Is a Six Meals a Day Diet Right For Everyone?

At Chandler Boot Camp, we say no, but we also know that making some modifications to your existing nutrition plan is paramount in order to maximize fat loss.

No diet is right for every single person, but there are certain guidelines you should be aware of that will help steer you towards determining if a diet is right for you.

Many people suggest that in order to lose weight with as big of punch as possible, that you should consume six meals a day. Six meals..."Yes". How come six and not four or five? Is there a special reason why six is commonly suggested?

Eating every three hours equates to about six meals per day. Most people are up for approximately 15-16 hours every day. It's really simple to figure it out. If you are up at 6:00am and tuck into bed at 10:0pm, then you will have been up and at'em for about 16 hours.

If you eat every three hours starting at 7am, then by the end of the day, you'll have had six meals.

Ok, so you see eating every three hours equates to six meals a day, but why every three hours? Let's give you a quick run down on how our human body works.

Whenever you consume food, your body goes through a bunch of reactions. Blood sugar levels raise, hormones are secreted, etc. Let's focus on blood sugar as that's the major reason why we want to eat roughly every three hours.

You see, when you eat a balanced meal containing all the macronutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats, your blood sugar levels elevate. As a result, you then produce a hormone responsible for transporting that blood sugar to muscles and your liver. This hormone is called insulin and it's the major player in transporting nutrients. Some say it is the most powerful of all hormones when it comes to losing fat and gaining lean muscle.

If blood sugar drops and stays low for prolonged periods of time, your body equates this as a time of famine. Because of this "down time" period, your body will try to raise blood sugar by breaking down your muscle tissue to use it as energy. This isn't a desired process as the loss in muscle mass will result in a lowering of your resting metabolic rate.

A good way to keep blood sugar and insulin in check, is through meal frequency. Meal timing is a very powerful way to elevate those metabolic processes conducive to fat loss.

Let's go through an example of meal timing based on the amount of calories being consumed.

Let's say you are consuming 1800 calories each day. Normally you only eat three times per day (not good). So each meal is roughly 600 calories. Now let's take those same calories and spread them out over six meals per day. We come up with 300 calories per meal (better).

We are now consuming the same amount of calories over a longer time frame, so our body is able to manage the processing of those calories more efficiently. Because we are taking in calories more frequently, but in smaller doses, our body processes these calories faster and becomes accustomed to receiving these frequent meals.

Frequent eating conditions your body to immediately process those meals and expects the next meal to come soon. This has a profoundt result on your resting metabolic rate (RMR). By increasing frequency, you're able to boost your resting metabolic rate. It's been shown to be responsible for roughly 60-70% of your daily caloric expenditure.

So remember to get your six meals a day diet scheduled and integrated into the your overall fitness program.

Nutrition is paramount to achieving maximum boot camp fat loss. If you want personalized training and nutrition help, be sure to join our fitness boot camp program in Chandler, AZ. You can view our weight loss boot camps and receive a complimentary fat loss report by visiting www.ChandlerBootCamp.com.