When to Eat

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

One of the biggest problems for many people is overeating because they have gotten so hungry that they stuff themselves. MSN has a good article about the different stages of hunger and how they affect our eating habits. One of the worst things you can do is to wait until you are starving to eat. One of the best things you can do is to eat every 2-3 hours so that you never get that super hungry feeling. By eating 6 small meals (some of them only snacks), you can control you appetite and actually lose weight. The added benefit is that your blood sugar levels will stay much more even during the day and you will feel better- none of the sleepiness after eating that huge lunch since you didn’t eat a huge lunch! Check out the diet tab at the top of the page for a good 6 meal per day outline. It really will help you feel better and lose weight.

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Do you really know what hunger feels like? Before you can rein it in, you must learn to recognize the physical cues that signal a true need for nourishment. Prior to eating, use our hunger scale below to help figure out your true food needs:

Starving

An uncomfortable, empty feeling that may be accompanied by light-headedness or jitteriness caused by low blood sugar levels from lack of food. Binge risk: high.

Hungry

Your next meal is on your mind. If you don’t eat within the hour, you enter dangerous “starving” territory.

Moderately hungry

Your stomach may be growling, and you’re planning how you’ll put an end to that nagging feeling. This is optimal eating time.

Satisfied

You’re satiated, not full but not hungry either. You’re relaxed and comfortable and can wait to nosh.

Full

If you’re still eating, it’s more out of momentum than actual hunger. Your belly feels slightly bloated, and the food does not taste as good as it did in the first few bites.

Stuffed

You feel uncomfortable and might even have mild heartburn from your stomach acids creeping back up into your esophagus.

To slim down: The best time to eat is when you are “moderately hungry” or “hungry” — when you hit either of these stages, you’ve used most of the energy from your last meal or snack but you haven’t yet hit the point where you will be driven to binge.

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