But--that's not my point for now. You see, not only are you thinking about all the weight you think you've gained, you are also reading about all new crazy diet schemes and strategies for quick weight loss. And I'll bet you want to lose it in a hurry, right?

Is one of those strategies skipping meals?

Do you think that skipping breakfast will help you lose weight faster than if you ate the meal? Forgoing lunch and just eating breakfast and dinner may help you get rid of that weight you gained so you can fit into the new pair of pants you got for the holidays? The ones you think don't fit because you were afraid to try them on? So you think that cutting back on calories by cutting out meals will take the weight off quickly, right?

The answer is no, and let me tell you why.

When you eliminate meals, your body doesn't know if you are in California or the Congo, South Boston or Siberia. See, your body doesn't understand that this is a fast of choice, not chance, so it will conserve every single calorie it gets. This is because your body doesn't know when the next meal is coming, or if it is ever going to get here. The idea is survival, to provide your brain and central nervous system with whatever nutrients it needs in order to keep you alive. For your body to stay alive, then, you metabolism (how fat you burn calories) slows down. As a result of this slowing down, your body will burn calories at a much slower rate, enabling your brain and central nervous system to keep functioning.

But you know, the other problem is that when you skip a meal, you unconsciously set yourself up to overeat later. Let's face it, 6-8 hours is a long time to go without eating (even longer if it's breakfast you skipped). What happens is that by the time you ?allow? yourself to eat, you subconsciously are thinking, ?I didn't eat lunch, so I saved all sorts of calories, and I can eat more.Instead of choosing a 4 ounce chicken breast with a small fries and green salad, you pick the fried chicken, large fries and milkshake. Why not? You haven't eaten all day, right?

Wrong.

Please don't cause your metabolism to get all out of whack. I realize this is hard to hear..but do what your mom always told you: eat your meals. And, make your friends happy by chewing with your mouth shut.