What if I told you that there is a way to eat where you could lose weight and have a ton of energy without starving yourself? Would you try it?
The best part is that you don’t need to pop any pills, register for any programs or buy any books. This is a simple eating plan that I follow religiously and have seen incredible results from.
Basically I eat 5 meals per day that range from a minimum of 300 to a maximum of 400 calories each. Each meal is as evenly spaced as I can manage. My hunger is in check and I have so much more energy now eating fewer calories than I did when I ate a lot more food.
Why It Works
For most of us, our bodies can only store 300-400 calories of useable energy in the form of glucose at any one time. Anything more that is not used gets converted and stored as fat.
So when you eat a large meal like a Big Mac combo. Which is roughly 1100 calories, 700 or so of those calories get stored as fat. This of course assumes that you are fairly inactive after the meal.
By eating 300-400 calories evenly spaced out this provides you with a steady flow of energy without adding to your existing fat stores.
For example: If I eat 400 calories at breakfast, which is 7am. That should provide me with enough energy to last until my next meal at 10am. Since I am just going about my normal day and not really doing intense exercise. My body shouldn’t need any more than that to keep me going.
By eating like this I have reduced my daily calorie intake to anywhere from 1500 to 2000 calories a day. This puts me in a perfect position to lose weight even without daily exercise.
Now I can eat pretty much anything I want to as long as it stays within that 300-400 calorie range. Junk food is not off limits and I don’t feel restricted as to the kinds of foods I can eat. That helps relieve some of the stress associated with a new diet plan.
My Eating Schedule
Meal 1 – Breakfast – 7am
Meal 2 – Mid-morning – 10am
Meal 3 – Lunch – 1pm
Meal 4 – Mid-afternoon – 4pm
Meal 5 – Dinner – 7pm
You can obviously tailor this to your own specific schedule. But try to keep 3 hours in between your meals. That should provide you with the maximum benefit. Anything longer than that isn’t good either.
Here is where the change in your lifestyle happens. After you eat this way for a week or so you start to really understand the importance of eating lower calories foods. You can eat a ton of fruit and veggies for a relatively small amount of calories. Leaner meats also have the same beneficial ingredients (protein, vitamins and minerals) but for much less fat and calories. Naturally you begin to look for healthy options so that you can eat more without sacrificing your waistline.
One Final Note
If you do plan on exercising while following an eating plan like this make sure you eat something with in 1 hour from the end of your workout. I have found this to be extremely helpful in recovering your energy for the rest of the day. You should also see better results from those workouts.
Great advice and something I’m trying very hard to stick to.
I know this sounds too simple to be true, but I’ve read somewhere that this is medically proven.
By eating more small meals, you rise your body’s ability to burn fats.
Easy and simple method. Why starve yourself?
thanx for great tips n advice
jasmine
tech-chek.blogspot.com
I testify that this works!
The keyword here is: Metabolism.
Eating good quality meals and at the right amount frequently 5 to 6 times a day and with less carbs at night will make your body metabolism gears rev up.
This meal strategy is also mentioned in the book I’m reading, “Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle.”
I have been doing this since last year, along with exercise of 30-60 mins at least once a week. From 190 lbs, I am now weighing 158 lbs. My goal is to reach 140-150 lbs with 90% lean muscle and 10% fat (or even less!).
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the comment, it can be a challenge to adjust to this method of eating but once you do it’s fairly easy to maintain it.
Lawrence,
Exactly right, keeping the fire stoked is a huge part of it. I
learned the hard way that too little food will stall your loses and hurt your health.
More and more reports and publications are championing this way or eating.
Jasmine thank you for your comment, glad to help
TheNonhacker,
Congrats on your weight loss success so far. 32 lbs lost is amazing. I haven’t read that book but it sounds like something I’d be interested in.
I agree that the quality of foods are just as important as the frequency in which you eat them.
My whole point to this article is that the more simple the better. For someone just starting out I think they would benefit more from focusing on this way of eating rather than worrying about the proper protein/fat /carb mix of their meals etc…
Thanks again for the comments
So basically a simple math exercise.
Try to burn more calories that you consume on a daily basis.
