Why do we eat food? It’s not just for pleasure. Food provides our bodies with nutrition and energy to function properly. Think of your body like a hybrid car with three different fuel tanks. The first fuel tank is the food you’ve just eaten, which your body uses immediately. The second tank is your stored fat, which acts as backup energy. The third tank, used only in extreme starvation, is your muscle tissue.
What I’m about to show you isn’t about starving yourself or eating boring food. It’s about learning how to naturally command your body to lose weight by working with these fuel systems rather than against them.
What’s The Problem With 3 Meals A Day
We’ve been taught that eating three meals a day is normal and that breakfast is the most important meal. But here’s what actually happens when you follow this pattern.
Every time you eat, your body receives calories. With three meals a day plus snacks, you’re constantly giving your body new fuel. Your body uses what it needs for immediate energy and stores the leftover calories as fat. This is perfectly natural, but there’s a problem.
Your body always uses fuel in a specific order. It will always use the food you’ve just eaten first, before touching your stored fat. It’s like having a backup generator that never gets used because the main power supply never switches off.
- When you wake up, you eat breakfast and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
- Some time before lunch, eat a snack and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
- Then it is lunch time, you eat a meal and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
- Some, between lunch and dinner, eat snacks and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
- At dinner time, you eat a meal and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
- After dinner, eat a snack and no need to touch the stored fat. Body takes calories it needs and leftover calories are stored as new fat, leading to weight gain.
This constant supply of food means your body never gets the opportunity to burn the fat it has stored. Meanwhile, any extra calories from each meal get added to your fat stores, leading to gradual weight gain.
What’s The Key To Losing Weight Naturally
You need to give your body regular opportunities to use its stored fat for energy. You can achieve this by shifting from three meals a day to two meals a day and reducing snacking.
Instead of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you’ll eat just lunch and dinner. This means skipping breakfast but having a nutritious lunch at 1PM and finishing dinner by 9PM.
Here’s how this works. The time between 1PM and 9PM becomes your eight-hour eating window. After dinner, you won’t eat anything until lunch the next day. This creates a sixteen-hour period where your body has no choice but to use its stored fat for energy. This natural process leads to weight loss.
The Rules Are Simple:
- Between waking up and lunch: Only water when thirsty – no food, snacks, or other drinks
- Choose real fruit juices or water for drinks between lunch and dinner
- Think of lunch as gently awakening your stomach after its rest so eat something simple and nutritious
- Dinner is your main nutritious meal of the day
- Any snacks must be strictly between lunch and dinner only
- Never snack before lunch or after dinner – this interrupts your body’s fat-burning window
- Avoid soda/cool/fizzy drinks and alcohol
Boosting Your Results
When you wake up and skip breakfast, your body is already in fat-burning mode. You can enhance this by doing light physical activity. Just ten to thirty minutes of movement, such as 10-minute intense burpees, encourages your body to use even more stored fat for energy.
Eating Schedule Example
Wake Up The Next Day
- Skip breakfast
- Optional 10-minute intense burpees (Monday-Wednesday-Friday)
- Drink water when thirsty
- No snacking
- Go about your day
Lunch Time (1PM: Awakening The Stomach)
- Watermelon/cantaloupe (Spanspek) slices
OR
- Beef liver sandwich: use non-refined breads; not usual grocery white and brown breads
Snack
- Biltong, walnuts, dates, dried fruits, pumpkin seeds, Bulgarian/Greek yoghurt, or Kefir milk. You could make chips with Cabbage or Kale. You can experiment how to mix and see what works and doesn’t work.
Dinner – Finish By 9PM (Replenish The Body With Nutrition)
- Sorghum (Mabele) Kernels (can replace rice and pasta) OR Sorghum (Mabele) Porridge
- Butternut
- Lamb stew
Go to sleep.
Where To Get Some Of These Foods In Namibia
- Sorghum (Mabele) Kernels: Maerua Lifestyle Spar
- Sorghum (Mabele) Porridge Flour: Maerua Lifestyle Spar, Zero Waste Store Namibia
- Non-Refined Breads: Spar Supermarkets
- Nuts and Seeds: Zero Waste Store Namibia, Food Lover’s Market, Spar Supermarkets, Local Suppliers
- Kefir: Maerua Lifestyle Spar, Local Suppliers