Eating small meals for weight loss does not actually work

Recent research has shown that it is calorie counting that is important for weight loss, rather than eating a series of small meals throughout the day. 

The idea that spreading your calorie intake throughout the day will help you burn fat faster has been proven ineffective.

Research presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual BES conference suggests that following this diet does not actually boost your metabolism or encourage weight loss. Instead, it is staying within the daily calorie intake which matters most for losing weight.

Researchers at the University found that regardless of the number of meals had, both obese and lean women burned the same number of calories over a twenty-four hour period.

They also found that at the end of each day, obese women accumulated significantly higher levels of endotoxins, fragments of gut bacteria, in their blood stream after eating five meals compared to when they only had two.

It was previously shown that eating a single high-fat meal increases low-level inflammation in the body through fragments of gut bacteria entering the blood stream. This has been linked to a future risk of developing type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Lead author of the study Dr Milan Kumar Piya said, “Our studies have identified main finding was 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.”

Warwick students had varied opinions on the research and felt they were given so many mixed messages with regards to dieting that it was hard to know what to believe.

Psychology Student Laura Morris remarked: “I think it’s better for you to eat five smaller meals rather than overeating in just a couple of meals but realistically it’s easier just to have a few meals I think.”

Sociology student Georgina Riggs commented: “What I’ve always thought is that it matters most what those meals consist of in terms of carbs protein and fat regardless of how often or how many meals you have.

“Exercise and meals is also really important in this statement; for example, post exercise, you should always eat some form of recovery carbs and protein to help your body repair.”

In my reading of both Linda Lafferty’s contemporary novel House of Bathory and George Eliot’s victorian novel Daniel Deronda,