How Many Meals A Day Should I Eat To Lose Weight?
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The Pros And Cons Of Snacking
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m answering the question, how many meals a day should I eat to lose weight?
In addition to this, let’s talk about snacks.
More specifically, will snacking make you gain weight or do snacks help you lose weight?
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It’s no secret that the world of nutrition is a confusing place.
There are so many conflicting studies and opinions on:
The concept of snacking is no different.
Will Snacking Make You Gain Weight?
I recently read an abstract of a study on snacking.
The study analyzed a group of participants to see if snacking throughout the day lowered or increased overall calorie consumption for the day.
The results showed people who snacked throughout the day, still ate the same amount of calories during their main meals, when compared to the days when they didn’t snack.
In other words, snacking didn’t lower or maintain calorie consumption, it actually increased it.
I’ll discuss why this may be the case, in just a bit.
How Many Meals A Day Should I Eat To Lose Weight?
But first, I’m often asked the following question.
How many meals and snacks should I have a day to lose weight?
- 6 meals?
- 5 meals?
- 4 meals?
- 3 meals?
My answer, like you’ve heard me say so many times is, it depends.
The Most Important Factor To Lose Weight
When it comes to weight loss, the main factor that is more important than quantity of meals, is quality of meals.
The most important factor for losing weight is your:
- total calorie consumption
- macronutrient breakdown of those calories
The macronutrient breakdown simply takes into account the percentages of where the calories from, based on:
If you are in a calorie deficit, you are going to lose weight.
However, if you are consuming more calories than you are burning, you are going to gain weight.
This is true, regardless of if you eat 3 smaller meals and 2 snacks in a day, or 3 larger meals and no snacks in a day.
In addition to this, when your calories are coming from high sugary processed foods, your hormones are going to be a mess.
This means your fat storing switch will stay on.
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Pros And Cons Of Snacking
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of snacking.
Pros Of Snacking
The pros of snacking includes the following.
Snacking helps:
- Keep you satiated until your next meal.
- Keep your blood sugar balanced so you don’t get those crazy sugar cravings.
- Trick your body into thinking you’re eating more food throughout the day.
These are all positives for snacking.
Cons Of Snacking
The negatives of snacking includes the following:
- It’s easy to eat more than you should, if it’s not portioned properly.
- Snacks can often turn into meals, which leads to consuming more calories than you need.
- The idea of snacks are often associated with sugary processed ready to eat packaged foods, rather than satiating whole foods.
- These sugary fattening snack foods actually increase hunger, therefore making you eat more at your meals.
- Healthy snacks takes more time and preparation.
- For most people, preparing 3 healthy meals a day is hard enough as it is.
- Adding in 2-3 snacks becomes even more stressful.
Bottom Line On Snacking To Lose Weight
Snacking is a personal thing.
Some people are disciplined with snacking, meaning they will prepare properly portioned healthy snacks.
This means they are in control the quality and the quantity of what they’re eating.
When done correctly, snacking can:
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- balance your blood sugar
- reduce crazy cravings
- allow you to eat less at your next meal
However let’s be real.
Ultimately Calories Are King
Unfortunately, many people lack the preparation and willpower, thus they have no control when it comes to snacking.
The amount of calories from these unhealthy snacks essentially turns them into meals, thus they eat more calories than what they need.
These excess calories from snacks then end up turning into fat.
This is why snacking, when done incorrectly, makes you gain weight.
When snacks are not properly prepared or controlled:
- Snacks turn into a calorie’s worth of a full meal.
- Too many full meals, equals an over consumption of calories.
- An overconsumption of calories equals fat.
If this sounds like you, I would suggest you avoid snacks, and stick to 3 bigger meals a day.
However, if you’re more organized, determined, and prepared, try adding 2-3 healthy, prepared, and portioned snacks.
This will then lower the quantity and size of your regular meals.
It’s up to you to decide what works best for you and your lifestyle.
Need Help Preparing High Protein, Healthy Fat, & Low Carbohydrate Meals And Snacks?
If you’re looking for healthy snack ideas that will keep you full until your next meal, check out our Team Live Lean Inner Circle Members site.
We’d love to help show you how to put together low carbohydrate meals and snacks, that are high in protein and healthy fat.
You’ll get access to our weekly meal plans, which include cooking lesson recipe videos for every meal and snack.
To date, we have almost 200 exclusive recipe videos that only our members have access to.
We’d love to have you join our inner circle family and get you your best body yet.
Go join all the other Live Leaners at Team Live Lean.
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Questions Of The Day:
- How many meals do you eat in a day?
- Do you also snack throughout the day?
Share your experiences in the comment section below.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
Hello fruits.
WHY THE F WILL U NOT HELP KIDS!@#?
I’m 200lbs when I started changing my lifestyle. I’m at 118-120lbs now.
Getting problem with loosing stubborn subcutaneous belly fat. My macros
everyday consist of proteins, fats (specifically butter), and lots of
greens. 1 cheat meal a week (carbo back loading). What do you recommend?
That belly area is the only thing that is not ripped and lean in my
Physique. Tia
I eat every two hours. I snack on hard boiled eggs and fruit
Store bought snacks are loaded with calories higher than any of my meals.
I snack like 2-3 times a day. My usual snacks consist of a few crackers, a
couple of eggs, vegetables, fruit, dairy or some pastry. Nevertheless, I
try not to go crazy with snacking. Snacks should only be around 200-250
calories tops. Save the higher calorie consumption for the meal time.
I snack like 2-3 times a day. My usual snacks consist of a few crackers, a
couple of eggs, vegetables, fruit, dairy or some pastry. Nevertheless, I
try not to go crazy with snacking. Snacks should only be around 200-250
calories tops. Save the higher calorie consumption for the meal time.
Thanks for the info. We got to be careful with snacking. I have 1 to 2
snack times a day. It all depends. I just have fruit and raw veggies
around for those times. Typically that is all I need. Those big workout
days when I do more than one, then the snack might be a bit bigger, but
still healthy. The key is healthy and light. Very easy to go overboard.
Thanks for the vid.
Stick with the kitchen, green screen is too distracting. Other then that,
great video
Will Snacking Make You Gain Weight?