Eat more, weight less? Well, yeah! Think about this: We’re so used to talking about eating less food that it’s become weight loss doctrine, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here is why: researchers at one American university developed a technique to measure hourly energy balance — that is, how many calories you’re burning versus how many calories you’re taking in.

They found that if you keep your calorie fluctuations between 300 to 500 calories at all times, you’ll best be able to lose fat and add lean muscle.

It turns out people with the largest energy imbalances were the fattest, while those with the most balanced energy levels were the leanest.

Translation: If you’ve always limited yourself to three square meals a day — it’s time to take a different approach: eat six filling meals a day.

Eating smaller meals more often spreads the same amount of calories more evenly through the day, which helps maintain balanced energy levels. [source: Prevention]