Photo By: *L*u*z*a*

I just read an interesting article about how a person carries their fat can be a factor in determining the risk of high cholesterol or heart disease. An fat person is generally described as one of two shapes, apple or pear.

If you are an apple, you will carry more fat in your upper-body, especially around the waist. Pear people predominately carry fat around hips and thighs. Dr. Mary Ann McLaughlin indicates the apple shaped folks are at higher risk of health problems more than pear shape people:

“The pear shape is the protective shape,” McLaughlin explained. “With apple shapes, where people tend to have large waists with skinny legs and hips, the risk of high cholesterol and heart disease is higher. What we’ve found is that the fat tissue that lines the abdomen, the adipose fat, is high in the inflammatory markers that lead to heart and cholesterol problems.”

While not a hard rule, from my observations I have noticed men tend to be apples while women are pears. From what I understand, men under 50 are more likely to suffer from heart disease and high-cholesterol than women. Perhaps this is due to the apple shape of men when compared to pear women.

Of course, starting a lifestyle of healthy eating, especially every three hours, can help not only reduce your ugly apple or pear appearance, but limit your risk of high-cholesterol and heart disease.

Photo By: woodlywonderworks

I found a helpful article on HowStuffWorks.com about the 10 best snacks for kids. Kids are good candidates for eating a small meal every three hours, simply because they are unable to eat a too much food in one sitting. Most parents, and just about every child care center, feed children an afternoon snack to keep their batteries charged. While the afternoon snack is a good idea, the How Stuff Works article mentions an important point:

Because many kids get about one-third of their daily calories from after-school snacks, these nibbles are as important as a balanced breakfast, lunch or dinner [source: Iowa State University].

Since the afternoon snack can account for one-third of their daily calorie allowance, kids can easily consume too many calories by eating what amounts to four meals a day. Since the calorie requirements of children change rapidly with age, I’m not a big fan of counting calories for kids. Kids are generally active enough to burn through excess calories, parents simply need to monitor the daily trends of how much their kids are eating. With that being said, I’ll run through the 10 snack ideas that are presented:

10. Fruit: Kids often have a love/hate relationship with fruit. Some kids devour ample amounts of it while others freak out at the thought of eating an apple. The nice thing about fruit is the variety of colors, flavors and textures. A parent should be able to find something their picky child will like, especially at the prospect of having no snack at all.

9. Cereal: I’m not a fan of this snack item. Some children will enjoy having a cup of Cheerios for a snack, but most kids I know won’t eat a semi-healthy cereal for breakfast, much less for their afternoon snack. Cereal can easily turn into a full-calorie second breakfast of the sugary kind. If your kids like healthy cereal, then run with it.

8. Peanut Butter: The downside to peanut butter is the extreme amount of calories in a small amount of peanut butter. The article suggests PBJ sandwiches, which may or may not be too many calories for your child. The suggestion of spreading peanut butter on celery is good, a parent just needs to find the fruit or veggie your kid is willing to eat with peanut butter.

7. Smoothies: This is a great idea, and one I have yet to try out on the kids. Depending on the ingredients, a parent can make smoothies in a variety of colors and is a sure way to get kids to eat fruit. My only suggestion would be is to make the smoothies while the children are out of the room. Even though smoothies taste good, some picky eaters won’t try them if they see real fruit and yogurt went into making them.

6. Applesauce: A good choice that is similar to item 10. Some kids are more likely to eat applesauce than an actual apple. You can also by them in convenient and portable individual portions. Be sure to get 100% natural applesauce, and nothing with added ingredients.

5. Mini-pizzas: If you make the mini-pizzas in the manner the article suggests, you may have a winner with the kids. Many kids are going to want more than veggies on their pizza, and since they are relatively small, the average kid is going to want to eat a few of them, which will hike up the calories.

4. Meat Roll-ups: At first glance, this is an odd idea for a kid-friendly snack. They suggest rolling slices of meat with cream cheese or other fillers. You can get some variety with different kinds of meat and fillers, so most parents should be able to find something the kids will enjoy.

3. Trail Mix: The article suggests making your own, rather than buying trail mix. That is a good idea not only in order to control the ingredients, but to cut the expense as commercial trail mix is often expensive. I like this snack idea, just keep track of the amount as such mixes are often high in calories due to the nuts.

