Date: 12/01/09
Wrong. You should eat after dinner & before bed.
I know it does not make sense at first. But the special report below will inform you on how to make a couple little nutritional changes to help your body lose fat and maintain if not gain muscle.
There is an old adage, you may have heard it; do not eat after 6 p.m. if you are trying to lose weight. On the surface, it seems to make sense. But let’s dig a little deeper.
There Is A Difference Between Losing Weight and Losing Fat
Anyone can lose weight. There is a big difference between losing weight and losing fat.
It seems to be common sense, that to lose weight we would need to eat less and move more. Usually what uninformed people do is increase energy expenditure by walking or jogging and severely restricting calories. I call it the “I’m gonna run 5 miles and eat a couple of salads per day” syndrome.
This method will let your scale weight drop; but at what expense? What are you losing?
What you lose with this approach is muscle, water, anabolic hormones such as growth hormone and testosterone. You end up losing things that you need to feel strong and healthy.
I have done it when I was younger. And maybe you have done it too. It does not matter how much will power you have. You can not approach weight loss with this mentality. What ends up happening is we become tired, lethargic, and grouchy. Common sense should tell us that this approach will not work long term.
Once we get discouraged with this approach and start to cave in to the cravings, many times we eat out of control. And since we lower our BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) during the calorie reduction phase, we now become fatter with less muscle. This is the classic “yo, yo syndrome.
It is a vicious cycle that is challenging to break without proper information.
One of the first things that we can do to have a better chance of eating properly for long term fat loss is to change the words that we are using. The word diet sends a bad vibe through our system. It makes us think of deprivation. It sounds like something that we do for a short term and then go back to our old way of eating. Who wants to “diet” forever?
A better choice of words would be nutrition plan. Nutrition plan does not sound harsh or short term. It sounds empowering. Like something that we could do long term.
And that is exactly what is needed. We have to realize that if you lose weight by eating a certain way that is restrictive and not possible long term that once we go back to the way we used to eat; so will our body weight and body composition.
There is a better way. Through proper nutrition we can maintain or even gain muscle mass while we lose fat weight.
Starvation Mechanism for Survival
Eating smaller meals more often though out the day helps our body function optimally. It stabilizes your blood sugar and gives your body a steady release of energy.
When it comes to keeping muscle and losing fat, three squares a day just does not cut it.
Higher quality, unprocessed foods instead of processed foods should be common sense. But what is not common sense is smaller portions throughout the day is key for fat loss.
Eating small meals in and of itself helps to burn more calories and stoke up your metabolism. It also helps you side step one of the killers of a fat loss program; the starvation mechanism.
You see, not to long ago man did not have easy access to food. We were dependant on Mother Nature. And our skill on saving and preparing food was not very good initially. So when food was around, things were great, when food was not around, we died.
So through the evolution of mankind our bodies realized that in order to live longer in times of famine, our metabolism had to slow down. Our bodies were forced to lose muscle in order to burn less calories and thus, survive.
And even though there is not much of a risk for most of us of famine, the “starvation mechanism” is still in our genes. If there is too much time between meals, our body will go catabolic and eat in to our own muscle to slow down and burn less calories.
Keys For Eating Small Meals Often
If you are presently eating 2 or 3 bigger meals per day, simply eat half the amount that you are normally used to. This will force you to be hungry 3-4 hours after you eat. A simple trick that can help you is to chew your food twice as long as you normally would.
This will instantly help you control your portions. Chewing slow also has other benefits. You will find that you actually enjoy the taste of the food better.
An added benefit is that your food is digested better. The majority of your digestive enzymes are in your mouth. Chewing the food twice as long lets them do there job better as the food stays in your mouth longer.
Eating a small meal with quality protein and carbohydrates (fibrous veggie type) together every 3-4 hours is essential for maintaining muscle and peaking your fat burning potential. Adding a small amount of starchy carbs to 2-3 meals on resistance training days can help give you extra energy for the work out and extra energy to recover from the work out. Plus, psychologically it is nice to know that you get to eat carbs.
Another key for eating small meals often for fat loss is to eventually go toward consuming more calories earlier in the day, and less, later in the day. The old adage, “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper”, has some merit to it.
It is very important to make dinner a light meal with no or very low amounts of starchy carbs. Then three hours later, consume a small amount of protein before bed.
