Skipping meals is making you fat

Gaining weight from skipping meals

Skipping meals sets off a series of metabolic miscues that can result in abdominal weight gain, a new study in animals suggests.

In the study, mice that were given their food as a single meal and were starved for the rest of the day developed insulin resistance in their liver - a tell-tale sign of pre-diabetes. When the liver doesn't respond to insulin signals telling it to stop producing glucose, the extra sugar in the blood is stored as fat.

The study

These mice initially were put on a restricted diet and lost weight. The restricted-diet mice regained weight as more calories were added back into their diets but fat around their middles - the equivalent to human belly fat - weighed more in the restricted-diet mice than in the mice which were free to nibble all day long. An excess of that kind of fat is associated with insulin resistance and risk for type-2 diabetes and heart disease.

Eating regular small meals is better than starving

"This does support the notion that small meals through the day can be helpful for weight loss, though that may not be practical for many people," said Martha Belury, professor of Human Nutrition at The Ohio State University and senior author of the study. "But you definitely don't want to skip meals to 'save' calories, because it sets your body up for larger fluctuations in insulin and glucose and could be setting you up for more fat gain instead of fat loss."

For more weight loss tips, click here

1. Prev:5 Easy ways to lose weight
2. Next:5 Ways to LOSE WEIGHT that are NOT diet-related