Snacking Takes More Discipline Than Fasting

Call me crazy, but I think it is really tough to eat snacks and not ingest too many calories.

To me snacking is just a tease and it makes me crave junk food much more than if I only eat 1-3 meals per day. I know the 6 meal per day thing is popular, but I don’t know how people do it and successfully lose weight!

Eating Food Makes You Crave More Food

I swear it is the case that if I eat a big meal in the morning, I crave food all day long. It is a weird thing for sure. If I skip breakfast or have a light breakfast of just a bit of fruit, it is much easier for me to stick to a clean diet.

What is even crazier is that if I eat all day long on a certain day, I crave food in a big way the following day.

Training Your Body to Expect Food Every Couple of Hours?

It is my experience that your body will adapt to certain eating patterns. People who are used to eating every 2-3 hours have a tough time going longer without food.

The problem with eating every few hours is it is really hard to create a calorie deficit this way. Plus your body will always be fueled up with carb energy, so there is no reason to burn body fat for fuel. That is why I tell people that eating fewer meals could actually help them lose fat again.

Snacking is the Cause of Insulin Spikes and Low Blood Sugar

This is an observation that I’ve made. I know a lot of people who use the excuse of low blood sugar as a reason to eat every few hours. They believe that snacking cures low blood sugar.

I am here to tell you that I think snacking is what causes low blood sugar in many cases. Most snacks are carb based causing a rise in blood sugar, insulin is released to stabilize the blood sugar back down, but often times “over corrects” causing the blood sugar to get too low.

The person then feel like their blood sugar is low again and craves more food and gets a bit shaky. This causes a never ending cycle of snacking and often leads to craving unhealthy sugary foods. Read this paragraph again…it makes a lot of sense.

Snacking Gives Your Body No Reason to Burn Fat

Your body will only burn off body fat as a last resort. If it is fueled with calories, it will burn off these food calories long before it uses the energy from your body fat.

The best way to drop this body fat is to insure that you go through periods of time during the day where there isn’t food calories in your system. This is when the fat burning happens. This is a big reason I tell people to exercise in this state as well.

You should take advantage of this “fat burning” window of opportunity.

I Think Snacking Takes Discipline and Is Hard Work

Reaching your fat loss goals is going to be tough if you snack all of the time. I think your results will be slow and you will reach many more sticking points than those of us who eat 1-3 meals per day. I guess I am too impatient to wait years before I lose weight.

If I am going to workout hard, I want to see visible results on a regular basis. The biggest problem with snacking is that it increases your cravings for carbs. If you are stuck in the low blood sugar cycle that I spoke about earlier, that try to ease your way out of that.

Losing weight will be much easier for you.

Note: There are true diabetics who do have legitimate blood sugar issues. I’m not referring to these people.

I just think many people who aren’t diabetic use the whole low blood sugar thing as an excuse to eat non-stop.