Eating ‘little and often’ not helpful

Eating small, frequent meals is not a very effective method for weight loss, researchers say today.

Counting calories appears to be a better approach, according to the latest study.

Previous findings from Warwick University, UK, indicated that a single high fat meal may increase low level inflammation in the body because fragments of gut bacteria called endotoxins enter the bloodstream. This type of inflammation has been linked to risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dr Milan Kumar Piya, of University Hospital Coventry, UK, and colleagues focused on whether frequent eating causes repeated damage that could increase these risks. They recruited 24 lean and obese women, who were given either two or five meals on different days. Overall calorie intake was the same. Energy expenditure was measured with whole body monitor calorimeters.

Regardless of the number of meals, both obese and lean women burned the same number of calories over a 24-hour period. This shows that eating "little and often" doesn’t boost the metabolism. But by the end of the day, obese women built up significantly higher levels of endotoxins after eating five meals than two.

"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," said Dr Piya.

"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."

The research will be presented today (26 March) at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Liverpool, UK. Next, the team plans to investigate the role of gut flora on calories burned.

Piya, M. K. et al. Meal size and frequency influences metabolic endotoxaemia and inflammatory risk but has no effect on diet induced thermogenesis in either lean or obese subjects. Presented on 25 March 2014 by Dr Milan Piya at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference held in Liverpool, UK, from 24 to 27 March 2014.