Hamilton Personal Trainer Tips on Weight Control

Size and Time of Meals:  The size of meals play a role in weight reduction.  It is not healthy to eat most of your daily calories in one large meal for two main reasons: (i) not eating all day long is basically a form of starvation to your body which will slow down your body’s metabolism to conserve calories, and (ii) as a result, your body will store most of the calories from this meal as fat in order to prepare for your next day’s “starvation”.  Instead, it is much easier to maintain a healthy weight by spreading out your daily food intake over many smaller meals.  This allows the calories you eat to be burned gradually throughout the day instead of being stored as fat.  Frequent meals also help to maintain blood  glucose levels which will prevent mid-afternoon feeling of fatigue.  Snacking is fine, as long as the snack-foods are healthy and they don’t increase your overall daily caloric intake beyond what is healthy for you.

Research has shown that the time of day when food is consumed may also have an affect on weight loss.  For most people, it is better to eat most of your daily calories before mid-afternoon, because this is when you are most active.  It is recommended that if you eat three meals each day, a minimum of 25 percent of the total daily calories should be consumed for breakfast, 50 percent for lunch and 25 percent or less for dinner.  Ideally, the calories from lunch should be split up and consumed separately, over 2 or even 3 meals or snacks (between mid-morning and mid-afternoon), as outlined above.

HOW MANY CALORIES DO I NEED???  This is probably one of the most often asked question.  In general, a basic guideline for losing, maintaining or gaining weight is as follows: (this formula may vary, depending on your level of physical activity)

1.  Weight Loss – Current body weight x 10  number of calories consumed daily (divide into 4 – 6 smaller meals).

2. Weight Maintenance – Current body weight x 12 = number of calories consumed daily (divide into 4 – 6 smaller meals).

3.  Weight Gain – Current body weight x 115  = number of calories consumed daily (divide in 4 – 6 smaller meals).

Believe it or not, there are a significant number of people who have difficulty gaining weight.  Eating 4 – 6 larger meals throughout the day, with one of those meals occuring as soon as possible after working out is an effective way to increase muscle mass and gain weight.