Fitness myths: split meals speed up metabolism

It is quite difficult to surprise the modern average person with a diet, even the most unusual one. This also applies to frequent meals in small portions. At first glance, everything is simple. But, if you are going to try fractional meals for weight loss as an alternative to other diets, you need to seriously study the principles of its proper use.

What does fractional nutrition mean?

You will be surprised, but this system was developed for patients not by nutritionists, but by specialized medical specialists. They had an important goal - to find and implement an effective method of helping people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, including gastritis and stomach ulcers. Over time, it became clear that proper fractional nutrition is also a preventative measure accessible to everyone, an effective and easy way to lose weight. The essence of the technique: The patient eats often (breaks are two to four hours), but in small portions.

How does the mechanism of a traditional diet work?

Most people typically eat three times a day - in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening, shortly before bed. The breaks between meals in this case are quite long. At this time, the human body produces substances that stimulate the desire to eat. Important! Severe hunger significantly reduces the feeling of fullness with food. The sense of proportion disappears. A negative result is overeating, a significant excess of the amount of food required by a person.

What does fractional meals provide (the menu corresponds to specific requests)?

The new diet does not allow the feeling of hunger to form. The patient, according to experts, eats as much as is necessary for the normal functioning of his body. No less, no more. It should be understood that long breaks between meals favor the storage of fat reserves. With fractional nutrition, the digestive system processes both the food eaten and the stored reserves.

Fractional meals. Where to begin?

Choose the meal option that best suits your lifestyle. There are several such options. They are formed depending on several factors:

1. Physical and intellectual stress.
2. Amount of free time.
3. The needs of a specific person for a certain quantity and quality of products.

Option one

Eat food whenever you feel hungry. Please note that you should not snack on hamburgers or cutlets with white bread, but on fresh fruit. You can just drink a glass of juice. Or enjoy delicious, not buttery cookies. The task of fractional nutrition: to satisfy the hunger that arises only with the amount of food that neutralizes appetite. Products vary depending on your preferences and your doctor's orders. Note. This regimen involves eating every hour. In some cases, even more often. The patient needs to learn to detect the slightest manifestation of hunger and immediately satisfy it without consuming too much food.

Option two

Choose this method if you go to work every day, when you simply don’t have the time or opportunity to snack too often. Meals can be divided into five to six meals:

1. Breakfast,
2. Snack.
3. Dinner.
4. Afternoon snack.
5. Dinner.
6. Light snack (fruit or juice).

On the subject: The benefits and harms of stevia If you do not have serious problems with the gastrointestinal tract, the usual menu can be left without significant changes. If there is a need to stabilize your body weight, you will have to give up some foods (especially sweet and flour products) and limit the amount of food you consume. Important! Regardless of the specific method of fractional nutrition, a mandatory condition should be the daily consumption of one two to two and a half liters of clean water.

How to create an individual menu?

Fractional meals do not tie your hands with rules and strict restrictions when creating a menu. At the same time, it is combined with different life principles, so it is suitable for both a gourmet or vegetarian, and a raw foodist or vegan.

Make a list of dishes and products in advance that you will eat with pleasure and without difficulty during the day. Using various ready-made tables, it is easy to calculate their calorie content.

Next, adjust your diet: reduce or increase portions, add or remove individual foods. Finally, divide the dishes from the list into 5-8-10 meals depending on the chosen method and get an approximate menu of fractional meals.

Tips for choosing a diet

1. Food products should be familiar, especially at the first stage, when the body is still adapting to small portions.
2. The composition must meet all physiological needs and provide the body with the necessary nutrients (BJU, vitamins and minerals).
3. The menu is compiled taking into account the daily calorie intake, which is calculated individually according to weight, age and level of physical activity.
4. If fractional meals are selected for the purpose of losing weight, use the services of a nutritionist or a table of caloric content of foods.
5. The menu should be convenient and accessible. You should not include recipes for complex dishes in fractional meals if you are not sure that you will have the time and desire to cook them.
6. For lunch it is better to provide hot dishes, and for dinner it is advisable to plan hot meat or fish with stewed vegetables.
7. Snacks should be as light as possible: low-fat cottage cheese, cereal, muesli, cereals, natural yogurt.

Not all vegetables or fruits in their pure form are suitable for snacking between main meals - some of them, due to their acid content, only increase the feeling of hunger, but do not satiate. Before adding any fruit to the menu, familiarize yourself with its properties.

Distribution of proteins, fats and carbohydrates

When creating an individual menu, it is important to properly balance fats, proteins and carbohydrates. It is known that in a woman’s diet, in order to avoid the onset of hormonal imbalance, there should be slightly more fat than in a man’s diet.

Otherwise, the following rules apply:

1. Proteins are divided approximately equally between lunch and dinner.
2. Fats should be predominantly of vegetable origin. It is better to avoid animal fats altogether or reduce their amount to a minimum.
3. It is advisable to move most of the carbohydrates in the first half of the day. This refers to long-acting carbohydrates, and it is better to avoid fast carbohydrates (sweets, starchy foods) altogether.

