02 Apr Frequent Meals Don’t Promote Weight Loss
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Milan K Piya
NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes and Endocrinology
Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick;
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Coventry, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our studies have identified two main findings:
Firstly 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.
Secondly, by carrying more weight, more endotoxin enters the circulation to cause inflammation and eating more often will exacerbate this risk which has been linked to metabolic diseases such as type-2 diabetes.
MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?
Answer: Size of a meal does affect diet induced thermogenesis, which is the energy utilized when having a meal. However, two large meals doesn’t seem to cause more energy consumption compared to five smaller meals in lean or obese subjects.
Also, larger meals tend to cause a greater increase in cholesterol as well as glucose and insulin. However, there was no major difference in cholesterol, glucose or insulin levels through the course of a day when consuming two or five meals in both groups of women (lean or obese).
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Answer: People have different dietary patterns and some like to graze, while some like to eat larger meals at fixed times with no snacking in between meals. Our advice for weight loss in people who don’t have diabetes should be to advise them to focus on reducing the total calorie intake rather than change their dietary pattern.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Answer: The next step of the research is to assess the impact of diet, gut flora and calories burned in different people. By understanding how diet affects inflammatory risk and energy expenditure, we will further our understanding of how we can better target diet intervention on an individual basis.
British Endocrine Societies Meeting in Liverpool 24-27 March 2014
Last Updated on November 12, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD