skipping meals?

hunniebaby

What would skipping meals do to your body system?

Felt_Rider

Eventually slow down the metabolism. Not what a person typically wants to do.

It is better to eat more often by splitting up regular size meal portions into multiple meal portion. 3 regular meals become 6 small meals.

Of course a lot of this also has to do with genetics and activity levels.
Skipping meals if a person is very sedentary may not be near as bad, but being sedentary is bad in my book.

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Felt_Rider

I should clarify the 3 meals comment is only based on the typical American sized portion, which is typically too much at one time.

There are people like my wife who's portions are typically like 1 ounce of chicken, 3 green beans and 1 piece of broccoli that would not qualify for that statement.

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daveryanwyoming

Felt Rider is right on target. Skipping meals is not a good idea. In Dan Bernadot's book Advanced Sports Nutrition he cites a very interesting study. Two groups of athletes were put on different dietary regimes. The groups were isocaloric, or IOW given the same number of calories per day and both burned the same number of calories in training. One group ate 3 big meals per day, the other ate many smaller meals throughout the day. Again, the total calories were the same.

Sure enough both groups lost the same amount of weight by the end of the study. So calories in vs. calories out didn't change. The interesting thing is that the 3 meal per day group ended up with higher body fat and lower lean body mass. The small meal group ended up with lower body fat and higher lean body mass.

The interpretation is that 3 large meals per day puts the body through mini boom-bust cycles or mini starvations followed by mini binges. The body catabolizes muscle to fuel itself during the mini starvations and then stores excess calories as fat during the mini binges. The group with smaller steadier eating avoided the peaks and valleys in blood sugar and didn't consume as much of their precious muscles nor have to store excess calories as fat.

It's just one study, but a very interesting one as far as athletes and eating patterns is concerned.

-Dave

Felt_Rider

Thanks for typing all of that. I was just being lazy

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Marty310

It's not good for your body to do it. Even if it something as simple as taking an energy or protein bar or a little box of cereal with you, at least it's something to sustain you for a little bit.

SoonerVinny

Skipping meals is a very bad idea...some people think that's a way to lose weight when in fact all it does is slow your metabolism down. In addition, it can lead to headaches and light headedness.

Marty310

Good point, I know if I don't eat something for 3-4 hours I usually get a headache.