What if I don’t Eat 3 meals a Day?
If you find yourself skipping meals frequently, you may unintentionally be losing weight & impacting your hormones & metabolism. If you aren’t getting enough protein, your body may need to burn lean muscle. When it comes to long term health & body composition, we REALLY want to maintain our lean muscle mass. As we age this becomes even more difficult, so take advantage of your 20s & 30s to build up as much muscle as you can. People with more lean muscle have been shown to get sick less often and fight off sickness better. Soooo, if you’re going to skimp on meals, you may want to consider increasing your protein in the next one.
Don’t forget about fats either. Anybody remember learning the term “essential fatty acid” in biology or physiology. Fats are essential to building hormones, neurotransmitters, cell walls and keeping your brain working. They are also higher in calories (9 calories/gram) than carbs or protein (4 calories/gram). So they should definitely be added to your meals if you struggle to eat enough. Fats got a bad wrap in the diet industry. The recommendation to eat about 30% of your calories from fats depends on what sources you are eating them from & a variety of other factors. Having 1-2 sources of fats per meal is a great place to start.
Kelli’s favorite proteins:
Grilled chicken
Salmon*
Tuna
Beef**
Lentils
Eggs (add egg whites for extra protein but don’t skip the nutritious yolk!)
Greek yogurt
*Wild caught usually have higher levels of Omega-3s
**Grass-fed have higher levels of Omega-3s, but some brands marketed as “grass-fed” are only partially grass-fed unfortunately. If you’re on a budget (like me) choose whichever kind you can afford. The benefits of the meat far outweigh the risks in my opinion.
Kelli’s favorite healthy fats
Avocado/avocado oil
Olives/ extra virgin olive oil
REAL butter (should only have 1-2 ingredients)
Nuts, seeds & nut butters
MCT oil
Extra virgin coconut oil (sometimes, don’t over-do it)
Does the time of day I eat matter?
Ever heard someone say not to eat after 7 pm? This is another topic that I’d say it depends. The timing of eating can affect your circadian rhythm, but it’s important to also prioritize the fact that you need to be eating enough ahead of being perfect on the time. When I was a college athlete and a flexitarian (flexible vegetarian) I often found myself STARVING before bed. This was mainly due to the fact that A.) I wasn’t eating enough throughout the day. B.) I was being super active (like 3+ hours of exercise some days). Athletes can be one population where you don’t worry much about fasting. A snack before bed can be very helpful for those with an early morning workout who don’t want to eat breakfast first.
Timing of eating can also impact two of the most important foundations of our health: blood sugar control & digestion.
We are the least “insulin sensitive” in the evening…..meaning our cells don’t take in glucose as efficiently. So if your largest meal of the day is dinner, you are more likely to have excess glucose (energy from the food) floating around in the blood stream & being stored as fat. But if you’re under-eating during the rest of the day, then will this even itself out? Not exactly. “Fasting & feasting” can be a tricky topic and there is definitely some research to support the benefits. However, in context of women in their 20s & 30s I definitely do not recommend it. Most women I know are not choosing organic meats & vegetables as their one large meal of the day. Instead we are choosing standard American foods which lack many of the nutrients our bodies are craving and instead lead to high blood sugars into the evening hours. In the evening our body wants to in the calming parasympathetic state, not digesting food…..have I lost you yet?
Ultimately what I’m wanting to touch on here is that eating real meals (not snacks) throughout the day supports our metabolism & gives us the most variety in nutrients for hormone & gut health. With irregular eating patterns, the mechanisms controling our blood sugar & digestive processes are constantly guessing & can get dysregulated over time. I have seen women in their 20s & 30s who appear to be at a healthy weight but are well on their way to diabetes with how dysregulated their fasting insulin in (a lab marker to test blood sugar control WAY before fasting glucose is high).
You gut microbiome also runs on a “clock”. Meaning it want
In summary…
Here’s why timing of eating is important
It helps regulate your Circadian rhythm
Can help reverse & prevent insulin resistance (or PCOS which is often linked to insulin resistance)
Can improve digestion
Here’s when you don’t need to be strict on timing of eating
You have a hard workout in the morning & feel like you haven’t eaten enough
You often wake up in the middle of the night & suspect it may be from low blood sugar
References
Khaw, KT., et. al. Randomised trial of coconut oil, olive oil or butter on blood lipids and other cardiovascular risk factors in healthy men and women. BMJ Open. 2018 Mar 6;8(3):e020167. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020167. PMID: 29511019
Rogeri, PS., et. al. Crosstalk Between Skeletal Muscle and Immune System: Which Roles Do IL-6 and Glutamine Play? Front Physiol. 2020 Oct 16;11:582258. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.582258. PMID: 33178046