When switching to fractional meals, it is advisable to prepare the menu for a week in advance, or even better – for a month. This makes it easier to ensure that the refrigerator has the necessary products. Go on a diet on a day off in a calm environment.

Fractional power system. Beneficial effect

The benefits of eating in small portions at short intervals are spoken of by scientists, doctors and patients who use this technique for losing weight (without the need for special physical and psychological stress).
The main argument in favor of fractional nutrition among ordinary people: The system allows, in most cases, not to give up familiar products, not to limit their range too much. You just need to make sure whether they are useful to you personally. Find out the causes of excess weight and ways to quickly lose weight

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But that's not all. For a certain percentage of patients, the ability to lose weight without constantly feeling hungry is an even more significant factor. After all, many effective diets are often not suitable for most people precisely for this reason.

Benefits of fractional meals

Other, no less important arguments in favor should also include:

• Imperceptible adaptation of the body to changes in diet. This happens through a gradual process of reducing calories.
• Stability of positive weight loss results.
• Stopping the deposition of fat mass in problem areas (mainly on the hips and abdomen in women and on the waist and abdomen in men).
• The possibility of using the technique both by healthy people and patients with a large list of pathologies. Fractional meals fit well into the general course of treatment for weight loss or in the presence of one of the chronic diseases. Doctors often recommend this method to people with symptoms of gastritis, colitis and stomach ulcers.
• Decreased blood sugar with frequent meals. A special diet, combined with a regimen of fractional meals, under close medical supervision, serves as an effective means of helping patients suffering from diabetes.
• Normalization of the functions of the digestive system. The body digests and assimilates food in small volumes easier, faster and more efficiently. This is a very flexible power system. It can be easily adapted to suit specific individual needs and daily work routines.
• Improved performance. Drowsiness is one of the characteristic signs of body overload (in our case, due to the need to process large portions of food). With fractional meals, evening consumption of high-calorie foods is excluded. During sleep, the body receives all the opportunities for proper rest.

Important! Small meals (for weight loss) speed up metabolism. This is a necessary condition when implementing any dietary program with a similar goal. Eating more often will help increase the efficiency of your body's metabolic processes.

Fractional meals for weight loss. Competent menu planning

Please note the following requirements. The effectiveness of the system and the healing effect depend on their strict implementation!

Optimizing your diet

On average, five or six meals. The interval is two or three hours.

Batch optimization

Food should fit into a two-hundred-gram glass, but no more!

System stability

The diet must be followed even in the absence of appetite.

Satisfaction of the first meal

The body should receive a good energy charge in the morning. Its strength must be correctly calculated. Get used to eating porridge. They have a lot of healthy carbohydrates.

Hot lunch dishes

They are a mandatory element of fractional nutrition. We recommend including them on your lunch menu. Give preference to light soups and side dishes. On the subject: How to overcome food cravings

Hot dishes for dinner

The most suitable evening meals include various stews, boiled or baked meats, and stewed vegetables.

Low-calorie snacks

For intermediate meals, fruits, vegetables, grain bread, low-fat cottage cheese, muesli (unsweetened), cereal porridge, and natural yoghurt are best suited.

Note. Coffee, candy, chocolate products, nuts and any fatty foods should be excluded from the diet between main meals. These are foods high in calories and also high in fat and sugar.

Daily energy requirement

Calculate your diet so that your body receives all the proteins, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates, and beneficial minerals it needs. It is also important to correctly combine them with each other, taking into account quantitative indicators.

Selection of products for weight loss

The principle is simple - choose foods that contain few calories for fractional meals. Your body must get used to the new, more economical energy consumption.

Correct transition to a fractional power system

Experts recommend starting on weekends. This will make it easier to adjust to an unusual daily routine.

Menu creation

The grocery list should be determined several days in advance (it’s best to do this on Sunday). Calculate the exact number of meals, the time periods between them, and the number of calories you need. It will be easier for you to get used to the new power system without creating unnecessary problems for yourself during the work week. Note. One should not confuse unsystematic eating in different, albeit short, periods of time with fractional meals. It is based solely on strict compliance with a number of conditions and regulations. This is a complete system of competent consumption of energy-rich food in the quantities that your body needs.

Important Exception

Do you feel very hungry between long breaks during your usual routine (breakfast, lunch, dinner)? Then complicating your life activities (especially with a busy work schedule) does not make any practical sense. This system will not suit you even if you are planning to lose weight in a short period of time. The program is designed for long-term use with delayed but stable results.

Physical exercise

They are not required, but recommended. The body should be kept in good tone. If a diet (any diet) is combined with sports, walking, hiking, running and exercise, its effect is greatly enhanced.

Meat dishes and vegetables

A low-fat meat dish is best eaten together with greens and raw vegetables. There should be several times more fiber than meat. Green vegetables have a wonderful property - they take a long time to be processed in the body. With their help, all excess liquid is removed.

