Last time I wrote about meal frequency, I said that in terms of your metabolism, it doesn’t actually matter when the calories are consumed, or how often.  I talked about the TEF…anyone remember what that stands for?  The Thermic Effect of Food.  I told you that we tend to burn about 10% of what we eat in digestion.  So, what matters is overall calories eaten, not how often.

However, I also alluded to the fact that maybe it does matter when it comes to other things like maintaining muscle mass, blood markers (things like cholesterol and insulin) and hunger.  So, let’s take a brief look at what research has found regarding each of these:

1.  Maintaining Muscle Mass- Simply put, each of our bodies is made up of fat and lean tissue.  We all know what fat is.  Lean tissue, then, is everything else, including bone, muscle, organs, etc.  When we are dieting to lose weight, ideally we want to lose only fat.  However, the reality is that we are losing some of both- fat and lean tissue (muscle).  Some research has shown that, assuming we are eating enough protein, more frequent meals may help preserve lean tissue while we lose weight.  What does this mean?  It means that we’re more likely to lose weight in the form of fat instead of lean tissue (that’s the goal!).  So, if you’re dieting for weight loss, you might consider eating more frequently (but be sure you’re getting enough protein, which is a topic for another day).

2.  Blood Markers- Many studies have examined the effects of meal frequency on things like cholesterol, insulin and blood sugar.  What have they found?  Eating more often seems to have a positive effect on total cholesterol and LDL (it lowers them both).  As a reminder, LDL is the bad cholesterol and HDL is the good.  (In case it helps you, the way I remember this is we want the LDL to be Low and the HDL to be High.)  So, if you struggle with high cholesterol, you might think about eating more frequently throughout the day.  In terms of blood sugar, it doesn’t appear that eating more often has any effect on lowering blood sugar.  However, it does seem to help lower insulin, which is a good thing for most people, with or without Diabetes.  (Again, possibly a topic for later :))

3.  Hunger- This one is interesting to me. Many studies show that eating more often helps with hunger and appetite control.  However, it can also cause people to obsess about food a little bit, having to stay on a schedule, and worrying when a meal is missed.  So, with regard to hunger, I’d encourage you to play around with it.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  If the way you eat now is working for you, no reason to change things.  If you think you’d like to eat more or less often, try it out and see what you think!

So….What works for you??? Let us know how often you eat, and whether you’re planning to try switching things up!