2. Cheese: A parent can do so many things with cheese, that virtually every child will eat it. The article has good tips for cheese snack ideas as well as avoiding the unhealthy fake cheese.

1. Popcorn: While popcorn has health benefits, most people don’t make popcorn in a healthy way. This is a high calorie food that is often cooked with too much oil, or sprinkled with butter and salt after the fact. Not a great #1 choice, but the article makes a good suggestion of mixing the plain popcorn in with the trial mix.

Most of these items can be easily placed into your afternoon snack rotation. Many parents can benefit from eating these snacks with their kids. As always, just be sure to watch the calories, since many of the mentioned snacks are calorie-dense (such as peanut butter), which may not matter if it is a rare snack.

Do you have other good afternoon snack ideas for kids?

Eating every three hours can be a hectic venture to the recently initiated. As a result, it’s not difficult for people to find excuses to jump off the bandwagon before the diet can become habit. Coming up with excuses to try something new is not uncommon. People seem to want something for nothing. In reality, you can’t achieve results for free. You must put forth some effort.

Many of the problems with this diet revolve around scheduling and eating. The excuses for these problems are easy to resolve. Let’s take a look at the most common excuses I have come across in my travels.

I Don’t Need to Eat Every Three Hours

If you have energy throughout the day, you are never hungry between meals, you are comfortable with your weight, and then maybe you are right. You don’t need to eat every three hours. However, if you are like most people maybe you should rethink your position. There are many reasons to begin eating every three hours.

I Don’t Have the Time

Really? You don’t have 10-15 minutes? You are in the habit of taking your time in order to feel full and/or enjoy the experience of eating. That makes sense if don’t eat for another five or six hours. It does not take long to eat a meal when properly motivated. You don’t want it to take your time. You don’t want to waste much time when eating every three hours, or you will be doing nothing but eating.

I’m sure you can find 10-15 minutes to eat a quick meal. Take a break. In the time you would have spent chatting to a friend or smoking a cancer-stick you could have eaten a small meal.

If you really don’t have a little time, you may have larger problems with your schedule. Consider managing your time differently. The internet is full of great time management tools. Steve Pavlina also provides information on time management systems that are easy to implement.

Look at it this way; you are not spending more time eating when eating every three hours. You are just taking your original 30 minute meals and cutting them in half so they are less than 15 minutes. So there. No excuses.

My Work is Too Busy

This is a common excuse, and probably the most valid. In my opinion, a busy job only makes it difficult, but not impossible, to eat at specific times on your planned schedule. There is room for flexibility when eating every three hours. I understand there will always be days when time cannot be made to eat a quick meal. On the other hand, you must make time for something as important as your health and achieving your goals.

If you take a smoke break at work, ”I’m too busy” is not a valid excuse. Eating your meal is far more productive than destroying your lungs.

Take a shorter lunch break. This may not be applicable to all jobs. You don’t need an hour lunch break. Shorten it up and take 15 minutes earlier in the day and another 15 later in the day. You are still only taking an hour off but spreading it out. That also is a good reason to justify eating extra meals to your boss.

If you are actively thinking about when to eat your next meal when work is busy, I’m sure that you can find the time on most days. Most jobs allow for small breaks or lulls in the schedule.

I Can’t Eat That Much

Perhaps, but I have some good tips to help with this problem.

I’m Not Hungry

If you’re not hungry, that is a good thing. Why go through the misery of being hungry? It’s a dreadful feeling. Why not eat and prevent hunger before it happens?

If you feel like you are still full from eating the previous meal, you might fall in the “I Cannot Eat That Much” category.

I Don’t Have a Microwave at Work

Bummer. Then you need to create meals that don’t require a microwave. There’s nothing wrong with a cold lunch.

My Family Will Not Eat Every Three Hours

Family can be tough. When your spouse or significant other does not eat every three hours it can be very difficult to maintain the schedule. If you have a job, then half (or more) of your meals will be eaten away from your family, so it should not be such a big deal. Your family will appreciate if you can schedule one of your meals to coincide with a family meal.

As with anything else in life, you will not be successful in any endeavor without the support of your spouse, and perhaps the rest of your family. You need to talk with them about your goals and the reasons behind your diet plan. Ask for Demand their support.

I Can’t Afford to Eat Every Three Hours

Eating natural and healthy food can be expensive, but it does not have to be that way. There are ways to limit your grocery expenses when on a diet such as ours.

