What is fractional nutrition for weight loss: menu and tips

Fractional nutrition is not a diet, not a treatment course, as it may seem. This is eating not according to the usual pattern - breakfast, lunch, dinner - but eating in small portions five to six times a day.

Fractional nutrition is not a diet, not a treatment course, as it may seem. This is eating not according to the usual pattern - breakfast, lunch, dinner - but eating in small portions five to six times a day

.
no more than four hours
pass between meals . At the same time, you can only change the composition of your diet towards a healthy diet. And there is absolutely no need to limit the consumption of any type of food.

How it works?

The main merit of fractional nutrition is the reduction of daily calorie consumption
.

The ABCs of healthy eating

20 simple statements about how to eat right will help you build a balanced diet for beauty and health.

If a significant amount of time passes between meals, special hormones are produced that stimulate appetite.
The more time has passed since the last meal, the more hormones there are and the stronger the appetite. And, accordingly, the more you will want to eat
at the first opportunity.
After all, a person usually overeats not because he needs everything that is on the table, but because he cannot stop. If you eat more often, appetite hormones will not have time to develop
, and you will not want to pounce on food.
Meanwhile, a constantly fed body, according to various sources, requires approximately 15 percent fewer calories
than an occasionally hungry body. This is another comfortable feature of fractional nutrition, which distinguishes it from radical diets: you eat less overall, but you don’t starve at all.

Are we losing weight?

A hungry body goes into “panic” and tries to store as much as possible in reserve
.
If you constantly feed it, you can “instill” in the system of regulation of fat metabolism that there is always food, and it is not necessary to make strategic reserves. With constantly maintained fractional meals, the absorption of nutrients is accelerated, and much less is deposited on the waist. In addition, with fractional meals it is easy to control
not only the volume of food eaten, but also the composition of the diet.
It is quite easy to exclude saturated fats and excess sugar from the diet - as components of a hearty meal of two or three dishes. But healthy vegetable oils will go great as a dressing for a snack salad. And finally, fiber-rich foods that are so often ignored will become in demand in the diet: vegetables, whole grain products, muesli. Not only will they keep you full until your next snack, but they will also create a suitable environment for digestive bacteria in your gut
.
The psychological aspect
also plays an important role . Knowing that the next meal is in just 3-4 hours, it is much easier for a person not to overeat in reserve.

Let's wake up!

Many people are probably familiar with the feeling of lethargy and drowsiness
after a heavy meal.
This is a completely natural state: the blood is sent for the long-awaited portion of nutrients to the intestines, leaving the brain, heart and muscles. Performance drops sharply, and the desire to move disappears. If you do not overload the body with dense food, its tone naturally increases, and it begins much more efficiently
.
In addition, split meals eliminate heavy dinners and problems with falling asleep on a full stomach, which allows you to fully rest during the night. And healthy sleep, according to scientists, is another way to prevent
excess weight gain.

Fractional meals for weight loss: menu for the week

It’s best to think about what and when you will eat in advance. You can even create a nutrition chart so you don't have any problems with snacking and cooking. Approximate weekly diet:

• Monday: milk grain porridge, vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, vegetable soup, kefir, steamed fish.
• Tuesday: buckwheat porridge, yeast-free bread with tuna, fresh vegetable salad, chicken chop, kefir, unsweetened yogurt, grilled seafood.
• Wednesday: oatmeal with milk, banana, green tea with a sandwich, fresh fruits and nuts, fish soup, grilled fish and salad.
• Thursday: scrambled eggs with toast, fresh vegetables and fruits, rice with seafood, unsweetened yogurt and berries, fresh vegetable salad and baked salmon fillet.
• Friday: hard-boiled eggs with rye bread, green tea, berries and nuts, brown rice with tuna, kefir or unsweetened yogurt, lean grilled meat, greens.
• Saturday-Sunday: omelettes, vegetable broths, grilled mushrooms, unsalted cheeses, vegetable salads with seafood.

How do we eat?

Fractional meals do not mean that you are allowed a three-course lunch with compote five to six times a day. And you shouldn’t call the chaotic absorption of everything during the day fractional nutrition. The energy value of the diet should remain at the level of daily requirements
.
The volume of food intake is quite simple to calculate. The serving should not exceed the size of a palm
or the volume of
a glass
.
In order to learn how to measure such a volume, you can get small bowls or saucers and measure portions with them. For snacks during the working day, small trays that are convenient to carry in your bag are suitable. It's better to start the day with a hot breakfast
.
Volume - as needed. Also don't forget about hot food for lunch and dinner. A hearty breakfast, as opposed to a traditional cup of coffee on the run, allows you to maintain a feeling of fullness for several hours, even if this breakfast happened at six in the morning. Between hot meals you can have a snack 2-3 times. Nothing new - in childhood we also had a second breakfast, an afternoon snack and a glass of milk at night. By the way, nutritionists recommend starting the day with dishes containing the maximum amount of carbohydrates
from the daily norm. And during the day and evening, try to eat foods containing proteins and fiber.

