Weight Loss Made Easy…Tip #7
Author: Shannon Miller
Turn your body into a fat burning machine with weight loss tip #7!
Make your metabolism work for you and you’ll not only reap the benefit with a slimmer waistline but you’ll also have more energy and better stamina throughout the day.
Nationally renowned author & speaker, Susan Smith Jones, PhD, shares her tip for stoking your metabolism.
Stoke metabolism with grazing:
Choose to eat 5 small regularly space meals daily about 3 hours apart to help balance blood sugar and prevent overeating due to excessive hunger. This is grazing.
British researchers at the University of Nottingham found in 2005 that obese women who ate regular meals at roughly the same time every day:
- consumed fewer total calories,
- metabolized calories better,
- lowered blood cholesterol levels,
- showed improvement in insulin production
compared with when they ate irregular meals.
Grazing can be a very effective weight loss tool. However, and this is a big “however,” it is essential that you are very careful not to overeat if you are eating many small meals a day. The operative term is “small.”
I am not big on calorie counting, but this is one place where calorie counting can be important. If you have determined that you need about 1500 calories a day to steadily lose weight (remember, one pound = 3,500 calories), so you should divide your 5 meals into 300-calorie increments.
Yes, it’s OK to make a couple of the mini-meals 150 or 200 calories so you can eat a little larger dinner, but grazing will only be an effective weight loss tool if you keep the calorie count within your target zone. Here are a few suggestions for 300-calorie mini-meals:
- A poached egg, a thin slice of whole grain bread and a small orange
- A banana with a tablespoon of peanut or almond butter
- Spinach salad loaded with veggies and very light dressing
- 3 ounces turkey breast, 1 slice whole grain bread, 1 cup tomato soup
- 4 ounces grilled chicken, ½ cup cooked brown rice, 1 ½ cups steamed vegetables
- 2 ounces whole wheat pasta (dry), ½ cup tomato sauce, ½ cup frozen spinach, ½ cup cooked cannellini beans
For more on Susan Smith Jones, PhD, or her new book, The Joy Factor: 10 Sacred Practices for Radiant Health, please visit: www.SusanSmithJones.com