There you have it. Remember, it takes time to form the habit. Difficulties that you may run into when starting a new diet will go away with a little common sense, effort and time. Just give the diet, and you, a chance to succeed. You will not regret eating healthy.

What excuses do you have (or use to have) to avoid eating every three hours?

I hear a lot about how fat and lazy the American people have become. For some reason, the rising obesity rates in the United States have left a stigma of sorts on its citizens. Would it surprise you to hear that the United States is not even the fattest nation in the world? Quit bagging on the U.S. and lets look at some facts.

The U.S. is Ranked 9th

According to a Forbes article released last year, the United States ranks 9th when it comes to the percentage of the population categorized as obese. Granted, the U.S. is the highest ranking “westernized” nation. The size of the U.S. also means there is a large population of obese individuals which gives the appearance of being the fattest nation.

The Entire World is Getting Fat

What the Forbes article highlights is that the United States is not alone in the obesity problem. Both advanced and third-world nations are seeing dramatic increases in obesity.

There are 1.6 billion overweight individuals in the world. That number is expected to increase by more than 600 million in the next decade. Is America the only nation with a problem? I think not.

Americans Do Tend to Be Lazy

There are many reasons behind the obesity problems. Maria at Fitness Cure recently opined about the laziness of Americans. While I think her article unfairly picked on Americans, she does have a good point about Americans making too many excuses when it comes to losing weight. Apparently, people believe they don’t have enough time or desire to lose weight. While the excuses are not surprising, I doubt they are limited to just the United States.

Processed Foods = Fat Population

The entire world is getting fat on readily available sources of high calorie, nutrient deficient foods. Most of the top ten fattest nations are Pacific-Island nations. These countries have better access to poor quality foods than in the past which in do doubt contributes to their rotund population. With decreased farming in these regions, physical activity has dropped as well. Decreased activity and laziness is not specific to the United States.

Processed foods are cheaper to produce, buy and eat. It makes sense that the poorest nations in the world are only going to get fatter. 

I think it is time to quit harping on the United States about the obesity rates. The alarming obesity rates are a global problem. Each nation must do better in education their citizens about health and nutrition. In the mean time, I guess blogs like Fitness Cure and Eat Every Three will have to educate the world one article at a time. :-)

Many health guru’s will tell you that you can have all of your favorite foods in moderation, and you don’t have to count calories. Maybe you orderd something healthy at dinner only to have a friend or family member say you could have something else (unhealthy) if you only eat in moderation.

Give me a break. If your health goals involve losing weight, you have to count calories if you want consistent results. Living in the land of “moderation” will only make you fatter. Let me explain why eating in moderation does not work.

A Little Adds Up

Let us say you are going to have your favorite foods in moderation. Which is the same thing as reasonable portions every one in a while. Consider the following:

Each one of the above on their own is no big deal. Could you look through that list and say you only have one of those a month? In a week?

More than likely you eat all of those things every week or month. You are eating reasonable portions of your favorite foods every once in a while. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Well, in a months time you would have eaten 8 slices of pizza, 8 beers, 4 fast food hamburgers, 4 donuts, 4 bowls of popcorn, 1 slice of office cake, and a big plate of pasta. Does it still sound like your life of moderation is a healthy lifestyle?

Believe it or not, that scenario is conservative. If you take a close look at your diet and you may find yourself eating far more than you realize under the disguise of “moderation”. I’m willing to bet you are combining some of those items in a single meal.

What Moderation Really Means

While I have painted a grim picture of moderation, it only represents how most people view food when eating in moderation. What moderation should represent to you is eating ONE favorite food every once in a while (once a week).

This can be flexible depending on your goals. If you are losing weight, “once in a while” should mean once a week to you. If you are active, healthy, and maintaining your weight, you can get a way with a reasonable portion of your favorite food couple times a week.

Still Need to Count the Calories

If you choose to eat your favorite foods every once in a while, you still need to count the calories and keep track of it in your food log. Staying under your target calories for the day will limit the impact a large calorie meal will have on your results.

Don’t forget if you eat more calories than your body can use over the next few hours, it will get stored as fat. This is why it’s important to limit your portion sizes of your favorite foods.

My advice is to eat your favorite foods while tracking the calories. This may help limit the amount you will eat and keep you on track towards the goals of your diet. “Moderation” without keeping track of what you are eating will only make you fatter.

What do you think?

