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Initially, the fractional nutrition system was invented by doctors in order to facilitate the treatment of gastritis, stomach and other diseases of the digestive tract, as well as in preventive measures. Today, this nutritional system is also used in the fight against obesity. The essence of the fractional nutrition regime is to eat food in small portions, but often, every 3-4 hours throughout the day.
If you follow the traditional diet: breakfast, lunch, dinner, then in the intervals between meals in the body, special hormones are produced, which stimulate appetite. With a strong feeling of hunger, a person is not able to clearly feel the degree of saturation with food, therefore, he eats much more than the norm. If the fractional regimen is observed, the feeling of hunger does not arise and the person consumes exactly as much food as the body wants. Also, with long breaks between meals, fat reserves are stored, and fractional nutrition helps the digestive system to cope with the newly received food, as well as with previously stored reserves.
Options for observing fractional meals
There are two ways to adhere to a fractional diet, they depend on a person’s employment during the working day and the needs of the body.
I. First option fractional nutrition system requires eating immediately when you feel hungry. At the same time, it is recommended to have a snack, cookies or bread, but only in sufficient quantity to satisfy hunger. The variety of food can be varied according to personal preference. Thus, food is taken every 0,5 – 1 hour or even more often. In this case, you need to constantly listen to your stomach in order to prevent hunger and overeating.
ІІ. The second option fractional meals are suitable for those who are very busy or work in a team where it is inconvenient to constantly eat food. In this case, the daily volume of food is divided into 5-6 meals: 3 – full meals and 2-3 snacks. You can follow the usual menu, and when losing weight, it is advisable to exclude (or significantly limit their number) from the diet of flour products and sweets.
If you follow any method of fractional nutrition, you must drink at least two liters per day.
The benefits of fractional nutrition
- Subject to the system of fractional nutrition, you can include all familiar foods in the diet, without significant restrictions in the range. The main thing is that it is healthy food.
- There is no constant feeling of hunger, unlike many other diets.
- The number of calories decreases gradually, so the body quickly adapts to the new nutritional system.
- The results of weight loss with fractional nutrition are persistent.
- With fractional nutrition, fats are not deposited in problem areas: the waist and hips in women; in the abdomen in men.
- It is not necessary to be completely healthy to follow this diet, because it is recommended for many chronic diseases. Doctors often recommend fractional meals for people suffering from diseases such as gastritis, colitis and ulcers.
- Frequent consumption of food in small doses lowers blood sugar, therefore, a fractional nutrition diet has a beneficial effect on the body of a person suffering from diabetes (but at the same time, this nutrition system must be observed only under the supervision of a doctor).
- Small portions of food are easier to digest and assimilate by the body, this normalizes the digestive system.
- Fractional nutrition is a very flexible system, so it can be adjusted to the individual organism and daily routine.
- Without overloading the body with abundant portions of food at a time, the tone will increase, the feeling of drowsiness will disappear, and the level of efficiency will increase. Also, fractional meals will exclude heavy dinners, so it will become easier to fall asleep and the body will be able to fully rest during sleep.
- Metabolism with split meals is accelerated, which contributes to the loss of excess weight. The more often a person eats, the faster and more efficiently the metabolism takes place.
Fractional Nutrition Recommendations
- 1 The most optimal diet is five meals a day with an interval of no more than 4 hours.
- 2 It is recommended that a serving of food is one glass.
- 3 It is necessary to adhere to the nutritional system, even if there is no appetite.
- 4 Breakfast should be the most satisfying and contain carbohydrates. You can, for example, have breakfast with various cereals.
- 5 It is recommended to eat hot for lunch. Great if it’s soups or side dishes.
- 6 Dinner should also be hot; meat dishes or stewed vegetables are best.
- 7 Snacks between meals can include vegetables, fruits, whole grain breads, low fat cereals, sugar-free cereals and muesli, various cereals, and natural yogurt. It is not recommended to consume coffee, sweets, chocolate, nuts, fast foods during snacks, as they contain too many calories, fat and sugar.
- 8 The daily diet should consist of vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients necessary for the body in a certain amount.
- 9 To speed up the process of losing weight, you need to choose foods with a minimum calorie content for a fractional diet.
- 10 It is recommended to start adhering to the fractional nutrition system from the weekend.
- 11 It is advisable to prematurely draw up the menu for the day, because in this case you can calculate the exact number of meals, the duration of the intervals between them and the calorie content of the food. This makes it easier to adapt to a new diet without taking up time on a working day.
- 12 If you use everything unsystematically at some intervals, then this can no longer be called fractional nutrition, since this system implies a diet composed of energetically valuable food, which should be consumed in strict accordance with the daily requirement of the body.
- 13 If a person does not feel hunger with three meals a day, then a fractional diet will be superfluous for him.
- 14 Also, fractional meals are not suitable for those who want to get rid of extra pounds very quickly, since this system is designed for a very long period, but for a stable result.
- 15 To promote weight loss and keep the body in good shape with fractional meals, you need to combine diet with exercise.
- 16 It is recommended to eat meat together with raw vegetables, preferably green. But the amount of vegetables should outweigh the amount of meat three times. The beneficial properties of green vegetables are that they are processed for a long time and at the same time contribute to the elimination of fluid from the body.
- 17 It is not recommended to snack on vegetables or fruits in their raw form, since they will not provide the necessary satiety, and fruit acids, on the contrary, will cause an even greater appetite. Fructose also contributes to the formation of body fat more than other types of sugar.
- 18 While observing fractional nutrition for weight loss, it is worth constantly checking the foods that are included in the menu with the calorie table. Since some foods can be eaten more due to the small amount of calories, and high-calorie foods can be eaten rarely and in very small portions.
- 19 In the fight against excess weight, it is not necessary to completely abandon sweets, it is allowed to sit a little marshmallow or marmalade in one of the daily meals, but at the same time have a sense of proportion.
What is dangerous and harmful to fractional nutrition
- The fractional eating system requires responsibility, tolerance and some kind of pedantry, since it is necessary to constantly plan the diet, count calories, and also prepare portions of food for the whole day in advance.
- Very often, fans of fractional nutrition snack on high-calorie, junk food, which leads to very negative consequences.
- Since food is often consumed during the day, acids are constantly released for its processing, which negatively affects the teeth, increasing the likelihood of tooth decay.
- Often you have to force yourself to eat, because your appetite is dulled and there is no feeling of hunger.