The US is an abnormally food-obsessed nation. That obsession with food makes us a very fat nation, which leads to health issues like type 2 diabetes. In reaction to that, we become even more food-obsessed, stressing over diets and taking extreme measures to stave off obesity and diabetes. Case in point – for years, health nuts have advocated eating many small meals per day to reduce overall calorie consumption. According to researchers in the Czech Republic, not only is that not effective, the opposite is true – eating two large, well-times meals per day may be even more effective at treating type 2 diabetes.

“The patients were really afraid they would get hungry in the evening but feelings of hunger were lower as the patients ate until they were satisfied,” said Lead scientist Dr Hana Kahleova, at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine. “But when they ate six times a day the meals were not leaving them feeling satisfied. It was quite surprising.”

For the research, the team fed two groups of 27 people diets with the same number of calories, but differently distributed. One group got their calories across six smaller meals, while the other consumed them in two larger ones. Not only did the group eating larger meals lose more weight, but their blood sugar dropped more as well. All participants had type 2 diabetes prior to the study.

Weight loss for the two-meal group averaged 3 lbs more than the six-meal group, and they lost about 1.5in more from their waistlines. The success appears to be an issue of satiety – though six meals sounds like it would reduce the chance of feeling hungry, it also offers little opportunity to feel genuinely satisfied. Two large meals, however, does exactly that.

Though larger and longer studies are obviously needed, the results are encouraging both for people with type 2 diabetes and anyone interested in losing weight. It’s estimated that 285 million people have the disease globally.