your way to work.

Nowadays we are sold on the idea that we need to eat more often in order to have a faster metabolism, but as disputed in the past articles we know that is not true.  Sadly most mainstream diets sell best when they are complicated, because you have to buy a book (or additional supplements/bars/shakes) in order to make it work. Something simple will never make a ton of money in additional sales, because there will be nothing else to continually buy (except food).

But let’s take a quick overview of what scientists and researchers already know about the connection between eating and living longer/healthier.

Living Longer by Eating Less

Scientists have known since the 1930s there was only one real proven way in which you can extend the lifespan of an animal in laboratory conditions (up to 30-40% longer). That way was through reducing the daily calorie intake dramatically (up to 40%) compared to others fed at the normal calorie level. This is known as calorie restriction (or CR for short).

The CR groups were noted to have decreases in blood pressure, fasting insulin, inflammation, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and body mass. All markers to say that the aging process is slowed down including more protection at the cell level against diseases.

On the left is Canto (27) and on the right is Owen (29). Canto is fed with about 30% less calories than Owen (CR). Which one do you think looks more vibrant and younger?

Unfortunately there is also downsides to the CR approach including loss of lean muscle (and getting really skinny), loss of energy, being hungry, loss of mental focus and well-being, increases in anxiety/depression/irritability, and just nothing that any of us would really want to go through.

So it seems the old sarcastic line is true, “Calorie Restriction is a great way to live a long and miserable life!“. Luckily there does appear to be another option.

Intermittent Fasting and Feeding

Later on it was discovered that another protocol involving fasting/reduced calories every other day could be used to mimic the health benefits seen in a fulltime CR approach. There was also seen an added feature of lean body maintenance while lowered fat mass (vs more bodyweight reduction in CR). These alternating days of fasting is also known as “intermittent fasting” (or IF for short).

Since May 2003 we have experimented with alternate day calorie restriction, one day consuming 20-50% of estimated daily caloric requirement and the next day ad lib eating, and have observed health benefits starting in as little as two weeks, in insulin resistance, asthma, seasonal allergies, infectious diseases of viral, bacterial and fungal origin (viral URI, recurrent bacterial tonsillitis, chronic sinusitis, periodontal disease), autoimmune disorder (rheumatoid arthritis), osteoarthritis, symptoms due to CNS inflammatory lesions (Tourette’s, Meniere’s) cardiac arrhythmias (PVCs, atrial fibrillation), menopause related hot flashes. We hypothesize that other many conditions would be delayed, prevented or improved, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, brain injury due to thrombotic stroke atherosclerosis, NIDDM, congestive heart failure.

Source: The effect on health of alternate day calorie restriction: eating less and more than needed on alternate days prolongs life. Johnson JB, Laub DR, John S. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(2):209-11.

The vulnerability of the nervous system to advancing age is all too often manifest in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In this review article we describe evidence suggesting that two dietary interventions, caloric restriction (CR) and intermittent fasting (IF), can prolong the health-span of the nervous system by impinging upon fundamental metabolic and cellular signaling pathways that regulate life-span. CR and IF affect energy and oxygen radical metabolism, and cellular stress response systems, in ways that protect neurons against genetic and environmental factors to which they would otherwise succumb during aging.

Source: Caloric restriction and intermittent fasting: Two potential diets for successful brain aging, Bronwen Martin, Mark P. Mattson, and Stuart Maudsley, Ageing Res Rev. 2006 August; 5(3): 332–353.

The extent of how all the systems in CR and IF work is still a mystery to many researchers. It also appears that while they both seem to share health benefits, the way in which they are done and systems involved can vary (as seen with the big difference in body mass).

Using Intermittent Fasting in Your Lifestyle

In reality, IF can be applied in many different ways (as most of us are not going to want to fast that often). Using intermittent times of no food intake along with reduced calories on those days can give people many of the health/weight loss benefits without needing to give up food for a whole day. It also allows more flexibility into how it can be used depending on the person’s goals, activity levels, food choices and schedule. I mean who wouldn’t want to eat in a way that could potentially give you:

• Reduced blood glucose and insulin levels (markers of improved health)
• Increased fatty acid oxidation
• Maintenance of lean mass (muscle)
• Reduced inflammation
• Reduced oxidative damage
• Increased cellular stress resistance (esp of heart and brain)
• Decreased risks associated with degenerative diseases of aging (cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, Alzheimers)

Although the best part that myself and many others love about using an IF approach, is that the “freedom” you get from not being a slave to eating all the time. When I want to eat, I eat…and I eat well! I really don’t snack as my lifestyle is now about eating meals or not. I eat plenty of calories/nutrients and am not starving myself. Plus I don’t have to spend extra money on bars/shakes and other processed foods just to try and get something in me every couple of hours.

I enjoy the flavors and tastes of real food now more than ever. I have a better relationship with food/eating, don’t really deprive myself of anything, but also make better choices in the process. All in all, a lasting lifestyle change and not a diet.

