Everyday Systems

Apparently, the idea of frequent eating/snacking for dieters has permeated other countries besides just the U.S. I was in Moscow, Russia recently, and while I was there, I was talking to a close family friend about losing weight. She said that the best thing to do is to eat 4-6 times a day in order to prevent ravenous hunger and keep the metabolism going at a steady pace. She said that all the diet books recommend that. It kind of depressed me to learn that perma-snacking is now considered the norm in a lot of places, including other countries. Everyone from physicians to nutritionists seems to be pushing it.

Thoughts?

I guess for the Russians that is better than permanent Vodka-ing.

There's a lot about it in the fitness world - eating small and often for your metabolism etc. etc. I think it can confuse people though, if you are not overweight and are trying to get fit/put on muscle or whatever that might work well. If you are overweight it means almost twice the amount of decisions you have to make about what to eat, and twice the amount of times you have to try and work out if what you are eating is ok. Not every snack can be good for you, and I bet without serious calorie counting it's very difficult to keep within recommended limits for losing weight!

I'd much rather only make 3 decisions per day

@ Over43!!!

It's hard to imagine that heavy Russians weren't already eating 4-6 times a day. Too bad they didn't look at what the French do. Just say "nyet" to snacks and big portions. I wonder if sweets were ever their thing.

Hey, they don't even have to go as far as France for good habits. Here are the BMI's of the slimmest countries in Europe, and they've got neighbors they could learn from with likely similar cuisines, I'd think. But maybe Russians don't want advice from Latvians and Poles.


Italy - 24.3
France - 24.5
Austria - 24.8
Poland - 24.8
Netherlands - 24.9
Slovakia - 25.0
Belgium - 25.1
Latvia - 25.1
Estonia - 25.2
Czech Rep - 25.2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6148456.stm

@ Over43: Lol! That's very true. Fortunately, I'm not much of a drinker- vodka or otherwise.

@ milliem: Agreed! It all goes back to the idea some people have that if you don't eat every couple of hours, you'll overeat. Personally, even I've never been comfortable with eating that frequently.

@ oolala53: Interesting. I didn't realize that Russians were considered heavy. While I was there, I saw some overweight individuals, but not nearly as many as I see here in GA. I was intrigued by what you said, so I googled the average BMI for Russia, and it does fall in the overweight category.[/quote]

I was just referring to the ones who are really heavy. Didn't mean to imply that they are all like that, but it is true that the average is high for Europe. But I bet the ones who are at, say, BMI 30 and above already eat pretty often. I could be wrong, though. Maybe they just eat huge meals. That would be the exception in the world, I would think.

In any case, I'd be very surprised if their average came down by their adopting the 5-6 meal a day habit.

I think the lower BMI has more to do with transportation and walking more as well as access to fruit etc than with how many meals they are eating.