Most clear thinking people understand they don’t know everything and are open to learning something new. There is always more we can learn about weight loss. Despite that, there is some knowledge that people hold on to as gospel. Many try to be open to a new way of thinking, but tend to revert back to their original way of doing things. Today, we will take a closer look at how culture views dieting and eating. If you have trouble losing weight or simply want to learn something new about nutrition, read on!

As the great Yoda would say:

You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned

Much of what we learn from our parents, school, or watching the television, seems to entrench itself into our cultures and become “fact”. In reality, much of what we know is just learned habits. Habits can be broken so that new and better habits can be put into their place. All we have to do is realize the popular methods may not be the best way and be open to relearning what we think we know.

Eat Less to Lose Weight – WRONG

Eating less is widely accepted as a way to lose weight. While generally true, eating less to lose weight is NOT a fact. Many overweight or obese people don’t eat more calories than healthier people. They simply eat their calories at the wrong time(s) of the day, or perhaps eat more calories than their daily activity requires (which is not necessarily a large number of calories). For these folks, eating less may actually slow their metabolism further which will eventually lead to them needing even fewer calories to maintain their current weight. This cycle of lowering calories to lose weight cannot continue; from there weight gain is really the only option.

Eat More and You Will Gain Weight – WRONG

You can gain weight if you eat too much or too often. It’s NOT a fact. There are plenty of people in the world that can eat more calories and not gain weight because they are active. Eating unprocessed foods with a low calorie density will allow a person to consume much more throughout the day without gaining weight.

Many people realize that activity determines if they can eat more and “get away with it”. Those same people might exercise a great deal and complain about their performance not improving. Most of the time they are not getting enough calories to fuel their body so they can take their exercise to the next level. But when someone suggests eating more calories, they refuse because they don’t want to gain weight. It’s a programmed response that has become habit, even if they acknowledge that eating more food can be beneficial, they won’t be able to do it.

Everyone Should Eat X Calories – WRONG

There are an endless number of diets pushed on late night infommericals that will tell you how many calories to eat in a day. Every nutrition label on every item of food in the grocery store states “… based on a 2000 calorie diet” which leads many to believe this is the proper number of calories to eat. This is NOT a fact.

No two people are the same. Each person has their own special calorie needs. If there is a diet program that tells you the ideal number of calories to eat, they are likely wrong and the diet will fail. Sure, there are diets that say eat 800 calories a day, such as the ridiculous cookie diet, then you will lose weight. These diets are designed to get you quick results so they can sell more units. You will almost always gain the weight back after your metabolism slows down in response to the extremely low calories.

You must determine your own calorie needs in order to be successful in your health and fitness efforts.

You Have to Eat “Rabbit Food” to Lost Weight - WRONG

While eating more vegetables is a good idea and part of a balanced eating plan, they only make up a small portion of the calories you need. Foods that most rabbits would avoid are necessary on any good diet plan. While you will lose weight eating only vegetables, the extreme low calories will trash your metabolism to the point where eating just about anything will cause you to gain weight.

Being Fat (or Skinny) is in my Genes – PROBABLY NOT

While there are people that are predisposed to a certain body type, it does not mean you are genetically doomed to being fat. Only a very small number of people have genetic issues that cause them to be overweight, most likely the result of regulation issues with their hormones. Most everyone else is the result of following the poor eating habits of your family and friends.

You’ll get better results in your health if you stop blaming your genes for your failures.

Six Meals a Day is Better Suited for Athletes – WRONG

Anyone that has heard of the Olympics has also heard of Michael Phelps. This guy, as well as many athletes, must eat an extreme amount of calories due to their high levels of activity. Eating many meals a day works for athletes only because they can’t eat all of their calories in just a few meals.

You don’t have to be a world-class athlete to eat five or six meals a day. You only need to scale back the calories. You can benefit from feeding your body the correct amount of calories to fuel your activity throughout the day, just like an athlete.

Diet Soda is Good For Me – WRONG

Diet soda’s are the go-to drink for anyone who wants to cut down on their calories. These drinks taste good and are often with zero calories, which make it easy to incorporate into a diet plan. But…

There are numerous studies in regard to the health related issues associated with diet soft drinks. There are statistics that show those who drink diet sodas are almost certain to become obese. There are numerous factors that contribute to this, but diet soda does not help. If you consume ANY diet drinks during the day, you have a 36.5% chance of becoming obese. If you drink two cans a day, you chances of becoming obese jumps up to a staggering 57.1%.

