Skipping meals (or leaving long gaps between meals) is
the cardinal sin of fatburning and muscle-building nutrition.
Missing meals slows down your metabolism, causes muscle loss
and triggers your body's starvation responses.
Suppose you skip breakfast and you haven't eaten since 8:00 p.m.
the previous evening. If you eat lunch at 12:00 pm, you've gone
16 hours without any food. At this point, you are not only in
a highly catabolic (muscle wasting) state, you're also sending
an unmistakable starvation signal to your body.
If skipping meals is the cardinal sin of fat burning and muscle
building nutrition, then skipping breakfast is a capital crime
suited for the death penalty! And yet everybody is doing it!
Analysis of nutrition programs for many clients shows that one
of the most common errors in skipping breakfast or eating it late,
around 10:00 a.m. or even later. I don't have time! Is usually
the excuse justifying this unforgivable blunder.
Let's take a close look at the devastating impact this lack of
planning and discipline has on your fat loss efforts:
Suppose you're in a hurry to get to work in the morning and you
bolt out the door without eating breakfast. Your first meal of
the day is lunch at 12:00 noon.
It's moderately sized, let's say 500 calories, consisting of a
butter/sardine sandwich on wheat bread and a banana. Sounds fairly
healthy so far. By your customary dinner time of 6:00 p.m., you are
ravenously hungry, and you polish off a massive plate of Garri for
a total of 800 calories.
Later that night you're still hungry and craving something sweet.
Some cookies and low fat milk do the trick about 300 calories.
Then you go right to sleep. Although far from perfect, this menu
doesn't sound like a total disaster to the average, uniformed
person?
But IT IS! It's a nightmare
In the long run, this type of diet is a sure-fire way to slow
down your metabolism, lose muscle and gain body fat. On the
other hand, 2400 calories spread out into five or six small
meals of 400 - 480 calories each (about 300-350 calories per
meal for women), will increase energy, accelerate muscle growth,
and speed up your metabolism without fat storage.
Frequent eating can actually allow you to consume up to
50% more calories without storing an ounce of it as fat!
Hope this enlightens you.
