Eating Frequent Small Meals Throughout The Day Doesn’t Help You Lose Weight
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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Comment by Tommy
17 February 2010
The idea behind eating several small deals a day isn’t to make you lose weight. This is a common misconception, more-so than the actual theory of it working. Eating several small meals a day is a practice of self-control, at which you are meant to ultimately accomplish eating LESS throughout the day than you normally would eating three large meals.
It makes a lot of sense, especially if you have a bad habit of stuffing yourself full at every meal. Instead of making a mad sprint to that large meal, taxing yourself through the day, you instead take healthy snacks with you and munch on them. That way when you arrive at your delicious meal, you can portion it in a way that fits your desire to eat. It doesn’t subtract from any enjoyment, that is unless you were unfortunate enough to look at it from your angle and see it as an unwanted restraint. But that IS what getting fit is about, right? Resonable amounts of exercise along with a resonable amount of restraint towards how much food is consumed all at once.
If you allow your body to catch up and digest the food into the energy you need right now, instead of trying to store it up as fat and never being used, you’ll see definite advantages in NOT fasting between meals.
Comment by Tommy
17 February 2010
Hmm… *REASONABLE. My apologies.
Comment by Neil
9 April 2010
I eat 4-5 small meals per day midweek. Not because I’m trying to loose weight because I’m not over weight, but because I don’t like the extremes of feeling very hungry and then feeling bloated. I simply divide my normal lunch into 3 portions, and being self employed this doesn’t interfere with my work. Some people step outside for a 5 minute cigarette break. I on the other hand step outside for a 5 minute food break. It splits the day up nicely and I have a lot more energy. When I’m hungry I have low energy. When I’m stuffed I feel lethargic. Eating small meals more often is definitely the way forward. It might not help you loose weight, but it does provide a more steady supply of energy into the body.