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Diet: Can Eating Frequently Accelerate Weight Loss?

Diet Article: Grazing associated with weight gain versus regulated blood sugar levels.

The standard American diet is built around three wholesome meals per day in addition to two or three snack times. Even when the individual is tying to lose pounds, they will still use the three meals per day pattern while reducing the number of snacks consumed.

Some dieters may use the six to eight mini-meals per day method for their weight loss plan and cut snacks completely from their eating schedule.

So can eating too many times amid the day speed-up weight loss results?

Maybe.

On the one Diet Hand, it's very difficult to control eating if you're continually poking things into the old pie hole. It could very well set off a session of binge eating. And virtually one-hundred percent of weight loss plans end with a binge; if you have ever been on a diet plan before - then you're well aware of such.

On the other Diet Hand, an even flow of food into the body keeps blood sugar levels level, and also works in keeping the metabolism set on an even channel. Frequent eating also aids in combating hunger pains, which we know can be miserable while dieting and are a key reason many people quit their diets. They experience hunger pains and they keep allowing time to pass before they address them; the hunger intensifies at this point and before they know what's happened they are bingeing on their favorite foods.

As to the mini-meal method of weight loss, if you can control your food intake - then go for it! However, if you discover that you are eating too much or that you're falling into a pattern of unhealthy grazing, then it's time to rethink things.

Why Starvation Diets Don't Work

The absolute worst method of weight loss that abounds is the starvation diet. Let's see how our Dieter Paula addressed this situation.

She was in need of losing 57 pounds and she wanted to lose them as in right now. Forget about yesterday - it was time for her to march forward, out of that size sixteen dress and into size fetus. She knew that she could do it and she was very upset at this point - but not at herself. She decided to take out her frustrations on her body, specifically targeting those unwanted pounds.

She'd teach them a lesson that they would never forget. How could she accomplish getting rid of all 57 of them? Why she'd starve them out - that's what!

For three days she went on a starvation diet, eating absolutely nothing and drinking water. After the first day she felt fine other than the maddening hunger pains. After the second day, the hunger pains weren't as bad and although she felt lighter, she was also feeling a bit dizzy. On day three she fainted and her best friend had to take her to see a doctor in urgent care.

Paula wasn't feeling well at all; she felt sick to her tummy, her head throbbed and she had a really bad case of the shakes. Her doctor questioned her thoroughly and ran a few tests, finding that her blood sugar levels were extremely low. During the visit, Paula didn't share the fact that she had been starving herself for the last three days. She didn't want anyone to come in-between her goal of losing those 57 unwanted pounds.

The doctor suggested that she go home, eat a good meal and relax - and that he wanted to see her in three more days.

Paula returned home but she didn't follow the doctor's orders. She decided to nibble on a few saltine crackers. After doing such, she did feel a bit better. She wasn't dizzy anymore and her head had stopped throbbing. The shaking had also quit.

But when she woke up the next day she felt worse that ever. She decided to eat a hearty meal; afterwards she would get right back on track with her weight loss plan.

After her meal, she felt like her old self again - and sleepy. So she had a nice rest, woke up refreshed and decided it was time to work off the food that she had eaten for lunch. There was nothing like a five mile hike to accomplish such.

Three days later, another hiker discovered a collapsed Paula on the hiking trail. She was barely breathing and her color was a grayish hue. Although she recovered, she spent two weeks in the hospital doing such.

As to those 57 pounds, they are now 97 pounds and growing as Paula never wants to think about dieting again. She believes that dieting is worse than being overweight. In fact, dieting almost killed her.

The fact of the matter is that Paula's attempt at losing weight is what almost did her in; if she would have embraced a healthy weight loss plan and if she would have remained strongly motivated to lose those pounds - she would have done such safely.

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