If you care in the least bit about your health, drop the diet soda.

Eating a Natural Balanced Meal Every Three Hours Will Increase My Energy Levels and Allow Me to Eat More Food is Exactly What I Need to Achieve My Health and Fitness Goals - TRUE!

Yes, this is a shameless plug, but it is true.  

Three meals a day is programmed into our limbic brain. After decades of eating on the schedule I am suddenly asking you to double the number of times you eat in a day. No matter how much sense it makes on the surface, when it comes time to eat, you will have a difficult time convincing yourself you need to eat a second breakfast, second lunch and perhaps second dinner.

Resist the bad habits and focus on the reasons you should start eating every three hours.

It’s All About Forming New Habits

Making lifestyle changes in order to improve your health is all about breaking old habits and forming new ones to replace them. Steve Pavlina runs a personal development blog and wrote an article titled 30 Days to Success that describes forming new habits in just a month. On one of my favorite blogs, Zenhabits.net, there is an article that offers advice in regard to forming new habits.

There are many myths regarding dieting and nutrition that we regard as fact, but in the end is not true. Do you have any diet myths or habit forming tips you would like to share?

Mmmm, cookies. Who does not love cookies? They come in any shape, color and flavor imaginable. Without a doubt, there is a cookie tailored to the needs of even the pickiest of eaters. These delightfully evil treats are a key contributor to the obesity epidemic in the world today. When somebody, a doctor in this case, comes up with a diet based around the cookie, it’s going to get the attention of every cookie lover looking to lose weight.

As a result, the aptly named “Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet” has received a great deal of media attention. No doubt you have heard of it. Now it’s my turn to review the Cookie Diet and whether it should used in the spirit of eating every three hours, or avoided entirely.

Dismissed it Because of the Name

The first time I heard the phrase “Cookie Diet” was a few years ago. I immediately tuned out after hearing the phrase. Back then, I was an obese man still trying to figure out how to lose weight. The idea that a diet can be centered on cookies was outrageous to me. I tuned-out and forgot all about the Cookie Diet, that is until a review of the Cookie Diet popped up on the blog Lazy Man and Health.

About the Cookies

Dr. Siegal chose cookies because he was looking for a snack that was portable, durable and does not require refrigeration. It really is a good idea if you can get your head around that your diet will consist mostly of cookies.

These are not your traditional cookies consisting of large amounts of sugar, chocolate or peanut butter. The Lazy Mandescribed the cookie as nothing more than a “nutrition bar”. I agree with that assessment in the sense that the cookies Dr. Siegal is pushing are not traditional cookies, but I do believe them to be cookies in the sense they are a round, flat-ish and baked product.

I have not personally sampled these cookies, but there is some indication that they probably don’t taste great. There is very little information on their web site. Most useful information is scattered throughout the Cookie Diet Blog. One snippet caught my attention:

If you’re serious about finding truly delicious cookies, or weight loss through magic and miracles, then you probably aren’t serious about doing what is necessary to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight. If that’s the case, you might want to wait until you’re ready. The last thing you need is another diet failure.

Wow. Dr. Siegal indicates if you are looking for a deliciouscookie, you are not serious about losing weight. I agree that one needs to be in the correct mindset in order to lose weight, but he can’t blame people for asking if his cookies taste good. People want the Cookie Diet to be about eating the tasty and unhealthy cookies that we know and love. Maybe Dr. Siegal should have called the diet the “Healthy Cookie Diet”. But if he had done that, his sales would be much lower.

The blog goes on to say “Delicious foods make people overeat and get fat“. I generally disagree. I’m more from the camp that believes having unclear goals and not eating enough calories on a diet will lead to overeating because of a starvation response. I will concede that in a general sense, it’s difficult to eat only one delicious cookie. I’d rather have 2.

Are the Cookies Healthy?

Possibly. There are numerous references to these cookies containing some amount of protein. If they don’t taste ”delicious” then there is probably a limited amount of sugar, if any. The Cookie Diet web site does not provide any information about the nutritional content of its products, which includes drinkable shakes. I’d imagine there is a nutritional label located directly on the product packaging. If anyone has access to one of these labels, please send me the information and I will update this article.

The site does indicate you will eat six cookies a day and they will total about 500 calories. My college education allows me to conclude the cookies are just around 83 calories each. With so few calories there is likely little fat and sugar in the product. There may also be good starchy carbs in addition to the protein in their secret cookie formula.

