For the last year or so, my friends and family have teased me about my diet du jour. Yes, I have tweaked and tweaked again: no to carbs, yes to carbs, no processed foods, plenty of bars and shakes, no four-legged animals, all creatures great and small...

 

But, certain priciples have remained the same since my BFL days: I try to eat small but frequent meals through out the day (every 2-4 hours) - I've gone from the simple fist/palm method advocated by Bill Phillips to measuring food quantities and counting calories but I try to maintain the ratio of proteins-carbs-fats to 40-40-20.

 

Why 40-40-20? To make sure you have plenty of protein of protein to build and/or maintain muscle mass, and plenty of carbs to maintain high energy levels but not too much fat.

 

Why small, frequent meals? After all eating 5-6 meals a day is a bit excessive, isn't it? No, it's not. Eating small, frequent meals increases your metabolism (you have to burn calories to digest food) and it ensures that more of the calories you eat will be used up and not stored as fat. Remember, the key is SMALL frequent meals - think of them as snacks or feedings. For example, if I consume an average of 1200 calories a day, that comes out to five 240 calorie meals or six 200 calorie meals.

 

Yes, I pay a lot of attention to what I eat, but I don't over-think my meals. I shoot for 40-40-20 (give or take 10%) and even if meals 3 & 5 are not perfectly balanced, at the end of the day, it usually lines up pretty nicely.

For more info:

Nibbling, Grazing and Frequent Meals