You’ve probably heard diet gurus say it: If you want to lose weight, you need to eat frequent meals to stoke that metabolic fire. But is this really true?
According to new research presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual BES conference, chances are you’re just wasting your time.
Instead, what really matters are watching your calories, says researcher Dr. Milan Kumar Piya.
“Firstly, that the size or frequency of the meal doesn’t affect the calories we burn in a day, but what matters most for losing weight is counting calories,” says Piya, who works for the University of Warwick in the UK. “Secondly, by carrying more weight, more endotoxin enters the circulation to cause inflammation, and eating more often will exacerbate this risk, which has been linked to metabolic diseases such as type-2 diabetes.”
Previous research cited by Piya showed that eating one high-fat meal increased inflammation levels in the body as a result of endotoxins–something found in your gut–entering the blood stream. Piya originally held a follow-up study to find out whether eating more meals increased levels of this type of inflammation, as previous studies had linked it to a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes.
To do so, she recruited 24 women described as being either lean or obese, and had them undergo two separate diet plans: A diet of five meals a day or a diet of two meals a day. Their calorie levels, however, remained the same.
However, when the study ended, Piya didn’t only find that eating more frequently raised inflammation levels–it had a curious effect on their metabolism as well.
“Over a 24-hour period, the women burned the same number of calories when they ate both numbers of meals,” says Marie Ellis, a contributor to Medical News Today. “These women consumed the same number of calories on both days, and the researchers meanwhile measured their energy expenditure using whole body monitor calorimeters. Additionally, the investigators observed that obese women who ate five meals had significantly higher endotoxin levels by the end of each day, compared with when they only ate two meals.”
So what does this mean for you? For Piya, she says that counting calories, and not eating more frequent meals, matter more when it comes to losing weight. Secondly, it’s probably not a good idea to eat more frequent meals in the first place, especially if you’re worried about your risk of diabetes. According to this study, doing so could increase levels of inflammation–and put your body at risk.
“By understanding how diet affects inflammatory risk and energy expenditure, we will further our understanding of how we can better target diet intervention on an individual basis,” says Piya.
Your best bet here? Stop worrying about “stoking that metabolic fire” as it won’t fix a bad diet. Instead, if you really want to lose weight, pay attention to how many calories you’re eating instead.
Readers: Do you think eating frequently helps your metabolism? Why or why not?
Source:
News: Calories, Not Frequency of Meals, Promote Weight Loss – MedicalNewsToday.com
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