Skipping meals linked to abdominal weight gain

June 5th, 2015 by

New research from the Ohio State Univesity has found that skipping meals sets off a series of metabolic miscues that can result in abdominal weight gain. Mice who were given all their calories in one meal were compared with mice who had free access to food and their weight-loss and subsequent weight gain was measured and mice who ate just a single meal had significant weight gain in their abdominal area.

“This does support the notion that small meals throughout the day can be helpful for weight loss, though that may not be practical for many people,” said Martha Belury, professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University and senior author of the study. “But you definitely don’t want to skip meals to save calories because it sets your body up for larger fluctuations in insulin and glucose and could be setting you up for more fat gain instead of fat loss.”

Further details of the study can be found here.