Why Skipping Meals is Causing Weight Gain!
Have you ever started to skip meals because you weren’t hungry or because you thought it would help you cut calories for weight loss?
Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one! But I want to tell you why this is NOT the way to go and help you avoid making this mistake in the future!
Do you have to eat if you aren’t hungry? No, you don’t have to eat if you are not hungry. Especially when it comes to snacking. Having snacks between meals is not a must. It’s truly just a way to help regulate hunger and allow you to have smaller meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you aren’t hungry for a snack, don’t have it!
However, this changes if you are skipping meals. If you are not hungry at lunch-time, it’s not healthy to skip lunch. Have your lunch in two phases; eat half at lunch and the other half a few hours later. Otherwise, skipping lunch will ultimately cause you to overeat at dinner and will slow your metabolism teaching the body to store more calories.
If you are not hungry in the morning, it’s not healthy to skip breakfast. It’s ok to have a small breakfast and then a small snack before lunch to break it up. Not everyone has an appetite early in the morning but it’s critical to put some food in the body first thing in the day. Try having peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat toast in the morning and then an apple before lunch.
This hardly ever happens but if you are not hungry for dinner, you should not skip dinner. Sometimes you might eat a late lunch around 3pm and not have much of an appetite for dinner, therefore I recommend having a small snack instead of a full meal (just have something).
Now here is the final case scenario. Maybe you ate a huge lunch and felt overstuffed all day. It comes time for dinner and you have not even digested your lunch yet. In these situations (which you should try and avoid) where you have overworked your digestive system and still feel full from your previous meal, its’ ok to go without dinner. Have some warm lemon with water or a digestive friendly ginger tea instead to soothe the stomach. Don’t make it a habit of overstuffing your stomach in the future.
Please ask me questions about this article if you have them! This is one of those big myths I hope you get clear about!
