Three meals a day vs little and often

Iwas out with two friends the other day, not in a cafe, but walking (a lockdown habit I never want to shake off). Jill was eating almonds (halo shining). ‘Did you not have breakfast?’ asks Sue. ‘No,’ replies Jill (who lives alone), ‘I don’t really stick to meal times,

I sort of nibble all day.’

Cue a ‘sucking lemons look’ from Sue. ‘It’s much better, they say, to eat little and often,’ continues Jill, ‘better for one’s digestion and weight-loss’. Predictably, they both turn to look at me.

‘Well? You’re the fount of all knowledge. Spit it out!’

The truth? It depends on the end goal. If we’re talking fat-loss then what matters is that you’re in a calorie deficit (achieved through a balance of food and exercise).

Say you need 1,500 calories per day to lose fat, it doesn’t matter whether that’s spread over three meals or over seven larger snacks. And, no, you don’t put on more weight if you eat after 6pm.

The plus side of grazing (which many of us do during the festive season) is that it generates smaller amounts of glucose. After a large meal, more glucose. If there’s lots of glucose in the bloodstream (after that big roast dinner), and activity levels are low, then the spare glucose has to be stored somewhere. The liver and the fat cells. No judgement, just saying.

Personally, I like structure, so two larger meals and a decent snack works for me with a bit of flexibility at weekends. Grazing somehow smacks of flying by the seat of one’s pants.

We’ve got an indulgent time coming up, so let’s wise up. When faced with Marjoriedown-the-road’s Christmas drinks buffet and you go with the attitude of ‘I’ll hardly eat anything’, be aware. Munching your bodyweight in homemade cheese straws because ‘it was one at a time and didn’t really count’, may well be the same energy value as that roast dinner. Enjoy what you eat, but know what you’re eating.

✱ Annie is a fitness coach and creator of the nutrition and fat-loss programme, The 21 Day Blast Plan (theblastplan.com)