Eating in this way will allow your metabolism to stay running high to burn more calories 24/7 (even while you sleep) while you maintain your muscle mass.
You can put in the most intense, effective work outs 5-6 times per week but your body will only change minimally unless you start to focus on your nutrition.
I think that nutrition is 60-70 % of peaking your body (and life) through fitness. Eating perfectly is not as hard as you might think. If you don’t know how to eat for fatloss, comment below and leave your e-mail address and I will send you a sample nutrition plan.
If you already know and are not doing it, then I suggest that you gain some leverage by picking a goal or a deadline to get ready for. We all need something to put pressure on us.
If you want a precise food plan that will be personalized epecially for you consider signing up for my Body Transformation Program at http://www.FatLossLifeStyle.com
We all have a set metabolism that we inherited from our parents. It does not matter if ours is slow, medium or fast. We all have the ability to slow it down or speed it up with our lifestyle choices. Our nutritional intake has the bigger impact on metabolism than any other area of our lifestyle.
Two or three days in a row of eating smaller and more often and you will feel a higher hunger level and a revved up metabolism. Having higher hunger levels more often through out the day is a key sign that your metabolism is being sped up.
Follow some of these nutrition tips and you will start feeling your clothes fit more loosely, especially around the waist line within a couple weeks.
You are in control of your metabolism with nutrition, exercise, and your mindset. Remember, it’s not just about a smaller waistline, it’s about having more real energy, less stress, more creativity and productivity. It’s about having some energy left over after a work day for the most important people in your life, your family.
You do have the power to change!
Your Healthy LifeStyle Coach,
21 responses so far ↓
1 Tiffany // Sep 18, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hi Darin! First off, I deeply appreciate your information and blog and I respect you so much as a leader and coach in this field. You mentioned to leave a comment to get a sample nutrition plan. My struggle is that I am allergic to dairy and gluten, (dairy is the tough one!), and I am looking to find a sample plan that might meet those needs, but cover my macronutrient needs for my workout. I’m 5’7″, 138lbs, 18% body fat.
Thanks!
Tiffany
2 Jeff Gordon // Sep 18, 2009 at 7:57 am
I just started my new nutrition plan this week. Does a protein shake alone count as one small meal? My biggest problem is my timing as i am a full time student, I work every evening, and i am a musician. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
thanx.
3 LaWanda Key // Sep 18, 2009 at 8:08 am
I am interested in a sample nutritional plan. I really need to get my metabolism moving, because as a female, it is already slow. I am 25 pounds away from 200 pounds and only 20 years old and my height is 5″3. I know my bmi says that I am overweight, I’m just ready for a change.
4 chris // Sep 18, 2009 at 10:44 am
I don’t know how to eat for fatloss. Please send me a sample nutrition plan. Thanks.
5 Mark // Sep 18, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hi Darren – I love reading your stuff. I have been working out for some time but I have only minimal changes as you have suggested in this blog. I could really do with a nutrition plan – Thanks
Mark Fantham
New Zealand
6 Jeremy // Sep 18, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I have been working at losing weight for some time now. I started with P90X and I have lost about 40lb in a little over a year. However I have not lost the fat that I want.
I’m 34 and I weigh about 190 lbs. I have about 15-20 lbs of fat to lose but I am having a difficult time. It is getting very frustrating. I came across your videos on line and started taking your advise; strength training 2 times a week with interval cardio 3 times a week. I generally eat pretty good, but I want to get that “beach body”.
Here is an example of my daily nutrition.
Breakfast:
8 egg whites scramble w/peppers, onions, mushrooms (or other veggies), 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Fruit(apple, banana, etc..)
8oz skim milk
Lunch:
Lettuce salad, carrots, cucumbers, 4oz chix breast
Grapes
Snack:
Medium Apple
Raw Almonds
Dinner:
Tuna Salad (1can tuna in water, 1tlbs light Miracle whip)
Lettuce
carrots
1 serving size of Triscuits
Do you have any suggestions?
