Quote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan  Please correct me if I am wrong, but the reason I was lead to belive about the 6 meals a day thing was....
If you leave it longer than 3 hours between meals your body goes in to starvation mode. It then stores up more "crap" when you do eat. It does also start "eating" away at your muscle. I cant find the article but its something along them lines. Am I wrong in thinking this was correct? |
I think it takes a lot longer.
There have been a few interesting starvation studies done in the 1950s in the US, I will see if I can find them.
When you look at the biochemistry of starvation, it does really depend on where you start.
If you have a lot of fat, your body is going to preserve lean tissue and burn fat.
If you are super lean, then yes, there is probably a greater chance you might burn some lean tissue.
It does depend on how many carbs you are eating, as the body will make anywhere from 20-200 g/day of glucose via gluconeogenesis for the brain, red blood cells (if it can, it will) depending on the diet. #
Really, our bodies are geared up to protect ourselves from starvation, as that was the major threat to our existance over most of human history.
There is no mechanism to protect the body from becoming immensely fat, as evidenced by the current obesity crisis.
I have had to spread my 5 meals/calories over 24 hours when I am on call, and I am up most of the time.
You get used to it, seriously, I used to be hungry every 2.5-3 hours when I ate that often, now I am hungry every 3.5-4.5 hours.
There is more going on as well, cause the hunger hormone, gherelin, is a really potent secretagogue of growth hormone, so there are some nattie competitive BBers that find they put on muscle on a decreased calorie diet.
Strange but true.