Following questions are common questions I get from my clients in regards to their meals. Answer provided is from both my experience and scientific literatures. However, this does not mean it will work with what lifestyle you may have.
Is breakfast important?
Before answering this question, it is important to understand what breakfast means. Breakfast means meal that breaks the fast. In other words, first meal of the day will always be breakfast. There is no rule on what time you should be having your breakfast.
So, is the breakfast meal itself important? Answer is yes. Every meal is important; however, breakfast does set the tone for the remainder of meals. When you have breakfast with high sugar and flour, you will be spiking your blood sugar level too high too quickly that blood sugar level decrease will also be significant and may cause you to eat more frequently to balance the blood sugar level.
Ideal breakfast is with protein and vegetables to keep the insulin and blood sugar level steady but getting all the necessary nutrients.
You may have some healthy carbs (ex: seasonal berries and oats) with your breakfast if you have healthy body fat percentage (m=<15%; f=<25%) or prior to strength training.
Should I Eat More Frequent for Fat Loss?
What higher eating frequency (4-6 meals per day) does, even carefully monitored calories, is it spikes the insulin level that frequently. If your goal is to gain weight, then this may be a good idea. However, if you are working on your fat loss, then you don’t want frequent elevation of the insulin by eating more frequent. It is not about calories.
Role of the insulin is to store nutrients including protein, fat, carbs, vitamin, and mineral which is very important role for us to have optimal health. When the insulin is spiked too frequently, though, there won’t be any down time, therefore, your body will consistently in storing mode rather than spending mode. This storing form can be fat when consuming too much carbohydrate.
Chronically elevated insulin can affect your insulin receptors in your cells and can be a cause of a condition called insulin resistance. Therefore, if you are looking to lose fat, keep the meal frequency to 2-3 meals per day with no snacking. This will allow the insulin to spike only when necessary and give an enough window of insulin level being lower. If you are looking to gain weight, you can increase meal frequency but for healthier practice, you should increase meal frequency only on the day when you are training to promote faster recovery.
Remember when you are eating and insulin level is elevated, your metabolism is lower compared to when the insulin level is lower due to fasting.
What Should I Eat During My Vacation?
This may be a tough decision making; however, you should be enjoying your vacation. What is important is not so much into what you should do during your vacation or trip but what you should be doing prior and after your vacation.
You are probably doing this already with your work. Prior to your vacation, you should be working hard so that you can enjoy vacation and get back to work again so that you can enjoy your vacation that may happen in the future.
Same rule applies. You should be clean with your diet as much as you can, work on your 7-8 hours of sleep as much as you can, and exercise 2+ days per week as much as you can, then when the vacation comes around, you should enjoy it.
If you are still concerned, eat clean for most of the time and have a cheat day few times during your vacation. When you come back from the vacation, make sure to get back on your routine as quickly as possible.
Should I Not Eat Before Bed?
Ideally no. However, you will need to understand what may happen if you didn’t. If you cannot fall a sleep because you are starving, which can happen, then you should have some food that is not high in sugar or starch. You don’t want to be too full either for it may keep you awake.
If this eating before bed is happening on regular basis, you may need to check your daily schedule and see if you can fix it. If this is once or twice thing, then you shouldn’t worry about it an prioritize the quality of your sleep.
Kota Shimada
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