Myth: Eat a Hearty¹ Breakfast, First Thing in the Morning

谬误：吃顿丰盛的早餐是早晨的首要任务

Sorry, there’s nothing special about eating breakfast. It’s not “the most important meal of the day.” At least, not for everyone. For years, people (especially cereal marketing² companies) touted³ the benefits of breakfast because it supposedly kept you from overeating, jump-started your metabolism⁴, or .

抱歉，吃早餐并没有什么特别的。它并不是一天之中最重要的一餐，至少并非对每个人都适用。人们（尤其是销售谷类的公司）吹嘘早餐能帮助你避免暴饮暴食，唤醒你的新陈代谢或者（插入任何可以帮助减肥的理由）等等。

But here’s the wrinkle: a majority of breakfast studies are biased⁵. A study from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that most research on skipping breakfast and weight gain was conducted with the explicit⁶ intent to force that correlation⁷.

但问题在于同早餐有关的大多数研究均较为片面，《美国临床营养期刊》刊登的一项调查表明，多数有关不吃早餐会导致体重增加的研究有着促成这种相关性的明显意图。

What’s more, some of these breakfast studies are funded by the food industry, who have a vested interest in you eating their very breakfast-y foods.

更重要的是，有些早餐研究的赞助者是食品产业，你食用他们的早餐食品，他们可以从中获益。

Personally, I flip-flop between eating breakfast and skipping it. Alone, eating breakfast or skipping it matters less than what you eat, how much of it you eat, and what your other lifestyle choices are. Bottom-line, people eat breakfast for a variety of reasons, but eating or skipping breakfast itself isn’t going to help you suddenly drop a pant size. Eat breakfast because you want to and punch anyone who makes you feel bad for skipping it.

从个人角度而言，我是吃早餐和不吃早餐的中立党。和你吃下了什么、吃了多少、以及其他的生活方式选择相比，吃早餐或者不吃早餐没那么重要。总之，人们会出于各种各样的原因吃早餐，但吃或者不吃早餐本身不会帮你快速减肥。吃早餐是因为你想吃，把那些让你觉得不吃早餐有害的人打一顿吧。

Myth: You Need to Eat Small Meals Every 2-3 Hours

谬误：你需要每隔2-3小时吃一小顿

I used to work with people who had every one of their daily six meals perfectly⁸ portioned out in plastic food containers. Every few hours they’d make a beeline for the fridge and joyfully⁹ nosh for all of five minutes. “Keeps my metabolism stoked,” they used to say. But like their sandwiches, that underlying¹⁰ principle was a load of baloney.

我过去曾与那些将他们那一日六餐完好分装在塑料食品容器里的人共事。他们每隔几个小时就会走到冰箱那里，高兴地吃一会儿东西。他们总是说：“这样能维持我的新陈代谢。”但就像他们的三明治一样，这一基本原则也是在胡扯。

Say it with me: Eating many small meals does not “boost” your metabolism. In fact, for some people, the more they eat, the hungrier they feel, and they may end up eating more calories than they would with fewer, larger meals. On the opposite end, having more meals to look forward to throughout the day can benefit some people psychologically, especially when they find dieting to be difficult, and help them avoid binging after a long hungry day at the office. Plus, there are health reasons to both eat and avoid eating frequently, like managing blood sugar.

来跟我一起念：吃许多副餐并不会提升你的新陈代谢。事实上，对于某些人而言，他们吃得越多，反而越饿，最终摄入的热量反而比他们吃次数更少的主餐时多。另一方面，一整天都在吃东西会给某些人的心理带来安慰，当他们认为节食非常困难的时候尤为如此，这能帮助他们避开在办公室饿了一整天之后的大吃大喝。此外，吃东西和避开频繁地吃东西也有健康原因，比如控制血糖。

As this study in The British Journal of Nutrition notes, your body will process all of those calories just the same whether they came in one or three big packages, or seven smaller ones. In essence, frequent meals are simply a key strategy in helping¹¹ you manage your appetite and mindful consumption, so if more meals works for you, then you do you.

一项发表在《英国营养学杂志》上的研究指出，不论你是吃一到三大份，还是7小份食物，你的身体处理所有卡路里的方式都一样。本质上，频繁地吃东西只是帮助你控制胃口和精细食用的关键策略而已，如果隔一会儿就吃点东西对你有用，那么你就这样做吧。

Myth: You Need to Eat Immediately After a Workout

谬误：在锻炼完之后你需要马上吃东西

There’s a popular notion among the lifting crowd that if you don’t have a protein shake and a good source of carbohydrates¹² to replenish¹³ your energy reserves within 45 minutes to an hour of your workout, all of your hard work in the gym goes poof, just like that. Since nobody wants to risk having their gains wasted, this fear of missing the all-important “post-workout anabolic window” was perpetuated¹⁴ by a “just in case” mentality¹⁵.