Task for This Week: Pick a Day to Skip Breakfast (and maybe Lunch too)

OK, I have held off till now about talking about intermittent fasting during this challenge because I wanted your initial focus to be on eating a better quality of food first. Intermittent fasting is more a “tool” you can use in your healthy lifestyle whenever you see fit to improve your health/weight loss, it is not a set diet plan. It is also not to be used as a pass to just allow you to just eat more crap in the process (as I always say IFOC, intermittent fasting on crap, is not going to work).

So for this week pick a day (weekday or weekend) in which you will see how your body responds to skipping breakfast*. Have some water/tea/coffee (be warned: fasting can increase the sympathetic nervous system response which may amplify emotions such as anxiety, so having caffeine may not be ideal on an IF day for many). See how your energy and mental focus is as you go. If you feel good, try going without lunch. Eat a normal sized meal (not binge) whenever you feel you are ready or start to feel too fatigued/low blood sugar/anxious.

Remember the goal with IF is not about eating nothing (or as people would say “starving yourself” ) to lose weight. It is about just taking a short break in eating in order to elicit natural hormonal and evolutionary genetic responses at the cellular level for better health (and weight loss does happen in the process). You will still eat that day and you are not doing this every day.

*Disclaimer: IF is meant for healthy individuals and may not be suitable for everyone. If you have any concerns you should talk with your physician before attempting. Use at your own risk.

More Information on IF

For years I have been helping to spread the word on IF because I believed it to be such a simple approach for many to use. Not to mention all the health benefits people really need today (assuming you do want to try and live longer and healthier). Getting older does not have to mean getting sicker.

If you want even more information into how IF works for weight loss and ways to use it, then just click on the link here and I will send you the FREE intermittent fasting ebook I wrote for everyone available at the IF Life. Enjoy!

So here they are (with the original articles linked as well) in no particular order for you to enjoy!

Best Quotes/One liners of 2009:

The point being in your battle against weight loss, you need to start where it matters the most…in how and what you eat. From there you compliment your efforts with “effective” exercise…and not “excessive” exercise. Too many people are being excessive in what they do, expecting faster results somehow.
- Aerobics (Cardio) is Not Your Priority in Lasting Weight Loss

With the caveat that sugar intake should be VERY minimal, I’d rather go ahead and give my body the substance that it can process rather than some unknown chemical. … Again, better is a relative term. It’s better to smoke one pack of cigarettes than to smoke two packs. Cocaine is probably less harmful than crack. That doesn’t make it healthy. It’s even better to do neither.
- Real Sugar Vs. Artificial Sweeteners: Which Is Better?

I eat clean 90% of the time so that the other 10% of the time, I can relax and do whatever. I can eat sushi without being concerned about the rice. I can dig into the chips and guacamole at a Mexican place before my plate-load of carnitas. I can have a drink or two while watching football with friends.
- Cheat Meals, Flexible Eating, and Dietary OCD

“Stimulate and don’t annihilate”
- Get Bigger Muscles by…Walking?

In the end, we all just need to go back to the basics. Eat Real Food! Do that and you can forget worrying about the cardiovascular protection of omega-3s or how many egg yolks you should eat to lower your blood pressure.
- How A Paleo/Primal Eating Plan Improves Your Health; And Why None Of It Matters

Along with trans fats, sugar is the worst thing you can put in your body.
- Marketing Lies: There Is No Such Thing As “Healthy Sugar”

Perfection is an illusion, it means there is some final destination to be achieved (and disappointment to be had if you don’t get there). Strive for living daily instead, not trying to achieve a goal that your happiness is depending on. Your happiness is now.
- Deep Thoughts……More on Weight Loss, Health, and Living

So many people accept illness as a regular part of being alive. But is it really? Is illness the normal human life, an inevitable part of drawing breath? I don’t think it is.
- How Do You Repair Your Immune System?

Many people are overweight despite eating hardly any food…so while calorie deficit is needed to lose weight, it’s only in relation to how optimal the overall metabolism is running in the first place. Have a hampered liver and it will also negatively affect your fat burning metabolism.
- Speed Up Your Metabolism – Fatty Liver Disease

You probably noticed I left one off. Here’s a statement to ruffle some feathers: Do not drink soy milk. If you want to know why, go back to the anti-nutrient section. Add to that very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids in soy fat. It’s really not good for you.
- Nutrition In Milk And Milk Substitutes

We have seen healthy societies with various %s (high and low) of carb intake but they all have one big thing in common…they all eat natural “real foods”. They also have another thing in common, once people from their culture move into a more “modernized” food environment, then the health benefits seen previously decrease dramatically.
- Are Low Carb Diets Over-rated for Health and Longevity?

The reality is that humans started cooking food because it makes food more easily digestible, rather than making it more difficult to digest. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, this is true. And the only measure of how nutritious a food is is how well the body can digest it.
- Are Raw Vegetables Healthier Than Cooked Vegetables?

