Smart People Eat Two Meals a Day. Here’s Why.

Smart People Eat Two Meals a Day. Here’s Why.

Hello, I’m Fumin, a frugal health nut from Sapporo. What does that mean? I’m driven by a powerful desire to live healthily without spending a lot of money.

I’ve been a fan of Japanese “frugality YouTubers,” and I’ve noticed a common habit among them: many only eat two meals a day. Some, like Kurama from “Kenja no Ryugi,” even stick to one meal a day.

Initially, I thought they were just extreme with their food budgets. But I soon realized that a lot of people who eat less don’t do it just to save money. They do it because they have knowledge. The information in this article is based on insights from two Japanese books: Fasting Is the Best Medicine and The World’s Simplest Meal Plan.

By the end of this article, you might start questioning the long-held belief of eating three meals a day and take a step toward a healthier, more active life.

Let’s explore the benefits of eating two meals a day.

The Myth of Three Meals a Day for Health

You often hear that you should eat breakfast to have energy for the day. But that’s not necessarily true. For adults, a two-meal-a-day schedule is often better. The book Fasting Is the Best Medicine recommends a “16-hour fast,” where you don’t eat anything for 16 consecutive hours.

Why? Because your body needs a lot of time to digest food. A simple dish like rice porridge can take over an hour to digest in the stomach, while fatty foods like meat and fish can take up to four hours. This doesn’t even include the time it takes for your intestines to finish the job.

When you eat three meals a day, with a digestion time of five to six hours per meal, your stomach and intestines are working nonstop. Doing this for decades can weaken your internal organs, significantly increasing your risk of obesity and serious conditions like diabetes.

The solution is simple: give your internal organs a break. Just like your muscles or brain, they need time to rest and recover. That’s where the 16-hour fast comes in.

The great thing is that you can include your sleep time in the 16 hours. If you sleep for eight hours, that leaves you with eight more hours to fast. You can do this by not eating four hours before bed and four hours after you wake up. It sounds challenging, but it’s very manageable once you start.

So, why 16 hours specifically? This isn’t a random number. There’s a powerful reason behind it.