Cosmopolitan

Charlize Theron swears by six small meals a day to maintain her A-list figure. Reality TV stars Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge dropped unwanted kilos doing the same thing. Jessica Simpson, Halle Berry and Eva Mendes, on the other hand, pledge allegiance to Hollywood uber-trainer Harley Pasternak’s 5-Factor Diet, which advocates eating five times per day, every three hours.

Me? Well, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell to eat for lunch today – if I even have time for lunch, that is.

Why are Hollywood stars eating little and often? Research has found that eating more often increases your metabolism, says dietician Tara Diversi. However, this increase was in controlled trials – another recent study has found that outside the clinical setting, more regular meals simply leads to people eating more food.

"For increasing to five to six meals a day to be effective, you need to make sure your portions are actually smaller – don’t just east the same size meals you are currently eating and add in extra food," Diversi says.

With this warning in mind, I decide to give grazing a go – increasing the frequency of my meals and decreasing their size, Hollywood-style. But to eat like the A-list will require much food preparation and inspiration, so I decide to call in the experts from healthy meal-delivery service eatfitfood.com.au.

Here’s what I ate: I started my day with an organic apple, carrot and ginger juice and about an hour later I had brown-rice porridge with poached pear for breakfast. After a gym session, I snacked on mixed nuts, seeds and a few sultanas, and then had a late lunch of Mediterranean lentil salad at 2pm. My afternoon snack was vegie sticks (carrot, capsicum, celery, cucumber) with hummus, and then dinner was a salmon fillet with baked potato chats and grilled tomato.

The main meal portions were much smaller than I am used to – but eating this way was great as I was never hungry, yet never overly full. The only problem? I’d never have the time or motivation to create food appealing enough to want to eat this often without professional help!

I did, however, pick up some handy tips: to lower your portion size and increase meal frequency, simply split your lunch into two servings, eating them two hours apart. Or, reduce the size of your main meals, and include two easy-to-prepare snacks every day, such as a piece of fruit, tub of low-fat yoghurt, handful of nuts or one piece of raisin toast.

"Create regular eating times, like when you were at school," says Diversi. Try this:

BREAKFAST: One piece wholegrain toast topped with avocado and tomato, plus one pear.

MORNING TEA: Low-fat skim latte.

LUNCH: Tuna salad with once piece wholegrain bread.

AFTERNOON TEA: One low-fat yoghurt.

DINNER: Chicken and vegetable stir-fry with, or without, ½ cup brown rice.

AFTER-DINNER SNACK: Sliced melon.