okay, we've all got them, right? our watch that acts as time piece, chronometer, timer, alarm clock, global positioning device
(ha haa...some of them really do!
)
this week i found a new use - diet tool! some research has shown that small meals spaced 3 hours may increase bmr, versus eating 3 big meals a day. my timex has a timer. i have it set for 2 hours. after i finish eating breakfast, i hit 'start' in a couple hours, it goes off, and i know i need to eat something w/in the next hour. even if i'm not really hungry, i eat something - an apple, a slice of crisp bread - something
(all meals and snacks are usually between 50-300 calories
). then i hit the timer again. by evening i'm not straving, and have energy, but have usually had fewer
(but more evenly spaced
) calories overall for the day compared to what i was doing before
(waiting until i was hungry, and then eating more than i should, and often eating more at the end of the day
). i also seem to have fewer afternoon cravings for sweet or salty stuff doing this. again, i just started, so time will tell if it is effective for me w/ training and weight loss, but i thought i would pass it along anyway.
and just to clarify - i'm not eating every 2 hours, but more like 2:30-3:00, since it usually takes me some time to get around to getting something to eat. the timer serves as a warning, versus getting overly hungry and then eating too much, which i am prone to do. i started out with 3 hours, but by the time the timer went off, i was super hungry and i ended up having a bunch of calories left over at the end of the day...setting it for 2 has helped me space things out evenly during the day.