Could eating FIVE times a day be the key to losing weight?

It’s the new diet that focuses on eating five times a day, with the aim of helping you lose up to five pounds (two kilos) in two weeks.

The 5:5:5 diet, designed by UK nutritionist Angela Dowden, is billed as the ‘easiest and healthiest’ way to a trimmer figure.

The plan’s beauty is that it’s easy to commit to in the long run without weight you’ve lost creeping back on, according to Woman’s Day.

The 5:5:5 diet, designed by UK nutritionist Angela Dowden, is billed as the easiest and healthiest way to a trimmer figure.

IS IT BEST TO EAT LITTLE AND OFTEN?

Some experts believe it’s best to eat little and often. Nutritionist Antony Haynes previously told Daily Mail that ‘grazing’ was the way the human body was designed to eat.

‘Large meals burden the digestive system, often causing bloating and lowered energy while the body struggles to digest them,’ he said.

‘By eating smaller meals you prevent this, and the body functions more efficiently throughout the day.

When we eat a big meal, the sugar level in our blood rises, but once that meal is digested that blood sugar level falls, taking your energy and mood with it. ‘

The diet focuses on eating at regularly timed intervals five times throughout the day.

It also suggests that the food you eat is made up of five 80g portions of fruit and vegetables each day, especially greens that are high in fibre and low in carbohydrates.

By following these rules, dieters could shed as much as five pounds (two kilos) in two weeks, the magazine reported.

According to Woman’s Day, a typical day on the plan could include a handful of blueberries and 1 sliced kiwifruit with fat free yoghurt for breakfast; poached salmon fillet with salad and tzatziki for lunch, and a lean lamb chop with vegetables and cous cous for dinner.

Typical snacks include banana or a handful of nuts and raisins.

Followers of the diet can come up with their own healthy meals once they’ve got the hang of things.

But as well as eating five times a day, followers are urged to avoid snacking too close to meal times, maintain modest portion sizes and cut out sugary drinks.

The 5:5:5 diet comes hot on the heels of the hugely successful 5:2 diet which had a very simple premise.

You eat normally for five days a week and then, for the other two days – called fast days – consume a quarter of your normal calorie intake (600 calories for men, and 500 for women).

Over the course of their first three months, dieters on the 5:2 plan could lose up to five or six kilos (up to 13 pounds), according to The 5:2 Fast Diet.

Other diet trends, however, have proven more restrictive – and controversial.

The Miltary Diet promises to help you lose ten pounds (4.5 kilos) in a week by consuming around 1000 calories on three days of the week

It is said to have been devised by leading US army dietitians to help to get soldiers in top shape quickly, and while it has been around for years, it has only recently garnered Instagram fame.

The idea is by eating five times a day, you’re less likely to be tempted to snack between meals

The Military Diet works by making you eat a restrictive diet for three days of the week, before following a regular diet for the other four.

A typical day on the three-day plan includes one egg, a slice of toast and half a banana for breakfast, followed by a cup of cottage cheese, one hard-boiled egg and five rice cakes for lunch, and then 200g leg ham, one cup of broccoli, 1/2 a cup of carrots, 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a cup of vanilla ice cream for dinner.

This totals around 1,000 calories.

However experts have warned that extreme diets encourage your body to hold onto fat stores when it’s in starvation mode.

Source: Dailymail