A great response to this is currently featured on one of my favorite sites, fellow TPI star and nutritional super-nerd John Berardi’s blog site http://www.precisionnutrition.com

Anyway, the basics of this article is one guy has spent years working with a personal trainer and hasn’t lost weight because he hasn’t done anything to change his diet. Yes diet and exercise will help weight loss more than diet alone, but I’m going to give you a personal account of one of the most important factors to dieting – When you eat.

Most people know that they should eat healthy stuff like quality organic meats and vegetables, but I see lots of diet strategies fail because of the time of consumption. I wrote an article last fall for TPI about the lifestyle of sumo wrestlers that explains my point. Basically, they skip breakfast and eat a huge meal for lunch and dinner. They have learned over thousands of hours and this is the best way to gain weight.

So when should you eat. Eat a big breakfast then eat every 2-3 hours until you are about 80% full and drink plenty of water in between meals and you should have no problems burning those unwanted pounds.

One last point. As I mentioned I traveled last week and got a little off with my normal rhythms. Combine that with a late night Wednesday night and believe it or not, yesterday I took a nap. It was one of the few naps I take each year and it was great. But then I had trouble getting to sleep at my normal 10-11pm bed time. Here is how the cascade continued, I slept in this morning slightly and woke up in disarray. I was not hungry at all, but I know better. So what did I do? I forced myself to eat a full breakfast and drink plenty of water and I know that by tomorrow I will be back on schedule.

Remember, it’s not just WHAT you eat, it’s WHEN you eat.