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Eating smaller meals more often does not help weight loss

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Eating smaller meals more often does not help weight loss

Old 05-27-08, 09:38 PM
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Eating smaller meals more often does not help weight loss

This was an interesting article. I agree with the overall statement that it's not how often you eat, but what you eat when you do.

https://stuff.co.nz/4561033a19716.html
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Old 05-27-08, 10:28 PM
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i feel it goes hand and hand. for some eating smaller meals more often help out. i know if i dont eat breakfast, at night i wont stop eating. which leads from my normal meal to junk food. if i took what i eat for day and condense it more towards any 1 part of the day, im just not satisfied. so regardless on whether or not it helps you loose weight physically it may help mentally. i know more than a few clydes that just end up eating when they get bored. so mix in a healthy snack that will fit in your daily calorie intake.

also the article doent mention their activity level. i dont like to cycle after dinner. and cycling on a empty stomach isnt great. that extra snack in between lunch and dinner definitely helps out in the intensity department. pedaling empty or full i am not as intense. that could be a secondary argument.

now for inactive people, i agree with the article greatly.

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Old 05-27-08, 11:25 PM
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the primary issue is keeping your metabolism up all day

you can keep your metabolism more constant if you eat slowburning complex carbs along with with the right fats and proteins

if you eat lots of sugars and simple carbs, you're likely to spike and crash feel desperately hungry during that crash

just think about eating a couple eggs and a bowl of oatmeal vs. a doughnut or a bowl of frosted flakes
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Old 05-27-08, 11:30 PM
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I think the people doing the study misunderstood the point of the smaller meals eaten more often. My understanding was that it's supposed to help you eat less total, because you don't come to meals as hungry, and it makes eating less easier on you.
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Old 05-28-08, 08:28 AM
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Originally Posted by deraltekluge
I think the people doing the study misunderstood the point of the smaller meals eaten more often. My understanding was that it's supposed to help you eat less total, because you don't come to meals as hungry, and it makes eating less easier on you.
I think their point is that with real people, it didn't cause them to eat less or better. It didn't work.- TF
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Old 05-28-08, 09:01 AM
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Originally Posted by TurboTurtle
I think their point is that with real people, it didn't cause them to eat less or better. It didn't work.- TF
No, as part of the test protocol, they had all the people consuming the same total number of calories. They didn't leave it up to the individuals as to how much they ate. The participants had no choice in the matter.
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Old 05-28-08, 09:14 AM
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One of the major problems with obesity in the U.S. is portion size. Another one is the caloric density of what we do eat. As a poster above noted, consider a egg and bowl of oatmeal vs. a doughnut and frosted flakes.

Many people with weight issues struggle not only with portion size but also what they are eating. Many times both of these issues have to be addressed as well as activity levels to really get the long term changes needed to lose weight in a healthy manner and keep it off long term.
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Old 05-28-08, 05:37 PM
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All diets and eating habits depend upon the person. For me it was a lifestyle change. I eat smaller portions, but I also eat more "mini" meals all day long. I eat a Fibre One bar for breakfast, or some fruit, and then have another snack in a few hours.

But, I also change that up and eat only three meals a day for a week or two to change my body so I don't get stuck in a routine.

Each person needs to find out for themselves what works and what doesn't.
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Old 05-28-08, 08:13 PM
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Forget weight loss, think healthy lifestype. Forrget excercise, think riding or running.

I had to go on a low salt diet for health reasons and lost more than 10% of my body weight after 30 years riding and wishing I could climb better. Low salt foods for me are foods in which the mg of sodium is less than the calories so I shoot for 2500 mg of sodium and 2500 Calories per day. I've found that you tend to eat more of salty foods, and low salt foods are are not as tasty, so you just eat less. Most people eat 50% too many Calories and 100% too much sodium which is a leading cause of hypertension.
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Old 05-28-08, 08:24 PM
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There's nothing complicated here. Count what you eat. Keep track of what you do (amount of exercise, type, duration, your weight, etc.) and convert it to work (calories burned, watts, etc.). You lose weight if you burn more than you consume.

A number of smaller meals vs three larger ones ones doesn't make that much of an impact. It's what you consumed over the course of a day vs what you did.
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Old 05-29-08, 06:34 AM
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Originally Posted by StanSeven
There's nothing complicated here. Count what you eat. Keep track of what you do (amount of exercise, type, duration, your weight, etc.) and convert it to work (calories burned, watts, etc.). You lose weight if you burn more than you consume.

