Is Eating Three Meals a Day the Only Way to Be Healthy?
How many meals a day should we eat to achieve and maintain a healthy weight? Most of us were taught to have “three square meals” a day. But having more smaller meals throughout the day can help balance out our hunger and calories.
“It is suggested that those who eat more frequent, smaller meals have learned how to limit their intake at each meal and do not have the ravenous appetite that accompanies the starve-all-day, stuff-all-night方法,琳达·范·霍恩说, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University.
“Overall, it is still the total calorie intake that determines someone’s body size,” said Dr. Van Horn, who is also an 美国心脏协会 volunteer. 过量的卡路里摄入, whether spread out over the day or consumed at one meal, 还会导致体重增加吗.”
It may seem as if avoiding food is a good way to lose weight, but it’s not. Depriving your body of food isn’t good for you, and you typically wind up getting all those calories back — and then some — because you end up making yourself so hungry. For a healthier you, focus on spreading your calorie intake across the course of the day. 尽量不要不吃饭.
“那些不吃早餐的人, eat little or no lunch and then consume a large evening meal tend to have higher BMIs,” Dr. 范霍恩说.
Getting started can be as easy as 1-2-3!
- 设定卡路里目标. If you need to lose weight, then you need to expend more calories than you take in each day. Most people need to subtract about 500 calories per day from their diet to lose 1 pound per week. Learn how to make smart choices when dining out and how to 在家做健康的食谱.
- 开始写饮食日记. Write down what you eat as well as the times of day and portions in a 食物日记或追踪器(PDF). This will not only help you keep track of your meals and calorie intake but also may point out some bad habits you weren’t aware of. Do you fill your afternoons with high carb and sugary snacks? Are your portion sizes pushing you over your calorie goal? 你不吃饭吗?? Learn how to easily identify correct portions by tracking what you eat.
- 行动起来. It’s important for your overall health to 定期锻炼. And, it can also be a key to losing — or maintaining — weight.