If you don’t like something….change it or quit whining about it. Anyone can change their job, anyone can move to a different state, anyone can stop doing so much inorder to spend more time with family, anyone can make time for simple exercise, anyone can find ways to eat healthier. Dump the excuses and just take action to make a change now.
- Urgent Changes to Make in Your Vocabulary Today (for Health and Happiness)

Proteins and fat lowered a bit % wise, but carb% increased dramatically (primarily thanks to the whole “low fat” movement that could turn out the be the worst advice ever given). We are not saying carbs are the enemy, but we know that quality matters…..so let’s see where we are getting our carbs from. While fruits and vegetables have marginally increased, cereal grains and sugars have skyrocketed.
- Obesity, Diabetes, and Other Diseases vs Food Trends in Pictures

So knowing that pastured eggs are markedly more nutritious than conventional eggs, along with being more flavorful and safer, you have another reason to support your local farmers. Pastured eggs are more expensive, but they are also more nutritious. Check out your local farmer’s markets and buying clubs.
- The Truth About Free Range, Organic, Cage Free Eggs Nutrition

“If you told me you were going to jail and only had a barbell and didn’t want to get raped in the showers and could only do one exercise to put mass and strength on, then I’d tell you to do the snatch deadlift on a platform.”
- The Best Muscle Building Exercise…If You Had to Pick One

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you already know that I’m no fan of grains, whether processed or whole. Unfortunately, those of us that think such blasphemous things against those “wholesome” grains are an anomaly. So for those that still think whole grains are an important, healthy, wholesome, and necessary part of the diet, let’s look at just a few of the issues.
- The Real Truth About Those “Healthy Whole Grains”

It all boils down to the simple equation that if you put your feet in a stiff shoe, you are not going to use all the muscles in your feet. What happens when you don’t use muscles? They get weak. Add an addition unnatural stride (heel striking) with weak feet and you create instability at the base of your body (your feet hitting the ground). That translates up your knees, legs, back and creates compensatory movements (such as overpronation) and injuries.
- Cure all Running Injuries (and Pain) with One Simple Fix….Barefoot Running

Instability of the scapula is a major cause of shoulder issues, so my goal is to teach the muscles to work together to make sure my scapula is moving within the joint as it should be. And there are a load of muscles that connect to this bone: deltoid, traps, biceps, pectoralis minor, rhomboids, serratus, and rotator cuff to name a majority.
- How To Improve Scapular Stability For Healthy Shoulders

IF is not about starvation, it’s not about crash dieting, and it’s not about quick weight loss (even if results may happen quickly for some). To me it’s all about a lifestyle and lasting approach to improving your health, redefining your relationship with food, to reduce unnatural cravings, get back in tune with the natural survival design of our bodies, optimizing your glucose energy metabolism and just an easy and simple approach to lasting results.
- Intermittent Fasting has a New Name….Intermittent Feeding

As you can see, I don’t think that you need to 100% give up coffee or alcohol to be healthy. I enjoy both and am unlikely to go completely clean from either. If you stick with the a low intake of both and pay attention to how you feel after having them, there’s no reason that you have to be completely ascetic.
- Caffeine, Alcohol, And Health – How Much Is Too Much?

The bottom line is that humans have been eating eggs, meat, and butter for a really long time without heart disease and cancer. Yet somehow, now heart disease and cancer run rampant and the food industry is always there to protect us from eating these wholesome foods.
- Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs

Wrapping up the year, we mainly want to thank YOU the readers for making this a great 2009 at Fitness Spotlight (with all your contributions/comments). We look forward to more great things to come in 2010!

- Mike and Scott

PS. If you have any great quotes or one liners you heard this year, please feel free to share them in the comments below as well.

Why the change?

The focus of IF should be on eating, eating healthy and enjoying food.

The idea came to me as I was finishing up and revising my ebooks. I was looking at talking about IF with the focus on “fasting” and was reminded of all the mainstream negative reactions that come with that.

People saying things like “Oh you are starving yourself”….or “That’s just crash dieting”. I decided if I was going to go more mainstream I wanted to avoid all the preconceived negative notions that came along with it.

IF is not about starvation, it’s not about crash dieting, and it’s not about quick weight loss (even if results may happen quickly for some).

To me it’s all about a lifestyle and lasting approach to improving your health, redefining your relationship with food, to reduce unnatural cravings, get back in tune with the natural survival design of our bodies, optimizing your glucose energy metabolism (which will in turn make you more effective in burning, and not storing, fat) and just an easy and simple approach to lasting results.

Heck people are out there breaking through weight loss plateaus just using IF and not changing up anything else!

So from now on….the “F” in “IF” should also be about “Feeding”. We are going to focus on eating (even if it is with a more condensed eating window daily). The fasting part of course does happen, but this is not where I want most people’s focus to be (especially those new to the concept). Food is still going to be vital to our health.

