| By Linda Conrad |
| Published:
| 119
Comments | 142
Recommend |
If you’ve been following
the typical nutrition advice of cutting back on calories and
consuming no
more than “three square meals” a day in hopes of shifting your
fat-burning efforts into high gear, you may actually be throwing
the whole
process into reverse.
According to new
research from
scientists at Georgia State University, active folks who skimp
on calories and eat
infrequently (only three times a day) may be
training their bodies to
get by on less energy and therefore more
readily storing unburned
calories as bodyfat.
In the study, published
last March in
the journal Medicine and
Science in Sports and
Exercise, Dan Benardot, Ph.D., R.D.,
L.D., and
colleagues evaluated eating frequency, energy balance, and
body composition in 62
elite-level athletes (42 gymnasts and 20
runners).
The researchers had the
athletes recall
everything they had eaten and what exercises they had
performed. The data were
then analyzed using a leading-edge procedure called Computer Time-Line Energy
Analysis (CTLEA) to determine whether the athletes had stored more calories
as fat than they burned or were burning more calories than they had
stored.
Researchers discovered that
the athletes who ate infrequently were almost always the ones with the higher
percentages of bodyfat. But, those who fed their bodies every
few hours tended to be leaner.
According to Dr. Benardot,
the findings suggest that the body responds to consistent energy
(i.e., calorie) deficits during the day by holding onto its resources, causing
a reduction in the metabolic rate (the rate at which the body
burns calories).
This concurs
with previous
research, indicating that energy restriction may cause a reduction in
the metabolic rate and a
relative increase in bodyfat storage.
Although intense
exercise usually
helps maintain or increase the metabolic rate, Dr. Benardot says
these findings suggest
that when
coupled with an energy deficit state, the metabolic rate may well
be reduced.
“This
apparent reduction is evidenced even in highly active runners and gymnasts,
who have increased bodyfat percentages when energy deficits are present,” says Dr.
Benardot.
The leaner athletes in this
study, suggests Dr. Benardot, may be sharing with other athletes and everyday
exercisers a lesson in the value of eating smaller, more frequent meals—ideally six
relatively low-fat, protein- and carbohydrate-balanced meals—throughout the
day.
“The idea that ‘three
square meals is best,’ I have come to believe, is downright wrong,” says Dr.
Benardot.
“For instance, the
calories typically consumed at a large breakfast could be cut in half,
with the first
half eaten at breakfast and the second half eaten at
midmorning.
Similarly, half of the
calories consumed during lunch could be put off for midafternoon,” he
says. As a
practical conclusion, the study’s authors suggest exercisers
should become more aware of
the relationship between eating frequency and bodyfat.
Write the researchers,
“dietary restriction resulting in energy intake below estimated energy needs
should be avoided, not only because inadequate energy impairs
performance but
also because bodyfat stores are increased.”
They continue,
“It appears
clear from these data that consuming sufficient energy is
better than not getting
enough, and getting energy frequently (every two to three hours throughout the
day) to prevent an energy deficit state [is optimal to
maintain low bodyfat
percentages].”
|
| Research
Update |
| Study: Salmon Twice a Week
Reduces Bodyfat; Protects
Heart |
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A study published this year in the
American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition
shows a
diet rich in
omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in
salmon and other oily fish,
reduces bodyfat
in healthy men and
women.
As an added benefit, a report
published in the
most recent edition
of The New England
Journal of
Medicine shows that the omega-3
fatty acids found in fish can
reduce the risk of sudden
death among men who
have had heart attacks
by about 80
percent.
What This Means to
You: “This supports what
the American
Heart Association has already
recommended,” says lead
study author Dr. Christine
Albert of Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston.
“People should eat two meals
of fish a week as
part of a heart-healthy
diet.”
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| Milk: It Really Does Do a
Body
Good |
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Milk drinkers are far less likely
to develop
insulin resistance, a forerunner
of diabetes and unwanted
body fat accumulation,
according to a
decade-long study
recently published in
the respected Journal
of the American
Medical
Association.
Among the more than 3,000
people ages 18
to 30 who were followed for 10
years, those who consumed the
most dairy products (milk,
cottage cheese
and yogurt) had a 72 percent lower incidence of
insulin resistance than those with
the lowest intake.
What This Means to
You: Milk—skim milk—really does do
your body good. And
although it does
contain milk sugars, lead investigator
Dr. Mark Pereira, an
epidemiologist at
Harvard Medical School, notes these are
complex sugars and
much healthier than those found in soda
and candy.
“They are
converted to blood
sugar at a lower rate,” he says. What’s more,
milk contains a good
deal of protein, he
notes, which means it is more filling
than soda.
“People
who
drink milk are less likely to eat too
much because it is more
filling.”
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