I don’t think Dr. Siegal is including protein in the cookie for the benefits protein provides, but rather protein has been known to make a person feel fuller and more satisfied. It makes sense that if you are only going to give someone 80-85 calories to last them a few hours, giving them protein may help that person feel less hungry than if you were to give them the same calories in carbohydrates or fat.

Even with the limited information, some might determine the cookies can be called “healthy” based on the fact there are only ~83 calories. There is little chance of gaining weight on these cookies; you would be hard pressed to gain weight even if you scarfed your entire day’s supply in one sitting.

What the Diet Really Involves

The goal of the cookie is to provide a very small number of calories to keep your stomach from shriveling up like a prune during the day. From what I gather, the cookies are only there in an attempt to keep you from eating anything else during the day. I can imagine followers tearing into their 83 calorie cookie as if they were on crack struggling to get their next hit.

The real food comes in the evening when you get to have a 300 calorie dinner consisting of “six ounces of lean chicken, fish or turkey and one cup of non-starchy, green vegetables“, according to the Cookie Diet Blog. This 300 calorie dinner will be your primary source of nourishment for the entire day, and there are no cookies for dessert.

I can’t argue with that type of dinner, it is a good balance of lean protein and fibrous carbohydrates. My problem is a dieting person will have to go hungry (even with the cookies) during their most active hours, which for most people is the morning and afternoon.

Realities of the Cookie Diet

The Cookie Diet is an intriguing idea, but I feel it suitable for a very small number of people. Here are my conclusions about the diet: 

In my opinion, I believe the cookie diet to be more about selling cookies under the disguise of a diet, rather than the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The Cookie Diet is not a lifestyle. The Cookie Diet web site is only pushing cookies and does nothing to educate their customers about weight loss. I had to piece together tid-bits of information scattered around their site just to get an idea of what the diet is about. Perhaps they include some dietary information with their products, but it would seem to me that is something they would mention on their site.

Obviously, I do not recommend the diet. There is no reason to starve while losing weight. Take the Cookie Diet dinner, which does not include cookies, and eat it four or five times a day. You won’t be so hungry and you’ll probably be at a calorie deficit.

Have any of you tried the Cookie Diet or known someone that has? Were they successful in losing weight and keeping it off?

Everyone I know that has made the attempt to start a diet that involves eating every three hours has the same complaint: “I cannot eat that much food!” It’s very difficult for them to eat 350 calories worth of health food. They often gasp at the idea of eating another meal in just three hours time. It’s weird to think the same person might rather eat a 1200 calorie plate of pasta in a single meal.

I’ve been there too. The first steps into eating five or six meals a day often left me feeling over-stuffed, wondering if this diet is really some sort secret way to get us all to hate the idea of eating food, so we don’t eat so much later on. Rest assured there is nothing shady going on.

Here are some suggestions to make those meals a bit easier chow down.

Eat Foods With Higher Calorie Density

While healthy foods in general have lower calories, there are some with very low calorie density and others that are packed with calories. For example, 4oz of food “A” may have 35 calories while food “B” may have 140 calories. Both foods are a natural source of carbohydrates, but you would have to eat a full pound of “A” to get the same amount of calories as in 4oz of “B”.

If you are having a hard time eating your entire meal, perhaps you can look at trading out some of the food for something with the same amount of calories, but with less physical food to eat (higher calorie density).

Drink Less Fluids

Drinking a large amount of fluids may not be your problem, but that second or third cup of coffee in the morning right before your second breakfast can make you feel full and unable to eat your planned meal. Try drinking less before or during your meal to see if that makes a difference in how much you can eat.

Eat Faster

Our mother teaches us that it’s bad table manners to scarf down our food (queue the sound of a vacuum cleaner). If you took your time eating five or six meals you could easily blow four or more hours every day doing nothing but eating. No thanks. This diet plan calls for us to pick up the pace a bit.

One common “trick” to lose weight is to eat slower. In my opinion this only applies when eating high calorie processed foods that are not good for you. Eating slow can be detrimental when you are first starting to eat on a three hour schedule. If you eat your food in less than 20 minutes, you should be able to beat the signal to your brain that your belly is full.