Taking it to the Streets

Look out world....I'm now going to start giving you the truth and a simple way to eat...are you ready?

I’ve always believed in the potential of IF for anyone to use since I first came across it many many years ago. Having trained people over the years, I know realistically what people will and will not do.

All those complicated eating protocols (6 meals a day, measured portions, etc) may work for some, but for many it’s just not an easy nor realistic lasting approach (as they will not keep this up). So what good is a plan for eating if you are not going to stick with it?

Along came IF and it’s simplistic approach to actually getting results, improving energy moods, and a sense of freedom from all the complicated approaches that are seen everywhere.

I truly believed this was something people needed to know about as it really was so simple but had so much great potential to help people find a lifestyle that did work for them (and had so many other health benefits as well!).

So now with the final completion of my ebooks and coaching audio files (almost a year in the works), I am taking to spreading the word full time! No more working as training in gyms for me, from now on my career is going out there and trying to help spread the simple message of IF and how it can be a simple and rewarding lifestyle for most anyone out there (when used correctly of course). Real solutions for real people is my new motto!

So you can download your FREE IF Revolution ebooks (and learn all about health and weight loss) here

You are now entering a No-Diet Zone. Enjoy!

“Diet” is a 4 letter word. I’ve always said that if it is something that I would not be able to do personally, then there is no way I could tell other people to do it. I’ve tried it all. Eating 6x a day, carrying around plastic containers of foods, having coolers filled with protein shakes, carrying bars on airplanes to eat. You name it, I’ve done it. In the end, none of it was anything that I enjoyed or wanted to do for a lifetime.

When it comes to losing weight, we really need to be focused less on quick fix diets and more on lasting lifestyle changes. That’s hard to remember considering the media’s love for showing off quick weight loss. Also the “diet” niche is a huge industry with plenty of companies relying on people spending money for that quick fix.

What all of this is failing to do is provide a lasting solution. Most people would rather focus on how much they can lose in 4 weeks, rather than wonder if they had actually made lasting changes 6 months ago where would they be now. The media, while it loves to show people who lose the weight, never follow up and show those same people years later who just put it all back on and more (Oprah?). A yo-yo dieter is actually going to have a harder time in the long run with more fat storage and a less optimized fat burning metabolism.

So along comes my vision, to help people “Break Free” from all the myths, confusion, and complexity of trying to lose weight. Diet companies are not going to like me as I want lasting results for you without complicated (or expensive) solutions. I want you to be able to live your life and not be:

• obsessed with eating all day long (like 6x a day)

• weighing and measuring everything you eat (is that really natural?)

• worrying about magic %s of food macronutrient combinations every meal (you don’t need it)

• feeling like you are depriving yourself of anything (as that is just a rebound feeding frenzy waiting to happen)

I started this message a while ago with the formation of my IF Life blog, when I believed in IF as a realistic way people could get health and results long term. Now I am finally finished up (yes it is DONE! Finally I know!) with an ebook to help people on their daily journey. It’s taken me over 8+ months to complete (with notes from years of personal research and experience), has gone through 3 big revisions, and now I finally have a product that I am very proud to put my name on. The FREE  “IF Life Revolution” ebook is here to:

• help you get control of your life, health and results once again

• explain in simple terms what you need to focus on for lasting weight loss (while still giving plenty of details on how it happens)

• giving insight into how foods effect your health and metabolic systems

• examining the natural state of how your body was meant to eat and live in

• focusing on all important lifestyle factors when it comes to your health and weight loss

• exploring the longevity (and disease prevention) science behind using less calories and intermittent fasting

• and most importantly help to revolutionize the way you view eating, health and weight loss.

It’s a message I believe strongly in and will continue to promote to the mainstream hopefully now on a bigger level.

It’s my hope that the message will continue to spread and people can enjoy the freedom and enjoyment that I have come to find with IF and eating the right way.

It’s time people stopped all the complicated/expensive solutions, get back to the basics that work and “Break Free” from ever needing another diet book again!

The Best of IF Life and Modern Forager from 2008

As most of you know (or newer readers may not), Mike and I recently merged our blogs (namely the IF Life and Modern Forager) into the Fitness Spotlight in early 2009. Each of our personal sites had grown to around 100k+ views per month. It was at that point we figured it would be beneficial for all if we teamed up, took our two sites with similar ideas and brought them together into larger one to try reach even more people with our messages (to help those drowning in all the mainstream misinformation being peddled out there….you know the kind that is full with fluff, not getting people results and keeping most sick). With that we now have some new readers, readers from the different blogs and a site with alot more information. Some of you may haven’t seen what I consider to be my best posts. Some of you may haven’t seen Mike’s best stuff either. And some of you are totally new and haven’t seen anything from either of us.

