People who eat fewer meals often have other bad habits like smoking or not exercising — so it’s not the meal count that causes belly fat, it’s those other habits.
Scientific Claim
Low meal frequency is correlated with unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (smoking, physical inactivity, heavy alcohol consumption), which independently contribute to central adiposity.
Original Statement
“They also saw that people that ate less than three meals per day in this particular study were also more likely to be smokers. They were more likely to be inactive and they were more likely to be heavy drinkers. So does that mean that eating less meals makes you drink more alcohol or eating less meals makes you less active? I don't think so. I think that is that weird correlation where we say, 'Huh, maybe it's the fact that these people are also making very unhealthy choices. They're inactive. They're smoking. They're drinking. And maybe that's why they have more central atyposity, not because they're eating one or two meals instead of three meals.'”
Context Details
Domain
nutrition
Population
human
Subject
low meal frequency
Action
is correlated with
Target
unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and central adiposity
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (3)
People who eat fewer meals a day are more likely to smoke, drink more alcohol, and not exercise—and they also tend to have more belly fat. This study found those connections, so it supports the idea that eating less often goes hand-in-hand with unhealthy habits and more belly fat.
Kids who didn’t move much and watched too much TV had more belly fat, and when these bad habits happened together, the problem got worse—showing that unhealthy habits like skipping meals often come in groups and make weight gain worse.
Technical explanation
The study shows that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors—physical inactivity and high screen time—co-occur and together worsen central adiposity, aligning with the assertion that low meal frequency (implied as part of poor lifestyle clusters) correlates with these behaviors independently contributing to fat gain.
This study found that teens who ate irregularly, sat around a lot, and didn’t move much were more likely to have belly fat—showing that bad habits like skipping meals go together with inactivity and lead to weight gain.
Technical explanation
This paper directly examines clustering of dietary and lifestyle behaviors—including meal patterns, physical inactivity, and sedentary habits—and links them to central adiposity, supporting the assertion that low meal frequency (as part of unhealthy patterns) correlates with behaviors like inactivity that independently contribute to fat accumulation.
Contradicting (1)
Kids who ate more often throughout the day had less belly fat than those who ate fewer meals—so skipping meals might not be the problem; eating more often might actually help you stay slimmer.
Technical explanation
This paper directly contradicts the assertion by finding that higher eating frequency (more meals/snacks) is associated with lower total and central adiposity, implying that low meal frequency may not be a driver of unhealthy fat accumulation—in fact, the opposite is true.