Eating five times a day: the popular habit that can be bad for your health

After several years of research and studying the reactions of both her body (she is a federated cyclist and competes in the ‘master’ category) and that of other athletes, Catalina decided to question in her book ‘Human design’ many of the official recommendations regarding nutrition that have always been considered good.

Precisely that habit of eat five times a day He is one of those who questions especially in this work because, according to what he claims, in reality the human being is not designed to eat so many times a day. The explanation is, according to what he claims, that the human being’s energy store is made up mainly of fat which, according to the expert, could actually keep a thin person alive for several months if they only consumed water and minerals. On the other hand, the dietician clarifies that the reserve of glycogenwhich could be described as the “glucose store”, has a maximum capacity to hold about 2300 kcal in a trained athlete. “This means that the glycogen store would not be enough for us to get through a full day,” he explains. Both data, according to José María Catalina, are what give us clues about what the primary macronutrient in the diet should be and at the same time provide us with information about what the energy substrate that supports 99% of daily energy consumption.

«The first thing we fill when we eat are the glycogen stores (or glucose stores) found in the liver and muscle. Once they are full (remember that muscle glycogen is only used up when exercising) the rest of the food is stored as fat in the body,” the expert clarifies. Therefore, when it comes to spending energy, the liver glycogen It would be the first thing to be burned and, if you exercised, you would also spend the muscle glycogen. From there, fat would begin to oxidize. «But if we do not leave space between meals and also do not do vigorous exercise, we will never be able to empty the glycogen reserves of approximately 2000 kcal and therefore we will never need to use the large tank, the one in the fatwhich will mean that we are always in storage mode,” he explains.

To clarify concepts well, the author of ‘The Human Factor’ presents the following example. An ordinary day in the life of an ordinary person. Let’s say in this case that we are talking about Pepito. Once Pepito has had dinner and digested his dinner, his deposits are at 100%. He prepares to sleep and without moving, he will barely have used up liver glycogen (90 grams). When it’s time to wake up, you prepare to eat a sugary breakfast standard in the population with which you will not only have filled those 90 grams but the rest of your breakfast (probably with more than three times that amount) will go directly to increasing your body fat reserves. His work in the office barely serves him to use up glycogen and much less stored fat, but since he has accepted the advice of eating five times a day as valid, he is preparing to have lunch. Then the meal will arrive, with much more energy, the snack or dinner… which will once again add and add to your lipid deposits that never wait to be emptied, even just a little.

Pepito’s case is not isolated. So much so that the expert asks: “Do you find it strange to go out and see that every day the people around you are more overweight?” For the dietitian, the habit of eating five or more meals a day high in carbohydrates and other harmful nutritional habits is what causes the population to continue gaining weight and getting sick every day. «I say getting sick, because when you eat many meals in a day, not only will you not be able to access the fat deposit, but you will also be spoiling the metabolism by making excessive use of the hormone insulin (which leads to the diabetes) and being unable to stand up when a few hours go by without eating sugar. Well, your body only knows how to oxidize glucose because it never needs to break down stored fat, because you are providing it frequently,” he analyzes. This explains, he says, why many people say they get dizzy if they don’t eat something sweet or if they don’t eat every few hours. “They are literally sick and, probably, some of them are also obese,” he concludes.