For whatever reason this myth came about promoting that eating more meals a day will “Increase your metabolism.”
The idea is that whenever you eat your metabolic rate increases slightly for a few hours, and this is known as (TEF) or thermic effect of food. However, as along as the nutrient content intake is the same, there wil be no additional increase of metabolism whether yoru eating 6x,3x, or 1x/day.
According to the following study: Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet.
“There were NS differences between the low- and high-MF (meal frequency( groups for adiposity indices, appetite measurements or gut peptides (peptide YY and ghrelin) either before or after the intervention. We conclude that increasing MF does not promote greater body weight loss under the conditions described in the present study1”
Another component of this myth is that if you dont eat frequently enough your body will go into “Starvation mode” Our bodies have adapted through our biological evolution to survive periods of time where no food was eaten. If we really needed to eat as often as the fitness industry tells us to we certainly would of died off a long time ago. Our bodies metabolism actually increases during times of fasting in which there is an increase of the release of catecholamines (epinephrine/norepinephrine) essentially adrenaline.
Next I will cover why skipping breakfast is not such a bad idea after all, and may actually help you burn more fat.
Galen is a personal trainer and fat loss expert at Phenomenal Fitness. You can contact him at Galen@phenomenalfitness.com
1.Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet.
