5 hours between food intake?

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Has anyone heard that if you have 5 hours break before the next meal - your fat will burn quicker??

What I hear is eating several small meals is the way to lose weight but I don't buy it. That's the way to overeat. What I do is skip breakfast, eat some fat free, plain yogurt and fruit for lunch and a salad with various types of lettuce, cabbage, carrots, a couple of grilled chicken breast strips, a tablespoon of fat free honey dijon dressing and sometimes, sunflower seeds. I add other ingredients when I have them so long as they are healthy vegetables, fruit. Sometimes I add cheese instead of meat but never meat an cheese together. One of these salads tides me over until the next afternoon. This works much better than trying to juggle five small meals a day. I am not even hungry in the morning so it's hard for me to eat then. I drink a cup of instant coffee, using just a little bit of coffee, less than a teaspoon's worth.

Not sure if going hours without food is the key to burning fat but since fat burns when food is lacking, it seems like it would burn more with no food in the stomach.

I think waiting 5 hours between meals is a terrible mistake!

Your body has the instinct to keep from starvation. For this reason, your hormones will act to either store fat for use later, or to let you use it all and dispose of excess. If you eat 5 or 6 small healthy meals a day, and are never hungry, your body will think there's no reason to store anything, and you will lose body fat. If on the other hand, you wait hours between meals, your body will wonder if you're going to go into a famine, and it will store every calorie it possibly can find a spot to put it.

The bottom line is, that if you don't have a hormone imbalance or other problem, you will actually GAIN fat by eating fewer total calories in a day; in larger meals spaced further apart, but you will LOSE fat by eating more total calories in the day, but smaller quantities more often. I eat 5 small meals a day, and I don't skip meals if at all possible.

That's a reasonably well-respected and well-known finding, and it's my experience too .

Charles

Eat every 2-3 hours

I think eating more regular smaller meals will increase your metabolism so that should help with weight loss.

That is what I have found on one of the websites:
"For your body to fully complete its digestion process and take appropriate time to rest, your body needs at least 5 hours.

Secondly, once it is optimized, your metabolism begins to burn unwanted fat within these 5 hours.

You interrupt your metabolism by eating between these hours and disrupt the "fat burning" process; therefore, you will not get the results you want and need.

Every extra meal or snack you consume between your three normal scheduled meals will actually lead you to feelings of hunger!

Please be consistent with the 5 hour resting rule and remember to drink plenty of clean pure water between your meals."

What do you think about it?

DoniiMann, do you usually count calories?

I know I'm not the one asked, but I counted calories once for awhile, and I gained fat. I think it's nothing to do with how many calories we eat; it's what's in those calories. I've been eating about 3500 calories a day for several years, and I'm as low body fat as you can be. It's the fact that I eat nothing with fats and very little sugars & carbs, for normal days. I might eat more carbs if I'm going to do something with high activity all day, etc.

Counting calories is the fastest way to get fat (or fatter), and/or to worsen early stages of anorexia if that's the case. And that's not just my opinion; I've read that on many doctors' pages.

Charles

hello going for loose weight have a look:

BREAKFAST
1 Cup 1% Milk
1 Orange, medium
Cranberry Muesli
MORNING SNACK
3 Apricots

LUNCH
Herbed Lamb Chops with Greek Couscous Salad
1 Cup Cantaloupe Melon
1 Cup 1% Milk
1 Whole-Wheat Roll
AFTERNOON SNACK
1 Ounce Dry Roasted Salted Peanuts

DINNER
3/4 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
3/4 Cup Steamed Green Beans
Turkey with Blueberry Pan Sauce
1 Cup Tossed Salad Mix
2 Tablespoons Vinegar & Oil Salad Dressing
1 Piece Multi-Grain Bread
3/4 Cup Nonfat Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Just eat when your hungry but don't overeat? It should really be that simple but apparently not.