With the 100s of posts now on one site, we figured we would take time out to make your life easier and list our best posts from the last year. You can experience (or re-experience) some great content and maybe remember the important things that matter. So here they are in roughly alphabetical order:

Straight Up No-BS Fitness

• Developing Hip Function: A Hallmark Of Athleticism
• Fat Loss 101 – Master The Basics
• Five Exercises For Strong Abs And Lower Back
• Muscle Building 101 – Master The Basics
• Picking the Right Tool for the Job, Part 2: Developing Base Fitness
• Things Your Personal Trainer Won’t Tell You
• The Biggest Workout Mistakes People Make
• Trainer Tells All, What I have Learned About Health and Fitness
• What Can The Tarahumara Indians Tell Us About The Importance Of Running Long Distances?

Your Health Matters

• Can One Be Both Vegetarian And Primal?
• Eating More Meals Does Not Speed Up Your Metabolism (Part 1 of 2)
• Eight Ways To Lower Your Testosterone Levels
• How Vitamins A, D, E, and K Interact – Part 1: The Players (3-part series)
• Intermittent Fasting 101
• Intermittent Fasting Roundtable, the Experts Talk
• Is Your Gut Leaking? What To Do About It
• Nutrition 101: The One Rule To Remember
• Part 1: What Happens To Your Body When You Fast? – Energy Production (6-part series)
• Why Your Doctor is Wrong About Meat
• What Sweetener Should You Choose? Sugar? Honey? Agave Nectar?

The Simple and Happy Lifestyle

• How to Win the Mental Battle in Life
• How to Be Happy Right Now
• Important Lessons for Living Simple
• Why Worry About Little Things If The Big Things Aren’t In Place?

Unfortunately, our move to a new domain means we lost the “love” we had from StumbleUpon on all these old posts that was helping to get our information out to people that had never heard of us. So if you see something that you think is worthy once again, please help us re-spread the word and click the big green “Stumble It” button at the end of that particular article. We are going to keep telling it like it is in 2009….except now there are 2 of us, and with your help…we can all make an even bigger positive impact out there (as we know how bad the mainstream media info can be).

Look out world….as we don’t care what “Brangellina” is doing or wearing, we eat red meat, love butter, lift heavy stuff, don’t run marathons, question everything out there, keep things simple and want to free you from all the trappings in your life that are useless and/or bringing you down…..so at times the truth may hurt, but will set you free.

Do you really need to be eating all this prepacked stuff to lose weight?

In Part I of learning about how eating more meals does not speed up your metabolism, we covered many research studies that showed there was no benefit for so called accelerated thermogenesis with more meals. While eating 6x a day can work to lose weight, it’s not necessary and in some cases may actually cause MORE harm to your long term weight loss efforts.

Here’s what some other extremely smart fitness writers (not that I am calling myself extremely smart, just saying these people know their stuff hands down) also touched on this subject. Once again could this whole myth finally stop gaining momentum…..or are we cursed to ongoing modern media health gossip not getting people real lasting results?

First series of quotes comes from Martin over at leangains.com from his article posted here (which is also an excerpt from his new upcoming book)

You’ve probably heard that eating smalls meals throughout the day ‘stokes the metabolic fire’ or is the ideal way to eat in order to control cravings and blood sugar; as consequence, this should also be the ideal way to eat for fat burning purposes. This belief is partly based on a gross and blatantly incorrect interpretation of research concerning TEF (Thermic Effect of Food).

The problem here is that the research has been presented in such a way that it has lead people to believe that the net effect of TEF of several small meals would be greater than that of a few, large meals.

TEF is directly proportional to the calories contained in the meal you just ate (ref). Assuming a diet of 2400 calories, with the same macronutrient composition, eating six small meals of 400 calories or three big meals of 800 calories, TEF will be exactly the same at the end of the day.

So, while eating several small meals a day will per definition ‘keep the metabolic furnace burning’, three big meals will ‘keep the metabolic furnace blasting’.

Good stuff. I can certainly attest that when I have larger meals my metabolism goes into overdrive (I get hotter and could probably break into a sweat!), especially when combined with an IF eating lifestyle. More from Martin:

Simply put, if you eat six small meals throughout the day, you will store and burn less fat between the meals compared to three meals a day, while you will store and burn more fat with three meals a day. Note that I say ‘store’, because fat storage and fat burning is an ongoing process ‘ with six small meals you will store less AND burn less, and with three meals a day you will store more AND burn more.

Whether you store or lose body fat at the end of the day is a consequence of intake minus expenditure; not meal frequency.

I’m not sure when we starting thinking about minute to minute metabolic responses, but Martin nails it down. It’s about what happens all day long that is the sum of all real results. Too many magazines and other so called experts are telling us to worry minute by minute….is that any way to really live? Or are people just now profiting from our now ongoing consistent obsession to eating? (we’d all probably get the best weight loss if we lived on an island with no diet books, no TV, no media news, no magazines….and just ate naturally).

