Eating well-balanced and nutritious foods is crucial for health. But how often should one eat? For most people, the eating pattern is – beginning the day with breakfast, then lunch around noon, followed by a mid-evening snack and dinner. But does the frequency of your meals and timings really matter? Let’s take a look.
How often should you eat?
According to Marisa Moore, MBA, RDN, LD, a registered dietitian nutritionist, there is no objective answer to it. “I’ve been getting this question for as long as I’ve been practicing as a registered dietitian, and the answer is nuanced,” Moore told USA TODAY.A typical meal plan consists of three large meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with snacks in between. However, according to the dietician, its not a one-fits-all approach. It depends based on several factors.
3 meals a day or six? What science says
A 2017 study published in Diabetologia says that having six meals per day is better than three for blood sugar control in obese people with impaired glucose tolerance (prediabetes) or full-blown type 2 diabetes. “Our 24-week weight maintenance study showed that using a six-meal pattern instead of a three-meal pattern, while containing the same overall calories, improved blood sugar control and reduced hunger in obese people with prediabetes or full-blown diabetes. These results suggest that increased frequency of meals, consumed at regular times, may be a useful tool for doctors treating subjects with obesity and diabetes or prediabetes, especially those who are reluctant or unsuccessful dieters,” the researchers said. A previous study led by researchers at the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) found that individuals who had more than 4 meals in a day had lower body fat levels, which was independent of exercise habits during free time. The study involved over 1,978 adolescents (1,017 girls) between the ages of 13 and 18 years from five Spanish cities. The researchers found that healthy habits, such as eating more than four scheduled meals a day or not eating too fast, were associated with lower body fat levels independently of exercise habits during free time.
Timing of the meal matters
The time of day when you eat also has a crucial role in your health. A 2024 study by the researchers at Columbia University found that consuming more than 45% of our daily calorie intake after 5 p.m. is associated with an increase in glucose levels, with the harmful consequences that this has for health, regardless of the individual’s weight and body fat.“Maintaining high levels of glucose over long periods of time can have implications including a higher risk of progressing to type 2 diabetes, an increase in cardiovascular risk due to the damage that high glucose levels do to blood vessels, and increased chronic inflammation, which aggravates cardiovascular and metabolic damage,” the researchers said.“The time of day when meals are eaten can in itself have a negative impact on glucose metabolism,” they emphasized.Eating a late dinner has a negative impact on health. “The body’s ability to metabolize glucose is limited at night, because the secretion of insulin is reduced, and our cells’ sensitivity to this hormone declines due to the circadian rhythm, which is determined by a central clock in our brain that is coordinated with the hours of daylight and night,” they said.So if you want to have a large meal, the ideal time is during the day. “The highest levels of calorie intake during the day should be at breakfast and lunch, instead of at teatime and dinner,” the researchers said. A recent study by the researchers at Mass General Brigham also stressed that meal timings matter. They found that later breakfast time was linked with having physical and mental health conditions such as depression, fatigue, and oral health problems.“Up until now, we had a limited insight into how the timing of meals evolves later in life and how this shift relates to overall health and longevity. Our findings help fill that gap by showing that later meal timing, especially delayed breakfast, is tied to both health challenges and increased mortality risk in older adults. These results add new meaning to the saying that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ especially for older individuals,” they said.
There is also solid evidence that eating meals early could reduce cardiovascular risk. A 2023 study showed that having a first meal later in the day (such as when skipping breakfast), is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, with a 6% increase in risk per hour delay.
