3 Meals vs. 6 Meals & Junk vs. Clean
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast with your host and the future leader of The Republic Of Wales, Sveldfjer. Now this might be the only podcast in the world where you actually have to reduce the speed instead of increasing it. However, what I wanna get over to you is that the past is gone. The future doesn't exist. So if you wanna make the most of your life, you've gotta make the most of these moments every single day.
Speaker 1:And this podcast is gonna help you live a healthier, more fulfilled life, hopefully, giving you some wisdom to take away every single day. So I'm gonna shut up now so you can get on with listening to the next episode. Who's been granted another twenty four hours to live? Me, you, everybody listening, how good's are then? So you're listening to this now, got a new day.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable guys, a new day every day, mental. Anyway, today I want to talk about two studies, two really important studies that may in fact change the way you eat or go about your eating behaviors. The first one I want to talk about is a study on meal frequency. So look we've been told well years ago when I first got in the fitness industry was eat small but frequent meals to stalk the metabolism that's what people thought you know the logic was there you stalk the metabolism when you eat because the furnace gets turned on put it that way and then obviously do it many times a day obviously is good right but then the other side came out and said well if you're doing small meals the furnace is only going on for a bit. It's not going on very intensely.
Speaker 1:But if you do bigger meals, so three meals out of six, but the calories are the same, just get a bigger fire three times, but overall, it's the same amount. And they showed us it was the same amount. Okay. So now we're at the point where does meal frequency actually matter at all is there really anything in it okay in terms of not just fat burn like hunger, satiety stuff like that let's have a look shall we. So the first part is there's there's no studies associating eating frequency and weight change really there's not much going on here okay there's other studies that looked at weight maintenance, weight loss, meal frequency and there was no effect.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they found no effect on weight loss. The purpose of this study is there's a lack of studies comparing the effects of traditional meal consumption pattern three meals a day versus smaller or more frequent meals on, fat burning and hunger. So this study was to compare the acute effects of consuming three meals a day versus six meals a day in a twenty four hour facts fat oxidation, so fat burning and perceived hunger. So this is kind of like, does it actually make a difference that day though? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Know over to overall it doesn't. But what about the day, mate? Tell me what the day what's what's happening? So here's what happened. They got 15 sexy, healthy adult men and eight sexy, adult, healthy women.
Speaker 1:Don't know if that was very coherent, but here we go. So if we look at average age, male, twenty seven years old, female, thirty, average weight for the male, seventy KGs, Average weight for the female, fifty seven KGs. Average BMI, twenty one point five for the men, 20.7 for the females. Average body fat percentage for the men, 15%, and for the women, 26.6%. Okay?
Speaker 1:So they went through all the stuff. Got them got them in. They're ready to experiment. So, subjects were provided with all meals during the four day trials. So stewed, study diets consumed during three meals and six meals were matched for energy and macronutrient content.
Speaker 1:So they had the same 30% of energy from fat, 55% from carbs, and 15% from protein. Okay? And a trained nutritionist designed all the diets. The energy content of the diet was estimated to be to meet free living energy requirements. So, you know, rest of metabolic rate times 1.5, for weight stability.
Speaker 1:Okay. So meals were packaged and taken with the subject. All food was required to be consumed, and no other food was permitted. Subjects were required to return the empty food containers to the study personnel to verify compliance with the diets meal times were scheduled at equidistant time points guys that is during three meals were served at five hour intervals and during six meals they were provided at two point five hour intervals. Three of the meals during six meals were provided at the same time as the meals during the three meals.
Speaker 1:Okay. Okay. Okay. So energy distribution was 33% at each meal, and then 16% for the six meals. Okay.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. Right. So three meals a day versus six meals a day. Same same calories, same macros. Okay?
Speaker 1:These are the results. So hunger, fullness, and desire to eat ratings were assessed throughout the experiment using visual analog scales and statistical analysis.
Speaker 2:Are you still with me guys?
Speaker 1:Are you sleeping? Here's the actual important part. So there were no differences in twenty four hour energy expenditure and twenty four hour fat burning between the three meals and six meal groups. Right? There was no huge difference in fullness but hunger and desire to eat levels were greater during the six meals than the three meal group.
Speaker 1:So the desire to eat and hunger were more when more meals you eat in per day. So really the conclusion is increasing meal frequency from three to six meals a day has no significant effect on fat loss but may actually increase hunger and your desire to eat. Although like this is quite a small study, it's important to look at this. Okay? I'm a big advocate for less meals a day by making them bigger.
Speaker 1:It's less stressful. You get more satiety from the meal, I personally think. And you just get that satisfaction of having a bit more grub to eat at a time versus you know having some slivers of chicken breast and a few dabs of grain. It's not good to have like small meals and then be really hungry after they're not feeling satisfied and if you eat fast like me it's even worse. So that's the study there.
