Over the past 5 years or more I have been suggesting to my clients that they start eating smaller meals more often, but I really hadn’t put a lot of thought behind the effectiveness of this suggestion. If the eating smaller meals works for you please keep at it, just wanted to give a different side to the suggestion.

Eating 5 – 6 small meals a day has become new conventional wisdom in recent years when  trying to lose weight. By extension the 3 square meals per day we grew up with has gotten a bad rap as one small part of the rise of our overweight population. The idea behind this advice is that by eating more often you can increase your metabolism, control cravings and help stabilize your blood sugar levels.  So just how accurate are these claims? Let’s look at them in more detail.

Claim 1: More Regular Meals Increase Your Metabolism

The most common claim by those who recommend eating more often during the day is that the process of eating a meal raises your metabolism, so by eating several smaller meals every day you are increasing your metabolism more regularly.  This, in turn, should lead to more fat being burned by your body. While the statement that eating does increase your metabolism, it’s not quite right to suggest that by digesting more often, you are expending more energy. The truth is that the amount of energy you use when digesting food is directly related to the quantity of food to be digested. The net benefit of more regular meals in this instance is little.

There is one study that has shown the opposite and in that study they found “..for type 2 diabetic patients on a [high calorie] diet, eating larger [high fiber]  breakfasts and lunches may be more beneficial than six smaller meals during the day.”¹  In their conclusion they noted that there is a tendency to overestimate a meal size with the when eating more often, and that many of those meals are high in added sugars. Which to the researchers suggest that without strict adherence to smaller healthy  meals you may find yourself unsuccessful with controlling your weight.  To be clear this one study by itself isn’t proof that the idea of frequent small meals is dead, but it does give an interesting and different view on frequency of eating.

Claim 2: Eating More Frequently Helps to Control Unhealthy Cravings

This is a far more practical claim, and one that is more readily accepted by many health experts. No matter how big a meal we eat, there always seems to be room for a snack in between meals. Especially when we are  bored or stressed we tend to reach for candy or chips regardless of the size of the meal consumed previously.

However, by eating healthy twice as often, you can remove the cravings for unhealthy snacks, simply because they don’t have time to present themselves. Ultimately by the time you start to craving something unhealthy, it’s time for your next meal. For this reason, eating several smaller healthy meals per day can be hugely beneficial in reducing the amount of unhealthy food you eat.

Claim 3: Eating More Frequently Helps to Maintain Stable Blood Sugar Levels

While there are studies that look into blood sugar level (or blood glucose) with eating frequency, “… the effect of varying meal frequency on glucose and insulin responses over the course of a day has not been well-studied.”²  The theory that blood sugar levels can be more accurately maintained by regular meals makes sense, but in practice it has little impact on most people.

For this reason, it really shouldn’t be considered a benefit of eating more frequently. The science simply isn’t there to back it up.

Conclusion

Eating more frequently every day might work for some people if they focus on healthy small meal,  but it should not be pitched as a scientific solution to fat loss. In some cases eating less often is more beneficial.  Yet there are some benefits. Eating healthy foods more regularly can be an effective tool in controlling cravings and thus lead to a more managed diet. However, from a strictly biological point of view, the differences between strategies are negligible. Ultimately, if it works for you, stick to it. If it doesn’t, stick to what does work. It’s that simple!

1. Eating two larger meals a day (breakfast and lunch) is more effective than six smaller meals in a reduced-energy regimen for patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomised crossover study Diabetologia August 2014, Volume 57, Issue 8, pp 1552–1560

2. Effects of increased meal frequency on fat oxidation and perceived hunger Kazunori Ohkawara,Marc-Andre Cornier Wendy M. Kohrt,Edward L Melanson Obesity research journal volume 21, Issue 2February 2013 Pages 336–343