There is a theory that is so prevalent these days that most people assume it is a fact. That is that eating 6-8 small meals a day will speed up your metabolism and help you burn much more fat than if you were to eat 3
bigger meals a day.
It sounds like the information is good – your metabolism is always in action and therefore it must be doing more for your fat loss efforts than if it was only activated when you ate a big meal.
Studies now prove that this belief is wrong.
Just this year a test was conducted in Australia where 179 obese people all put on a healthy diet with the purpose of losing weight. The same amount of food was consumed per day, just in different frequencies and
quantities per sitting. Those who followed the frequent small meal diet experienced no weight loss benefits compared to others who ate less frequently.
Measurements showed that there weren’t any differences in weight, waist measurement, body fat or blood sugar levels when comparing one group to the other.
Michelle Palmer, a dietitian from the University of Newcastle observed the results and commented, “There seems to be little benefit to changing how often or how regularly you eat if you’re trying to lose weight.”
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23759295-12377,00.html
It’s time to debunk the myth that eating smaller amounts more frequently aids fat loss. The truth is it doesn’t. In fact in my experience and from the little I’ve observed in other people’s experience, changing the way you eat is more likely to have negative effects as far as weight loss is concerned.
Humans, like animals are designed to thrive on eating when we are hungry and continuing to eat until we reach satisfaction. Our metabolism has also been designed to work best in this condition.
Humans are also hard-wired to enjoy eating (as we need it in order to survive). When do we most enjoy eating? Usually it’s when we are hungry and sit down in front of a nice big meal of one of our favorite foods, am I right? This is how humans have eaten for centuries without any problems with obesity.
Eating small meals throughout the day is not only ineffective for reducing one’s body fat percentage, but it is unsustainable. Continuing to snack on small meals throughout the day is impractical most of the time. And don’t forget that it is also unsociable. Meal times are when humans have always enjoyed conversing and getting to know each other more - advising people to forgo this in order to lose more weight can be more harmful than it’s worth.
So rest assured readers - it’s not how often we eat during the day that’s going to help us keep the fat away, but rather it’s what we eat and how much of it that we need to be careful about.
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