Eat to Burn

Six Times a Day

You know that phrase, “ he (or she) eats like a bird”. It usually means that person hardly eats at all. In reality, birds eat all the time. They have to, otherwise they’d be like a 747 without fuel. Grounded.

If we eat properly, our bodies will maintain a normal, healthy weight and composition. If we skip meals, eat junk or binge late at night, we end up looking like a chunky monkey.

I grew up in Eisenhower’s 1950's America with it’s new convenient foods, cars with big and bigger fins and a society that ate 3 square meals a day. You weren’t supposed to eat between meals, at least that’s what the experts said.

This blog is about eating early and often. 6 meals a day – and please don’t make them square! Have three meals and three nutritional snacks, or small meals. Actually, they are all small meals compared to what you’d get with the 3-meal deal.

This blog is also about eating your most important meal, because even though we’re in the era of daily new apps for our phones (Dick Tracy would be trading in his wrist watch) and kindle books, our bodies are still primal mechanisms. So when it comes to eating, think of your body as if you were a Caveman.

Watch and Learn

Let's visit three Caveman scenes that will help explain how our bodies react to starvation / metabolism functions.

Scene 1: Caveman Wakes and Hunts

Caveman wakes up and goes on a hunt. His metabolism kicks in to provide fuel from fat stores so our hero can score breakfast. He’s ravished, so he eats right away – he’s got his protein and vegetables. Because he ate after his hunt, his body knew that there would be plenty of food. It could keep right on burning, no need to horde those fat stores.

His metabolism supported him on the hunt, going into fat burning mode so the Caveman would have energy for his hunt, get food and be alive for another day. He didn’t think about his metabolic burn, it knew when to turn on.

This is the same as doing intense cardio first thing in the morning before breakfast. If you want to burn fat and lean down, do cardio within 40 minutes of getting up, then feed yourself.  But if you skip eating after the cardio your body will really go into starvation mode, hang on to its stored fuel (fat) and you’ll defeat the purpose of all your morning work.

Scene 2: Caveman Wakes and Eats

Caveman wakes up, makes a breakfast with protein and low glycemic carbs. Buttons his suit and walks to the office. He fired up his metabolism first  by having a lean, protein rich breakfast to digest. Plus, his starvation monitors are satisfied that they can relax and burn, burn, burn. It’ll be a good day for them because there’s lots of food. Once again, he didn’t think about his metabolic burn, it knew when to turn on.

The action of digesting food burns between 10 and 30 percent of the total calories you’ll burn each day. Start your metabolic furnace by eating protein and carbs first thing in the morning.

Scene 3: Caveman Wakes and Hangs Out

Caveman wakes up, makes coffee and watches two hours of Netflix. Has more coffee, not knowing that it will dampen his appetite (it raises insulin levels) and make him an "out of control" eater late in the day.

By the time noon comes around his primitive signals have gathered together in the fear of starvation. His metabolic furnace is ice cold. No food, no breakfast, no hunt… must be starvation in the bush today. Mid-afternoon, he gets in his car and picks up a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke. His body knows just what to do with that food now – store it as fat.

So if you’re skipping breakfast, your probably packing on the pounds. Plan the night before, get enough sleep and know what you’ll have for breakfast in the morning.

Every Three Hours

Our body stays watchful, like those hidden spy cams. If you create a starvation situation for your body during the day, all the alarms will go off and your metabolism will come to a screeching halt. To keep this from happening you have to eat small meals every 3 - 4 hours.

Every three hours doesn’t mean mega meals every time you eat, it means moderate portions. You’ll want to eat about as much as you would in 3 normal meals, spread into 6. That’s 3 meals and 3 snacks.

You get the idea here – split those calories up. Smaller portions make your digestive process fire-up, and allow your body to metabolize food efficiently keeping you energized all day long. If you’re too full after waiting 3 – 4 hours, you probably ate too much at the previous meal.

Learn and Burn

Burn Mode

When we digest protein we burn approximately 25 calories for every 100 calories eaten. 

When we digest fats and carbohydrates we average a burn of about 10-15 calories for every 100 calories eaten. 


Be generous with the protein, heavy on the vegetables, moderate with fats and carbs.

Body fat does nothing to help your metabolism function or burn calories, but muscle does.  For every pound of muscle you add, your body burns an additional 50 calories every 24 hours.

Muscle takes less space than fat. Lose 5 pounds of fat and add 5 pounds of muscle and you’ll not only look leaner and tighter, you’ll be burning an additional 250 calories every day without doing anything but looking good.

Protein helps your muscles repair after working out. Digesting protein burns more calories than other foods. You’ll burn two times more calories digesting protein than carbohydrates.

Protein, Carbs and Fats

Protein will keep you feeling full longer. Go for lean chicken, turkey, fish, eggs and powdered protein.

Carbohydrates keep your muscles pumped and full and your brain functioning. Your body loves carbs for energy. Keep your intake balanced. If you think I’m talking about “Wonder Bread”, do an experiment and leave it on your counter for the next year. It won’t go bad. Switch to grains like quinoa, brown rice, millet and buckwheat.

If you really want to get "cut", turn off your carb intake at 5 in the afternoon. Eat only protein and vegetables after that.

Dietary fats are different than body fat. Healthy dietary fats will help you burn fat. Fats play an important role in delivering key vitamins. (Vitamins A, D, E and K). Fats also help our body produce essential hormones like testosterone. Eat quality fats and keep you’re your hands off fried foods and trans fats.

Fat free will make you fat! Get your fats from sources like fish, flaxseed, almonds, avocados and olive oil.

Write and Shop 

Get a handle on your food intake. Write down everything you eat, how much and what time you eat. Do this for 4 to 7 days. Knowing where what you eat is the first step in controlling your diet.

Plan to win. Plan your meals. Plan for a couple of days if you can, but certainly for the next day. Write it down. Most of the time you’ll end up right on target.

Fill your cupboard and refrigerator with healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins and grains. You can’t eat them if they’re not around.

A follow-up blog in two weeks – the Metabolic Meal Plan – will give you a six-meal program to get you started. I'll share my meals and snacks that will keep you lean and energized all day long. 


Watch for my Valentine's Day blog next Sunday...  to you from Paris. 

Train your body. Train your mind. Tame your tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.