Lyle McDonald on his blog did a really great post about meal frequency and energy balance as well. Here’s some of the highlights:

Perhaps one of the longest standing dogmas in the weight loss and bodybuilding world is the absolute necessity of eating frequently for various reasons. Specific to weight loss, how many times have you heard something along the lines of “Eating 6 times per day stokes the metabolic fire.” or “You must eat 6 times per day to lose fat effectively.” or “Skipping even one meal per day will slow your metabolic rate and you’ll hoard fat.” Probably a lot

Well, guess what. The idea is primarily based on awful observational studies and direct research (where meal frequency is varied within the context of an identical number of calories under controlled conditions) says that it’s all basically nonsense. The basic premise came, essentially out of a misunderstanding of the thermic effect of food (TEF) also called dietary induced thermogenesis (DIT) which are the calories burned in processing of the food you eat.

They concluded that earlier studies finding an effect of meal frequency on weight gain (or loss) had more to do with changes in appetite or food intake, not from a direct impact on metabolic rate. For example, early observational studies found that people who skipped breakfast were heavier and this still resonates today with the idea that skipping breakfast makes you fatter.

You can read more on his blog, but it still boils down to the TEF of 3000 calories is the same at the end of the day whether in 3 meals…or 6 meals. Here’s some more quotes:

that there is no data in humans that skipping a single meal or even a day’s worth of meals does anything to metabolic rate. Human metabolism simply doesn’t operate that quickly and various research into both fasting and intermittent fasting show, if anything, a slight (~5% or so) increase in metabolic rate during the initial period of fasting. The idea that skipping breakfast or a single meal slows metabolic rate or induces a starvation response is simply nonsensical.

You will not go into ‘starvation mode’ because you went more than 3 hours without a meal. Nor will your muscles fall off as an average sized food meal takes 5-6 hours to fully digest

Amen! Another big myth that “diet” and supplement companies will prey on….the dreaded “starvation”….whoooooaaaa (that was supposed to be my evil scary laugh). The metabolism as said above does not shut down with a missed meal….and when you look at IF and enough calories there is actually an INCREASE in metabolism. Wow….what else do we have….

Other studies have shown that splitting one’s daily calories into multiple smaller meals helps to control hunger: people tend to eat less when they split their meals and eat more frequently. But, again, this isn’t an issue of meal frequency per se, it’s because food intake is decreased. When folks eat less, they lose weight and IF a higher meal frequency facilitates that, it will cause weight loss. But, at the risk of being repetitive, it’s not because of effects on metabolic rate or any such thing; it’s because folks ate less and eating less causes weight loss.

All about the calories and hunger control….although eating smaller more frequent meals actually makes me hungrier! (and I am a miserable SOB when I am hungry all the time….so my mood is not going to be optimal on that eating plan).

First and foremost, a 2 vs. 6 meal per day comparison isn’t realistic. As discussed in The Protein Book, a typical whole food meal will only maintain an anabolic state for 5-6 hours, with only 2 meals per day, that’s simply too long between meals and three vs. six meals would have been far more realistic (I would note that the IF’ing folks are doing just fine not eating for 18 hours per day).

Personally I like 3-4 meals a day to balance my exercise and recovery. I go by how I feel and stopped worrying about muscle loss long ago….seems it still sticks around, even with IF added into the equation….who knew, right?

Lastly from Martin’s LeanGains blog again is an interesting email between himself and the author of the most popular online fitness ebook “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” by Tom Venuto (article seen here)….Tom who pushes 5-6 meals in his ebook even states:

You will still see me recommend 5-6 small meals per day,and rather strongly. But not dogmatically. What you wont hear me say is that 6 meals increases metabolism or weight loss over 3 meals at an equal caloric intake.

You will also not hear me say that your metabolism slows down if you miss a single meal. (starvation response) I already reviewed that data on my public blog last year:
http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2007/11/is_starvation_mode_a_myth_no_i.php

All in all can we finally put this myth to rest? Are there people still out there that still believe you NEED to eat 6x a day to lose weight?? Eating and calories (and quality of foods) is important in weight loss or muscle gaining efforts, but don’t fall for diets promoting the need to eat all the time…..just so you have to buy their snacks/bars/supplements. It’s a sales pitch!