Note. Doctors do not recommend consuming some raw vegetables and sweet fruits as snack foods for people who are significantly overweight. Such products are low in calories, however, due to the presence of fruit acids, they can provoke an even greater need for food. You should also remember the role of fructose in storing excess fat. The negative effect of acids in this regard exceeds that of all other types of sugar.

Checking food intake for calorie content

Compliance with the rules of fractional meals for weight loss requires checking the products included in the menu with a special calorie table. This information will help you navigate the choice of high-calorie foods for small lunch or evening portions. Foods containing fewer calories can be eaten in large quantities without harming the body and without fear of gaining excess body weight.

Sweet food

Is it necessary to completely give up sweet foods? Not at all. You can afford to eat every day (but only at one time) candy (but not chocolate) or a few grams of marmalade or marshmallows. An absolute ban on treats is justified only with the urgent recommendation of doctors. An important condition is to never forget about a sense of proportion!

Menu for a fractional diet

• There are many types of menus for a fractional diet. The main thing to understand is that fractional nutrition is a method, not a recipe. That is, in this way you can eat as usual, the main thing is to divide the portions into 5-6 times. In this case, you can use an omnivorous diet, vegetarian, dairy, cabbage, egg and so on.
• Even with an omnivorous diet, you will still lose weight using the fractional diet method. To get the maximum benefit, it is recommended to combine this method with separate meals. In this case, you must follow the list of prohibited products.
• In fact, you can eat anything. For example, meat can be steamed or grilled (but not in a frying pan); it is better to remove potatoes from the diet. Particular attention should be paid to the amount of salt; it should be kept to a minimum. There is no special menu, that is, you can eat almost everything - cereals, soups, vegetable purees, salads, fruits, raw vegetables. You just need to watch the caloric content and make sure that one serving fits in a cup.

For example, you can see the sample menu for the week in the table:

You should eat whole grain bread at every meal. In this case, you need to prescribe at least two liters of water per day, tea, juice does not count. By the way, it is better to avoid juices, as they contain a lot of sugar, which negatively affects your health. If there are no contraindications, you can drink a cup of coffee without sugar in the morning. This is a great way to kick start your metabolism.

"Pitfalls" of fractional nutrition

Some people, having tried one or more diets, report with great disappointment that they were ineffective. As a rule, this happens due to the unsystematic application of the technique and the banal absence of such qualities as strong intention, patience and responsibility. The diet will only “work” if you take it seriously and become a pedant (in a good way).

Why is this so necessary?

Because you will have to prepare a diet on time for long periods of time, scrupulously count calories, and prepare a strictly limited number of servings of food. These factors contribute to the development of a new worldview, where a person takes full responsibility for his future life. Due to the presence in cities of a large number of cafes, restaurants and fast food establishments with unhealthy and fatty foods, there is always the danger of temptations and the possibility of exceeding the required calorie standards. To eliminate this negative factor, you will most likely have to refuse to visit such places and cook all the dishes yourself. Also pay attention to the possibility of dulling of appetite. This sometimes happens after a complete restructuring of the body to a new rhythm of life. Due to the lack of hunger, you risk systematically forgetting about intermediate meals. To prevent this from happening, use a timer or a special reminder after entering it into your smartphone. Important! With frequent consumption of food, a mechanism for the constant release of acid is triggered to process nutritious foods, and this increases the likelihood of developing many dental diseases, including caries. Include in your daily routine the implementation of all necessary preventive measures to ensure the safety of your teeth and gums.

Fractional meals for weight loss. Example menu

The number of dishes, their variety and energy saturation directly depends on the number of meals per day. We present a nutritional plan developed for private specialized clinics in the USA for patients with obesity problems.

Sample table

Protein diet menu for the day:

Dishes to choose from are given as a fraction. Breakfast : oatmeal with fruit, a slice of cheese/cottage cheese pancakes with diet jam/fruit yogurt and fruit.

Second breakfast or lunch : fruit/handful of nuts/yogurt/a couple of crispbreads.

Lunch : a piece of boiled fish, vegetable salad, boiled rice/buckwheat, baked chicken, tomato.

Afternoon snack : cottage cheese with herbs/glass of milk/vegetable salad or juice.

Dinner : cottage cheese/chicken breast/boiled fish/vegetable salad.

Late dinner : kefir/green vegetable salad/cottage cheese.

The first half of the day

The first half of the day includes three meals: breakfast, second breakfast and lunch. It is at this time that you can allow yourself to eat a couple of tidbits:

• a slice of dark chocolate;
• a little marmalade or marshmallow;
• a small cake or bun with sesame seeds.

The highest calorie meal is breakfast. It should be dense, then you won’t want to eat for a very long time, and in the evening you can easily get by with kefir.

Until 12:00 you can eat banana and other fruits. It is not advisable to consume them after lunch.