How many meals a week must be 'good' to get results?

I will often hear someone say "I put on a pound last week, it must have been that meal I went out for on Thursday night". It is unlikely that any one meal can be responsible for putting on a significant amount of weight. It is more likely that the one ‘bad’ meal was against a back drop of poor meals throughout the week.

How many meals a week must be good?

The average person will eat either 3 or 4 times per day, some people more or less but 3-4 on average. This means over the course of a week you will consume 21 – 28 meals. I advise people on my courses that the aim is to hit 80 – 90% of meals spot on and then not worry about the others. This gives the freedom to not feel like they are restricting themselves and at the same time be able to get results. This is enough to work with almost every one if you are following the principles of metabolic typing.

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What about that meal out?

To return to that bad meal out and look at it in view of the whole week then 1 wrong meal out of 21 would mean you have got 96% of your meal right that week. This is more than enough to get results.

The real problem is that the ‘good meals’ people eat during the week are in fact not as good for their body as they believe. This may occur even if the food you are eating is touted as ‘healthy’. There is no such thing as healthy food in its own right, only a healthy food in relation to your body.

So lets put this back into the example above. Say you are eating a bowl of cereal for your breakfast, e.g. organic wheetabix, but your body does not do well on wheat. Then already you are up from 1 bad meal on the Thursday night to 8 when breakfast is included, so now 62% of your meals are right for you.

Now suppose you have a sandwich for lunch, bread is made from wheat and all of a sudden you now are having 15 meals that are not completely right for your body (1 bad meal on Thursday, 7 breakfast meal and 7 lunches) you are now consuming just 30% of your meals spot on for your bodies’ needs. Therefore it is now not too unlikely to hear you have put on some weight.

What is a good meal?

A good meal is a meal that is made up of the exact foods your body needs. This can vary greatly between two people depending on your metabolic type. The amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat need also be in the right amounts for your body. This ideal fuel mix is another key element of a meal. Finally the meal must avoid certain foods that negatively influence your body and also contain maximal amounts of nutrients. At this point you can say you have an optimal meal. From this you can then ensure you get up to that 80 -90% mark each week and relax for the other 10 – 20%. Then you will see the results occur.

To discover your metabolic type and be able to confidently say you have hit your 80 – 90% mark sign up to my course.