When To Eat

When it comes to shedding body fat, when you eat is just as important as what you eat. This is true for two reasons. First, allowing too much time to lapse between meals is a sure-fire way to lower your metabolism – the less often you eat, the less calories your body is willing to burn. Second, eating more frequent meals stabilizes blood sugar and insulin. When insulin spikes, it sends the body a “store-fat” signal – bad news when you’re trying to get rid of the stuff.

The trick to getting around both these problems is eating small meals that contain an equal portion of protein and carbohydrate (your clinched fist is a great way to determine the portion size that’s right for you) and space meals out about every 2 – 1/2 to 3 hours.

Here’s what a perfect day of eating might look like:

7:30am – Egg whites and oatmeal
10:00am – Protein shake and strawberries
12:30pm – Turkey sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce, tomato and mustard
3:00pm – Baked sweet potato sprinkled with Splenda® and cinnamon, topped with low fat cottage cheese (hey, don’t knock this one until you try it!)
5:30pm – Lean steak, brown rice with salsa, steamed broccoli
8:00pm – Cottage cheese, low fat vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries

Remember, portions are small. Depending on your size, use your open palm to gauge the proper portion of protein and a clinched fist to determine your carbohydrate size.

As you acclimate to eating small meals more often, you will gradually learn if your portions are either too big or too small based on how long it takes to feel hungry again. If you’re starving one hour after you’ve eaten a meal, it was too small. If you’ve gone three hours and are still not hungry, your portions need to be cut back a bit.

Try It This Week! – Here are a few simple rules to help you get started. Why not try it out for one week and see if it doesn’t make a difference in both your energy and the reading on your scale:

Rule #1 – Eat every 2-1/2 to 3 hours from the time you open your eyes in the morning until your head hits the pillow.

Rule #2 – For each meal choose a small portion of protein (palm size) and a small portion of carbohydrate (fist size) from the two lists below.

Rule #3 – Drink at least 8 ounces of water for every meal you consume. If you are eating every three hours you will need to drink between 4 and 6 pints of water (70 to 100 oz total) per day. (With the exception of perhaps a glass of wine or one short cocktail with your evening meal, avoid alcohol.)

Rule #4 – Have a small portion of any raw or steamed, non-starchy vegetable with at least one of your meals but, if you wish, you may have a portion of vegetable with up to 3 of your daily meals.

Short Protein List: (palm size portion) Egg whites, egg substitute, cottage cheese, tuna, lean steak, chicken breast, turkey breast, steamed or baked fish, whey protein, lean pork tenderloin, lean ham, steamed shrimp, steamed crab or steamed lobster

Short Carbohydrate List: (fist size portion) Oatmeal, baked potato, sweet potato, brown rice, 100% whole wheat bread, pasta, fat-free yogurt, beans, peas, corn, apple, berries, orange, low-fat graham crackers

Keep in mind that the most important part of this first week trial is TIMING! Small portions of cleanly prepared protein and carbohydrates, eaten every 2-1/2 to 3 hours will not only keep your energy even all day long, it will stoke your metabolism and prevent the body from shifting into low gear.

Just for this week, try to consume foods that are fresh and prepared without a lot of extra saturated fat, sauces or cheese. Use small amounts of olive or canola oil when cooking. Especially at the beginning, keep things super simple - simple food, simply prepared.

Once you have tried this way of eating for one week, I hope you will email me and tell me how things went. I would love to hear from you!

Good luck, good heath, good timing and good eating!

Dianne Orwig CPT, CFC, CYFI is founder and creator of Living Fit Online. For more information about her 12-week transformation program, please visit www.LoveLivingFit.com.

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