Eating more frequently not necessarily better than eating less frequently

Background

According to Peat, people with metabolic problems should eat more frequently. 

Frequent meals are helpful during hypothyroidism, and help to prevent obesity, but when the thyroid and liver are working, 2, 3, or 4 meals are good. - Ray Peat (e-mail exchange)

Relevant studies

• A recent randomized study (1; fulltext) compared two calorie-reduced diet patterns in people with diabetes. In one group people ate breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks in between (6 meals), in the other just breakfast & lunch (2 meals), the total calorie intake was the same. The study showed better weight loss, glycemic control and less liver fat in the group that eats less frequently. Interestingly, the basal metabolic rate seemed to be worse in the group eating more frequently, albeit non-significant.

• Another controlled study (2) compared the effects of meal size and frequency (2 vs 5 high-fat meals with the same calorie content) on endotoxinemia in lean and obese women. It found that endotoxin levels were significantly higher in the 5 meal group vs the 2 meal group. No significant differences in metabolic rate were noted.
• An older study (3) compared the thermic effects of a single meal vs several small meals over a three hour period in women. The thermic effect of food was higher when only a single meal was consumed compared to the several small meals.
• On the other hand, in a study in healthy young males (4), appetite control was improved when eating food at 5 different instances compared to a single meal, the latter leading to higher rises of insulin.
• The metabolic effects of regular food timing (6x/day) compared to irregular eating times (3-9x) were studied in ten women (5). Women that ate regularly had a greater thermogenesis by food and lower insulin responses than the irregular eaters.

 

Conclusions

There is no clear-cut benefit of eating more or less frequently. Metabolically-sick people can in some instances even benefit from less frequent eating (e.g. above diabetes study). Regular eating at the same times each day seems to be beneficial for the metabolism.