I did Martial arts from age 12 till I was 22, I have been on and off after that - recently I kept away from training for few years and I started to put alot of weight on reached 88KG. 2 weeks ago I started eating 6 times a day every 3 hours, and do 20min jog - then 2min weight hitting different parts of my body, I lost about 2 killos in 2 weeks. I would like to know: should I eat every 3 hours to boost my metabolism even if I am not hungry? 2nd question - how big should be my meals every 3 hours?
Thanks
Comments for this blog entry.
bigbubba on 8-Oct-09
Welcome aboard. Did you mean you lift weights for 20 minutes after running?
Eating every 3 hours is a great plan. You can go to Mikes fitness calculater and enter your stats, along with fitness goals, and it will give you an idea of how many calories you should take in and from where to get those calories.
mike on 8-Oct-09
Welcom, Z4!
Yes, eating every 3 hours is a very good idea when trying to boost metabolism (whether for fat loss or for muscle gain). Hunger is, among other things, a function of your metabolism -- the higher your metabolism is the quicker you become hungry. So for now try to eat often, even when not hungry. A good diet with a good training program will boost your metabolism and in time you'll find yourself getting hungry even before the 3 hours are up.
Losing 2 kgs in 2 weeks is just about the perfect weight loss pace, so you are probably doing most if not all things right, but if you are still unsure about your diet, do as BigBubba said, and fill out my Fitness Guide: http://www.mikesfitness.com/article_fitnessguide.php . The diet it suggests is higher in protein than most people usually end up with, so if you have to notch the protein intake down 20-30% from the suggestion, that's fine. Keep carbs and fats about the same as it suggests. You'll also probably need to consolidate some of the meals to make it fit your schedule. In short, treat its suggestion as the target and get as close to it as you reasonably can.
If you post more detail about your diet and/or training I should be able to offer some other finetuning suggestions (the more detail you give, the better suggestions I can make). Again, welcome and good luck!
z4ydi on 8-Oct-09
Thanks for brillient advice that you guys gave me, here is another question: Say 3 hours are over since my last meal and it is 10AM I am not that hungry if I just eat an apple rather than a meal to boost my metabolism but yet get less calories, would this cause me lose more weight or I better eat more than an apple every 3 hours. Thanks
mike on 9-Oct-09
Don't try to save calories by eating small or incomplete meals. Eating too little will help you lose weight quicker initially but at the expense of your metabolism which means that the weight loss will stop much sooner, more of the lost weight will be at the expense of muscle rather than fat, and you will be more vulnerable to regaining this weight back. Don't skimp on calories or protein and don't try to lose weight too quickly -- both are counterproductive in the long run.
Figure out about the right amount of calories to eat daily to keep losing about 0.5-1.0 kilos/week (good sustainable weight loss pace) and then split those calories in to 5-6 roughly equal size meals, all with a good source of protein. If your schedule simply doesn't allow that, then do the best you can, and substitute things like fruits or handful of nuts/seeds for quick snacks and then make up the rest of the calories. But if you can eat complete meals every time, try to do so.
If you post in detail your current diet with which you lost your first few kilos, I'll tell you if it's good or needs more work.
z4ydi on 9-Oct-09
I once again thank you for all the clear and productive advice – it makes so much sense and how the whole cycle is delicate and must be taken seriously. You asked about more details about my diet:
I have an extremely busy job and I don’t have a very organised/good eating combination, so this is how I adjust/schedule my meals:
I wakeup at 6:30AM and have breakfast at 7:00AM one of the following:
·1x egg with1x brown toast, 1 xbrown toast coated with honey and around 7-10 halves of walnuts OR
·1 x egg with mushrooms and 1 brown toast and 3 x dates OR
·1 x egg with tuna and brown toast OR
·1x chicken brown breast with 4x tsp of yogurt
at around 10:30 or 11:00 I eat one of the following:
·1x chicken breast OR,
·walnuts and nuts and an apple OR
·again walnuts with toast coated with honey OR
·Cottage cheese with brown toast. OR
·1 x Tuna sandwich
at 1:30 I have my lunch:
·mostly jacket potato with tuna, sweet corn and mayonnaise and salad (I normally eat only half of the potato) OR
·salmon and rice I eat till 80% full OR
·grill chicken with salad + olive oil dressing OR
·chicken or meat curry with rice I eat till 80% full (rarely). OR
·BBQ steak OR BBQ chicken wings. OR
·Spinach in olive oil
at around 05:00 I eat (same as 2):
at 8:00 I have my dinner (same as 3):
at around 10:30 (I eat same as 2) (I don’t always have my sixth meal):
I sometimes have snacks i.e walnuts, nuts, almond, pistachio etc.
z4ydi on 9-Oct-09
the remainder of my comment from above:
My water intake is inconsistent but the minimum will be about 4 glasses and maximum 7.
So above is my diet plan, I know it is not very structured but this is what I can prepare and am able to do with ease – I also have to say I don’t weigh the ingredient i.e chicken, fish, etc – I just eat till I am 70 - 80% full.
Finally I have one question: As I said I lost 2 kilos in the first 2 weeks but today Friday was the 3rd week of my diet I weighed myself and the drop was only 0.2KG, I don’t know why did I not lose similar amount of weight this week – please give me your input.
