Boost your Metabolism with Mini Meals
December 12, 2007 by 
As I have discussed multiple times in my previous articles on metabolism, eating smaller meals at more regular intervals during the day can really help boost your metabolism. In this article I discuss mini meals in more detail and how to accommodate them into your daily routine.
Planning and preparing your mini meals in advance is very important. Initially it can seem like too much effort to plan your mini meals. However, if you do not plan your mini meals you are very likely to get complacent. For example, you may decide to go to the supermarket at lunch time, purchase the ingredients for your mini meal and then bring them back to the office. On the way you pass a fast food joint and since you are hungry now you go in and buy your lunch. By failing to plan and prepare this one mini meal you have already replaced it with a full sized one.
The planning process does not have to be as difficult as you first may think. Each of the six mini meals can contain the basic ingredients that make up breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only difference is that you will break them down into smaller portions. If you are not sure of how small the portions should be in your mini meals look on the packaging for the real serving sizes.
To help you further I have outlined some ideas below that can help you on your way to planning and preparing mini meals.
1) BREAKFAST:
Breakfast is widely thought of as the most important meal of the day because it begins your body’s digestion process. Ideas for breakfast include:
- Whole grain cereals.
- Fruits.
- Whole wheat toast.
- 1 Scrambled egg.
- 1 ham and egg sandwich on half a slice of wheat toast.
2) LUNCH:
Again there are lots of options for your lunch including:
- Half sandwiches on wholewheat bread (try mustard instead of mayonnaise).
- Fruit.
- Nuts.
- Yogurt.
- Cottage cheese.
- A single slice of pizza.
- Cheeseburger with low fat cheese and no bread (occasionally when you feel like cheating).
3) DINNER:
With dinner careful planning is essential since it is often also a time when the family come together. In particular be careful that you give yourself real serving sizes and that you are not eat too much. There are too many options to list for dinner ideas here but make sure the dinner you prepare is quite healthy and contains lots of vegetables and lean proteins.
4) SNACKS:
Snack foods are essential for success when eating mini-meals. Snacks can be used to supplement your main meals, ensuring that you are eating six times a day. Some good snack ideas include:
- Fruits.
- Raw vegetables.
- Granola.
- Whole wheat snacks.
- Pumpkin.
- Sunflower seeds.
- Yoghurt.
- Low calorie popsicles.
- Frozen yoghurt.
By planning and preparing your mini-meals properly you can really give your metabolism a boost. You can either split your main meals into two smaller meals or prepare three small main meals and then supplement these with healthy snacks. As you can see, implementing mini meals into your daily routine does not have to be as difficult as it first seems. When you get the hang of it you will find it much easier and start to notice the results of your improved metabolic rate.
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If you are struggling to think up new and exciting mini-meals I recommend Meal Plans 101. This fantastic piece of software allows you to choose from 13, 339 food options to create almost limitless mini-meal plans for yourself and can be fully customised to your weight loss goals.
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I completely agree on eating smaller meals throughout the day and this is all I do. I find that I am not as hungry. Planning meals is a good idea so that you don’t give in to the temptation of junk food which is one of my weaknesses. Great post!
Thanks for your comments Heidi. Totally agree with you that I don’t feel as hungry with the small meals. I think the key is to make yourself eat something every 2 to 3 hours, whether you feel like it or not. I often find that I am not that hungry for a good few hours after breakfast. However, I make myself eat anyway and it seriously reduces any afternoon cravings. If I wait till lunch for my second meal I find that I feel hungry constantly throughout the afternoon.
Planning meals is also a great way to avoid junk food. If I have prepared my sandwiches for lunch I am a lot less tempted to eat out because I feel like I would be wasting them. Another added bonus is that preparing your daily meals is a fantastic money saver.
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All the current research I’ve read indicates that eating smaller meals throughout the day does not actually effectively boost you’re metabolism (it makes no difference basically). I was wondering if you could direct me to the scientific journals you got this information from, or the scientific papers. I just see a lot of body building myths being perpetuated, though i will retract my statement if you can direct me to evidence of this. I prefer science rather than body builders saying, it works for us! Thanks Tom!!
Hi Steele,
Admittedly when I wrote this article I did not use any scientific journals. However, I have found that eating in this way works better for me. I’ve definitely found that I get less hungry which means I’m less likely to snack and binge on other foods outside of my planned 5 or 6 mini meals. I have also noticed physical improvements as a result of eating this way.
Anyway, I have followed up on your question and found a scientific journals which support my article. This study(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15640455?dopt=Abstract) concludes that subjects who followed their normal diet on 6 occassions had greater thermogenesis than those who followed a variable meal frequency of 3-9 meals per day.
Regards,
Tom
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