By eating less frequently, your body learns to use fat stores as energy. This may seem like a good idea because your body is burning fat, which means you lose fat. The problem with this is that when you do eat something, your body stores it as fat. Your body becomes unsure when you are going to eat next, so therefore it stores it because it wants to save energy. Basically, everything you eat becomes fat stores.
Someone who eats more frequently does not burn as much of its fat stores. The good part is, the body learns to use the food that is eaten as energy. It does not store it because it knows you will eat soon again. This is fast metabolism. This is why thin people with fast metabolism don't gain weight after eating ice cream for the entire weekend. The body learns to use all the energy, and does not bother storing it.
The first paragraph describes someone with a slow metabolism. If that person eats ice cream all weekend, he/she will gain weight because the body stored it all as fat.
I used to be on a strict diet, and met other who were also on a strict diet. The difference between our diets was that I did not freak out over a cheat meal. I'd eat cheat meals on a daily basis. My goal was just to get all my nutrients (fats, carbs, proteins, minerals and vitamins) and split it into 7 meals. There goal was to eat 3 times a day, with low calories. They explained to me that sometimes they'd go on a cheat splurge for the weekend, and gain 5-10 pounds. I'd go on a cheat splurge, and not gain a pound... maybe even lose a pound (water).
The problem is that there metabolism is so darn slow, it just stores everything. People in my family remain thin, and most people say it's because of genetics. Yes, some of that is true, but look at their eating habits. They eat roughly 7 to 8 times a day. It's not always healthy, but it's food and energy... which implies that the body learns to just use up the energy because it knows food and energy will come again.
Thin people might eat less than a big person at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, but that thin person will eat again in just a few hours, maybe 2 hours. This results in eating smaller meals 7 to 8 times a day... which is what dieticians are TRYING TO TELL YOU!
Spend the day with a thin person (who's not aneroxic or whatever) and you will see that they eat several times a day. They might not be meals, but they are snacks that come up to 300-400 calories on average, which means it's a relatively small meal.
So...
Eating more frequently is better for YOU!
I hear about people on diets all the time, and it drives me nuts on how people think dieting is eating less. It is NOT SO!
When I was on my diet, it was to grow muscles, and so I increases my calorie intake. My calorie intake was roughly 3 times the maintenance level that I needed. It came out to eating at McDonalds a little over 3 times a day, but I did not eat McDonalds of course. After 3 months, I did not gain one pound. My muscles grew much larger... so what happened with the weight? I lost fat! FOR EATING MORE FOOD!
I'm through with this.