Speaker 1:Put on your locker, boom. Okay, Scott, maybe I should try two meals a day, maybe three meals a day, make them bigger, and have them over five hours in between. However, here's the next study we want to talk about. The next study was on ultra processed foods. Ultra processed or minimally processed foods are whole foods in which the vitamins and nutrients are still intact.
Speaker 1:It's like in their natural state or nearly in their natural state. An unpro ultra processed food is mainly the substances extracted from the food such as fat, starches, added sugars, fats, and that and the proper, like, you know, you won't ever find these naturally. So let's go through some minimally processed foods which are like apples, potatoes, a carrot, wheat corn right. Processed would be like so if you look at corn, minimally processed wheat corn, processed would be canned corn and then ultra processed would be corn crisps. Okay.
Speaker 1:So and then we got apple is the unprocessed version. Then you got the process which would be apple juice and then the ultra processed would be apple pie. Lovely. And you got unprocessed, you got the potato, the juicy, juicy potato, the processed version would be the baked potato, slightly different. And then you got the ultra processed would be chips or crisps.
Speaker 1:You got carrots, carrot juice, carrot cake, wheat flour cookies, you get it. Okay. So the purpose of the study was to see if ultra processed foods actually made you eat more food, okay, versus unprocessed. Now naturally you know the answer to this, okay. So let's have a look.
Speaker 1:So what happened was they purpose so they wanted to see and it was in twenty stable hours ten female, ten female and 10 male as well which is good. So subjects were admitted to the National Institute of Health Clinical Center in The USA of two weeks on the ultra processed and then two weeks on the unprocessed diet so meals were designed to be matched for presented calories energy density macronutrients sugar sodium and fiber so the meals were matched but subjects are not instructed to track the calories macros. They were instructed to consume as much or as little as desired. So they would track how much they eat. They say, look, guys.
Speaker 1:These are the meals, mate. Okay. So the meals are all equally equal in calorie density for even ultra processed or the re or the unprocessed. And then just see what you want. See what happens.
Speaker 1:See here's what happened. Energy energy intake was greater during the ultra process of the crisps and the pies, of course, diet with increase in carbohydrate and fat, but no increase in protein. This is to be expected. Ultra processed foods typically don't have much more protein in them. And weight changes were highly correlated with energy intake.
Speaker 1:So with participants gaining two pounds during ultra processed and losing two pounds during unprocessed. Okay. So the ultra processed aka crisps aka lovely lovely apple pie aka Welsh cakes aka cookies led to increased body weight over time was the unprocessed, the apple, the grapes, the carrot, led to progressive weight loss okay. This is not a shock to me okay this is obviously makes sense right so if you were to have a diet only of, unprocessed foods you're obviously going to be eating way less calories because calorie density they're going to fill you up for longer if you're eating a diet just of ultra processed foods you're going to eat more food so what it showed was despite them being told to eat whatever and the meals are exactly the same macro wise, the ultra processed, that group ate 500 calories more than the unprocessed group and they weren't told to eat. They didn't say, you know, track your intake.
Speaker 1:They were just like how they would feel hunger cues and all that. So if we boil it down, right, and this is why I think some people are gonna take this study the wrong way. They're gonna go, well, obviously, we should cut out ultra processed foods now, and we should only eat unprocessed foods. Here's another thing with this, they ate 500 calories more just in their kind of in their natural state. Intuitively they ate 500 calories more with a diet 100% let's call it shit and then the unprocessed they had 500 calories less okay that was eat what you want type of scenario okay if we bring tracking into the fold do you think with tracking we can reduce that gap to maybe two fifty calories.
Speaker 1:So whilst you can't eat what you want all the time, you can maybe accept that you might not eat less and you might not be as full with ultra processed foods. So we could probably make that jump, couldn't we? The next step is what if you're a mix of both? So this shows one hundred percent one way, 100% the other.
Speaker 2:What if we had
Speaker 1:a 50% split? And so we had what if we had the unprocessed foods mainly, and then we had the ultra processed here and there to make us our comfort foods where we like. Do you think that we will be consuming 500 calories more when we are tracking, right? Or even if we didn't track, do you think the gap would be smaller that 500 calorie gap? I personally think it would.
Speaker 1:So here's what we're gonna here's what we're learning from this and here's what we're to combine the previous study. The previous study says you feel fuller right, your desire to eat is less if you have less meals versus more meals. So let's go, okay, why don't we have two or three meals a day and why don't we combine with those meals we have our unprocessed food as the main part of the meal, but also if we do really love cookie, we do really love these, like, our our cereals and stuff like that, why don't we include them in those meals? So not only are we gonna be kind of getting that effect of desire to eat and and stuff going down, but also having our kick for the foods we really do love and we can't really live without. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:So overall, this is good for us. This is great news. These studies are really, really good because they're basically saying to us, if you go all out unprocessed, you will eat 500 calories more on average per day without tracking. But what if you but what you should do is maybe eat a few less meals, but make them bigger and make sure that the split between ultra processed and unprocessed is decent. Ideally guys, 80% unprocessed, 20% processed foods, that would be a really, really good split.
