Fashionable Nutrition Myths: Eating less, more often, is better

Myth: Eating less, more often is better

The idea that eating five or six smaller meals throughout the day is better for weight loss than eating three 'square' meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner has been around for a while. People believe that the smaller meals 'speed up your metabolism' and you lose more weight.

There are a couple of problems with this idea:

The first one is the problem of 'speeding up' your metabolism. Science shows that the acceleration in your metabolism from a meal is in the 1 or 2% range... so it is not going to have a huge impact on weight loss.

Next is the idea that a higher metabolic rate is healthy. Science shows that a higher metabolic rate is usually associated with disease or sickness. There is also some evidence that you lose less fat with a higher metabolic rate than with a lower one.

Increased stress levels

Lastly, your body works in much larger chunks of time than you think.

Eating more frequently is far more stressful than eating fewer meals per day because you have to plan and think constantly about food. This may be possible for some people, but a lot of people struggle to focus on LIFE because food keeps causing an interruption.

Lastly, your body works in much larger chunks of time than you think. The important factor for weight loss seems to be the foods you consume over a period of WEEKS, not hours.

So what I'm saying is that eating smaller, more frequent meals CAN work for SOME people, but just like everything else, your mileage may vary. Try it. If it works, do it. Just don't preach it as gospel truth.

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