Change How the Calories are Distributed Between Meals

Perhaps you are hungrier in the afternoon than in the morning? If you find that eating all of your third and fourth meal is easy while you cannot seem to eat all of your first or second meal, you may want to move the calories around.

Take some of the calories from your hard-to-eat meals and put them into your easy-to-eat meals. This may provide the balance you need. Just be mindful not to overload any one meal, as you could have too many calories for that time of day. Spread things out evenly as possible when first starting out.

Temporarily Cut Back on Calories

Only as a last resort should you consider cutting back your calories to make your meal easier to eat. However, for some this may be the only option. I recommend preparing your meal as you originally planned with all of the calories. Eat as much as you possibly can and take note of how much food is remaining. Each day, try to eat a little more so the amount left over is smaller. Before too long, you should be able to consume all of your required calories.

Relax! You Won’t Get Fat

From my observations, this may be truer for women than men: The worry if you eat that much food you will only make yourself fat. This reaction is probably more common for those people trying to lose weight. It feels odd to eat more food and stuff your belly with food when trying to lose weight. As long as you planned your calories you should have nothing to worry about.

Stay the Course

To my surprise, after a couple days of forcing myself to eat the food described in my meal plan I could comfortably eat the entire meal and was looking forward to my next feeding. Your body will quickly adapt to this new lifestyle. You only have to give it a chance. Stay the course!

Did you feel like a beached whale when starting to eat every three hours? How long did it take for you to get to a point where eating your meals became easy?

The proper timing of your meals is essential to the success of eating every three hours. There are a limited number of waking hours in the day, so planning when your meals will be eaten is necessary to accounting for all five or six of them.

Life is full of unexpected surprises and the dreaded Mr. Murphy will mess up your schedule on occasion. With our kind of diet, these unexpected events can easily occur. So as tacky as it sounds, we must expect the unexpected. So today I will discuss how there is room for flexibility with our meal times.

The Perfect Schedule

Let’s say you have a perfect schedule planned for eating. Men eating six meals might consider times such as 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and 9pm. Women might consider the same schedule minus the 9pm feeding.

Do you really think that you’ll be able to eat at those exact times every day? If you do you’ll only end up disappointed. When looking at the times it becomes easy to see where things can go wrong throughout the day.

The Gap Between Meals

The time between meals is used moving the food of our previous meal from the stomach to small intestine. So we can’t eat our meals too close together or we’ll be giving ourselves more calories than we need at that given time.

Numbers vary on how long it takes for food to move out of the stomach, but it largely depends on what you are eating. From my experience and that of others on this diet, it is largely assumed that natural and unprocessed foods are easy for your body to process. This will leave your stomach empty in about 2.5 hours. This coincides with around the time you will start to feel very hungry for your next meal, especially if you are on an overall calorie deficit.

Eat a Meal Early

If your boss schedules a last minute meeting right at your next scheduled feeding, then eat your next meal 15 to 30 minutes early. Shrinking the time after the previous meal to 2.5 hours will not hurt anything as your body will most likely welcome the new calories.

The downside to eating a meal early is that you now have a longer stretch to wait for the following meal. If you eat your 12pm meal at 11:30, you have an extra half an hour to wait for your 3pm feeding.

Eat a Meal Late

So your last minute meeting at 12pm has you wondering about your next meal, but preparing for that meeting prevents you from eating a little early. Your only option is to eat after the meeting.

This option really sucks if you are in the “eat every three hour groove”. You’ll feel like you are starving, probably notice a headache, and people in your immediate vicinity will take cover at your sudden mood swings.

Eating late will happen, either because you forgot or some other uncontrollable event. The best thing to do is eat your meal immediately as the opportunity presents itself.

Don’t Skip a Meal!

What if the last minute 12pm meeting lasts until 2 o’clock? Should I just wait another hour and eat at my next scheduled time of 3pm? My standard answer is no. Go ahead and eat your missed meal at 2pm. Your body will need and appreciate the calories.

After eating at 2pm, it becomes easy for you to justify eating your next meal at 6pm, since it’s only four hours away. When doing this you are shorting yourself hundreds of calories for the day. Do whatever it takes to not skip a meal. In this case consider doing the following:

Shorten the Gaps Between Meals Until You Are Back on Schedule

So you ate the 12pm meal at 2pm. Don’t stress too much, you can still get all of your meals and calories for the day. You just need to shorten the gaps between meals until your schedule is sorted out.

