Eat Often to Rev Up Your Metabolism

When it comes to losing weight, how many pounds you lose isn’t as important as what those pounds are made of. For example, if you lose 10 pounds, but half the weight is muscle, your metabolism is going to suffer. That’s because, pound for pound, muscle burns more calories than fat. Surprisingly, the frequency at which you eat when dieting affects the type of weight you lose. In a British Journal of Nutrition study, weight-loss participants who ate frequent meals preserved considerably more lean muscle tissue than those who ate fewer daily meals but consumed the same number of calories. A separate Scandinavian study found similar results when testing two different weight-loss diets on a group of athletes. Although all of them lost equal amounts of weight, those who ate fewer meals lost mostly lean muscle tissue. The participants who ate more frequent meals lost almost all fat tissue, preserving their precious calorie-burning muscle. The lesson here is: To keep your metabolism revved and blast pounds, eat regularly.