在举重爱好者之间流传着一个说法，那就是如果你在锻炼完四十五分钟至一个小时内不马上补充蛋白质或者碳水化合物补充能量，那么你在健身房的所有努力就都白费了。鉴于没有人想要冒着让自己的努力白费的风险，所以这种担心错过非常重要的“锻炼后代谢窗口期”的说法就以一种“以防万一”的心态流传下来了。

Luckily, this review of the research in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition clears things up a little: For most of us, when we eat after our workout doesn’t matter so much, as long as we eventually eat a substantial meal (that ideally contains both carbs and protein) at some point after. If you can’t sit down and eat a proper meal until hours after your workout, your muscles aren’t going to wither¹⁶ up and die like Internet forums¹⁷ will have you believe (whew!).

幸运的是，《国际运动营养学会期刊》上的研究澄清了这一点：对于我们大部分人而言，运动完过后多久吃东西根本不重要，只要我们最后吃了丰盛的一餐即可（这一餐最好包含碳水化合物和蛋白质）。如果你在锻炼过后几小时内都没办法吃东西，那么你的肌肉也不会像网上流传的那样流失。

Not eating immediately after your workout might affect you only if you have another intense workout to do on the same day. Otherwise, you’ll be fine. If you’ve already eaten before your workout, you can lag for up to 6 hours before not eating could start to hurt your recovery. While there’s no urgency to eat immediately, that Chipotle burrito is certainly a nice incentive¹⁸ to get your workout done, so if it helps get you to the finish line, by all means, enjoy. However, if you’re trying to maximize your benefits in the gym, it’s more important that you focus on getting enough protein and calories for the whole day and get enough rest.

在锻炼完后没有马上吃东西，只有在你那天还有强烈运动的时候才有可能影响到你。否则，你的肌肉就是安全的。如果你在锻炼之前已经吃过了，那么你在锻炼完六小时内没有吃东西都不会有损身体恢复。虽然锻炼完不一定要马上吃东西，但如果你锻炼的动力就是能吃个辣椒卷饼，那么你就去享受吧。在健身房挥汗如雨的同时，你也要摄取足够的蛋白质和卡路里，并得到足够的休息。

Myth: You Need to Stop Eating a Few Hours Before Bedtime

谬误：在睡前几小时内不要吃东西

You’ve probably heard the ill-advised saying to never eat after 6/7/8 at night, because if you do all of your calories will automatically be stored as fat calories and you’ll gain weight. The thing is, most diet-related rules of thumb, including those from crash and fad¹⁹ diets, are really just rituals to regulate your eating habits. That’s because for a lot of people nighttime eating often involves raids on ice cream, pizza, cookies, and all of the other high-calorie foods that actually can lead to weight gain. Telling you that you “can’t” eat after some arbitrarily established time simply helps you control your total calories, and avoids potentially self-destructive habits.

你可能已经听过这句欠考虑的话：晚上6/7/8点过后不要吃东西，否则你摄入的卡路里就会自动变成脂肪储存起来，你的体重就会增加。真正的情况是，大部分与饮食有关的经验法则都是一些调节饮食习惯的惯常做法，因为许多人晚上吃的东西通常包括冰淇淋、披萨、饼干和其他会导致体重增加的高热量食物。告诉自己，在某个特定时间过后不能吃东西可以帮助你控制总体热量摄入，避开潜在的自毁习惯。

That said, it’s worth noting that this advice can certainly apply to people who have digestive issues like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). If that’s you, you should definitely avoid eating a couple hours before bedtime, because doing so can aggravate²⁰ indigestion and heartburn.

也就是说，那些有胃食道逆流性疾病等消化问题的人可以采纳这一意见，如果你有消化问题，那么睡前几小时内最好不要吃东西，否则消耗不良和烧心的感觉会加重。

Ultimately, all of these strategies can work as part of a weight loss plan, but for reasons that have nothing to do with what those diet guru magazines say. In most cases, they simply ritualize your eating so you manage your hunger and food cravings. However, that doesn’t make them somehow magical and guarantee they work for everyone. Remember, if you want your jeans to fit looser, it comes down to total calories and the habits you personally develop around them. When you eat those calories has a smaller effect than you think.

最后，所有这些策略都可以作为减肥计划的一部分，但其原因与饮食权威杂志的说法毫无关系。在大部分情况下，它们可以让你的饮食成为习惯，帮你控制饥饿和对食物的渴望。然而，它们并没有特别的魔力，能保证对每个人都起作用。记住，如果你想让牛仔裤更松，这一切都与你摄入的总热量和个人饮食习惯有关。你什么时候吃东西，对你的影响比想象中小。