My wife and I are usually light eaters and try to stay within a healthy weight range. We love to go out to restaurants from time to time and are amazed at the serving sizes they give. Typically, we wind up taking some of our meals home and are able to make 2 or 3 more meals from the leftovers! However, I've made a habit of watching other people eat (most of them obese) and they tend to finish everything on their plate in one sitting! I think many feel an obligation to finish everything before they go home. After all, didn't our mothers insist that there are starving people in China and we need to eat everything served to us?

Typical meals, either at home or out are in excess of 1,000 calories. That means that if you ONLY eat 3 x a day, you are consuming over 3,000 calories. If the average Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR (the amount of calories one burns in a typical 24 hour period) ranges from 2,000 - 2,500 calories for men and women, we're eating a large excess of calories each and every day.

Each pound of bodyweight = around 3,500 calories. So an extra 500-1000 calories/day x 7 days a week can equate to an additional pound (or more) of excess body weight per week. It all adds up over time.

So, it would make sense to eat no more than what our bodies require to maintain a normal healthy weight. Note: calorie requirements obviously vary from person to person. A younger person needs more calories than an older person generally and athletes need more calories still. But the fact is that as we age, our bodies require less calories to maintain a healthy body weight, yet we seem to be consuming even MORE calories as we age!

The idea is to eat less, but more importantly, studies are proving that we should eat even less than what is recommended according to our BMRs.