The first thing you would hear anyone tell you when it comes to losing weight is – Eat Small Frequent meals throughout the day. Just like 6 Packs, 6 meals a day has gained a lot of popularity over the last decade or so.
Is 6 Meals a Day the Golden Secret to Lose Weight?
Absolutely Not! And I say this for 2 reasons.
1) To lose weight, the first thing that you should look at is the Quality of your food. Is your current diet nourishing you with the right proportions of Macros, Micros, Minerals and everything in between.
2) How many people REALLY have the time to eat 6 meals a day in the long term?
Let me talk about point #1.
What I see most of the people do when trying to lose weight is – Jump to eating 6 meals a day without really thinking about the quality of food.
Most often than not, their diet remains the same with these additions:
Corn Flakes and Packaged Fruit Juices for Breakfast
Tea and Biscuits for Snacks.
And their typical diet looks like:
Lunch – 2 Rotis and Curry
Dinner – 2 Rotis and Curry
Last Meal – 1 Glass of Milk
I’ve seen a lot of dieticians recommend this to their clients. If your diet is anything close to this, here is the truth about this diet – It is a Disaster Diet!
What you did here was started eating 6 meals (although some don’t even qualify to be called a meal) without really thinking about what you are eating.
Corn Flakes, Juices, Biscuits are all loaded with sugar and will make you FAT! If you have lost weight on a diet like this one, sadly for you, you have lost muscle and not FAT.
So you see, the first step is to really think about the food choices and not worry so much about eating 6 meals. What’s the point if you are eating SUGAR in all the 6 meals or even 8 meals?
Let’s talk about point #2
How many people have the time to cook and eat 6 times a day? I’ll be honest, on most days, I don’t have the time to eat 6 meals a day either. So if I told all my clients eat 6 times a day or you won’t lose weight, they might do it initially but in the long run, they will give it up. It’s not something that they can do on a long term, at least when losing weight is not the top most priority in their life (frankly, it is not in most peoples case).
I want all my clients to enjoy the process, have fun and not feel like they are being deprived and are just counting days when this 6 meals a day torture will be over.
For an average joe, 6 meals a day finds it place only after they are smarter with their food choices.
A large majority of the people that I work with on a daily basis don’t have the time to prepare and eat 6 meals a lot. And a few don’t even have the time to eat 3 meals a day. Does this mean that they will NEVER lose weight? And this is where I feel the importance given to whole concept of Eating 6 Meals a Day to Lose Weight is flawed.
6 Meals A Day – The Real Application!
If you are an athlete, eating small frequent meals is really crucial, again depending on your training and goals. An Athlete’s life is all about training and recovery and doing everything possible to gain that competitive edge. And without a seed of doubt, nutrition plays a really crucial role. The real world application of 6 Meals a Day is in an athletic set up. The Athlete’s life revolves around training for his sport as their career depends on it.
