Eating little and often 'no better for dieters than fewer feasts' "Eating little and often – like Jennifer Aniston – could help dieters achieve a healthy weight loss," reports the Mirror. Meanwhile, the Mail Online urges us to "Forget three square meals a day – eating six smaller portions is better for your waistline".
But don't rush to change how often you eat: the claims are based on a tiny study that has been overstated and misinterpreted by the media. In fact, women lost a similar amount of weight regardless of the number of daily meals they ate.
In the study, 11 obese women ate the same low number of calories in either two meals or six meals a day. They lost around the same amount of weight with both diets.
They did retain their non-fat mass (the weight of the body in muscle, organs and bone) better when they were on six meals a day, but the authors warn against drawing firm conclusions from this.
The two-meal pattern seemed to improve levels of "good" cholesterol more than the six-meal pattern. Whether either of these differences would lead to any health benefits for the women was not assessed.
Overall, this study is too small to prove whether six or two meals a day is better for dieters. What is important is to choose an approach to
weight loss or healthy weight maintenance that works for you that you can stick to.
