Three square meals may beat mini-meals for dieters

According to a US study, sitting down to eat three meals a day may be a better strategy for weight loss than grazing on several smaller "mini-meals".

Researchers from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, found that obese men on low-calorie, high-protein diets felt more satisfied and less hungry when they ate three times a day compared to when they ate six times a day.

"There is a lot of lay press about eating frequency," researcher Heather Leidy, who is now at the University of Missouri in Columbia, told Reuters.

"There is a widespread perception that it's better to eat little meals more often; however, these mini-meals everyone is talking about don't seem to be as beneficial [in] appetite control," she said.

Studies on whether eating frequency affects appetite control have had "conflicting" results, noted by Leidy and her colleagues in the journal Obesity.

To investigate further, they randomly assigned 27 men who were overweight or obese to eat either a high-protein diet or a normal-protein diet for 12 weeks.

Diets contained 750 fewer calories than each man needed to maintain his current weight. Starting at week seven of the study, the men either ate their assigned diet in three meals spaced five hours apart, or in six meals eaten every two hours, for three days in a row.

The study participants then switched to the other eating pattern for an additional three consecutive days.

Men eating the higher protein diet (25% of total calories from protein) felt fuller throughout the day, didn't want to eat late at night, and were less pre-occupied with thoughts of food than the men who were consuming 14% of their energy as protein.

While eating frequency didn't influence appetite in the men on the normal-protein diet, the researchers did find that men in the high-protein group felt fuller in the evening and late at night after eating just three meals a day.

"It's already been established that high-protein diets are better for appetite control," said Leidy. The diet the men in her study followed was "not Atkins by any means", she said.

"We very clearly want people to know that this is not an Atkins-style diet. You're still getting an adequate amount of fibre and fruits and vegetables with these diets."