OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships between eating frequency (EF) and body weight status and to determine whether these relationships can be explained in terms of differences in physical activity levels, macronutrient intakes or energy compensation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional design; free-living subjects, 48 men and 47 women (aged 20±55 y, body mass index (BMI) 18±30), recruited in a workplace setting. MEASUREMENTS: Height and weight; skinfold thickness (four sites); EF, energy and macronutrient intakes (food diary, unweighed, recorded for seven consecutive days); physical activity (7 d activity diary and heart rate monitoring over 48 h period). RESULTS: In men there was a signi®cant negative correlation between EF and body weight, and an inverse relationship with body mass index (BMI). EF was positively correlated with % energy from carbohydrate, although not with total energy intake. In women, there was no relationship between EF and body weight status; however, there were signi®cant positive correlations between EF and total energy intake, and between EF and intakes of total carbohydrate and sugars. For both men and women, there were associations between EF and physical activity levels, approaching statistical signi®cance. CONCLUSIONS: In men, the association between increased EF and lower body weight status may have been in¯uenced by increased physical activity levels. As energy intake did not increase with EF, men appear to have compensated by reducing the mean energy consumed per eating episode. Energy compensation did not take place in women, with women who ate most frequently having the highest energy intakes, although this did not lead to higher BMIs. Physical activity, through participation in active leisure pursuits, may have been an important factor in weight control in women. The % contribution of carbohydrate to total energy was positively correlated with EF in both men and women, and further analysis showed that snack foods provided a higher proportion of carbohydrate than did foods eaten as meals. These results indicate that a high EF is likely to lead to a high carbohydrate diet, which may be favourable for weight control. Our ®ndings suggest that in this population, a high EF was associated with leanness in men, and there was no link between EF and body weight status in women.

Correspondence T. Kirk,Aim To test a novel approach to weight management based on positive advice to eat more carbohydrate-rich foods.Methods Twenty-nine overweight/mildly obese male and female volunteers were recruited. For a 2-week period they were required to replace one main meal each day with a serving of breakfast cereal. This was followed by 4 weeks eating adlib on a high-carbohydrate regime. Each subject, who acted as his/her own control, kept a 3-day unweighed food diary at baseline, 2 weeks and 6 weeks. Anthropometric measurements were made at each stage.Results Twenty-two subjects completed the study. Mean weight loss at 2 weeks was 2.0 kg, a statistically significant reduction, which was maintained at 6 weeks. Significant changes in mean energy intake (2 2.29 MJ day 21 ), in percentage energy from carbohydrate (+ 8%) and from fat (± 11%) were observed after 2 weeks, and remained significant at the end of the study. ConclusionsThe results of this pilot study show that replacing a main meal with breakfast cereal led to moderate weight loss, and a follow-up high-carbohydrate phase enabled weight loss to be sustained. We suggest that this regime has potential for further investigation and that promotion of carbohydrate-rich foods should be part of public health messages for weight control.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that increased consumption of foods rich in starch, such as breakfast cereals, will enable a substantial reduction in the percentage dietary energy derived from fat. Design: Parallel experimental design, with matched subjects allocated randomly to an intervention or a control group. Setting: Free-living subjects (mean age 20 y), undergraduate students at a college for higher education. Subjects: Sixty-two enrolled, 59 completed the study; 7 d weighed intakes at baseline, 4 weeks and 12 weeks. Intervention: The intervention group were required to eat 60 g breakfast cereal daily with semi-skimmed milk. Pre-weighed portions of three types of cereal were distributed without charge at the beginning of each week of the study; subjects were reimbursed for the cost of milk used. No other dietary advice was given. Results: At baseline, total energy intake and percentage energy from macronutrients was very similar in both the intervention and control groups. After four weeks of intervention there was a signi®cant reduction in % energy from fat (75.4%) in the experimental group, maintained at the 12 weeks follow-up. There was a corresponding rise in energy from CHO: a signi®cant increase of 5.5% after four weeks had reached 6.5% by 12 weeks. Total energy remained virtually unchanged, indicating a replacement of fat energy by carbohydrate energy. These changes were not found in the control group. Conclusions: A simple dietary intervention to increase consumption of breakfast cereal led to a 5% reduction in % dietary fat energy, with a bene®cial effect on micronutrient intakes. The results support the case for positive advice to increase consumption of complex carbohydrate, as a strategy for dietary fat reduction in the wider population. Sponsorship: Supported by the Kellogg Company of Great Britain.