One of the most common diet tips you can read online or in magazines about health and fitness involves the subject of the number of meals that you need to eat each day.
The usual recommendation is to take your calories and eat them in 5 - 6 meals each day instead of in just 3 big ones.
The main claim is that eating more meals will give you a higher metabolism which will lead to more rapid calorie burning, resulting in faster weight loss.
As your metabolism is one of the key factors which determine how fast you lose weight (or gain it), a lot of people have been changing their eating habits in order to reap this benefit.
But before you too rush to eat small meals spread out throughout the day, let's talk about whether this claim has any scientific studies to back it, or better still, whether there are scientific studies which refute it: studies that show that eating 6 meals a day (or more meals in general) does not boost your metabolism at all.
I did a little research, using mostly government data regarding research done all over the world in the topic of meal frequency and its effect on metabolism.
I wanted to see the actual data.
I found a number of studies which examined this issue in a variety of ways.
Not all of them used 6 meals specifically, but they all compared the metabolism of people who ate their calories in few meals and those who ate them in a lot more.
The studies examined the following meal patterns: 1 meal vs.
5 meals, 3 meals vs.
6, and 2 meals vs 7 meals and snacks.
All of the studies' results showed one thing which was clear: there was no difference (or marginal one at best) in the energy expenditure of people who ate fewer meals than those who ate more.
In laymen terms: eating more meals a day did not boost metabolism.
This is simply a myth that these studies have refuted.
You don't need to force yourself to spread your calories through many meals and snacks if you want a higher metabolism.
It is simply not helpful.
Eating 6 meals a day may be useful in other ways: to keep you feeling full and energetic, or to avoid the heavy feeling of eating too much in one sitting.
This is a personal preference.
There is no effect on your metabolism and you will not lose weight faster as a result.
The usual recommendation is to take your calories and eat them in 5 - 6 meals each day instead of in just 3 big ones.
The main claim is that eating more meals will give you a higher metabolism which will lead to more rapid calorie burning, resulting in faster weight loss.
As your metabolism is one of the key factors which determine how fast you lose weight (or gain it), a lot of people have been changing their eating habits in order to reap this benefit.
But before you too rush to eat small meals spread out throughout the day, let's talk about whether this claim has any scientific studies to back it, or better still, whether there are scientific studies which refute it: studies that show that eating 6 meals a day (or more meals in general) does not boost your metabolism at all.
I did a little research, using mostly government data regarding research done all over the world in the topic of meal frequency and its effect on metabolism.
I wanted to see the actual data.
I found a number of studies which examined this issue in a variety of ways.
Not all of them used 6 meals specifically, but they all compared the metabolism of people who ate their calories in few meals and those who ate them in a lot more.
The studies examined the following meal patterns: 1 meal vs.
5 meals, 3 meals vs.
6, and 2 meals vs 7 meals and snacks.
All of the studies' results showed one thing which was clear: there was no difference (or marginal one at best) in the energy expenditure of people who ate fewer meals than those who ate more.
In laymen terms: eating more meals a day did not boost metabolism.
This is simply a myth that these studies have refuted.
You don't need to force yourself to spread your calories through many meals and snacks if you want a higher metabolism.
It is simply not helpful.
Eating 6 meals a day may be useful in other ways: to keep you feeling full and energetic, or to avoid the heavy feeling of eating too much in one sitting.
This is a personal preference.
There is no effect on your metabolism and you will not lose weight faster as a result.