How many meals a day should you eat in order to be healthy? And how big should each meal be? Today we answer this question.
I’m a firm believer of eating regularly during the day, every two to three hours. I also recommend you give yourself a long period between finishing eating at the end of the day and then breaking your fast the next morning. Anything from 12-14 hours (of course this will include the time you’re asleep). By doing this, you are ensuring your body gets a constant supply of energy during the day when its needed but more importantly, the period where you are not consuming any calories will give your body a chance to process all the food eaten during the day and not only process all the nutrients from the food you’ve consumed but this will also allow you to flush out any toxins.
Here’s what an ideal day would look like if you’re looking to lead a healthy lifestyle:
7:00 am – Breakfast (meal)
10:00 am – Morning snack
12:30 pm – Lunch / Dinner (meal)
3:00 pm – Afternoon snack
5:30 pm – Tea (meal)
This schedule means you will be eating three main meals a day with two periods of snacking in-between. If you find you’re still hungry on a night-time, then an optional snack at 7pm could be added if needed.
Each meal should contain between 5-10 grams of fat and snacks should consist of only fruit and/or vegetables. Also, to be truly healthy, the fat consumed in each meal should consist of the healthier monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Saturated fats should be kept to a minimum and trans fats should be avoided at all costs – trans fats have no place in a healthy diet. In case you missed it, this article goes into detail on the different type of fats and in which foods you will find them – Fighting The Fat.
As for drinks, a strict healthy lifestyle would consist of only drinking water (at least 2 litres every day). Unlike meals and snacks you can drink water at any time of day as needed. Slightly flavoured water is ok too.
Although very simple, sticking to this schedule can be a challenge, especially if your diet currently consists of high fat processed convenience foods along with sugary drinks / energy drinks.
In a future blog post I’ll be addressing how you can implement the above routine into your daily lifestyle while still allowing yourself a treat or two.
Until next time, bye for now.
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