Basic principles of fractional nutrition

So, fractional nutrition means frequent consumption of food in small portions. This approach has a clear advantage: maintaining stable blood sugar levels. Therefore, eat in small portions, but doctors often recommend it for people with diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other disorders of the absorption and production of insulin and glucose. However, starting to eat fractionally is not easy, because you will have to stock up on menu items in advance for at least a week. And this takes time and effort.

The basic principles of fractional nutrition can be described as follows:

• You should eat small portions every 3-3.5 hours, but not less than 5 times a day. At the same time, you should not allow yourself to feel a strong feeling of hunger, but you also should not eat when you don’t feel like it at all. It is advisable to eat at the same hours.
• The approximate size of one serving is 300 grams of food. You can measure the portion by eye, estimating how much food will fit in the palm of your hand, and eat no more than that at a time.
• Compliance with the principles of balanced nutrition. You try to give up “harmful” foods like fatty, salty, sweet, smoked foods, but if you don’t feel full without them, reduce their consumption to a minimum. At the same time, you should also balance the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the diet. Try to eliminate alcohol and give up bad habits.

Sticking to fractional meals is easier than strict diets, because you don’t have to completely give up your favorite foods. You don't stress your body by drastically cutting the number of calories you consume. Of course, there will be a slight deficit, but due to frequent meals you will not suffer from hunger. Such a diet maintains stable blood sugar levels, so there is no risk of breaking out and eating fast food.

If you are used to eating a lot in large portions, reduce the amount of food gradually. Otherwise, you will not eat up in portions of 300-350 grams, you will be constantly haunted by a feeling of hunger, preventing you from working normally and doing other daily activities. Or you can eat more often, about 6 times a day. But gradually try to reduce your portions. If you are of normal weight and have no health problems, it is best to eat small meals 4-5 times a day.

As for the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, all these elements should be present in your diet. However, to lose weight, you should slightly reduce the amount of carbohydrates in favor of proteins. Also try to eat carbohydrate-rich foods in the first half of the day, and eat no later than 2 hours before bedtime. If you want to eat before going to bed, you can drink herbal tea, a glass of kefir or unsweetened yogurt.

Remember that fractional nutrition is a marathon, not a sprint. It should become a habit, so it is important to make the menu tasty, varied, and attractive to you. The feeling of pleasure from food directly affects the feeling of fullness: we get full faster with tasty food. In addition, a regular diet should be comfortable, otherwise sooner or later you will want to give it up, forget about diets and weight loss and eat to your heart’s content.

At the same time, we should not forget about proper nutrition. Try to reduce fatty, fried, smoked, and sweet foods on the menu. Avoid alcohol - it contains a lot of calories, and it also doesn’t go well with weight loss because it makes you hungry, forcing you to eat more.

What are we eating?

It’s worth remembering right away that chips, chocolates, seeds and other nuts are not intended
.
They contain too much fat, and they don’t give you a feeling of fullness for long. Burger and any other fast food are not suitable as a hot dish for the same reason. Ideal foods for snacking
: grain bread or crispbread, vegetable and fruit salads, just snacking vegetables and fruits, low-fat cottage cheese, natural sugar-free yogurt, sugar-free cereals and muesli.
There are no secrets: it is enough to follow the principles of a healthy diet
and do not forget that the diet must contain vitamins, microelements and essential fatty acids in sufficient quantities.

Authorized Products

Five meals a day for weight loss may include:

• Vegetables with limitation or exclusion of starchy ones: zucchini, squash, pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke, potatoes, boiled beets and carrots, cauliflower. You can eat white cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers. To increase the amount of fiber, sesame and flax seeds are added to salads and other dishes.
• Low-fat and fatty (once or twice a week) fish, seafood. When preparing them, do not use fats and do not cook them by boiling or baking.
• Lean meats (beef, rabbit, chicken, turkey) prepared in the same way.
• Vegetable soups cooked in water.
• Unpolished whole grain cereals - buckwheat, whole oatmeal, pearl barley, brown rice. Porridge is cooked in water/milk and without sugar. When losing weight, pasta and potatoes are excluded or consumed very rarely.
• Legumes can be eaten 2-3 times a week - they are excellent sources of fiber and vegetable protein, and they also have a low glycemic index .
• Grain bread, rye, with bran.
• Unrefined vegetable oils are sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids. You can use flaxseed, olive, sesame, and corn oil as a dressing for vegetables.
• Quail and chicken eggs, as an independent dish and as part of vegetable salads.
• Low-fat dairy products, low-fat cheeses (limit to 30-50 g per day).
• Any nuts and seeds (not roasted) in moderation - for snacks and as an addition to salads.
• Herbal teas, green tea with lemon, ginger, ginger tea, rosehip infusion, water, vegetable and fruit juices (the latter are limited due to the high fructose content).

Table of permitted products

How to start?

