Often in health, and life as a whole, it can be helpful to think in terms of evolution. Human beings are not designed to eat breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. We are not supposed to eat 24/7 and by doing so it places enormous pressure on our digestive system, which is one of the most taxing bodily processes. When we are continually digesting, we have constantly elevated blood sugar which stops fat burning and leads to weight gain, and it does not allow time for our immune system to function the way it needs to.
Back in the hunter/gatherer days humans were lucky if they ate a couple of times per day, and even then, they had to catch it a and prepare it, the food was unprocessed, and as a species we were a lot more active.
Think about the slimmest people in the world and see if you can identify some common traits. They eat light. Think about times in the past when you lost weight. Chances are you were consuming less calories than you consumed. We call this a calorie deficit (as opposed to a calorie surplus which is when you consume more calories than you burn in a 24-hour period). People generally underestimate how many calories they consume on a daily basis and overestimate how many calories they burn on a daily basis). I had a personal training client called Yvonne who was a successful corporate type. She felt she was eating well, and she was exercising three times per week consistently for 30 minutes each time, and I had to explain to her that this was not enough to compensate for the 50 hours she spent sitting at her desk each week and the 56 hours she spent sleeping.
We tend to think of our stomach like a petrol tank, and when we eat, we think it needs to be full. It doesn’t.
Hippocrates said that the best medicine is fasting. Mark Twain said that a little starvation can do more for us than the best medicines and the best doctors. If you are hungry eat something small to quieten the stomach. Eat light. Eat less. You will feel better when you do.