Meal frequency can play a huge role in weight loss, athletic performance, muscle and health, healing, and chronic promotion of diseases.

Eating 5 to 7 times a day, 3-4 meals, and 2-3 snacks terrorizes people’s metabolism and hormonal balance.

Why do people do this? To attempt to keep blood sugar levels in range? To avoid hunger or to feel satisfied? Falsely thinking you are raising your metabolism?

An increased meal frequency of 5-7 times daily doesn’t do any of those. 

It will drive oxidative stress, inflammation, insulin resistance, weight gain, hormonal imbalance, increased hunger, pushback evening hormones disrupting sleep, eliminating valuable detoxification mechanisms, REM sleep, and hormonal and neurotransmitter resetting. BAD.

Reality check: if you can’t go 4 hours without eating, you get headaches, dizziness, irritability, hunger pains, etc, then you have some work to do. 

So what am I to do?

Start by eating just three times a day. Three meals a day with no snacking. 

If you are just starting your health journey, eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Don’t count calories or eat anything special…..yet.

Once hormones start to respond, hunger eases, cravings and emotional eating are more controllable, and we can talk about shifting WHAT you eat more specifically. 

First things first.

Give it two weeks, commit, and see how it goes. You will be pleasantly surprised.

This is step one in the new “Lifestyle Medicine Paradigm,” part of the reason eating less and exercising more does not work in the long run and can make you worse.

We can do better!

Dr. Don