Myth # 1: Breakfast triggers the metabolism
This myth is so tenacious that many people, businesses and institutions claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
For example, the site of the National Health Nutrition Program strongly discourages going without it and many manufacturers sell their products "to start the day on the right foot".
You can imagine that the manufacturers of breakfast cereals, margarine or spreads will not be really happy if people start to skip breakfast. Rather, they have an interest in us eating as often as possible.
By dint of hearing something, you end up believing it and you don't think about looking for the existence of evidence. But since I am stubborn, I conducted my investigation to find out if the claims about breakfast are true.
In conclusion, skipping breakfast does not slow down the metabolism. Skipping breakfast will not make you gain weight.
Myth # 2: You need to eat 5 or 6 meals a day
According to this myth, you have to eat 5 or 6 meals a day to keep the metabolism working continuously. This consists of having three main meals and two snacks.
Eating every few hours is believed to prevent the metabolism from slowing down.
Many dieticians recommend eating frequently, in small portions.
However, there is no scientific evidence that eating 5-6 meals per day increases or maintains the rate of metabolism. In fact, the frequency of meals has no effect on the metabolism.
We burn as many calories as we eat 2 or 3 times a day or eat 5 or 6 times a day.
The only argument in favor of frequent small food intakes could be that they prevent you from being hungry (to which one might object that one is never really full because one only eats small portions).
What is proven , however, is that eating often in small portions reduces insulin sensitivity , which promotes the development of belly fat .
Myth # 3: You need to eat often so you don't lose muscle mass
You may have noticed that some bodybuilders take their Tupperware full of chicken breast and veg everywhere.
These bodybuilders want to be able to eat their protein every few hours because they fear losing muscle mass.
If you are not in the bodybuilding world, you certainly have less pressure on your muscle mass. That said, muscle mass is important for everyone. This is because the amount of muscle mass you have determines your resting metabolism.
If you lose muscle mass, your resting metabolism will slow down and you will gain weight faster. So many people (not just bodybuilders) are afraid of losing muscle.
The fear of losing muscle mass is quite understandable. However, there is no basis for the fear of losing your muscles if you don't eat for a few hours.
The body stores fat for use as an energy source after digestion is complete.
It is illogical to think that if you don't eat your body will draw on muscle mass rather than fat mass. This is not how the body works.
For bodybuilders, intermittent fasting has only great benefits. This is due to the production of growth hormone.
Myth # 4: When we fast, the body goes into economy mode
Prehistoric men regularly went through periods when fasting was a necessity. For example, when we came home empty-handed from hunting and there was nothing edible around.
From an evolutionary point of view, our body is provided with an "energy saving mode". This mode allows the body to slow down the metabolism.
This slowing down of metabolism saves fat stores, which increases our chances of finding something edible before we starve.
If you want to lose weight, it makes sense to want to prevent your body from going into economy mode. However, contrary to popular belief, the body does not go into economy mode just by skipping a meal.
The body does not enter energy saving mode until after 60 hours without eating anything ( source ). Either way, you can go two and a half days without eating before your metabolism slows down.
Now on to the interesting stuff : Before your body goes into economy mode, there is indeed an increase in metabolism. An increase which can also reach 14% ( source).
When you have nothing to eat, your body first starts making hormones that make you more active and make you want to move. This characteristic increased the chances of survival of prehistoric men. Thanks to this, the men would go in search of food or go hunting.
So these are the main myths about intermittent fasting. Of course, this doesn't prove that intermittent fasting helps you lose weight or that it's good for you. This is for later.
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