Another study suggests that snacking helps appetite control by preventing overeating at meals. The authors noted that eating smaller amounts more frequently may be a more compatible pattern of eating than eating large meals for a physically-active lifestyle.3 One study used NHANES data to determine associations between snacking frequency and overweight/abdominal obesity. The study found inverse relationships between snacking frequency and mean body weight, BMI, the percentile of BMI-for-age, and waist circumference among participating adolescents. In this same study, prevalence for over-weight/obesity and the occurrence of abdominal obesity decreased as snacking frequency and energy consumed from snacks increased.4