The Weight Loss Lie That Might Be Causing You to Gain Weight

Any time you visit a website on weight loss or fitness programs, you're likely going to read a lot of theory about what works best for fast weight loss. Anyone who has been around the weight loss block a couple of times also likely knows that quick fixes don't work and there are also a host of other factors that could hinder the progress you make with your diet or workout program.

But there is one weight loss lie in particular that tends to trip people up and because of this, they might actually start gaining weight. Obviously this is a huge problem that needs to be solved immediately if you want to be getting optimal results.

So, what is this lie?

The Meal Frequency Myth

Ever heard the saying that if you eat six small meals a day you'll speed up your metabolism?

Likely have - it's a popular one and one that dieter after dieter follows to a 'T'.

Now, this myth isn't not entirely incorrect but in most cases, unless you really understand it, it is going to hurt you.

The Truth About Meal Frequency

Okay, let's first look at how this notion got started. It's been scientifically proven time and time again that when you consume food, your body is going to burn energy digesting that food. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Digestion is an activity and activities burn calories.

Now, what some people may not realize is different foods will cause the body to burn more calories than others.

Sorry to disappoint but there are no negative calorie foods - but protein rich foods will cause a 25% increase in metabolic burn (you burn 25 calories for every 100 you eat of protein), while carbs and fat come in at 4 and 2% respectively.

So, by those factors, it's clearly obvious that high protein meals do speed up the metabolism.

But here's the kicker.

How much your metabolism will speed up (given similar macronutrient conditions - the meals consist of the same types of foods in other words) is strictly related to the size of the meals.

Eat a 600 calorie meal or eat a 300 calorie meal. The 600 calorie meal will boost your metabolism twice as much as the 300 calorie will because there is twice the amount of calories to digest.

Now, this looks great - eat more food, increase your metabolism higher. Right?

Wrong. While the metabolism does increase, it's in no way going to increase so much to overcome the increase in total calorie intake at the end of the day.

If you had 6 meals of 600 calories, that's 3600 calories that day. If you had 3 meals of 600 calories, that's 1800 calories. Big difference.

Also note that if you took those 1800 calories in the second situation and made that into six meals (300 calories each), now you're burning half as many calories digesting each meal after it (since the meals contain half as many calories) hence your daily metabolic boost in each situation equates to the same.

So big meals or small meals, when total calories are the same, you're experiencing the same metabolic boost at the end of the day. The only difference is you'll get a bigger metabolic boost less frequently after big meals and a smaller metabolic boost more frequently after small meals.

The problem though comes in when people don't keep calories steady. So, rather than halving the calories say to 300 per meal and still eating 1800 each day, they eat more frequently but keep calories higher - say 400 or 500 calorie meals. Now you're left with a daily total calorie intake that is too high and weight loss stops.

In that situation, this meal frequency myth will definitely hinder your weight loss goals.

So, to summarize this point, yes, eating more frequent meals can help keep hunger levels under control and help you stick with a diet, but you must be sure these frequent meals are actually smaller, otherwise, you're not going to be losing weight at all, you could be gaining it.

Learn more about weight loss techniques and how you can use them to see faster weight loss.

For more fat loss and diet information, please visit http://www.theworkoutinsider.com.

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