The importance of meal frequency for long-term weight maintenance
- Posted on 13/02/2025 15:11
- Film
- By evablessing@gmail.com
Extract from the article: As well as what's on your plate, nutritionists also mention another aspect of mealtimes that is important for maintaining a stable Body Mass Index (BMI) : the time of day when you eat your meals.
As well as what's on
your plate, nutritionists also mention another aspect of mealtimes that is
important for maintaining a stable Body Mass Index (BMI) : the time of day when
you eat your meals. From breakfast to dinner, all meals are important for maintaining
energy levels throughout an often busy day.
How can we reconcile a
healthy diet with an active lifestyle to keep our Body Mass Index (BMI) stable
? Nutritionists have found that the timing and frequency of meals play a very
important role in weight loss or gain.
Four practical
strategies
Four specific
strategies can be associated with a reduction in body mass index : eating one
or two large meals a day maximum, eating breakfast, fasting for at least 18
hours between the evening meal and the first meal of the following day, and
making breakfast or lunch the largest meal of the day.
Conversely, the two
risk factors for a higher BMI were eating more than three meals a day and
making dinner the biggest meal of the day. These results confirm the famous
adage: Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
Don't skip breakfast
The ideal weight
management strategy is therefore to eat breakfast and lunch. Make breakfast the
biggest meal of the day, avoid heavy foods at dinner, and get a good night's
sleep.
In fact, breakfast is
of vital importance in the diet, because after a good night's sleep, the body
needs energy to start a long day. The nutritionist also points out that it is
not advisable to skip this meal, as it alone covers a quarter of the body's
energy requirements for the day.
The brain needs time
to receive signals from the stomach informing it that we are eating. It takes
about 20 minutes for the brain to let us know that we have eaten enough.
Source : Santé
Magazine