Speaker 1:Right, really good. But sometimes it's not possible busy lives, convenience foods, ready meals, stuff like that. Maybe 5050% is fine. Who knows? Like, you know, and we're tracking on top, so we are keeping an on things.
Speaker 1:So if we keep an eye on things, and we've got our split, making sure we are building. So you might start today, Scott, I can't eat just potatoes and lean meats and veg and stuff like that, it's for me and that's the reason why I keep your yo dieting. I go fine, fine, try and have in each meal something unprocessed, something good, okay, but also include the foods you love as well. Make it a sixty forty split for me, to start and go with that. And you go, wow.
Speaker 1:This is easy. So I'm having this meal, but I'm also having my treats. I feel like this I feel like I'm cheating. That's what people say all the time. And when you add tracking on top, you're aware of your total intake, I think that's a a winning combination.
Speaker 1:So don't be scared to eat the the unprocessed foods. They're obviously not packed with minerals and vitamins. I'm not gonna say, you know, a % diet from that. I don't want you to think that's what I'm saying. I'm a realist.
Speaker 1:I'm a realist when it comes to these things, and I want you to be a realist. I want you to look at yourself and go, do know what? Am I ever gonna be able to cut out ultra processed foods in this mad world? I am time strapped. I need I need one of my meals every day is gonna be a ready meal.
Speaker 1:I am gonna have protein bars. I am gonna have this, and I am gonna have these ultra processed options. But I will try and get at least one or two meals, bigger meals with ultra processed, unprocessed as the main as the main main character of our meal. So I hope this is helpful because I think when people do read the study, they might go off and say, see, this is why you shouldn't never have ultra processed foods. They make you eat 500 calories more a day, but they're not looking at the other side of the study, which is like that's a % ultra processed foods.
Speaker 1:Eat what you want as well. Okay? And we know that if, you know, in that scenario, I would expect the ultra processed to have eaten way more personally than just 500 on average, but there we go. So guys, your your next move from here, can you reduce the amount of meals you're having a day? Give it a go.
Speaker 1:Maybe if you're having four a day, reduce it to three. Maybe if you're having three, you can reduce it to two. Yeah? And if you've been abstaining from your favorite treats and snacks and you're not liking it, bring them in and include them in your meal. So after your meal, a kind of like a dessert type of thing.
Speaker 1:So at least you're still getting full, you're still getting treat and you're not having it on its own but it's really not gonna fill you up on its own because if you ever had you know a chocolate bar on its own three hours after a meal it's nice but you just want more after it. So maybe it's good to combine it and see if you can make those tweaks. And don't stress out if you are on the if you are more on the ultra processed side at the moment. We will work slowly towards getting all of our diets to be more, unprocessed foods, of course. But don't rush because if you try and gather too fast, there's too much of a change in lifestyle.
Speaker 1:And I personally am gonna grow grow, build towards it slowly, which just means, you know, gonna have to cook at home more. When I go eating out, gonna have to eat out better places instead of going to these, like, ultra processed places. And then, yeah, I'm gonna make sure that I always track and overestimate the processed and ultra processed foods that I eat as well if I can't get the macro and calorie information, and I think that's what we all should do. But, guys, it's a Friday. It's a long voice note for your nose.
Speaker 1:Be heavy on the whole nutrition side, but I hope you take that in your stride. I hope it is helpful. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you're a six miler a day, if you're a four miler, aka, three miler, one miler. Hopefully none of you are a zero miler, aka juice detox, aka listen to yesterday's voice note.
Speaker 1:Happy days. Enjoy your day. Get your one big thing done. Make sure you get make sure you clear stuff out now before the weekend. Make sure you go into the weekend with a clear head.
Speaker 1:Nothing worse than going into Saturday, you're still on Friday. Oh, didn't do that. Get it done then. You have hours in the day, you've got the time to do if you're working that is, we always so much time working, we? Scrolling social media out, just get it done, you feel better, and your weekend is free for you to do, go and explore, go maybe climb Snowden again, don't know.
Speaker 1:But guys, see you next week, enjoy love. And that is it for today's episode, so hopefully you took something away from it, if you didn't, here's what you need to take away, stop wasting time on social media, Stop wasting time gossiping. You've only got a day to live. Today's the only day you ever have. So if there's anything to take away from this podcast, even if you can't understand the word I say, even if you didn't resonate with the wisdom I try to deliver, this is a reminder of you daily to live one day at a time.
Speaker 1:Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days but if you can make the most of today, I'm telling you, you'll have a fulfilled life. So enjoy your day and hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow. Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days. But if you can make the most of today, I'm telling you, you'll have a fulfilled life. So enjoy your day and hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow.
