When it comes to weight loss, how much you consume is more crucial than when

 When it comes to weight loss, how much you consume is more crucial than when.

According to research, eating fewer, smaller meals and doing so more frequently are more crucial for weight loss than the time of day.

Following the eating patterns of more than 500 people for six years, a recent study performed by scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered that rather than the time between meals, the size and frequency of meals have a greater impact on weight change. The study casts doubt on the efficacy of intermittent fasting as a weight loss technique.

A nutritional approach known as intermittent fasting, sometimes known as time-restricted feeding, involves eating all of your meals within a small window of time each day. A person may effectively fast for up to 18 hours per day during these periods, which may last anywhere from six to ten hours.

There has been much discussion on the effectiveness of intermittent fasting strategies in terms of causing real metabolic changes or whether they merely facilitate people eating less food. For instance, a study from last year indicated that when both groups were given the identical calorie-controlled dietary restrictions, both groups experienced similar weight loss results. Participants in an earlier study on intermittent fasting who were only allowed to eat during eight hours each day exhibited an innate decrease in caloric intake of about 300 calories per day.

This latest study approached the topic's investigation from a different angle. The approximately 550 participants were not instructed to follow a particular eating pattern; rather, the researchers documented daily meal timings and quantities and compared them with patterns of weight loss over a six-year period.

Each participant in the study kept track of their sleep, wakeup, and lunch times over the course of several weeks using a smartphone app. This made it possible for the researchers to keep track of each subject's first and last meals, as well as the intervals between waking up and eating their first meal and going to bed after their last meal.

The results showed there was no correlation between a person's daily eating window and weight changes throughout the six-year follow-up. Therefore, whether a person spread out their daily meals over a longer or a shorter interval had no bearing on how much weight they would lose.

According to Wendy Bennett, the study's principal investigator, there are no indications in the data that packing one's meals into a limited window each day contributes to weight loss.

Bennett said, "We are beginning to assume that spacing out meals throughout the day most likely doesn't instantly result in weight loss based on other studies that have come out, including ours.

The overall amount of medium and large meals a person had during the day, however, did affect weight. Therefore, these results suggest that eating smaller meals less frequently is what ultimately leads to weight loss rather than there possibly being a physiological rationale for any weight-loss benefits to time-restricted feeding.

Time-restricted eating has been linked to improved circadian rhythms and a function in metabolic regulation, but the association was not found in the study's population of people with a wide variety of body weights, the researchers write. Importantly, we discovered a link between eating more frequently and in greater portions throughout the day and weight gain, showing that total calorie intake is the primary cause of weight growth.

Naturally, all of this does not imply that someone can't lose weight using intermittent fasting techniques. But what is becoming more and more obvious is that the weight loss advantages that are occasionally observed with these eating habits may be predominantly brought on by a decreased caloric intake. And while calorie control can be improved with intermittent fasting, this doesn't mean you can simply eat as much as you want in a little six to eight-hour window each day and expect to lose weight.