Hey Dieters! Small Meals vs Larger Meals? New Info!

It happens all the time, new studies changing the way we look at our health.  Somebody is always publishing new information that tells us, “Here’s another way to maximize that weight loss”.  Remember the advice we got about eating small meals every three hours.  “Keep that metabolism going, make the weight fall off”.  In fact, I just spent over a hundred dollars on a program that tells me to do just that.   I had been eating small meals, six times a day, every 2-3 hours.  But after a month,  I stopped because I was gaining weight, not losing.  My friend said I wasn’t doing it right, now it sounds like I was doing it right but my body did not like it.   There is a new study from the University of Missouri that recommends obese people eat LARGER meals.

The Missouri study recruited obese women, and found that fewer, larger meals were better for the metabolism. It proved to lower blood fat levels, meaning that if it continued to do so, it would help protect the women from heart disease.

The women were placed on 1,500-calorie diets. One day, they had three 500-calorie liquid meals, and the other day, six 250-calorie liquid meals. For 12 hours on each day, researchers tested sugar and fat levels in the women’s blood every half hour. They found that the three-meals-per-day regimen led to significantly less fat in the bloodstream.

Eating several smaller meals throughout the day has long been the refrain from nutrition experts. But, when the Missouri research team looked for clinical evidence to support that theory, they didn’t find much.

Although the study was performed with a small sample size, this finding is significant. Since about one-third of the population of North America now qualifies as obese, and many people believe that eating several small meals a day is a healthy way to lose weight, it opens the question of how best to lose weight up for further debate.

Of course, the only healthy way to lose weight is through a sensible diet and healthy exercise, but there are natural ways to help the process. There are different foods and supplements that can be of benefit.

Sources:  Doctors Health Press.com

Smaller Meals May Not Be Right for Weight Loss

“Eating Fewer, Larger Meals May Prove Healthier for Obese Women, MU Research Suggests,” University of Missouri, December 6, 2012.