Thanks
bigbubba on 9-Oct-09
To my layperson's eye (without doing an actual nutrition analysis), your nutrition intake looks fair to good. You might throw in more green veggies and fresh fruits. As far as weight loss, it is not like clockwork: sometimes it crawls and sometimes it leaps. It can be influenced by many things, such as the foods you eat, how much water you drink, and how much you excrete. As far as your water, are these big 16 oz. or 20 oz glasses? If so, that's probably okay; if they are small 8 oz. glasses, you might want to increase it.
mike on 10-Oct-09
Here's the meal-by-meal breakdown:
1. The 7AM meal
- Toast and honey are both subpar choices. It would be great to have some plain old-fashioned oatmeal (can be microwaved quickly) instead with some berries or a sliced banana or cinnamon for taste.
- Chicken or Tuna or Egg + Tuna should have enough protein for one meal, but a single egg by itself does not -- have at least 3 eggs and/or egg whites when not eating tuna or chicken.
2. The 11AM meal
- Again, try to find a better substitute for toast and honey.
- Of the meals you listed the tuna sandwich is the only reall complete meal (make sure to use whole-wheat bread). You can round out the chicken breast by having it with some quick raw veggies like baby carrots or celery sticks or broccoli or cauliflower crowns. You can round out cottage cheese by having it with a piece of fruits or some nuts.
- Nuts and apple are a healthy snack but will be a little low on protein so when you eat that try to have more protein (chicken, tuna, eggs, meat) in your other meals.
3. The 1:30 meal
- If possible, use brown rice instead of white rice
- BBQ is a poor choice since it's usually got a lot of sugars
- Spinach in olive oil while a very healthy food is lacking in protein. You can round it out by adding some chicken breast or tuna.
Overall, assuming you don't skip the night meal, your calories should be about right and protein might be a little low but not too bad still.
All other things being equal, try to get 64 to 128 ounces of plain water daily, as BigBubba said. Unsweetened tea and coffee are fine too. Try to split protein equally among all meals but have most of your carbs in the first half of the day and only light veggies as carbs in the second half. So, for example a better 10:30pm meal would be spinach with olive oil and chicken breast (light carbs -- only spinach) instead of a tuna sandwich (which has plenty of heavier carbs from bread).
As far as weight loss, as BigBubba said, it rarely moves in a straight line and you almost always lose more weight in the first 1-2 weeks as your body adjusts to lower calorie levels. Try to weigh yourself 2-3 times a week first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything -- that's the most reliable weight measure. It should give you a better idea of your progress over time. Aim for 0.5-1.0 kg loss per week.
If you'd like you can post your training routine in detail as well and I'll give my suggestions (may want to create a new entry in your blog for that since these comments are getting a bit long).
z4ydi on 13-Oct-09
Thanks once again for your advice. I done the following adjustments to my diet:1.I wakeup at 6:30AM and have breakfast at 7:00AM one of the following:·1x whole egg & 1x egg white with1x brown toast, 1 x tsp of cottage cheese OR·1 x egg with mushrooms and 1 brown toast and tuna ¼ of a tin OR·1 x egg with tuna and brown toast 1x tsp of Cottage cheese OR·1x chicken brown breast with 4x tsp of yogurt2.at around 10:30 or 11:00 I eat one of the following:·1x chicken breast with salad OR, ·Salad with tuna + olive oil and a tsp of cottage cheese·walnuts and nuts and an apple with cottage cheese OR ·again walnuts with toast coated with honey OR ·Cottage cheese with brown toast. And an apple OR·1 x Tuna sandwich3.at 1:30 I have my lunch:·mostly jacket potato with tuna, sweet corn and mayonnaise and salad (I normally eat only half of the potato) OR·salmon and rice I eat till 80% full OR·grill chicken with salad + olive oil dressing OR·chicken or meat curry with rice I eat till 80% full (rarely). OR·BBQ steak OR BBQ chicken wings. OR·Spinach in olive oil1.at around 05:00 I eat (same as 2):2.at 8:00 I have my dinner (same as 3): 3.at around 10:30 (I eat same as 2) (I don’t always have my sixth meal)
z4ydi on 13-Oct-09
My trainingSorry for posting my training on the same page but this is because I relate it to my diet hence I thought it will be easy for yourself and others to follow the blog and make it easy to understand.I do not have a gym membership but I do the following workout in about 50 minutes:I go for a 20 to 25 minutes jog – for about 2.1 miles distance. After my initial 10 minutes I start sprinting for about 20 sec and then slower jog for about 45 sec – 1min. I do these sprints for about 8 rounds.As I said I don’t go to the gym after my jog I come home where I have a pair of dumbbells (8kg each), pushup stands and a Swissball.1.Biceps > setting on swissball > using dumbbells x 12reps 3 rounds2.One arm DB Row > using dumbblles x 12, 2 rounds3.Concentration curls for biceps > on the swissball > 8reps, 2 rounds4.Shoulder press – DB > on swissball > 12reps, 3 rounds5.Hummer curls > 8reps, 3 rounds6.Pushups wide arms x 15reps > straight away followed by 15 squads (with no weights) > 3 x sets7.Pushups close arms x 12reps, x38.Triceps dips (I do this sometimes)Once question : I have been weighing myself in the past 4 days and I realized that I gained about 0.4kg – could it be because of the diet change since your last advice i.e I consume more portion now hence muscle gain hence more weight?, please advice me how to get rid of the fat. I will keep observing my weight if it does not drop in the next week or so should I reduce my portions?Thanks