7 aidan shanahan // Sep 22, 2009 at 10:20 am
hi darrin,
i think i’m going down the right road in terms of nutrition. if you could send me a guide i’d greatly appreciate it.
regards
aidan
8 Mike // Sep 23, 2009 at 5:11 am
Hi Darrin,
I too would love a sample diet plan. Something to use as a basic guide. Thanks in advance for doing this, and this blog entry has been very educational. Thanks again,
Mike
9 Johan // Sep 24, 2009 at 12:43 am
Hi Darrin!
First of all thank for all these fantastic tips and guidelines and I deeply respect your professional approach.
I live in Italy with the lone purpose of training and I stay for a bunch of hours every day in the gym for workout of some sort or cardio in the mountains nearby.
I already get your newsletter which is very appreciated, but what I know I do wrong is my nutrition. In my gym the trainers have a bit too much an Italian approach of live so nothing has been done so far to help me in this matter.
Would appreciate it a lot to get a sample nutrition plan from you. I am enough into the stuff to know how to better make it fit my very active lifestyle, but it is more as an guideline as I am sitting here without anything at the moment. And that is outrageous considering how much I do of my training.
Many thanks!
Johan
10 darin // Sep 25, 2009 at 8:37 am
Thanks everyone who requested a precise food / supplementation program. I got them sent off to you. If you have any questions about them, please comment here on the blog on this post and we can discuss. Eating for fat loss is not difficult. Hopefully you now have a better understanding on the portion sizes and the timing of the meals.
darin
11 Bill Buckman // Oct 9, 2009 at 2:44 am
Hi Darin,
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other , and while I was checking out your web site, I was intrigued by what you’re doing. I started working out last year, and have lost 25 lbs, but I’ve hit a point where I’m stuck between 205 and 210. I would really like a sample nutrition plan.
Bill
12 John // Oct 13, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi Darin,
I would like to get your nutrition plan.
Thank you.
13 Patrick // Oct 21, 2009 at 9:41 am
Hi Darin,
I have only recently tuned into your blog page, but it is excellent. I would greatly appreciate a nutritional plan to help me along my way.
Thank you.
14 juan rivera // Jan 5, 2010 at 8:22 am
please send me samlpe of your nutritional plan i cant affort your program yet! thing are hard right now thanks juan……..
15 Cyndi // Jan 11, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Hi Darin,
I work at Andrew High School in Tinley Park. I weigh 280 lbs. and am 40 yrs. old. I just finished a 15 wk stint with WWatchers and lost 12 lbs. I really need to lose fat and get my body healthy. I have started using the fitness center at Andrew and really don’t know what to do. I “just do it” for an hour. I tried using the WWatcher’s style for eating, but nothing much has happened. Could you send me a nutrition plan? I need some help! Thanks, Cyndi
16 Scott Hotochin // Jan 13, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Is there a magical number for the amount of calories you should be eating? I am a 240 pound man that is 28 yr old. I eat about 1600 calories per day of lean proteins, good carbs and drink plenty of water.
17 Emily // Jan 19, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I would really like your sample plan. One of my concerns is I am trying to lose weight but am still nursing my infant. Any suggestions?
18 Lance // Jan 29, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Hi Darin I find your blogs inspiring, please send me a sample plan. I have never tried eating healthy, so nows a good time to start, I love training in the gym cardio & resistance, but want to get rid of the fat around my waist, be nice to have a six pack, im a 45yr male.
19 Ann // Feb 5, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hey Darin, Thank you so much for all of the great information and exercise videos! I would love to see your sample plan. I eat a mostly Paleo diet with the addition of Greek yogurt and work to keep my food low glycemic. This combination has been a huge help to me in losing fat and not ever being hungry. A Miracle! I am not eating 5-6 meals a day however. I also follow the information on Wellness Resources which recommends limiting the number of meals. Even among great sources, there is conflicting advice. Anyway…Thank you so much for sharing. Best, Ann
20 Lucas // Feb 10, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Hello Darin, you are great … i love reading your advice… i am trying to get toned… im in good shape but i would like to lose some body fat … could you help me out with a nutrition plan? would appreciate it… Cheers!
21 Rhys // Feb 16, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Hi darin, Been watching alot of your videos and managed to gain alot of muscle last year, Its comming up to summer again tho and its time to shed my spare tire. Exercise and working out are not my weakpoints only getting my diet right is.
Im currently 6″, 220lbs and 20%~ Body fat (Estimated at Bodybuilding.com)
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