The REAL "Right" Time To Eat
by Jackie Burgmann, creator of "Hot at Home" - The
Transformation Solution for People Who Hate The Gym
There's a lot of confusing information out there these days. Especially when it comes to the subject of weight loss, dieting, nutrition and burning off excess fat.
Many who decide to get on the path to a better body find themselves snowed under with well intentioned but confusing advice, most of it contradictory.
Advice about meal timing, how much to eat, what kinds of foods to eat, when to eat which foods, and how much
of each kind of food to eat.
Tell me you haven't heard one ... or ALL of these
little gems:
• Don't skip breakfast or your metabolism will be slow all day.
• Eat every 3 hours, to keep your metabolism racing.
• Don't eat only two or three meals each day, eat five or six (also in order to keep your metabolism fast).
• Don't eat right before bed or your body can't process it and it will just turn to fat overnight.
• Don't eat for several hours before bed (for the same reason).
• Make sure you eat before you work out so you have energy.
• Eat (or drink) carbs after you work out to replace glycogen in your muscles.
• Eat protein after you work out to help build muscle.
• Don't drink your calories, you won't feel full enough.
Sigh ... No wonder everyone's so darned confused, right?
Then add to the mix these extra special pieces of advice ... these are the ones that make me absolutely crazy:
• Take this magic pill and your metabolism will be so high your fat will just melt right off with no working out and no dieting.
• Try this magic contraption where you can just hook up to a bunch of electrodes or sit on our vibrating machine and watch TV while burning fat with NO EFFORT and no special calorie restrictions!!
Alright. Hang on a second here!
Isn't this getting just a little bit ridiculous?
Sure there might be a tiny nugget of truth behind each and every single one of these theories (except the last two, those are outright scams), but the absolute truth is that when trying to lose weight, it really comes down to one thing and one thing only:
Your "Calories In" must be lower than your "Calories Out".
In other words, the calories you consume while eating must be less than your body needs in order to live, breathe, sleep, brush your teeth, work out and all the other things you do during your days.
The truth of the matter is, that it really doesn't matter WHEN you eat, or even WHAT you eat ... or when you eat what, or what kinds of foods you combine or how many times of the day you eat, or if your meals are large or small.
All that really matters is that your body has less calories to burn on its daily functions than you are giving it. Then it has no choice but to get its energy from your fat stores.
Sure, if you eat lots of whole, natural, healthier foods, you won't feel hungry as often or as quickly, so please don't confuse this advice with carte blanche permission to start eating junk food constantly. That won't get you anywhere either.
But, the point is: if you are eating when you aren't hungry based on one or more of the pieces of advice above, then stop immediately.
One of the most important guidelines to burning fat and getting lean is to ONLY eat when you are hungry, not otherwise.
Why add calories to your day that you don't even feel the need for?
If you're not hungry and you have energy for whatever task is at hand, why would you put more calories into
your body that your body isn't even asking for? That's completely counter-intuitive to the goal, right?
The goal is to keep your calories in a 'deficit'.
And the best equation to follow to achieve this is to figure out what the caloric range is for your body type, age, fitness level and weight loss goals are and then eat approximately 300 - 500 calories less than that each day ... or 2,100 - 3,500 less than that per week.
Adhering to this tactic regularly will ensure a consistent and ongoing decline in that number on your scale.
So, as you go forward with your weight loss goals, go ahead and eat when you're hungry, and STOP following schedules that force you to eat before you NEED to.
But always remember the most important formula of them all:
And remember: one of the best ways to keep your 'calories consumed' lower than your 'calories burned' is to eat when you're hungry ... but ONLY when you're hungry.
Confused by how to eat properly and get a lean body in this temptation-filled world of confusing and
conflicting advice?
There are lots more sensible and realistic nutrition tactics in the new "Hot at Home"
Transformation Solution (not to mention tons of great In-Home Workouts and an extensive Mindset Map to help you get that 'fit body' mindset).
Get the straight facts and lots of easy-to-follow 'real-world' nutrition strategies (plus over 40 weeks of 'done-for-you' fat-burning workouts) in "Hot at Home".