An isocaloric increase of eating episodes in the morning contributes to decrease energy intake at lunch in lean men

Metabolic impacts of altering meal frequency and timing – Does when we eat matter?

“…This response was not observed consistently [36] or in obese men [37,44], and still yet other studies have reported reduced feelings of fullness [40] and increased feelings of hunger in response to increased meal frequency [27,41]. Of note, studies are of small sample size (Table 1) and have not examined energy intake at dinner, or subsequent meals.…”

“…A study that was conducted for 6-days inside a metabolic chamber showed that altering meal frequency by delivering meals two or six times per day did not influence additional snacking on foods that were provided ad libitum [14]. Mechanistically, increased meal frequency may modulate the pattern of release of the orexigenic hormone ghrelin [36,37,43]. However, total area under the curve (AUC) for ghrelin release was not different between meal frequencies in lean [36,43] or overweight or obese [37,40] individuals acutely, or following an 8 week hypocaloric intervention [19].…”

“…Mechanistically, increased meal frequency may modulate the pattern of release of the orexigenic hormone ghrelin [36,37,43]. However, total area under the curve (AUC) for ghrelin release was not different between meal frequencies in lean [36,43] or overweight or obese [37,40] individuals acutely, or following an 8 week hypocaloric intervention [19]. Thus, based on the available data, following a "nibbling" meal pattern does not have superior effects on appetite control, subsequent energy intake, or the modulation of ghrelin release, at least acutely.…”

The Energy Content and Composition of Meals Consumed after an Overnight Fast and Their Effects on Diet Induced Thermogenesis: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analyses and Meta-Regressions

“…Table 2 summarizes the interventions and outcomes of the studies. Nine studies were conducted in the USA [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27], five in Japan [14,28,29,30], four in the UK [17,31,32,33], two in Australia [18,34], two in France [35,36], two in Denmark [15,37], one in Germany [38], one in Spain [39], and one in the Netherlands [16]. The majority of the studies were not blinded, three were double blinded [14,37], and two studies were single blinded [18,24].…”

“…The sample size ranged from a minimum of four to a maximum of 29. The majority of the studies had a sample size <20; only four studies had ≥20 participants [24,33,35,39]. Fifteen studies had only males [14,18,19,21,22,23,25,28,30,33,34,35,36,37,39], eight studies had only females [14,20,24,27,29,31,32,38], and four studies had a mix of males and females [15,16,17,26].…”