We’ve long believed the secret to weight loss is limiting our intake of food, but it’s time to crack out the champers and celebrate because new research has revealed a way you can double the number of times you eat in a day, and still lose weight.
According to a new study carried out by the Agricultural University of Athens, eating six meals a day as opposed to three can help you maintain your healthy eating plan by quashing your hunger and stabilising your blood sugar levels. Music. To. Our. Ears.
Researchers on the study assessed 47 clinically obese people who either had pre-diabetes or type two diabetes, and split the participants into two groups. The first group was asked to follow a special six-month diet which involved eating six smaller meals a day for the first three months, and then eating three standard-sized meals a day for the remaining three months. The other group did the same but the other way round.
What the researchers were able to discover was that during their period of eating smaller but more frequent meals, participants had significantly better blood sugar control (so lower blood sugar levels) than the ones who ate three more substantial meals per day.
But the secret is, according to lead researcher Dr Emilia Papakonstantinou, to ensure your intake of calories remains the same as your three-meals-per-day diet. “These results suggest that increased frequency of meals, consumed at regular times, may be a useful tool for… those who are reluctant or unsuccessful dieters,” she said.
By eating more regularly, the participants in the study reported feeling less hungry when eating six meals a day, preventing them from snacking on foods that could throw off their healthy eating plans.
Six meals a day it is, then. Just, you know, make sure they’re relatively healthy ones.
H/T Cosmo UK