Tips to Manage Your Frequency and Amount of Food Consumption for Healthy Weight Management

Daily Calorie Intake and Body Weight

Weight loss, weight gain and weight maintenance is no magic. It is simply a ratio of calories-in and calories-out on a daily basis. By "calories-in" we mean how many calories you are obtaining from your food daily, and by "calories-out" we mean how many of these calories you are burning in the same day.

Follow the suggestion below for your weight management goals:

Your Goal: Your Daily Calories

Lose Weight: Daily calories-out > Daily calories-in
Maintain Weight: Daily calories-in = Daily calories-out
Gain Weight: Daily calories-in > Daily calories-out

Food Intake and Metabolism

Metabolism, the process of burning calories obtained from food, activates with the stimulation of food intake. That is, an intake of food is essential to keep your metabolism up. People often place themselves on a starvation program to lose weight by skipping their daily meals. As a result of this, the metabolism goes down due to the lack of food stimulus. Therefore, the food eaten is not fully burned and the body enters a fat storage stage. The result - unwanted retained weight.

How many times a day I should eat?

The nutrition recommendation is to consume 3 to 5 meals a day, i.e., small frequent meals. The three meals should be breakfast, lunch and dinner. The rest two meals should be small healthy snacks in between meals. It is imperative that you watch the portion size for your three major meals. They should also be rich in good sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins.

Healthy Snacking

The two in-between snacks should also be small in quality and rich in their nutrient value. A good replacement of cookies and chips is soy nuts, as they are rich in plant based proteins and also low in fat. Baby carrots are another good source of in-between snacks, as they are low in calories, keep you full, and rich in anti-oxidants. Your day should also go with adequate amount of water intake, which should be half of your body weight in ounces.

Tips to control portion size:

1. Use small plates in home for lunch and dinner, as our brain has a tendency of filling up our food plate.
2. When go out to a restaurant, ask for a take-home box as soon as the food arrives. Transfer half or more of your meal into this box before starting to eat.
3. Eat your salad before the meal. Vegetables in the salad have low calories and will make you "not so hungry" for the rest of the meal.
4. Keep yourself hydrated with ample amount of water intake throughput the day, as water suppresses the appetite.