First, decide for yourself why
you need to switch to fractional meals.
If a person does not feel hungry with three meals a day and is in good physical shape, split meals are not necessary for him. Fractional meals are also not suitable for those who want to lose weight in a week, since losing weight with this regimen gives a stable but slow result. Firstly, fractional nutrition does not imply a sudden change in diet or any restrictions other than the size of portions. Secondly, you need to get used to small portions and eating patterns, and this is not a matter of one day. Thirdly, with fractional meals, you can, of course, get rid of excess weight. But not in a week. After all, it takes time to accustom the body to burn the calories received, and not save them in reserve. Try starting on the weekend when you are at home
.
Of course, on the one hand, here it is, the refrigerator. On the other hand, no one will stop you from accurately measuring the portion and eating it on time. And don't try to keep a strictly regulated break between meals. For some it may be 4 hours, for others it may be 3. Find a regime that is comfortable for you and break your daily diet into smaller and more frequent portions. For those who are busy and overworked, there are reminder functions
on phones and computers that make it easier to measure the time between meals. And over time, you yourself will begin to feel hungry at the right time. Our experts advise writing down everything you eat during the day. This helps analyze nutrition and identify imbalances. Register on our website and get access to a food diary and other personal services.

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• aconithum On fractional feeding for 4 days. 1 kg gone! And this is before critical days, when fluid stagnation occurs in the body. The method works!
• iutinka I ate like this for a month, + fitness 3 times a week. It took a little kg, but I lost a lot of weight! But then she snapped. and now, after 3 months, I tuned in again. But by the way, I gained 1-2 kg.
• M_A_R_U_S_Y_A You need to come to this in your head. I finally got there. Today we begin the fight! No, not a struggle, but a new pleasant way of life. I realized that it was just some kind of food at any given time that forced the body to “Stock up”. Our body does not know what to expect from its owner every minute, so it gains kilos “just in case.” Good luck to all! Forward!
• cat123 Experienced, please share your approximate diet. I really need to lose weight, but as I get older it becomes more and more difficult.
• more111 She herself was forced to eat this way due to the appearance of a peptic ulcer. The body itself rebuilt itself, and a feeling of hunger often appeared. For me, the best snacks were vegetable salad with vegetable oil. with a piece of grain or rye bread. How tasty and healthy it is! When the ulcer healed, the salad remained tastier than any cake for me! The body was directly grateful to this, because... I felt better instantly!
• vasilevna54 And I want it this way, I’ll try to switch to fractional meals. I wish you all good health!
• mozgopraf In addition, losing weight quickly is extremely harmful (remember last year’s deaths of those losing weight) - faster than 2-4 kg per month. 2nd article about nutrition - about “eating”! Hunger can also be caused by stress. And the cause of stress is anything, and most importantly, it can be nothing.
• mozgopraf Complex carbohydrates (all grains, potatoes, pasta - preferably unprocessed) and meat give long-lasting satiety - for 4 hours. If your intake does not contain these components, then you can use snacks. The article says that there are diets with which you can quickly lose weight - but why? How will you live after losing weight?
• mozgopraf It is not easy to switch to this type of nutrition, because in people who eat rarely, but a lot, the stomach is greatly stretched (sometimes up to the small pelvis - the size of a bucket) and until the stomach contracts and you can get enough of small portions it can take up to 2- x weeks. During this period, you can eat a small amount of simple carbohydrates at the beginning of the meal - so that by the end it would be easier to feel full. Hot food really fills you up faster.
• mozgopraf is the main article about nutrition on this site! I responsibly declare that in Bormental they teach exactly the same principles. Only the composition of the daily diet is specified - by calorie content: 30% - meat, 30% complex carbohydrates, 40% - everything else - vegetables, fiber and whatever.
• MIG13 How much do you have to dislike yourself in order to throw at yourself what we throw at you???? The system is really very relevant, everything ingenious is simple, eat less, move more! AND LOVE YOURSELF!
• tkutsenko Tatyana. This is a very efficient system. I stuck to it for 3 years and lost 15 kg. I am 45 years old and weigh 55 kg. The system works, in my experience, under one condition: you need to eat less fat. And if you simplify everything to a primitive level, you need to eat less. We overeat monstrously.
• Camomile My analysis of what I have eaten is a shock. It seems like you’re trying to control yourself, but it turns out you’re throwing anything at yourself. This is actually a shock, at least for me. No wonder what hangs there and sticks out here...
• Azovskaya It’s possible to record. But how to analyze?

Pitfalls of fractional nutrition

It is also useful to know about the disadvantages of fractional meals. For example, that it contributes to rapid wear of tooth enamel and the appearance of sensitivity. Between meals, the body restores the enamel structure, but if you eat frequently, it does not have this opportunity. Because of this, caries can develop. However, this is more likely a reason to monitor oral hygiene more carefully and visit the dentist more often than to abandon the correct menu.

It is also impossible not to take into account that if you have chronic diseases, especially if these are diseases of the endocrine system, you should not switch to fractional meals without the agreement of your doctor. Many health problems require a special menu, and you should not give it up just to normalize your weight.