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Skipping Meals Does Not Lead to Weight Loss

The first technique just about everyone does to lose weight is to skip meals. Usually its breakfast, but often lunch as well. Running out of the house without breakfast can lead to a fall in blood sugar all morning and food mistakes at lunch. This usually consists of fast food or eating too fast. Skipping lunch is even worse, by 3-4 PM most people get very hungry and often have a low blood sugar. They will reach for the first food they can find or eat anything when they arrive home.

Writing a Food Diary Helps You Avoid Skipping Meals

“Maintaining a food diary faithfully and not skipping meals could be one of the safest and surest ways of shedding weight, especially for obese postmenopausal women,” a study says. The study by Anne McTiernan from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, US, and colleagues, is the first to look at the impact of a wide range of self-monitoring and diet-related behaviors and meal patterns on the weight of such women.

“When it comes to weight loss, evidence from randomized, controlled trials comparing different diets finds that restricting total calories is more important than diet composition such as low-fat versus low-carbohydrate,” said McTiernan. “Women who kept food journals and did not skip meals consistently lost about six pounds more than those who did not; while women who reported skipping meals lost almost eight fewer pounds than women who did not,” according to a Fred Hutchinson statement.

While there is no question Dr McTernan is correct about skipping meals, I question the use of a food journal. Although it is ideal, most dieters I treat will only do it for a week or two. Skipping meals is one of the worst things a person can do on the HCG diet. The marked reduction in sugar intake and in hepatic sugar storage can lead to rapid hypoglycemia, usually in the afternoon.

Eating Less On the HCG diet, But Not Skipping Meals

There is considerable difference between eating less and skipping meals. It is a general misconception that if you skip meals you can reduce weight at a faster pace and more easily. When do you wish to eat? Simple when you are hungry. And when are you the hungriest? It is a matter of common sense, when you have not eaten for a longer period of time and as a result your brain is receiving messages from your body for nourishment. The result is obvious the hungrier you get the more you eat! If this happens late in the afternoon on the H CG diet, often the only thing to eat is a snack containing sugar.

Early Dinner from Skipping Lunch

Skipping meals tends to do that exactly. Let’s assume you have eaten your breakfast early morning and decided to skip your afternoon lunch, in the evening you will be feeling hungrier than usual and when you will have your dinner it will not only be at an earlier time but since the body has been deprived of its usual calories intake it will try to make up for the loss. Eventually you end up eating more than what normally you would have consumed if you had not skipped your lunch.

Early Dinner Often Leads to Late Night Snacks

However this is not the only drawback, you had an early dinner because your body couldn’t withstand the lack of food. Thus if you are a late sleeper you will definitely get hungry again around midnight or so and will end up eating something to satisfy those hunger pangs. Until now I have described the entire phenomenon in layman terms that’s why skipping meals can lead to overeating. Now let me describe the underlying medical basis for this fact.

Metabolic Rate Slows with Skipping

Every human body has a standard metabolic rate the primary function of which is to convert the food consumed into glucose so that energy for our body can be provided. When we skip a meal, the metabolic rate slows down to adapt to our body’s energy needs. Instead of working on the previously stored carbohydrates it considerably slows down its process. Thus what we lose by skipping meals is water of the body. It is a known fact that every unit of carbohydrate is surrounded by 4 units of water so the body in fear of future deprivation avoids working on carbohydrates and water is lost.

Overeating at the Next Meal is the Physiological Result of Skipping

Experts therefore justifiably conclude that skipping meals to lose weight is an ugly notion. The consequences of skipping a meal lead you to overeat at the next opportunity available and since your body feels deprived of its usual intake it makes way for more food than is actually needed. If you care for your health and are conscious about your weight than instead of skipping meals eat less at each meal but don’t skip. Absence make the heart fonder, it is true even for food!