Does meal frequency influence cardiometabolic health? Original paper

In this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, lower and higher daily meal frequencies had similar effects on body composition, blood lipids, fasting glucose, and insulin levels. However, the certainty of evidence was considered very low.

The comparative effects of lower and higher meal frequencies on markers of cardiometabolic health.

The primary outcome was change in body weight (assessed in 8 trials). The other outcomes were BMI and fat mass (both assessed in 5 trials), fasting glucose and insulin (both assessed in 3 trials), triglycerides (assessed in 6 trials), and total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (all assessed in 5 trials).

A total of 370 participants.

A meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials was conducted. The trials included between 7 and 140 participants and ranged in duration from 2 to 52 weeks. In the analyzed trials, the number of meals per day ranged from 2 to 3 and 4 to 17 for the lower and higher meal frequency groups, respectively (6 meals per day was most common for the latter group).

Five trials had the participants consume a hypocaloric diet, 4 trials had the participants consume a eucaloric diet, and 2 trials did not specify a calorie intake prescription for the participants.

There were no clear differences between the lower and higher meal frequency groups for any outcome.

The certainty of evidence was considered very low for all outcomes.