A number of smaller meals vs three larger ones ones doesn't make that much of an impact. It's what you consumed over the course of a day vs what you did.
At the same time, though, multiple smaller meals can help you in a functional sense, if you're an active person. By way of example, during the week I commonly have both a morning and evening workout -- morning usually a bike ride, evening either a longer bike ride or an aikido class. If I go with the standard three meals a day, the fueling aspect just doesn't work as well as if I eat more smaller meals. A light lunch and a light midafternoon snack, followed by the evening workout, followed by a light dinner, does me better than if I ate the same amount as just lunch and dinner. Also, if I eat lunch and then don't eat again until after my evening workout, I'm a lot more likely to be hungry enough to want a lot more. So, yes, it's all in what you consume, but how you consume it can help control that.
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Old 05-29-08, 12:24 PM
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I think they've got it all wrong.

Here's my thesis based on my own personal experience and no medical knowledge whatsoever:
Doubling the number of meals won't help you lose weight because it changes your metabolism. Fat burning, IMHO, will soon be proved to be completely and utterly offbase.

Doubling the number of meals will help with compliance to a dietary plan when you don't have researchers feeding you an exact number of calories.
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Old 05-29-08, 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted by wirehead
Here's my thesis based on my own personal experience and no medical knowledge whatsoever:
Doubling the number of meals won't help you lose weight because it changes your metabolism. Fat burning, IMHO, will soon be proved to be completely and utterly offbase.
I can't parse that. Does the first sentence mean:

"Doubling the number of meals changes your metabolism; therefore, it won't help you lose weight."

or:

"Doubling the number of meals won't change your metabolism and thereby cause you to lose weight.'?

And what's with the reference to "fat burning"?
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Old 05-29-08, 02:39 PM
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Sorry. I don't make sense to myself half the time.

Longer form:
Changing your metabolism to burn more calories per day will cause you to lose weight. It's fairly clear that you cannot avoid the basic laws of thermodynamics -- every calorie you consume will either be expended as energy, lost as heat, or stored.

However, doubling the number of meals will not cause a change in metabolism, as shown by this study.

Since it doesn't matter if you have 3 or 6 meals per day because it won't change your metabolism,
you will not lose weight faster by having 6 meals per day vs. having 3 meals per day, which is the conclusion that the study came to.

"Fat burning" refers to products or techniques that claim to change your metabolism or have other magical properties like causing you to "burn" more fat without risking the body reclaiming energy from your muscles. Some recent studies have shown that the more physically fit you are, the lower your resting metabolism is and also that most of these products don't seem to produce any results.

HOWEVER, I realized yesterday that I ate the same mass of food (so, same calories) as two meals yesterday, one portion at noon, one portion at around 4. Except that when I used to eat that mass of food as a single meal, I'd be HUNGRY around 4, which would prompt me to want to eat more food around 4 and/or eat an even larger lunch.

I'm actually quite astonished about how little food I actually need to eat.

Now, this is me. So this could be a freakish thing that works for me and nobody else. Which is entirely likely. But I'd like to see them evaluate caloric-budget compliance based on more or less meals when the subjects were able to control portion sizes. And also the level of instruction given to the subjects when you do have them start said program.
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Old 05-29-08, 04:44 PM
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Originally Posted by wirehead

HOWEVER, I realized yesterday that I ate the same mass of food (so, same calories) as two meals yesterday, one portion at noon, one portion at around 4. Except that when I used to eat that mass of food as a single meal, I'd be HUNGRY around 4, which would prompt me to want to eat more food around 4 and/or eat an even larger lunch.

I'm actually quite astonished about how little food I actually need to eat.

Now, this is me. So this could be a freakish thing that works for me and nobody else. Which is entirely likely. But I'd like to see them evaluate caloric-budget compliance based on more or less meals when the subjects were able to control portion sizes. And also the level of instruction given to the subjects when you do have them start said program.
Which fits what I posted above about the people running the test not understanding the point of the multiple smaller meals. Your experience matches what I've read elsewhere about it.
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Old 05-29-08, 05:10 PM
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I like to eat smaller meals so that I don't feel stuffed after I eat. Instead of using a regular dinner plate I use one of the smaller plates to keep from overeating in one meal. I was at 225lbs at my heaviest, but I stay around 200lbs now which is good as I am 6'2 and lift weights too so I don't plan on getting too skinny.
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