I assume that you haven’t, and in case you have, let me know, I will start a fitness business for animals. Now, have you ever seen an overweight human? Of course you have, unfortunately, overweight human beings are a very common sight in our society.
So, why does the animal kingdom have an abundance of fit, healthy creatures, whilst the human kingdom is full of overweight people? What is the animal kingdom doing that we aren’t?
The answer lies in how we eat. Animals in the wild spend their whole day grazing their food. Us humans, on the other hand, have made it a norm to eat 2–3 large meals a day. The difference in effectiveness between eating small, regular meals a day, and eating fewer, large meals a day, comes down to how our metabolism processes our food. By eating those larger meals, you are telling your body that your food for the day is scarce.
You see, our bodies function very similarly to our cavemen ancestors, and back in their day, when food was scarce, their bodies would take the energy from each meal and store it for later use. Our bodies do the same. If we eat 2–3 large meals a day, we tell our bodies that our food is scarce, and it will therefore do its best to store as much energy as possible from each meal, for later use. The problem here is that weight gain occurs when there is too much unused energy in our bodies. Excess, unused energy turns into body fat.
On the other hand, by grazing on small, regular meals throughout the day, we teach our bodies that there is an abundance of food. This tells the body that there will be another meal coming soon, and it therefore doesn’t have to store any energy for later use. Because of this, your body will be burning energy throughout the day, which means an increased metabolism, and fat burn at rest. By eating small, regular meals throughout the day, you will even be burning fat while you sleep!
So in order to increase your metabolism, and burn energy all throughout the day, forget about breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Instead, aim for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and an optional snack. Wait 3 hours between meals, and eat slowly! It takes roughly 20 minutes for our brains to register fullness, and if we rush through our meals, we will eat past the point of fullness, and end up consuming excess energy (remember, excess, unused energy turns into body fat).
There you have it, start eating like an animal, and you will begin to lose those unwanted kilos. And for even greater results, I strongly recommend purchasing a zebra costume to wear throughout the day… Only kidding, but if that interests you, then be my guest!
Originally published at medium.com