If I had known that I get to eat more meals in a day when losing weight, I would have started a lot sooner! The last thing you probably think about when trying to lose weight is eating more often, but it’s true – the tired, old philosophy of eating “3 big meals a day” is horribly out of date and just plain wrong. To really boost your metabolism and help you achieve your fitness and weight loss goals you should be eating smaller meals every 3-5 hours. The key here is smaller meals (you cannot have a 5-course meal every time you sit down!) and making sure what you put into your body is stuff that it can use.
Our bodies are strange creatures, and they very easily start to think that food is scarce when they don’t get nutrition every few hours. By eating smaller meals more frequently you are telling your body “Hey, it’s ok, there is plenty of food – here, try this and enjoy!” It helps your metabolism to keep going throughout the day and helps to provide regular doses of energy that your body can use to keep you feeling better and helps give you the motivation to be more active.
Without a doubt the most important meal of the day is breakfast. I can’t tell you how many years went by when I was skipping breakfast and just grabbing a donut or some other junk food from the convenience store or the break room at work. Is it any wonder I was 342lbs and growing? Make sure that you start your day off right – you want to fill your plate with proteins, healthy fats and a few carbohydrates. Think of this combination as the perfect “Good Morning Body” breakfast!
Here is a sample of what I had for breakfast this morning:
Scrambled eggs (yes, eggs are good for you!), slice of whole wheat toast with a teaspoon of peanut butter, a tablespoon or so (I don’t measure things exactly) of pecans and a glass of skim milk.
Now feel free to get creative with those eggs – why don’t you chop up some of those garden fresh tomatoes and put into them? How about a dash of cinnamon? Can I interest you in some chopped onion? Just avoid the salt and the cheeses and you will be fine!
Mmmm, let me tell you it was good! I’m not a morning person, but this boost of energy really got me up and going.
Losing weight isn’t easy, but we can do things to make it a little more enjoyable. Eating a good, healthy breakfast and making sure that we are eating multiple small meals during the day can go a long way to making this journey a lot more enjoyable – and helping you to stick to it.
So if you haven’t done so already, get off the computer and go make you some breakfast!
I found out that, really, it just doesn’t matter. The truth of the matter is this – if you workout and burn 500 calories then your body “subtracts” 500 calories. At the end of the day, when you tote everything up, if your body needs more fuel it will simply get those 500 calories form your fat reserves. It’s as simple as that. I can find no scientific evidence that any special type of meal or time of day is going to increase or decrease calories. At the end of the day what matters for weight loss is calories –plain and simple.
practice self-control and know that these are “treats” and not everyday meals. Have a craving for a hamburger? Instead of the the calorie-rich, fat-laden Double Whopper w/ Cheese, 
One of the observations I’ve made is that there are a lot of people who do strength training who believe in spending a lot of money on expensive protein and vitamin shakes. Call me old fashioned, but paying $50 for a jar of powder just doesn’t top my list of fun things to do. Luckily one of my favorite foods provides a lot of the vitamins and protein I need and is available for just a few dollars in any grocery store – peanut butter! 