Those are great tips! Thanks for the awesome post! I’ve been reading about health and diet for a while, and have to say that it makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
I seriously thought *I* invented this diet! lol
This is the diet I came up with for myself a couple of years ago. (Except, I divided my day into four time periods, instead of five.) In each time period, I ate 300 calories. The only *rule* to this diet: you cannot *borrow* calories from later in the day. This comes to 1200 calories per day. (This number works for me, but should be individually determined) I ate anything I wanted, as long as it stays within 300 for that time period. I lost 45 lbs. within a year.
To maintain my weight, I still use this eating schedule. I eat often, just not very much at a time. I feel light, and energetic, and I look great !
I actually hate the feeling of “full” now.
I tell everyone I know (who says they are wanting to lose weight) about this way of losing and way of eating.
It really IS simple. Basically, you have to take in FEWER calories than you burn. Simple math. I think we all passed elementary math class right? Its not rocket science…we can do this.
Ah…another other thing I’d like to add to my own version of this diet:
1) I limited my bread to ONE item per day. This included all *bready* things…like pizza crust, potatoes, pasta, bread.
2) I tried very hard to stay away from eating sweet sugary things, limiting this to once daily, or not at all.
I know it probably all has to do with blood sugar levels, etc etc…and I am not sure about all that…All I know, is I felt Great! and I lost weight!
great post..thanks for sharing
I’m totally agree with clara..that’s a simple math kind of exercise!!
Yeah..I eat real often like that too.
I can seriously feel my metabolism in burn mode all the time, just churnin’ away.
This sounds great , but if I cut out the junk food and replace it with nutritional foods it only makes sense that it will work even better
thank you for sharing..by the way, I believe most people especially teenagers still need an extra eating after the dinner..:)
thanks for sharing. i agreed with what you said! good advise.
dont skip meal for weight loss
This is a wonderful website if you are looking for information on weight loss. To lose that weight, you need to be determined and stay dedicated or else you won’t see results. I have found this website to be really helpful in my weight loss goals. Well thanks for the good info!
The first step usually very hard to accomplish.. but anyway this one of good advice that I ever read.. Thanks
alot of people felt less appetite after workout same as me. well i will get really tired after that. ya guys remember to eat within an hour after workout if not your whole evening and night will b gone on the bed lol
What a good advice! ya, 1st step always be the most hard part. Anyway, this advice might work for most of people
Hi Steve, I’m still reading your blog
I agree that your diet is very good and healthy here.
Eating small and multiple meals will help to improve your metabolic rate which will help to lose weight. Eating vegetables and fruits are low in calorie and filling. Most importantly, they are much healthier than red meat
And, thank you for the tips for exercising, I will try to take my meals within 1 hour after exercising
Regards,
Jessy
Calorie Shifting
nice post, very simple to follow even. ya i do agree that keeping 3 hrs between the meals is really good to keep up the digestion at correct time. my physician even will ask me to take meals in 3 hrs gap. but i feel that your chart is exactly good to keep up the time as well as to maintain a good eating habit.
great info, thanks.
I gotta agree eating 5 or 6 meals a day is the most important thing you can do to stay helathy or lose weight. I find that this really keeps my energy up and metabolism high and also it will make you have good blood sugar all the time instead of those spikes
.-= Bill the Fitness Guy´s last blog ..Arthritis Pain Control =-.
Interesting – I never heard that before, about our body only being able to store 300-400 calories of useable energy. I always hated counting calories, but if that statement is true than counting calories could very well be the secret to weight loss.
If you get down there enough in the calories you’re not left with much food at one time. Which is sometimes why smaller people will do a 3 meals a day thing.
You gave a very good diet plan! As you rightly said splitting the meals will help a lot with your metabolism. But its really hard to count the calories in day to day life!
Good plan indeed. I have found having the diet plan in place and following it, even if its a little boring (not saying this one is though
), then its completely doable. I don’t necessarily rule out supplements though, but they are not the magic bullet everyone things.
Great post, I like what you’ve put here, sounds like you’re having good success with this dieting plan so keep it up! I feel that keeping it simple can make things easier so I definitely agree with you here.