I don't think three meals a day are a problem that caused obesity... imho, the main cause are large quantities of very processed (calorie high) food and lifestyles with less physical movement. Even "real restaurants" (compared to fast food ones) add a ton of butter and other caloric ingredients to make food taste great, much more than someone cooking at home would add. Basically, it's calories in, calories out, and a full stomach of homemade healty-ish stuff has a lot less calories than what you get at a fast food joint or even an expensive restaurant.
> Basically, it's calories in, calories out, and a full stomach of homemade healty-ish stuff has a lot less calories than what you get at a fast food joint or even an expensive restaurant.
There are many health benefits to movement and our bodies evolved to have it part of our daily routine, but if you want to deal with your weight, it should done through diet. See Exercised by Lieberman:
Three square meals a day, no. Three square meals plus various snacks throughout the day is a different story.
The problem is that now, with a pandemics of obesity, we cannot just sustain status quo. We need to reverse it towards more health, less obesity. Which means that even going back to just three meals a day may not be enough.
As someone who's done every eating regime under the sun, it's very easy to binge on cookies for your one meal a day/week/month. Look how much shit keto enthusiasts can pile onto their bodies on a super-strict, mostly healthy diet for an example. People will abuse strict rule-based diets.
Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants. For 99% of people the key is that simple. Hold individuals accountable for their choices and promote, push, heck subsidize ancient eating standards over industrialized foods on society.
