5 Small Meals A Day

The following are direct quotes from the book.

Krista Vernoff; Az Ferguson. The Game On! Diet: Kick Your Friend's Butt While Shrinking Your Own. HarperCollins.

The Rule: Eat five small meals a day. Each meal should include a combination of lean protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates like whole grains and fruit, and/or vegetables. Meals must be no fewer than two and no more than four hours apart. Meals must contain none of the F.L.A.B.B. foods you will find listed in this chapter. Each fully sanctioned meal is worth 6 points for a total of 30 possible meal points a day.

The Exception: Each day, in addition to your five meals, you may consume up to 100 calories of whatever you want (including the F.L.A.B.B. foods on the list, but not including alcohol, soda, or diet soda). Note: Between meals, you may snack on cucumbers and celery You must include veggies in at least two of your meals..

Know this: There is only one way to lose weight. You must burn more energy than you consume. That’s it! End of story. YOU MUST BURN MORE ENERGY THAN YOU CONSUME! Please note that this is completely different from “eating less and exercising more,” because you can eat an amount of food that is less than what you were eating previously and still be consuming more energy, depending on your food choices. You can also exercise for longer than you have before and still be burning less energy than you have in the past, depending on your choice of exercise.

So to step up your game, go to www.thegameondiet.com and enter your height, weight, and age. The Web site will do a quick and free calculation for you and tell you how many calories you should be eating each day. Once you have this figure, you will be truly armed with all the information you need to lose weight and keep it off! You can then read the calorie content on the foods you’re choosing (or you can enter the foods you’re choosing into our Web site and we’ll let you know the calorie content). This will help you when the game is over, and for the rest of your life, to truly understand when you gain weight WHY you gained weight (and how to lose it).

Five meals a day, spaced out by anywhere from two to four hours. (Go more than four hours and you lose points!) Each meal will consist of one lean protein, one healthy carb (like whole grains and fruits), one healthy fat, and as many green veggies as you want. But you must have at least two portions of veggies a day. The key to losing and not gaining weight when you’re adding two extra meals a day is portion control. We have a HUGE (pun intended) problem with portion control in this country. We have supersized ourselves into a nationwide diabetic coma. Thank God Game On! is here to wake us all up! Determining Your Portion Size

Make a fist. Look at it. That’s about how much carbs you should eat at each meal. Now lay your hand flat and look at your palm (without your fingers and thumb). That’s about how much protein you’re gonna eat at each meal. Now look at the size of your thumb. That’s about how much healthy fat you’ll add to each meal. (If you’re eating oils, you’ll eat only the amount of your thumb from the knuckle up! And keep in mind that butter and margarine are not healthy fats. See the food lists for your choices!) If you are accustomed to eating the way most Americans have become accustomed to eating, these portions are going to feel very small to you in the beginning. But keep in mind—you get them five times a day.

And—and this is a big and—you can eat as many green vegetables with each meal as you want! Eat a whole head of lettuce. Steam up four bags of spinach. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten tired of chewing and have still had veggies in my bowl. You will not go hungry, I promise.