Skipping meals could lead to abnormal weight gain: study

Researchers who conducted a study on animals say that skipping meals triggered a series of metabolic miscues resulting in abdominal weight gain. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry published the findings of the study.

In the study conducted on mice, researchers found that mice that ate their entire food for the whole day in a single meal and did not eat anything for their rest of the day developed insulin resistance in their livers, which according to them was a considered as telltale sign of pre-diabetes.

The researchers explain that when the liver does not respond to insulin it signals to stop the production of glucose, and that extra glucose in the blood got stored as extra fat.

During the study, researchers kept the mice on a restricted diet and it was found that the mice lost weight as against the control group that had unlimited access to food.

With the addition of calories back to their diets, the restricted-diet mice regained weight and nearly caught up to controls by the study's end.

According to the researchers fat around their belly weighed more in the restricted-diet mice than in mice that were free to eat through the day.

According to Martha Belury, professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University in the US, the study supported the notion that small meals throughout the day could be helpful for weight loss, though that might not be practical for many people.

Belury explained that people should not skip meals to save calories because it set their body up for larger fluctuations in insulin and glucose and could be setting them for more fat gain instead of fat loss.