The Myth of Eating Every 3 hours
Yesterday, in conversation, the daughter of a patient told me that she had gained 7kg during quarantine.
She thought it was strange that this had been the case because she had done what she was told: eaten small portions every 3 hours.
It is hard to find someone overweight who has never been told something similar, that this is the solution to losing weight, eat less each time and several times a day... Never go more than 3 hours without eating because this will "mess with the metabolism and make weight loss difficult".
Being so publicized, it must have a very strong scientific basis....
So please allow me to present the scientific evidence indicating that eating every 3 hours has a positive impact on weight loss:
Yes, "all this" evidence supports the recommendation to eat regularly throughout the day to lose weight.
If you're not shocked, you should be: one of the most frequently prescribed nutritional rules has no scientific basis to support it!
Plus, how would you feel if I told you that following this rule prevents healthy and consistent weight loss?
It is incredibly frustrating to know that so many people who want to change their weight, their health and their life are being given directions that are not effective, making the journey even more difficult!
When you realise that they are counter-productive, it is right that a certain revolt arises.
This is yet another demonstration that the approach to obesity and getting overweight seems turned on its head!
Trying to burn more calories than you eat does not work, eating little and often is counter-productive, it is assumed that you are obese because of a lack of desire and motivation, ...
Now, having said this, there are unanswered questions: why shouldn't you eat every 3 hours? Why is eating several times a day going to hinder your weight loss?
The answer lies in the hormone that is the centrepiece of obesity and weight loss: insulin.
Insulin is the main hormone that regulates the storage and production of energy.
It works as a signal policeman, controlling, coordinating and optimizing the traffic of "energy" in our body.
Blood sugar levels (glycaemia) are kept stable by the action of insulin.
Having them under control is vital for our health:
Low blood sugar levels (hypoglycaemia) are extremely dangerous because they mean we have no raw material in circulation to quickly transform into energy, necessary for our cellular functions.
Extremely low blood sugar levels lead to coma and death. There is a reason our body does not let this happen!
On the other hand, high levels (hyperglycaemia) are also a threat to our health, both acutely (by opposite mechanisms, it can also cause coma) and mainly chronically.
Think, for example, of the consequences that diabetes can have on the body. It is the best example of the impact that prolonged hyperglycaemic states can have.
"In the middle is virtue" goes the saying, which applies perfectly to this situation.
Without a shadow of a doubt, keeping blood sugar stable, without major fluctuations, without acute states of hyper or hypoglycaemia, is the healthiest state.
It is the state of perfect equilibrium towards which our whole organism tends: the state of homeostasis.
The way we achieve this is brilliantly simple.
When faced with a glucose spike, there is increased production and release of insulin by the pancreas into the bloodstream.
Insulin activates the conversion of that glucose into glycogen, something that occurs primarily in the liver and muscles.
Glycogen is the local reserve of glucose that can be reconverted again when needed.
The reverse process makes it possible to react to a marked drop in blood sugar levels:
When sugar levels drop too low, glycogen is reconverted back into glucose, which is rapidly put into circulation, bringing blood sugar levels back into balance.
Et voilá! This system is perfectly capable of handling small fluctuations in the amount of sugar we have in circulation.
This system has one flaw, however: storage capacity is limited.
The amount of glucose we can take out of the blood and store in the form of glycogen is small.
Which means that when we have larger spikes in blood sugar than we can "clear", we need another response, capable of clearing unlimited amounts of sugar from the blood.
In these circumstances, the signal that insulin gives to the liver is slightly different:
"It turns the sugar into fatty acids and sends them to the storehouse, the fat cells"
Balancing blood sugar levels (glycaemia) is critical to our short, medium and long-term health.
After glucose is absorbed, insulin is released in order to trigger the removal of that sugar from the bloodstream.
Glucoseis initially converted into glycogen in the liver and muscles where it is stored, ready to be reconverted back into glucose. Itacts as a buffer system.
However, the ability we have to store glucose under the glycogen form is limited.
Think of it this way: Where are your savings? In your wallet? I assume not...
I imagine you have easy and immediate access to the money you need for your daily life, while having your savings in a more limited access location.
It makes perfect sense that this would be the case!
It is more convenient and practical to have what you expect and expect to need with you, having your reserves stored for when the need arises.
In fact, you would not be able to carry your savings in your wallet even if you wanted to.
Our bodies are organized and programmed in much the same way: we primarily maintain glycogen stores in our muscles and liver, ready to be mobilized and used if we need to inject glucose into the circulation on a daily basis.
Because that amount potentially needed is small, we do not need to have much glycogen stored.
So, when the absorption of sugar exceeds the capacity to convert it into glycogen, we activate a second mechanism capable of carrying out this task: the transformation of glucose into fatty acids.
When there is excess glucose in circulation, insulin stimulates the liver to convert it into triglycerides, a kind of envelope used to transport it to its final storage destination: the adipose tissue.
Once at their destination, triglycerides are then converted into free fatty acids, fat molecules that are ready to be stored for as long as needed.
It's the perfect storage facility: it imposes no space or time limit. When your cells get full, you create more and more.
However, fatty acids can go the other way!
Fat is not doomed to stay in fat cells!
They can be converted back into triglycerides, relayed back to the liver to be turned into glucose and used optimally.
This only happens if the stimulus to clear sugar from the blood and store it as fat ceases to exist....
Put another way, we can only reduce the amount of fatty acids in fat cells when circulating insulin levels drop!
This is the reason this hormone is the key piece to stop being obese!!!
When
Insulin is high, the order is given to accumulate more fat, increasing weight
Low insulin, these molecules are allowed out of storage to be burned and used for energy, reducing weight
The only logical way from a biological, physiological and biochemical point of view is to decrease the message that is in circulation telling you to accumulate fat!
How is it possible to do this? The answer is so simple: We lower insulin levels when we decrease its release!
It is so "elementary, my dear Watson"!!!
The smaller the stimulus, the smaller its magnitude, the less quantity and fewer times insulin will be released into the circulation.
Thus it is possible to decrease the order for the production of triglycerides the fat storage.
And what increases insulin? Eating!!!
Any food ingested stimulates the secretion of insulin. But there are striking differences in their insulinogenic index (the ability to stimulate its secretion; the lower the index, the less insulin will be produced), and carbohydrates are among the foods that do this most.
(To be scientifically correct, I have to point out that it is not carbohydrates as a whole that have the highest insulinogenic index because fibre technically falls into this group and does not have this effect. The higher the fibre content of a food, the lower the impact of the carbohydrates in it).
So,
If you reduce insulin it reduces fat accumulation and opens the door for fat to be released by fat cells to be used for energy production;
If insulin is reduced when we decrease the stimuli for its production;
If eating is the main stimulus for insulin to be put into circulation;
If the more often we eat, the more of these stimuli we produce,
How is it possible that it is advocated that to lose weight you should eat every 3 hours!???!?!?!
Isn't it easy to see that doing so is preventing weight loss?