Weight Loss Articles

People in the United States, and people all over the world, struggle with obesity in some degree. In the last couple years people have come to realize a serious problem that many people are suffering from. The problem is obesity and it is more regular today than ever. What is forcing the obesity outbreak? Increasing amounts of manufactured and processed foods, large portion sizes, and idle lifestyles are all important components in why this country now battles with being overweight. As we strive to come up with a solution to this huge problem, serious questions about diet and exercise have come with it. In the diet category, it has been an argument for many years now between physicians and scientists on all sides about how often you should eat.

When it comes to frequency of meals, most experts think that it matters less when you eat the meals and more on total caloric intake. If youonly eat when you experience hunger it may be two times a day or four. Those who like to eliminate meals choose to skip breakfast, and this is the most important meal in the diet When you don't eat a meal in the morning the body will go into hibernation because it feels like it needs to conserve energy. This habit can also cause you to be starving when you get a chance to eat ant you will eat way too much. For those of us who don't eat breakfast you need to pay attention to eating healthy foods that you are probably missing out on. Fruits, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains are great foods that are not too filling and can make you active all day.

Skipping meals is one practice that most experts will recognize is very unhealthy. This is because of the way that our metabolism acts in accordance with our dietary needs. The metabolism only works at a normal level when it knows that the body has had a safe amount of food. If you don't eat a meal or multiple meals, you are sending a message to your body that there is not enough to eat and that it needs to start conserving energy. This is the reason some of us get tired and irritable when we don't eat. The argument of how many meals a person should eat will go on for a long time, but the best thing to remember to do is eating the right amount and at the right times for your metabolism.

Experts say eating multiple times a day is healthier than eating all the calories you need in a day at a specific time because it will reduce snacking between meals. You don't need to force down all the calories you can consume 3 times everyday, just eat a little meal only enough to get full and do not snack before and after the 3 designated meals. Leaving out snacks and high calorie drinks such as sodas, sports drinks, and coffee (with cream and sugar of course) will reduce your caloric intake by hundreds of calories a day.

One view of some health professionals is to consume 5 or 6 small meals a day to help relieve constant hunger. The idea is that if you are able to consume little amounts more often you won't snack because your body needs nutritional supplement every few hours. It has also been theorized that the body can only take in so many nutrients and so much food at one time. Consuming to much at any one sitting will actually do just the opposite because the body will create fat with the excess calories. The worst thing you can do is skip meals all day and eat a big meal at night. This is a big surprise to the metabolism because it is dormant throughout the day then all of a sudden shocked with a huge meal. A person may feel sleepy and sluggish for as many as several hours after eating a big meal like this at dinner.

In a recent study, British scientists concluded that women that skipped breakfast tended to eat more calories throughout the day to make up for the period of fasting. These women had higher levels of cholesterol than females who has a good breakfast each morning. This is because the females that don't eat a meal in the morning eat more unhealthy high calorie snacks to balance the consumption. Unfortunately the fast foods that are accessible to most of us are unhealthy and high in calories, and if you don't eat meals and start to get hungry during the day these are the items you will eat.