So summing up…here’s the take home points

• Once again, eating more meals does NOT provide a metabolic advantage at the end of the day (if the calories and macronutrients are the same)
• If you need to get a lot of calories in for a high activity level or trying to put on weight, then more meals may be more realistic to get it all in. (after all, isn’t this where the myth started…with the bodybuilding industry?) But again, not neccessary.
• If a diet tries to sell you on the myth that you need to eat more often to lose fat….walk away before they also try and sell you on their special frozen meals, bars, shakes or other supplements. They want your money! If a so called expert says it, walk away…because they get their knowledge from mainstream hype and gossip (as I know plenty of personal trainers educated only by fitness magazines and diet books on what and how to eat).
• Trying to eat more often may actually be causing more people to gain weight…as they are eating much more than they really believe they are. (as we all know about underestimating what we really eat) This is also more an issue with women, who need far less calories than men on average…and can easily overeat on snacks and meals if not careful. Total calories matter.
• What does eating 6x a day and measuring portions really do for our social life and attachments to food? Does this help or hurt people who may already be obsessive about food? (you know what I would guess…..Hurt!)
• Eating 6x a day is not realistic or a long term lifestyle any of us probably want to follow, so how do we keep it up? We don’t (why you see a new spokesperson for all those weight loss meal programs every 3-6 months…because their other ones in the past gained all the weight right back!). If you can’t sustain it, it’s not going to help you in the long run. Go for lifestyle changes, not quick fixes.
• Be Free from diets….Tupperware containers….Measuring portion sizes….Carrying around snack bars (which are usually filled with sugar and other crap)….free to enjoy good healthy whole foods and sit down to enjoy meals like you used to. Don’t live to eat…..eat to live.

photo by vaguelyartistic

Why are you really being told to eat all these prepacked meals? Could it be a marketing ploy?

This is one of the biggest myths and misconceptions that I hear all the time in mainstream media and people trying to tell me how to eat healthy. Ask any trainer, nutritionist, doctor, diet guru…or whoever and they will probably all tell you the same thing “You need to eat small meals through out the day to keep your metabolism going”. Really? Is that how it works? Our metabolism accelerates based on meal to meal frequency during a day? I don’t think so. In fact, next time you hear someone say that just ask them to explain it in more detail and hear what they have to say then. In the meantime let’s go over what is happening and dispell this myth (as I have people who are overweight telling me that they need to eat 6x a day inorder to lose weight because some hollywood trainer wrote it in his latest book and that I am wrong….wow).

Eating 6x a day can help you lose weight…..BUT…….

Hey, I will be the first to admit it that eating 6x a day can work. Many people have proved it. But what people neglect to look at is WHY it works. It’s NOT because of some magical accelerated metabolic process associated with eating more often. Most people call this thermogenesis, where the body expels energy in the form of heat through what it has to do (such as the energy of digestion). But here’s the fun part, if you eat the same amount of food in 6 meals….or 3 meals….isn’t that the same amount of digestion? So how can there be any advantage due to thermogenesis? (getting a bit ahead here)

But let’s go back to the REAL reasons eating 6x a day works:

• People are recommended to eat more fibrous vegetables and protein to keep fuller
• Eating more often can help curb cravings and binge eating
• Smaller meals in right portions of carb/protein/fat can keep blood sugar/insulin stable and encourage more fat burning while in the “fed” state all day long
• At the end of the day people who get success are still in calorie deficit

So there you have it, eating 6x a day works only because it is calorie deficit at heart. So now one has to ask that if you can still eat the same amount of calories in 3 meals then wouldn’t you get the same results?

I can hear all the nutrionists and trainers around the world yelling at me at once “You’re wrong”…”You’re going to crash your metabolism”…and all the other things you hear so often. But honestly folks, where did this train of thought start? Could it be originally from the bodybuilding magazine and supplement industry (a billion dollar industry!!) that preys on the fear of going into a catabolic state and wasting away muscle….so you need to buy more protein powder, bars, etc. Or could it be from one of the many newer weight loss companies making billions selling prepared or portioned out foods/bars/shakes specifically for eating 5-6x a day? Could it be this is the greatest marketing sales pitch in the diet world today? I think so!

Where’s the Proof?

That’s what I would ask anyone touting the 6 meals a day mantra. Really, where is the proof that is the ONLY way to lose weight (as I already talked about it can work, but it’s not the only way)? Where is the proof that is speeds up your metabolic rate at all (which is the only reason people are being encouraged to eat 6x a day)? I already said that anyone can lose weight eating 6x a day but they can also lose weight applying the same calorie deficit to 3 meals a day. Personally when I tried to nibble from morning to night (when I was sold on this philosophy a long long time ago) I was hungry all day long! It made me miserable and starving all the time! There was no enjoyment….no wonder no one can stick with all those new diet books coming out preaching this concept. I mean, who wants to carry around 5-6 meals a day…who has time in their lives for eating eating eating? Are we living to eat, or shouldn’t we really be eating to live?

So you want proof, well here’s some that just shows there is none for the 6 meal a day preachers…..

