Do I Have To Eat 5 Meals A Day?

Surely, you have heard that you have to eat 5 meals a day, either because it helps you lose weight, because it speeds up your metabolism or because you have to eat every 3 hours so that you do not get hungry. But what is true in this?

Next, we are going to disprove certain myths that have arisen around the number of meals that need to be eaten per day. In this way you will be able to choose the system that best suits your habits and your rhythm of life.

How many meals do you have to eat a day?

Generalizing that you have to eat 5 meals a day is not the most accurate, since this depends on each person: hunger, routine, work, schedules, physical activity, etc.

If we force ourselves to eat in the middle of the morning and at snack, this can translate into eating foods that we should not, such as: sweets, juices, soft drinks, French fries, cold cuts, sugary dairy … Many times we choose these foods in snacks, more than for healthier foods.

Therefore, the quality of the food is more important  than the quantity. It is better to eat three healthy meals a day than five meals of unhealthy foods.

So what foods are most important? If I skip breakfast, is something wrong? There are no more important meals than others, neither does anything happen if we do not have breakfast because we are not hungry, or we have breakfast at 12 noon instead of 7 in the morning. In fact, intermittent fasting protocols have been shown to be very effective in promoting weight loss and health.

Does eating 5 times a day speed up the metabolism?

This idea arises because, when you eat, you spend energy to be able to digest and break down food into all its components. This is what is called the thermogenic effect of food.

But it turns out that the calories we use in digestion are more or less proportional to the volume of food eaten and the type of macronutrients. That is, if we consume a 2,000 kcal diet in a day, it does not matter to distribute it in 3 meals than in 5, because the thermogenic effect will be the same.

In the journal The Journal of Nutrition a study that was published authors concluded that there is no solid scientific evidence to say that increasing meal frequency is positive for weight loss.

What happens if we fast?

We have to eat when we are hungry, as we have a hunger and satiety mechanism controlled by hormones, ghrelin and leptin, which do this job. It is also important not to force children to eat.

Healthy adults, without special circumstances, such as athletes or pregnant women, can go several hours without eating, even a whole day. If we fast for several hours and the glucose present in the blood is consumed, the body draws on the glucose reserves in the liver and muscles.

Once these reserves are depleted, neoglycogenesis is activated : glucose production from proteolysis and lipolysis (destruction of muscle mass and adipose tissue), which generates ketone bodies that are expelled in the urine.

In fact, intermittent fasting can be a good way to lose weight for some people . This is stated by research published in the journal Nutrition Reviews .  This fast consists of going 16 hours without eating, which is as if we skipped breakfast. But it is advisable to do it under the supervision of a professional.

When is it convenient to eat 5 meals a day?

• To control anxiety and hunger. If you eat 5 meals a day, you are more likely to be less hungry and control amounts better. If you skip a meal, you may come home hungry and binge, so you will eat more than you should.
• In some pathologies, such as diabetes, to avoid the appearance of hypoglycemia and keep blood glucose constant.

• In athletes who have to eat large amounts of food. It is easier to do it in 5 meals than in 3. As well as controlling the timing,  optimal moment of food intake.

No need to eat 5 meals

It is preferable to create a meal routine. If you are used to eating 5 times a day, it is difficult to go to 3 meals, and vice versa. Therefore, it is convenient to individualize each case.

The most important thing is to eat healthy and satisfying food. With a good food choice, the number of meals we eat per day will not be as important and will depend on each person.