Meal Frequency and Gaining or Losing Weight

Some folk maintain that the most effective way of losing excess bodyfat is to
eat 5-6 smaller, well balanced meals a day? Interestingly, this is
precisely what some people advocate as the best way of increasing lean body
weight.

In other words, it appears as if the best way to both gain muscle and lose
fat is to eat more frequent smaller balanced meals. Maybe we need to change
our entire eating rituals to enhance our physical being, be it to lose
weight, gain weight or minimise the incidence of many diseases of modern
civilisation.

To determine what is the optimal frequency of eating for any given population
is under certain circumstances, we need to look back through history at the
evolution of eating customs over the years, as well as at how so-called
“primitive” people and animals eat. A great deal of eating in the wild
seems to be opportunistic - if it is there and you are genuinely in NEED of
food (i.e., are hungry), then eat it. Far too often we eat because we WANT
to eat (imagined need) or because it is expected socially of you on a given
eating ritual occasion called lunch, supper or dinner.

Far too often refusing to eat is regarded as “rude” or a sign of being ill!
Far too often parents induce their offspring to overeat by impressing upon
kids that they will fall ill if they don’t eat enough or “will never grow up
big and strong like dad unless they eat up!”

Some folk would have us wander a bit into some Freudian and related
psychology and suggest that many people enjoy filling their mouths with food
because they are still in the “oral-anal phase” of human development and are
using their adulthood to satisfy the need to eat, suck, smoke or otherwise
keep the mouth busy in some sort of pleasurable oral activity. The “anality”
of the syndrome may be expressed in the use of foul language and behaviour
relating to the nether regions of the body. However, let’s leave that to the
psychologists and attend to matters more physiological in orientation!

Is there any scientific support why we eat according to the custom of three
meals a day? Is the main purpose of “tridiurnal eating” one of social habit
and organisational convenience than anything else? Is there any reason at
all why we have to eat daily?

Then, why do we have to start a meal with something called “hors de-ouevres”
or “starters” and end with “dessert” or “pudding”? Is there any real need to
include these components or is there any good reason why we need to follow
any specific eating order? The very presence of these items on a menu is
enough to entice some folk to focus more on the frills and empty calories
than the “main” dish.

When I was speaking at a sports conference in Taiwan recently, I found it
most interesting that a very large array of different foods was served at the
same time and you could choose what to eat in virtually any order. I found
it a fascinating and relaxing way of eating and socialising - once I had
mastered using chopsticks! It stimulated me to seriously re-examine all of my
eating habits or those that my culture had programmed me into following.
Dr Mel Siff
Author of Supertraining + Facts and Fallacies of Fitness
http://www.drmelsiff.com