Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeDieteticsTiming and frequency of meals play a role in weight loss or...

Timing and frequency of meals play a role in weight loss or gain

The timing and frequency of meals play a role in predicting weight loss or gain, found a study drawing on more than 50,000 participants in the Adventist Health Study-2.

A study by researchers from Loma Linda University School of Public Health (LLUSPH) and the Czech Republic has found that timing and frequency of meals play a role in predicting weight loss or gain. Using information gleaned from more than 50,000 participants in the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), the researchers discovered four factors associated with a decrease in body mass index: eating only one or two meals per day; maintaining an overnight fast of up to 18 hours; eating breakfast instead of skipping it; and making breakfast or lunch the largest meal of the day.

Making breakfast the largest meal yielded a more significant decrease in BMI than did lunch. The two factors associated with higher BMI were eating more than three meals per day – snacks were counted as extra meals – and making supper the largest meal of the day.

As a practical weight-management strategy, Dr Hana Kahleova, recommends eating breakfast and lunch, skipping supper, avoiding snacks, making breakfast the largest meal of the day and fasting overnight for up to 18 hours. A post-doctoral research fellow at LLUSPH when the study was conducted, Kahleova is now director of clinical research for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC, and is currently on sabbatical from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic, as a post-doctoral research fellow and diabetes consultant physician.

Kahleova says the findings confirm an ancient nutritional maxim: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”

Tthe study was co-written by Dr Gary Fraser, a professor at LLU Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and director of AHS-2.

Fraser said that irrespective of meal pattern, there was, on average, an increase in weight gain year by year until participants reached the age of 60. After age 60, most participants experienced a weight loss each year. “Before age 60 years, those eating calories earlier in the day had less weight gain,” Fraser said, adding that after age 60, the same behavior tended to produce a larger rate of weight loss than average. “Over decades, the total effect would be very important.”

The team employed a technique called linear regression analysis and adjusted their findings to exclude demographic and lifestyle factors that might skew the results.

The study was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the World Cancer Research Fund, and the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

Abstract
Background: Scientific evidence for the optimal number, timing, and size of meals is lacking.
Objective: We investigated the relation between meal frequency and timing and changes in body mass index (BMI) in the Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2), a relatively healthy North American cohort.
Methods: The analysis used data from 50,660 adult members aged ≥30 y of Seventh-day Adventist churches in the United States and Canada (mean ± SD follow-up: 7.42 ± 1.23 y). The number of meals per day, length of overnight fast, consumption of breakfast, and timing of the largest meal were exposure variables. The primary outcome was change in BMI per year. Linear regression analyses (stratified on baseline BMI) were adjusted for important demographic and lifestyle factors.
Results: Subjects who ate 1 or 2 meals/d had a reduction in BMI per year (in kg · m−2 · y−1) (−0.035; 95% CI: −0.065, −0.004 and −0.029; 95% CI: −0.041, −0.017, respectively) compared with those who ate 3 meals/d. On the other hand, eating >3 meals/d (snacking) was associated with a relative increase in BMI (P < 0.001). Correspondingly, the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (≥18 h) decreased compared with those who had a medium overnight fast (12–17 h) (P < 0.001). Breakfast eaters (−0.029; 95% CI: −0.047, −0.012; P < 0.001) experienced a decreased BMI compared with breakfast skippers. Relative to subjects who ate their largest meal at dinner, those who consumed breakfast as the largest meal experienced a significant decrease in BMI (−0.038; 95% CI: −0.048, −0.028), and those who consumed a big lunch experienced a smaller but still significant decrease in BMI than did those who ate their largest meal at dinner.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that in relatively healthy adults, eating less frequently, no snacking, consuming breakfast, and eating the largest meal in the morning may be effective methods for preventing long-term weight gain. Eating breakfast and lunch 5–6 h apart and making the overnight fast last 18–19 h may be a useful practical strategy.

Authors
Hana Kahleova, Jan Irene Lloren, Andrew Mashchak, Martin Hill, Gary E Fraser

[link url="http://news.llu.edu/for-journalists/press-releases/loma-linda-university-researchers-find-links-between-meal-frequency-and-bmi"]Loma Linda University School of Public Health material[/link]
[link url="http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/2017/07/12/jn.116.244749"]Journal of Nutrition abstract[/link]

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.