Small Meals: The Secret To Weight Loss?
As any grandparent will tell you, portion sizes are much larger than they used to be, yet we seem to have no problems swallowing down large portions of our favourite foods. Large portions equal lots of calories, and lots of calories are bad news for weight loss!
So one easy tactic to help your weight loss goals is to gradually reduce the portion sizes. Not only will this reduce your calorie intake and therefore help you to achieve the weight loss you desire, but it will also ensure that you can continue to enjoy all of your favourite foods, ensuring your weight loss attempts don't make you miserable.
Why Are Small Meals So Good For Weight Loss?
Our digestive systems are designed to work with small amounts of energy and nutrients at once, which means that if you make a meal and consume more than your body requires at that time, there is a large chance that your body will accumulate the excess as fat. Smaller meals help your weight loss because there are fewer chances of accumulating the energy as fat.
Eating smaller meals more often also helps to provide protein in manageable portions, which is essential for maintaining muscle tissue. And as muscle tissue uses calories at a greater rate than other tissues, simply increasing your muscle mass (which doesn't have to mean looking like a bodybuilder!) increases the rate at which you burn fat, even when you're simply sitting down!
Eating smaller meals also means you don't get that uncomfortable fullness large portions give you, the kind of fullness which leads you to do nothing but doze in front of the TV for hours! With smaller portions you're ready to get up and go much sooner, which results in burning even more calories and accelerating your weight loss.
So eating smaller portions has three benefits:
- Consuming fewer calories
- Increasing your metabolic rate
- Avoiding feeling swollen and lethargic
How Can You Reduce Portion Size?
- Drink a glass of water before your meal: this will mean you need less food to satiate your hunger.
- Use a smaller plate. Seeing empty plate around the food always puts a dampner on mealtimes.
- Don't snack from the bag. Pour some chips or cookies into a bowl to control your portion size.
- Buy single portions of snack foods so that you're not tempted by the whole box!
While certainly not the secret to weight loss (as we hope you've realised by now, there is no single secret), reducing the size of your meals is a simple and effective tactic to supercharge your weight loss.