Health and Happiness 101: How many meals should people eat per day to stay healthy?

In addition to how much calories people should consume each day, when people consume their food is even more important. To develop a healthy diet, people should eat more small meals than consume more food in fewer larger meals.

How many small meals should people consume each day to stay healthy?

People should have five to six small meals per day. According to studies, people should eat every three to four hours because the food digests completely after four hours. So it is important for people to eat frequently because the body needs new food to have energy in order to stay healthy.

People should not wait until they are really hungry to eat because they are more likely to over eat or cannot control their eating habit. Whenever people start to feel hungry, eat right away or do not go more than an hour without eating. When the body needs food and does not receive it right away, it will carve off the nutrition from the muscle to stay healthy, which will lead to lower muscle mass. Since muscle helps build people's strength, their energy level will decrease when their muscle mass is decreased.

If people keep up with their eating habit of five to six meals per day and eating consistently, they will start to feel hungry at the same time everyday. When people know which times they will be hungry, they can plan on what to eat ahead of time. In this case, people do not have to worry when hunger starts. When people are hungry and do not have a healthy meal plan out, they are more likely to eat unhealthy food.

People who start out trying to eat smaller meals, but end up eating more than they are supposed to should not feel guilty. Just go back to the routine the next meal. Sooner or later people will be successful. For beginners, people can start out by making a schedule on what to eat and when.