Eat at the right intervals

There is now a view that people trying to count calories and lose weight should distribute their total calorie intake throughout the day. One school of thought is that if you are consuming 1200 calories daily, you should eat 450 in the morning, 450 at lunch and tea and only 300 at night. Others say it can be 200 cals for breakfast, 200 cals at lunch and 800 cals for dinner, making a total of 1200 calories in the day. Similarly, during the last few decades there has been a lot of debate about whether babies should be demand-fed, that is, given milk (breast or bottle) whenever they want or whether it is better to follow a schedule of a gap of 2-3 hours between each feed.

From the weight control point of view, a systematic feeding schedule is the ideal. When a baby has been fed at 6am, the mother’s milk production is at its highest. The baby is able to get a enough milk and will usually sleep again or not require another feed till 8 or 9 am. This is human nature and how the body works.

All human beings thrive with a good intake of food in the morning. It’s very important as one is fasting from 9 pm to at least 6 am. We need to break the fast and eat a healthy carbohydrate- and protein-balanced meal.

Usually after bed coffee at 6 am and breakfast at 8-9 am you will find that you may start feeling a little empty around 10.30-11.30 am. The ideal is to eat a fruit or have at least a cup of coffee, tea or buttermilk at this time.

Around 12.30 pm or 1.30pm is the ideal time for lunch. The ideal gap between breakfast and lunch is 4-5 hours. Lunch is a very important meal and should be the anchor meal of the day. It must again be a carbohydrate, protein balanced meal consisting of roti/rice with dal/sambar and cooked and raw vegetables. It is very important as we have to work after lunch till late evening and the gap between lunch and dinner is much longer. As this duration could be 6-7 hours we usually recommend two snacks during this time.

Tea time is 4-5 pm and a glass of milk, tea with coffee, biscuits or a sandwich is the ideal snack at this time. When you reach home at 6 or 7 pm a fruit and a glass of milk is ideal. This becomes a second snack.

Dinner ideally must be between 7.30pm and 9pm and must consist of only 20 per cent of the total calorie intake as we go to bed thereafter. However it must be a carbohydrate- and protein-balanced meal like roti, dal and salad. It is very harmful to have only a soup, salad or only a glass of milk for dinner. If you eat 50 per cent or 70 per cent of your calorie intake for dinner the body will store 30-50 per cent of the calories as fat when you sleep.