Saturday, August 1, 2009

Graze Ways

This post should be relatively short and simple with no scientific study or google searching required. I want to make a statement about "grazing" in order to encourage a healthful eating pattern not an unhealthful one... Or is it healthy and unhealthy... either way...

I don't like the word grazing but I think it was meant to take the place of snacking.. as snacking is generally thought of as eating "fattening" foods between meals. Grazing however makes me think of near constant eating, and that isn't good either.


The way that our body best responds to and uses energy is in small doses over time. Thus, eating frequent small meals is the healthful option. As I was having a conversation the other day, I realized that "small" is not the right word either because small doesn't mean low in calories, it just means small.


Imagine eating a donut or candy bar or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.. Small meals in the context of "frequent small meals" is meant to mean low in calories not necessarily small visually. A salad can fill a plate and have 50 calories where as a piece of cheese may not fill your hand and have 200.

I cannot tell any of you how many calories you should consume in a day but I can tell you that if it is 1800 then spread them out! It doesn't have to be even, but it can be.

Mine usually go like this;
50 cals to wake up
150-200 for breakfast

75-100 snack

150-200 lunch

100 snack

75-100 snack

300 dinner and dessert

200 snack

200 popcorn..

and another couple 100 spread around in there :)

Those are consumed from 7am to 10pm.. every two to three hours...


It is not wise to eat two 900 calorie meals or even three 600 calorie meals.. meals that high in calories are often that way because of high fat or sugar content. Heavy meals increase the heart's work load, effect metabolism negatively and often make the eater feel sluggish.

So - eat low calorie meals OFTEN.. and move more too!

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