For example, after eating at 2pm, the remaining three meals can be scheduled for 4:30pm, 7pm, and 9:30pm (women would not do 9:30). You keep the minimum 2.5 hour gap between meals and still get all of your calories in for the day.

Of course, this method does not work well when one of the later meals gets missed; which usually is not a problem since the vast majority of people have fewer unexpected events in the evening that would prevent them from eating a scheduled meal.

Stuff Happens

There will be times when a meal will be missed and there is nothing you can do to get all of your meals consumed on that day. Being a few hundred calories short on a single day is not going to hurt much in the grand scheme of things. Just get back on schedule the next day and move on with your life.

If you find that missing meals happens several times a week, you may want to take a close look at your life and decide what the true reasons are for missing that meal. Is it really out of your control or are you getting a little lazy?

Do you have a meal schedule you would like to share? How about ideas for eating around life’s curve balls?

When I first started eating every three hours, I assumed there would be extra spending money in my budget since I was not going out to fast-food every day and ordering pizza a couple times a week. I was unprepared for the amount of money I would be spending.

No worries. With some basic education and taking a little extra time at the grocery store, you can limit the excess expenditures and stay within your budget while on a healthy diet of eating every three hours.

Healthy food usually costs more than junk food.

If we calculated the cost per calorie we would find that natural and unprocessed foods generally are more expensive than artery clogging processed foods. As awful as that is, it simply is a fact we must accept.

I am a man who does not know the first thing about bargain shopping, coupons, or being frugal with my money. I was also shopping at the most expensive grocery store in my area. I also made the mistake of not shopping in bulk. Some of you may be able to go shopping for your new healthy foods and not have the slightest impact to your budget.

But the kicker is:

The cost of five or six balanced meals a day will add up.

You are not eating one, two, or three meals a day any more. Eating every three hours for a total of five or six meals each and every day tends to add up over time. This can be more of an issue if there is more than one person in the household on this particular diet program.

Compare nutritional labels after comparing prices.

In an attempt to trim my grocery budget, I was looking for an alternative to sliced turkey breast. The brand I have been married to more than a year was also among the most expensive. There were probably around a dozen different brands of sliced turkey breast to choose from; some of them were very inexpensive.

Then I compared the nutritional labels from some of the inexpensive brands to my preferred version of turkey breast. Many of these had substantially higher amounts of fat. This is not necessarily a bad thing if we are talking unsaturated fat, but it does have an impact on the calories. Some varieties were very low in calories, which is not a good thing if you have to put the entire package onto a sandwich to reach your calorie goal. Other brands were too low in protein (protein is the reason I eat turkey breast) or too high in carbs. Carbs in turkey breast is a sign there are excess sugars (probably for flavor).

Compare serving sizes and the total amount of food in the package.

In addition to the standard-issue nutritional label items to compare, there are other considerations when comparing food items for maximum savings. In this case, the largest packages don’t always contain the most turkey. Much to my dismay, I discovered that my preferred brand had less turkey despite costing more. They fooled me through a clever use of marketing; the turkey was packaged in a tub rather than a zip-lock style bag. The tub appears larger and the turkey was loosely packaged to take up the maximum amount of volume.

In the end, you’ll want to look at the cost per ounce/gram/pound to determine the true value of the food item. Many grocery stores include this on their price tags. I have found some of their calculations to be wrong, so it’s a good idea to do a quick check of the math.

Stick to your shopping schedule.

Even if you feel that you can shop for healthy food without spending much more, it still is a good idea to figure out how much you can actually spend each week (or whatever) on groceries. Do your best to stick to the budget because it does not take much for it to balloon out-of-control.

I found my groceries can come in consistently under budget if I buy all of my food for a week at the warehouse-style grocery store where prices are very low. My grocery budget gets torpedoed when I start running out of items mid-week. If I run out of turkey, veggies, fruit, or milk, I’ll stop by a conveniently located grocery store on the way home from work to pick up the needed items. All of the sudden I may have spent twice as much on these products because I ran out of them early. If I’m not careful, I can easily stop by the convenient grocery store a few times a week. This screws up my budget just about every time.

In summary, just know that you will most likely spend a little more money when eating healthy natural foods every three hours. All you have to do is plan for it and do a little extra work to find the good deals on food that fits within your meal plans.

Have you noticed spending more money when buying healthy food? If you have any money saving tips or shopping advice to share, please feel welcome to leave comments below!