{"id":155,"date":"2008-06-01T18:37:09","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T16:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/is-5-small-meals-a-day-useless-for-weight-loss\/"},"modified":"2015-02-12T21:06:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T02:06:48","slug":"is-5-small-meals-a-day-useless-for-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/is-5-small-meals-a-day-useless-for-weight-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Is 5 Small Meals A Day Useless For Weight Loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve just finished reading <\/a>that the “snack diet,” or the splitting up of your food intake into five or six snacks\/ small meals\u00a0to boost your metabolism \u00a0and lose weight is “useless.” Dr Tim Crowe, a nutrition specialist at Deakin University in Melbourne, spoke dismissively of the whole\u00a0idea calling it “rubbish” and a “faddish dieting trend.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He also indicated there was some research “that suggests” that “playing around with when you eat may actually cause you to put weight on” (be nice to see exactly what research he is speaking of. Seems like the doctor is using his status to make comments without providing verification. He also knows very well, for instance, that there’s a very big difference between “suggests” and “shows” when it comes to clinical research.\u00a0To dismiss the 5-6 small meals idea on the basis of inconclusive research\u00a0doesn’t makes any sense. There definitely appears to be a bias here!)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other problem I’ve encountered is that I’ve found nothing but press releases for this story. If this study is published in a peer-reviewed journal for all to see, it’s not listed\u00a0on PubMed<\/a> yet. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Because frankly, it’s like Elissa\u00a0points out\u00a0in this post<\/a>; the devil’s in the details. I can imagine several ways this study could be legitimately conducted\u00a0to yield the results reported here.\u00a0One of the simplest ways would be to dramatically restrict calories. If you’re only consuming 800-1,000 calories per day — a level that’s going to send your body into “survival” mode\u00a0— whether you eat them in 3 meals or 6 snacks\u00a0is not going to make any difference. This sort\u00a0of result doesn’t prove anything.<\/p>\n

To conduct this study properly you’d need\u00a0multiple test groups — each consuming various different levels of calories — along with a control group for each. As anyone who lifts weight seriously knows — you can consume a lot of calories over the course of the day <\/a>— and not get fat. Of course, they need to be the right calories… that goes without saying. \u00a0<\/p>\n

From the articles I read, it doesn’t appear that the study considered other factors that contribute to any successful weight loss plan; energy levels, productivity, satiety, and so forth. In my opinion, these are almost as important as results, as an unsustainable program is by very definition, an unsuccessful one.<\/p>\n

Eating small meals throughout the day keeps blood sugar levels balanced, and energy levels consistent. You never get really hungry, and you never “crash”. This is the main reason I eat this way. If I, for instance, miss a meal between 8 AM and 12 PM, I am ravenous, shaky, tired, and listless. I am also much more likely to stuff my face — with the wrong things — when I eat.<\/p>\n

Next comes\u00a0the inevitable surge in blood sugar which almost always leads to a nap or an hour of doing my best not to drool on the keyboard. Whether eating 5-6 meals a day leads to greater weight loss in my case is anecdotal and immaterial. But I can certainly testify that I feel more alert and productive and I get WAY more done when I keep the “fire” stoked regularly. So…<\/p>\n

If participants in the study who ate small meals felt better and were more productive than their counterparts… wouldn’t that be enough to recommend this method of eating over the other — even if the results were the same?<\/p>\n

Bottom line?<\/p>\n

Until we can review the real “nitty-gritty” of this study, don’t let\u00a0it scare you away from an\u00a0eating plan that makes good sense on so many levels.<\/p>\n

And certainly don’t change your plan if its working for you. And be sure to review Elissa’s post, “The Devil’s\u00a0In The Details<\/a>”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just finished reading that the “snack diet,” or the splitting up of your food intake into five or six snacks\/ small meals\u00a0to boost your metabolism \u00a0and lose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,19,24,28,29],"tags":[45,498,1851,559,633,1038,1098,1862,1390,1549,1867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8115,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/8115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}