Facts About Meal Frequency and Thermic Effect

Meal Frequency and the Thermic Effect of Food

The total quantity of calories you expend on a daily basis is the sum of those required to support your RMR, those utilized for exercise and other daily activities, and those expended during the digestion and absorption of your meals (thermic effect of food). It is estimated that the thermic effect of food accounts for approximately 10% of your total calories expended daily.

 Protein has the highest thermic effect, followed by carbohydrates, and lastly, fats. Eating a portion of protein with each meal helps moderate the glycemic (blood sugar) response to the ingested carbs, and helps provide satiety.

Each time you eat a meal, you expend calories simply by digesting and absorbing that meal. If you eat 5-6 small meals per day as opposed to the typical 2 or 3 meals per day, you are increasing your calorie expenditure simply by increasing your meal frequency. Eating 5-6 small meals per day means eating approximately every 3 waking hours throughout the day.

It is important to note that you should never skip breakfast. You should eat first thing when you wake up in the morning . If you go the entire morning without eating like many people do, your metabolism is running much slower than it should, and you’re also putting yourself in a catabolic situation where your body will be breaking down muscle tissue for energy and to supply amino acids for other essential bodily functions.

Another reason that increasing your meal frequency is that it helps to maintain a more stable and steady blood sugar throughout the day. This keeps your insulin levels more stable and allows you to be in a fat burning mode for more of the day. If you eat the traditional 2-3 large meals per day, you have much bigger swings in your blood sugar and insulin levels.

It is very hard to lose body fat when you’re only eating 2-3 large meals per day. In addition to promoting a leaner body, eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout each day will also provide you with more consistent energy levels without the mood swings. 

Infrequent Overfeeding Key To Weight Loss

Importance of Infrequent Overfeeding

It’s a well known fact that to lose body fat, you need to bring your daily caloric intake below your maintenance level .At first you lose weight, then your progress slows, and then there comes aperiod when you struggle to lose any more weight. If you reduce your calorie intake even further, now you start to lose muscle in addition to losing fat . Again, that’s not good because this will lower your metabolic rate, making it even harder to lose fat. 

When you restrict your caloric intake for a period of time, your body think that you’re starving, and reacts by lowering your metabolic rate and increasing your appetite. Researchers believe that the reason your body does this relates to levels of a hormone in your body called leptin. 

If you’re on a low calorie diet, leptin levels will begin to fall in your body. Low Leptin levels reduces your RMR and triggers cortisol production (a catabolic hormone that eats muscle), and also increases your appetite. It’s your body’s defense mechanism because it thinks you are starving. 

Here comes the question of how to keep your leptin levels normal ? and hence keep your appetite sated and your RMR at optimal levels, it is helpful to have occasional over-feedings . This could be one day a week where you forget all about your diet and eat whatever you want in whatever quantities you want. Try to make the majority of your overfeeding day comprised of carbs, but avoid sodas or other sources of high fructose corn syrup. Also, try to go approximately 1000 calories higher than your maintenance caloric intake for the overfeeding day to assure a good response.

Heres the good thing 

You could still lose a pound a week even with the overfeeding day. For example, if you stay at a 750-calorie/day deficit below your maintenance level during the other six days/week, and you’re 1000 calories over your maintenance during the overfeeding day, that’s still a 3500-calorie deficit for the week (+1000 - 750x6 = -3500). 

 What you’re actually doing is tricking your body into thinking that food is plentiful once again and it doesn’t have to lower your metabolic rate since it no longer thinks you’re starving. Besides being important physiologically for maintaining continual fat loss, the overfeeding day is also very important mentally by giving you that one day a week to look forward to where you can overeat and not worry about it. Knowing that your overfeeding day is coming soon, you’re able to stick to your diet throughout the week.