Are you struggling with your weight?
Do you lose the same amount of weight, only to ‘find’ it again?
Is it easy to be ‘good’ all day and then you find yourself over-eating at night?
Does your energy (physically, mentally and emotionally) drop in the late afternoon?
The secret fix for all of that is adapting the 5-6 ‘small’ meals a day rule. It’s a rule that allows you to transform your body – if you continue the pattern for life. The key is being organized by always having convenient, healthy, portion-controlled food with you everywhere you go.
In this new relationship with food, a ‘meal’ no longer refers to waiting too long to eat (4, 5, 6 hours or more), causing your blood sugar to bottom-out. When this happens, you will over-eat. In the a ‘small’ meal pattern, you are not ‘on’ a diet and therefore there is no going ‘off’. Instead, for the rest of your life, you make a commitment to eating every 2-3 hours to prevent the kind of hunger that drops your blood sugar and leads to over-eating later in the day.
Each ‘small meal’ should to contain either fat or protein to balance the carbohydrates. Consume fruits and veggies (foods high in fiber, vitamins and minerals) and/or healthy fats at most meals.
Protein is the nutrient with the highest satiety value. That means protein makes you feel full sooner and for longer than do fats or carbohydrates. Fats have the second highest satiety value after protein. When you eat smaller amounts throughout the day with enough protein, your blood sugar is controlled. The other bonus of eating protein throughout the day: conserving muscle mass (the ‘good’ weight) while losing more body fat. Strength training also helps preserve muscle mass while you lose fat.
When you eat 5-6 small meals a day, over-time your stomach shrinks, so you get full sooner on less food. However, it can be re-stretched if you go back to your old ways! This is a life-long eating pattern that will keep you at your goal weight and body fat if you make it an everyday habit, just like brushing your teeth!
The first step is figuring out how many calories you need per day to obtain your goal weight. You need to consider your age, sex, activity level, and height. Go online or consult a nutrition professional to figure out how many calories you need per day (go to www.eatright.org
to locate someone near you).
Once you know your calorie needs, divide by how many meals (5 or 6) you will realistically eat per day. Then, take 20-25% of that number and divide it by four (4) to obtain your protein needs in grams per day.
For instance, if 1800 is your calories to obtain and maintain your goal weight, divide that by 5. That’s 360 calories per meal on average. Then, take 20% of 1800, which equals 360. Divide 360 by 4 and that’s 90g of protein per day.
One very important rule is you may ‘bank’ calories within reason. So, if you eat 210 calories at ‘meal 2’, you just saved-up 150 calories you can add to dinner (meal 5) for a 510 calorie dinner. You cannot – I repeat CANNOT- save up many hundreds of calories to eat at night/your last meal of the day. Nor can you ‘skip’ any meals to bank them for an 800 calorie meal later. For instance, you cannot ‘bank’ 400 calories throughout the day and then add that to your 360 meal average. That would be 760 at one meal!
You have to stay close to your calorie range per meal 85% of the time for this to work. If you go over by too many, you’ve had a ‘cheat’ meal. You may have two ‘cheat’ meals per week, but no more. This is a mini guide I give my clients to help them determine their own ‘cheat’ meal limit:
ï‚¡ If your goal weight is 120 or less, 550 or more at once = a cheat meal.
ï‚¡ If your goal weight is 121-140, 600 or more at once = a cheat meal.
ï‚¡ If your goal weight is 141-160, 650 or more at once = a cheat meal.
ï‚¡ If your goal weight is 161-180 or more, 700 or more at once = a cheat meal.
ï‚¡ If your goal weight is 180+, 750 or more at once = a cheat meal.
Examples of ‘small meals’: (calories in parenthesis):
Meal 1: Breakfast: 6 egg whites, 2 Tbsp. salsa and 1 slice whole grain bread and 1 Tbsp. real fruit spread (320) OR ½ cup oatmeal with ¼ cup walnuts and stevia to sweeten (310)
Meal 2: am snack: English muffin with 2 Tbsp. almond butter (320) OR ½ cup low-fat cottage cheese with 1 cup of berries (160) OR ¼ cup raw almonds or walnuts in 6 ounces light yogurt (300) OR 140-calorie whole wheat tortilla with 1Tbsp. of peanut butter (240) OR Nutrition bar (160-310 calories) OR ¼ cup of trail mix (170-210)
Meal 3: lunch: 6 oz. can of salmon with 3 cups of romaine lettuce, ¼ cup shredded carrots, 1 medium tomato, ½ cucumber with 2 Tbsp. Low-calorie raspberry vinaigrette dressing and 1 apple (300-350) OR 4 oz. lean Sliced turkey, tomato, 2 Tbsp. guacamole, wrapped in 2 corn tortillas (330) OR 5oz. yam/sweet potato with ½ cup brown rice and 4 oz. lean ground turkey and 2 Tbsp. salsa (420)
Meal 4: pm snack: 1 scoop 100% natural whey protein, 1 cup of skim milk, 1 cup of water and 1 cup of berries (270) OR 2 pieces string cheese with 1 serving of crackers (280) OR 1 med. apple with 1 Tbsp. nut butter (165) OR 2 servings of baby carrots with 2 Tbsp.hummus (138)
Meal 5: Dinner: 5 oz. chicken breast with 2 cups of grilled, raw or lightly steamed asparagus or broccoli with roasted red pepper spread and ¼ cup lentils (350-400)
About Romy Nelson
Everyone is different, but for those who have trouble gaining mass, often 6-7 meals per day is best. The difference for someone losing weight, their calories must be tightly controlled. For those looking to gain weight, your calories need to be higher per meal. Check out eatright.org to find a nutrition professional near you who can work with you to figure out your calories per meal necessary to reach your goal weight.
What were the list of protein bars that you stated in one of the podcasts? The only one I remembered was the Kind bar.