Comments on: Eating and Metabolism Revisited

By: Eating to Improve your Metabolism | Free Fitness Tips

Eating to Improve your Metabolism | Free Fitness Tips — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:07:08 +0000

[...] writing this article I have revisited the topic of eating and metabolism. At the time of writing I thought that eating more frequently could boost your metabolism. [...]

By: How Much of Each Macronutrient Should You Consume? | Free Fitness Tips

How Much of Each Macronutrient Should You Consume? | Free Fitness Tips — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:40:51 +0000

[...] you can boost your metabolism through good diet and exercise choices, the impact of this boost is limited. Overall, you need to work out the [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:36:37 +0000

Fantastic summary Mike. Personally, I do try and do 5 or 6 smaller meals per day where possible. However, as you say it’s not always practical. If you go away for the weekend or have a full day of meetings at work then sometimes you just have to stick with the traditional 3 meals a day.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:28:46 +0000

Hey Johann. No problem for the long comment. You make some good points. Whilst the mini meals idea works for many people (myself included) other people will have equal success with the standard three meals a day approach.

By: Johann

Johann — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:57:01 +0000

I like everything everyone is saying and I’m no expert. Just a regular guy with an opinion. The only real reference I have is in regards to lifting weights competitively. I know that many hardcore body sculptors have adhered to a minimeal frequent diet some as frequent as every two hours because they believe that it produces the best and longest fat and caloric burns. I tend to agree that doing so doesn’t necessarily boost your metabolism in and of itself. And that phraseology is really what the argument is about. It takes x calories to burn y calories of intake and that doesn’t change no matter when. However as a former body builder I know that when I eat tiny frequent meals my body never feels hunger or starvation and therefor never enters into a fail safe mode of reserving energy and therefor after a workout the boost my metabolism gets from the excersize itself that burn lasts much longer say four to six hours. Where as If my body is unsure when it’s next meal is coming might shut down the growth and healing of my muscles to conserve energy for higher brain functions which the body deems as more vital then my bicep rightly so. If I lost two hours of heightened caloric burn cause of my body’s self conservation it would drastically alter my weight maintenance. And possibly the muscular growth I was looking for which I think we can all agree that more muscle mass equals an automatic increase in daily caloric use or a higher metabolism. So although the semantics of what it means to boost our metabolism can be argued indefinitely like you yourself say eating mini meals is still the healthier (at least seemingly so) option. I just think even though you say it’s not a metabolic enhancer i say the cumulative effect is indeed a metabolic booster over time. But if you’re not excersizing then it’s a moot point anyways cause the biggest gains from mini meals (in my humble opinion) is when you allow your body to burn hotter and longer through the day. And cayanne is awesome by the way it helps for sure too. Sorry for the long comment and it’s a great article thanx.

By: Mike OD

Mike OD — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:43:17 +0000

Tom,

Like someone said above I admire you for going back over this subject in more objectivity that many just claim boldly as fact (when it is more just hand me down mainstream media information with no real scientific backing).

As for metabolism, it is interesting to note that in a study on people fasting for up to 72 hours, the metabolism was NOT slowed down…in fact it was slightly elevated. So it it hard to believe that “skipping a meal” does anything to slow down a metabolisms (that would be a pretty poor evolutionary survival strategy if it did!).

The metabolism is more tied in with lean mass preservation, hence why subjects who do resistance training only on very low calorie diets do not have a slow down in metabolism when compared to people who just do “cardio” (who also lose lean body mass in the process). Too many people can just crush their metabolism due to cardio overload (and the cortisol environment that comes with it).

While the metabolism is a complicated system of feedback loops and hormonal responses, eating all day long is not the necessary and end all factor so many think it is for weight loss. I’ve also seen people gain weight trying to eat more often, because they eat more calories in the process.

Sure eating 6x/day…10x/day….can work, no one is claiming it doesn’t. I just ask, is it really necessary and something I want to do the rest of my life? From there people can take the facts and determine how they want to eat.

Keep up the great work!
Mike OD

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:05:38 +0000

Hey Jamie. Thanks for your comments. I too used to think that eating smaller meals more regularly does speed up your metabolism for the exact same reasons you have stated.

However, if you actually look for research to back this claim up it is very difficult to find any. Not eating for a few hours is not going to crash your metabolism. Admittedly going for long periods without food does make your body go into starvation mode but this is over a period of days – not hours.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:17:23 +0000

eating more often, with smaller meals, does speed up your metabolism. when you eat your metabolism speeds up in order to use the food. when you dont eat for awhile your metabolism slows down as it is unsure when its next meal will be come and as such doesnt want to burn through stored energy. if you keep eating every few hours your metabolism doesnt slow down and stays at the higher rate. so yeh you’ll still be consuming the same amount of calories, but your metabolism will be going at a higher rate for longer, and as such burn more.

By: fiber ood Reviews » Blog Archive » 3 Healthy Foods That Can Boost Your Metabolism

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:57:17 +0000

[...] owns and operates a number of useful fitness resources and websites. You can learn more about eating and metabolism and get a free fitness tip delivered to your email inbox every day for a full year by visiting his [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:05:30 +0000

Hi Jen – I’m not denying that mini meals and more frequent eating can help you lose weight. In fact I eat this way myself. If you re-read the paragraph I provide a number of benefits associated with eating mini meals. All I am saying is that portion size does not affect your metabolism.

In the example you give your metabolism would suffer. However, this is not because of the total amount of calories you are eating. It is because in the small meals you are eating a lot of healthy proteins and fibre which both help boost metabolism. In the large meals you are eating lots of simple carbohydrates and fats which have a detrimental effect on your metabolism.

I totally agree with your second paragraph. However, this is nothing to do with metabolism – it is to do with appetite control and food choices. Remember, metabolism is simply the amount of calories your body burns in a day. It is only a small part of losing weight. Controlling the total amount of calories and the type of foods that go into your body has a much bigger impact.

Overall I am all for eating small meals more frequently and I think it is probably worth me writing a full post on this topic. However, my opinion is that meal frequency does not boost your metabolism.