Like many people, you may have read somewhere that it's better to eat several mini-meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism up. While some people, especially those with GERD, gastroparesis, or other GI disorders, do better with frequent small meals, no good evidence supports many mini-meals to keep metabolism up. Indeed frequent eating throughout the day may result in an overproduction of insulin to try and lower blood sugar. This may actually lead to weight gain in some individuals. However, as stated earlier, some studies have shown that lean muscle mass is more easily preserved with IF than with calorie-restricted diets and does not negatively affect metabolism as low-calorie diets do.