"Grazing" is a term that can refer to snacking all day or eating several smaller meals throughout your days rather than three traditional meals such as breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Mindless Grazing:
What I am about to say should be common sense, but sometimes we all need to step back and take an honest look at our actions to see if they are conducive to the goals we are trying to obtain... Grazing on crap will lead to crappy results! It is easy to tell yourself "a small piece, a little bite, just a few chips or a few fries won't hurt me!" but if you had to add up all of those small grazing allowances, I wonder how many extra calories they would account for on your day, or even your week! You may have heard before that "1 pound = 3,500 calories". So, in order to gain weight, all you have to do is intake an extra 500 calories per day from what you are already burning. That task can be a lot easier than you would think if you are taking into account the mindless grazing you may be doing. The extra coffee creamer or sugar in the morning + the minty candies at work + the extra soda/energy drink/coffee w/ cream & sugar because you are tired + just a couple of your co-worker's chips or fries + a bite of your kid's dinner they did not finish or your mate's dessert = Weight gain accomplished!!! If your grazing looks similar to this, you are setting yourself up to gain a pound a week & that's assuming the rest of your meals are healthy & setting you up to expend more calories than you intake! When I first had thoughts about healthy eating & my calorie intake vs. expenditure I had to do things the difficult way. I had a little food journal that I would bring everywhere with me & every time a substance of any kind went into my mouth I would write it down. Then I would calculate how many total calories I consumed during my days. Doing this can be quite surprising when you are convinced that you only ate once, or are only snacking occasionally or snacking healthy and should be losing weight. Nowadays keeping track of your grazing is much simpler with apps for your phone such as MyFitnessPal which allow you to scan bar codes & have most foods along with their calories immediately accessible.
How Many Times a Day Should I Eat?:
There are so many studies out there that claim to prove that grazing is either the corner stone of a healthy diet & metabolism or the wrong thing to do while trying to lose weight. If you visit
Dailymail,
USnews, or
Prevention.com you will find very convincing articles that state eating smaller and more frequent meals daily to lose weight is not the way to go.
Jillianmichaels.com claims "if you keep eating small amounts of food throughout the day, you'll never burn any fat." Confusingly contradicting those thoughts and those articles,
Webmd.com while listing "10 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism" states "Eating more often can help you lose weight. When you eat large meals
with many hours in between, your metabolism slows down between meals." In the popular,
Menshealth.com you will find an article titled "Eat More Food, Lose More Fat" in which Katherine Tallmadge, R.D., author of
Diet Simple states "Your body can metabolize only so much protein at one
time... Protein is metabolized better when it's divided evenly."
The point is, I can only testify to what has worked for me thus far. When I began my healthy living journey, I knew that my metabolism needed a jolt. Everything I read at that point was telling me that I should eat healthier & more frequently throughout the day which was a stark contrast from what I had been doing & what was definitely not working for me! I did not have much energy & because I was more sedentary I did not have the desire to eat more meals nor did I think "more meals" could possibly stop me from plunging further down the rabbit hole of obesity. I tried this "more meals = more weight loss" concept & it worked for me! Clearly, not just any meals will do the trick! You can not eat what comes out of a drive through window 5-6 times a day & possibly expect improvements! Whether you decide to watch your carbs like I do, or not, I wholeheartedly believe in a principle that I originally learned from The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss - You should start your day with protein & every meal should have a source of protein in it! (The 4-Hour Body is an excellent read with so many tips if you are serious about this weight loss journey & if you are like me & would enjoy knowing the specifics & the science behind why certain practices work.) In my opinion, healthy grazing is an excellent way to at least start your journey if you have a significant amount of weight to lose because it helps you omit temptation & the desire to cheat yourself. If you are already eating a healthy meal or a snack that you personally took time to prepare every 2-3 hours, not only is that box of donuts at lunch going to look less desirable, but your hunger for it will have already been fulfilled with something more nutritious. If you usually experience a slump in energy after eating, partaking in smaller more frequent feedings throughout the day that require less energy to digest all at once can give you a more sustainable energy source all day & eventually even lead to enough energy to workout during a time you are usually exhausted! Lastly, if you are like me & trying to healthy eat on a budget or hate to waste things in general, when you are setting yourself up for success in the beginning of the week by preparing all of these meals for each of your days, you are certainly not going to want to waste them and make an unhealthy choice therefore spending more money on food & letting your prepared snacks go to waste!
In conclusion, if you are out of options & want so desperately to start moving in the right direction, why not take an honest look at your grazing behaviors & then try something new? See if eating more healthy & prepped meals throughout your day gives you the same boost in energy & jump start on weight loss that it did for me! At very minimum it will definitely shrink your appetite & help you start some very healthy habits that you can continue whether you believe in all day grazing or not!
Here are some great articles that will make you think twice about mindless grazing!
