number of meals issue

M

mikehende

0
I have been reading for years that in order to gain weight, an underweight person must eat smaller and more frequent meals daily, what I can't understand is why this method also works for people who are on a weight loss program, can anyone explain this please?
 
I'm sure it has something to do with people gaining weight that need to build up their metabolism (by eating more than usual). While people who are losing weight do the same thing, they are just slowing it down (by eating less than usual)
 
Well yes, I do understand that underweight people have fast metabolism and need to slow it down to gain weight and the opposite for those that need to lose weight so then why/how should this method of eating work for both?
 
I think it does work for everyone. The point, to my knowledge, is to stablize your body. Put it on a routine. I've heard that it does alot of good for the metabolism.
 
If the point to this is to create a "routine", aren't 3 big meals everyday a routine just like 5 smaller meals daily? See what I'm trying to understand? :confused:
 
the reason that the small meals a day thing works is because it stabilizes your metabolism. to understand it, think of it this way: when you starve yourself on some weird clear soup once a day diet, you basically make your metabolism paranoid. what i mean by that is, when it finally does get food, it will act like it's in 'starvation mode' and slow WAYYY down so that when you do eat, your body has enough energy for a longer period of time. so when you eat larger meals, you are sortof making it think in 'starvation mode'. it will burn calories slower, so that it can conserve energy because it's afraid that it will have to wait a long period of time before more energy will come along.

if you are eating six small meals a day, your body basically is happy. eating 5-6 small meals a day lets your metabolism run at a faster rate because it knows it will always have a supply of energy to run the body.

make sense?

i never heard of the whole underweight people eating six small meals a day - it's probably like newbride said, and just to kinda put the body into a balance. it's actually a really common thing that is recommended to patients with many different problems - i have reflux disease and i was recommended to go on the six meal a day thing. it really helps - basically for the same reason it helps the metabolism, but with stomach acid. (fun)

i hope that helped!
 
Yes, that makes it easier for me to understand, yes, it's basically what both Newbride and readyfor18 was trying to telling me only you elaborated some more, thanks for the help guys!:D

Regarding the "underweight" issue, going to more meals per day for weightgain was recommended so the body has a constant supply of "protein" during the course of the day but this was for weightlifting/bodybuilding purposes.
 
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