Surprisingly, there are so many ways to be healthier.
Sleep, for example, is very good for you because it reduces your craving for junk food, restricts inflammation, and extends your lifespan. Exercise and its many forms improve your lifestyle and give you a healthier body. Unfortunately, dieting does not.
Dieting puts your body at risk for stroke, diabetes and heart attack. The idea of weight loss shouldn’t be centred on how you look although a lot of people see it that way. Alternatively, it should be about health and having the right nutrients to ensure a better quality of life.
Having a healthy body will only improve your mind, spirituality and energy.
Here’s how eating five times a day may help you.
Lose Weight Through Frequent Meals
A lot of people think it’s extremely difficult to lose weight especially when some forms of workout aren’t effective. Surprisingly enough, eating five times a day might be what works for you.
So how does this work?
Obviously you shouldn’t eat loads of food. Eating five times a day should not be an excuse to throw portion control or caloric intake away. Those aspects of eating are still essential. The objective of five meals a day is to make them smaller with the same amount of calories.
The advantage here is making sure you are less hungry thus making it less likely to gorge on food.
Amy Jamieson-Petonic, a dietitian from Cleveland, explained, “After about 3 hours without food, your blood sugar begins to fail. And after 4 hours, your body has already digested whatever you sent down earlier. Once you’ve crossed the 5-hour mark, your blood sugar begins to plummet, and you grab whatever you can to refuel. “
This means that you are more likely to consume junk especially now that a new research suggests that low blood sugar decreases willpower. Lower willpower means you will have less resistance to cookies and other guilty pleasures.
This is also why dietitians would yell at you telling you to eat breakfast. The gap between your last meal before you go to sleep and the first meal you have when you wake up is the longest that you will go without food, so better have some breakfast.
What food should you eat?
Of course, eating five times a day doesn’t come without risks. The biggest risk would be eating more than you should. This is why it is important to keep an eye on what you eat.
Here’s a quick list of healthy snacks:
– Fresh fruit and low-fat cheese
– Carrots and other raw vegetables with healthy dips
– Dried fruit, mixed nuts, and whole-grain cereal
– Non-fat Greek yogurt and berries.
A few ounces of protein, one or more cups of vegetables, whole grains or starchy vegetables and a small amount of unsaturated fatty acids are what you should be basically aiming for. You should base the exact numbers on the amount of calories you’re allowed to consume in a day.
The evil of processed foods is what you should avoid. The reason why processed food is so good is because they are stuffed with so much salt, sugar and other chemical additives that feel great in the mouth but not in the body. The same goes for sugary drinks.
Eating was never enough.
Obviously, in order to lose weight, eating will not be enough. We were never meant to be a sedentary species so get up and move. Timing exercise closer to your meals will give you enough exercise to complete your workout. After you work out, have a refill of energy or else your low sugar levels will tell you to binge eat again.
There is no magic pill for losing weight, at least not in current scientific developments.
It is important that you realise that it isn’t about having a short-term fix, but changing your lifestyle.
You shouldn’t stop once the weight is gone, because it will only come back so have fun with it.
Learn to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, because it’s the best thing you can do for you and your body.
Aimee Harris-Newon, Psy.D., D.A.B.P.S., C.Ht