--- title: Study: Eating Frequent Meals Will Not Shrink Your Waistline Faster description: Despite the popular belief that eating smaller portions more often is a good way to lose weight, a new study from the University of Warwick in the UK says that keeping an eye on calories is the most effective way of shrinking your waistline canonical: https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-26T19:53:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:59:01.140Z article:section: Health og:title: Study: Eating Frequent Meals Will Not Shrink Your Waistline Faster og:description: Despite the popular belief that eating smaller portions more often is a good way to lose weight, a new study from the University of Warwick in the UK says that keeping an eye on calories is the most effective way of shrinking your waistline og:url: https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Eating Frequent Meals Will Not Shrink Your Waistline Faster twitter:description: Despite the popular belief that eating smaller portions more often is a good way to lose weight, a new study from the University of Warwick in the UK says that keeping an eye on calories is the most effective way of shrinking your waistline twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Study: Frequent, Small Meals Will Not Help You Lose Weight by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 26, 2014 7:53 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 26, 2014 7:53 PM UTC Don’t believe the hype, dieters. Eating five meals a day won’t make you any skinnier, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that despite the popular belief that eating multiple small meals a day will help you lose weight, counting calories is the most effective way to drop pounds. “The size of frequency of the meal doesn’t affect the calories we burn a day,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr. Milan Kumar, according to [_Medical News Today_](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/274482.php). “But what matters most for losing weight is counting calories.” The study, which analyzed 24 women of varying weights, analyzed the number of calories burned by those who ate two meals a day when compared to those who ate five meals, and found no measurable difference in metabolism. Both groups burned the same amount of calories per day. The study also found that eating multiple times a day can increase health risk for the obese. The obese women in the study who ate five meals a day actually increased the likelihood of inflammation linked to diabetes and heart disease. For decades, scientists have been producing research that [disproves](http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-6-meals-day-weight-loss) the theory that eating several small meals a day increases metabolism and helps you drop weight quicker. As far back as [1993](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-06/health/sc-health-0606-nibbling-20120606%5F1%5Fmeals-metabolism-studies-show), researchers have found metabolic rate is not effected by the frequency of meals. Despite this information, frequency is often still touted as the best way to shrink your waistline. \[[Medical News Today](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/274482.php)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/"},"headline":"Study: Frequent, Small Meals Will Not Help You Lose Weight","datePublished":"2014-03-26T19:53:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:59:01.140Z","description":"Despite the popular belief that eating smaller portions more often is a good way to lose weight, a new study from the University of Warwick in the UK says that keeping an eye on calories is the most effective way of shrinking your waistline","url":"https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/","keywords":["Weight loss","Studies","Research","Obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weight-loss/","name":"Weight loss"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/","name":"Study: Frequent, Small Meals Will Not Help You Lose Weight"}}]}] ```