Does Eating Faster Help You Build More Muscle or Fat?

Especially if you're a natural bodybuilder, exercise enthusiast, or just an average joe / jane looking to build muscle, gain quality weight, or burn body fat, you're always looking for any tips, tricks, or techniques that could help you towards reaching your physique-enhancing goals. Sadly, many studies that weight trainers place their full faith in can be completely misleading or misinterpreted.

In a recent issue of Flex magazine, they comment on two particular studies that in my opinion fit this description. Regarding the first study that's found in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders the study claims "the rate at which you eat your meals may influence the amount of body fat you hold. Researchers from the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo assessed the eating rate and the amount of food eaten by almost 1700 female subjects along with their body mass index....They reported that the faster the subjects tended to eat their meals, the higher their body mass index, and therefore, their body fatness".

The second study cited in the same magazine that was included in Prevention magazine pretty much comes to the same conclusion, that the faster you eat the more body fat you gain, in addition to having higher blood glucose (sugar) and insulin levels.

Here's my problem with studies like these: anyone that would be skimming this could potentially be fooled into thinking that if they want keep body fat levels low while eating a higher calorie diet needed to build muscle and gain quality weight that you should eat s-l-o-w-l-y, and alls well. However, this study fails to look at the overall picture.

If I were a betting man I would say that it wasn't necessarily the eating quickly of food that made these subjects gain more body fat that normal. What you have to consider is the faster you eat food the more likely you are eat more of it. Period. So of course, if you are eating more food / bigger portions that means you are going to be eating more overall calories. And if you're eating way more calories than what you are supposed to, guess what's going to happen? You're going to put on body fat. That is going to happen whether you eat fast or slow. I don't know about you, but I know a ton of people that are slow as molasses when it comes to eating, and they have guts that protrude several feet in front and to the sides, if you get my drift.

Bottom line, like I say in many of my articles, it will always come down to overall calories when it building muscle mass or gaining weight is concerned.