Leaving From the Nutrition Workshop
A question was brought to my attention at yesterday's nutrition workshop: is it the same if we ate all the nutrients we need for the day in one meal compared to if we broke them up and distributed all the foods/nutrients into a few meals?
Nutrient intake/content wise, it'd be more or less the same. However, it is quite unlikely that people are able to obtain all the nutrients they need for the day in one, big meal. What usually happens is that you may be consuming a lot more calories/energy, rather than nutrients from that single, giant meal. What ends up happening is after that giant meal you will be full. You have obtained more calories than you need for one meal. But you will be hungry again! And you will eat again! And when you do eat the 2nd or 3rd meal of the day, you will be consuming more calories than you need for that day.
A Simple Calculation
Simple math tells us if you obtain more energy (from eating) than you expend (by exercising & normal body metabolism), weight gain is resulted. If you expend more energy than you obtain, weight loss is resulted. It is only when a balanced is reached, i.e. acquiring roughly the same amount of calories/energy as how much your body expends, are we able to maintain a healthy body weight. This explains for why menu planning and body training may differ from people to people, because the amount of energy needed for the normal functioning, growth and maintenance of our bodies is individualized. Since our individual requirements and expenditures may differ from other people in the population, how can we make sure that we are meeting our requirements? Remember the % Daily Value from the Nutrition Facts Panels that you see on the back of most food products? They can give you a pretty good idea of how much nutrient intakes an average, healthy person requires based on the the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA), which is the daily dietary intake level of a nutrient considered sufficient by the Food and Nutrition Board to meet the requirements of nearly all (97–98%) healthy individuals in each life-stage and gender group.
The Benefits of Portioning
Going back to our original question, it is a good idea to manage our portions as to ensure that we are meeting our nutrient requirements as well as managing our calories/energy intake. This is because we don't want to be consuming meals that are too high in calories/energy, which leads to being overweight yet contributes little nutrients for our body to use. Portioning helps exactly in this aspect as to avoid the "energy-dense-nutrient-deficit" situation.
Eating in smaller portions and more frequently help increase your bodily metabolism, encouraging your body to use or expend energy instead of storing energy, thus allowing you to maintain a healthy body weight. Did you know that when you skip a meal, or trying really hard to fast, you are actually training your body to store energy as fat instead of using them up! Also recalling our discussion about "eating a lot of grain products or complex carbohydrates (whole grains such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread, cereal, pasta that are rich in fibre and vitamins) is healthy for you"? Yes, when people switch to "low-carb diets" in the attempt to lose weight, the results are the exact opposite! They often end up consuming foods that are high in fat and protein, which give them even more calories.
We will talk more about portioning and serving sizes in my next nutrition workshop.
Little Glossary
Metabolism: is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc... your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going.
Metabolism is affected by your body composition (fat to muscle ratio) and many lifestyle factors (For example, eating habits and sleeping patterns). Muscles use more energy to maintain itself than fat. This is why regular exercises are important for body training and toning up your muscles. Building muscles help boost up your metabolism and expend energy/calories!
Resources
1. Decoding the Nutrition Label
http://www.eatrightontario.ca/en/ViewDocument.aspx?id=63
2. Eating Healthier by Putting Things in Proportion
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/dietweightloss/a/healthyeating.htm
3. How to Increase Your Metabolism
http://www.myfit.ca/increase_metabolism.asp