Effects of meal frequency on energy utilization in rats.
Hill JO, Anderson JC, Lin D, Yakubu F. Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University

“The effects of differences in meal frequency on body weight, body composition, and energy expenditure were studied in mildly food-restricted male rats. Two groups were fed approximately 80% of usual food intake (as periodically determined in a group of ad libitum fed controls) for 131 days. One group received all of its food in 2 meals/day and the other received all of its food in 10-12 meals/day. The two groups did not differ in food intake, body weight, body composition, food efficiency (carcass energy gain per amount of food eaten), or energy expenditure at any time during the study. Both food-restricted groups had a lower food intake, body weight gain, and energy expenditure than a group of ad libitum-fed controls. In conclusion, these results suggest that amount of food eaten, but not the pattern with which it is ingested, has a major influence on energy balance during mild food restriction.“

and……

Meal frequency and energy balance.
Br J Nutr. 1997 Apr;77 Suppl 1:S57-70.
“More importantly, studies using whole-body calorimetry and doubly-labelled water to assess total 24 h energy expenditure find no difference between nibbling and gorging. Finally, with the exception of a single study, there is no evidence that weight loss on hypoenergetic regimens is altered by meal frequency. We conclude that any effects of meal pattern on the regulation of body weight are likely to be mediated through effects on the food intake side of the energy balance equation.”

and…….

Thermogenesis in humans after varying meal time frequency
Wolfram G, Kirchgessner M, Miller HL, Hollomey S.
To a group of 8 healthy persons a slightly hypocaloric diet with protein (13% of energy), carbohydrates (46% of energy) and fat (41% of energy) was given as one meal or as five meals in a change-over trial. Each person was 2 weeks on each regimen. Under the conditions of slight undernutrition and neutral temperature the balances of nitrogen, carbon and energy were assessed in 7-day collection periods, and according to 48-hour measurements of gaseous exchange (carbon-nitrogen balance method) by the procedures of indirect calorimetry. Changes of body weight were statistically not significant. At isocaloric supply of metabolizable energy with exactly the same foods in different meal frequencies no differences were found in the retention of carbon and energy. Urinary nitrogen excretion was slightly greater with a single daily meal, indicating influences on protein metabolism. The protein-derived energy was compensated by a decrease in the fat oxidation. The heat production calculated by indirect calorimetry was not significantly different with either meal frequency. Water, sodium and potassium balances were not different. The plasma concentrations of cholesterol and uric acid were not influenced by meal frequency, glucose and triglycerides showed typical behaviour depending on the time interval to the last meal. The results demonstrate that the meal frequency did not influence the energy balance.

and there are many more…..but what you do see is the following trends:

• There is no real truth to accelerated thermogenesis from increased meal frequency (with same calorie deficit load)
• There is no real truth of improved body composition with increased meal frequency (with same calorie deficit load)
• It’s still about the total calories for the day even with different insulin responses
• Hunger is the biggest issue with any dieting and eating more often is supposed to help combat that (but it depends on what people are eating whether that is true or not)
• People who eat more frequently may have lower insulin spikes for smaller fat burning throughout the day, but the smaller number of larger meals may have also more fat burning ability in the spaces between meals or fasting states….in the end it’s still the same amount of fat burned it seems…..wow, the body is an amazing piece of work….and we are really just beginning to understand it better.

There are also some disadvantages (I mean besides making/storing/carrying around all the food and spending tons of money on supplements) to the eating 6x a day strategy including:

• Can increase cravings if your food choices are not all veggies/fruits/meats
• Does not help decrease insulin resistance (and may help increase it) if you are putting sugar in your body all day long from bars or other processed food choices
• It is very easily to overeat calorie wise at a snack or meal and not put yourself in calorie deficit mode (therefore you do not lose weight). This is especially important for women who need much less then men for a meal or snack.
• This is not a realistic ongoing lifestyle approach for people with real lives, working long hours and doing what we do today. (I mean if it works in the short term that’s one thing, but it has to be sustained to call it a true success. You can see many of those celebrities showing off how they lost all this weight doing some prepared meal plan….but do they keep it off? Many don’t.)

So if you are looking for optimal fat loss you could also add in some Intermittent Fasting (IF) and you get the additional benefits of:

• No decrease in metabolic rate (in fact there is a slight increase due to more SNS hormonal responses)
• Increased release of FFAs (free fatty acids) to burn when you are not eating (aka fasting state)
• Increased GH pulsing (which can preserve muscle and help release FFAs)
• No more worrying about food all day
• No more preparing/carrying around Tupperware containers
• No need for protein powders or shakes (if your goal is weight loss, for people wanting more muscle you still may need additional protein depending on how much you can eat in the feeding window)
• Increased mental clarity
• having a life outside of food and the gym
  

So there you have it. You can eat 6x a day, 3x a day, 10x a day…honestly that is your choice…..it appears that it won’t really matter when the calories are the same. When you add in some IF and keep your eating on a more planned routine, you will see better responses to insulin sensitivity and FFA oxidation. No wonder many people who try IF are finding easy results and more importantly a new freeing way of life. Still lots of questions and much more research to be discovered on all these topics….but there is a better way it seems (if we can stop listening to all the myths in mainstream media that is driven by an industry financially dependent on having us all eat more often).

Note: If you enjoyed this be sure to read Part II of this series here for more info and commentary about this important subject.

photo by shawnblog