Having meals at regular intervals through the day can help you manage your weight.

What's a simple, straightforward way to avoid weight gain as you age? Eat at consistent intervals.

Research shows that people who eat meals regularly throughout the day tend to have a lower risk of being overweight or obese than people who sometimes skip breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Get regular
Regular eaters not only weigh less and have smaller waists but are also less likely to develop metabolic syndrome or experience insulin resistance, conditions that can pave the way for heart disease and diabetes.

Plan for more
An even better plan? Eat many small meals throughout the day instead of three large ones. This helps keep your appetite from getting out of control, so you eat less overall throughout the day.

Guidelines for healthy eating:

Some basic guidelines for a healthy balanced diet are as follows:

• Eat small and frequent meals, typically 3 main meals, i.e., breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a mid-morning and evening snack. 
• Eat a variety of whole grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables, especially coloured ones like dark green (palak, methi), red (bell peppers, tomato), orange(carrots, pumpkin), etc. Having all of these in your meals is what makes the best balanced diet. 
• Add a variety of seasonally available fruits to your daily diet.
• Limit or eliminate processed or refined products (white bread, white sugar, etc.) and instead have wholegrains (wholewheat, bajra, ragi, jowar, etc.) and high fibre foods.
• Limit the use of high-fat products like ghee, vanaspati, and butter.
• Restrict salt intake to a minimum quantity (less than 5g/day).
• Drink plenty of water to ensure good hydration.
• Include nutritionally dense foods like nuts and seeds(almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds) in your diet.
• Always ensure that you adopt the right cooking methods (steaming, boiling, sautéing, etc) to avoid nutrient loss.

A balanced diet food list incorporates four food groups:

Make most of your meal vegetables and fruits – ½ of your plate.
Vegetables and fruits are the primary sources of a balanced diet. Aim for variety and colour, and remember that potatoes don't count as vegetables on the Healthy Eating Plate because of their blood sugar impact.

Go for whole grains – ¼ of your plate.
Whole grains, such as whole wheat, barley, oats, brown rice, and dishes produced with them, such as whole wheat pasta, have a gentler effect on blood sugar and insulin than refined grains such as white bread and white rice.

Protein power – ¼ of your plate.
Fish, poultry, beans, and nuts are all good sources of protein that can be mixed into salads and go well with vegetables on a plate. Limit your intake of red meat and stay away from processed meats like bacon and sausage.

Healthy plant oils – in moderation.
Avoid partially hydrogenated oils, which contain unhealthy trans fats, and instead opt for healthy vegetable oils like olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut, and others. Keep in mind that "low-fat" does not equal "healthy."

As discussed above, a balanced diet contains goodness of multiple vitamins and minerals. Hence, it is very essential for a balanced diet to contain foods from each of the above groups. ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition has provided a typical ‘My plate for the day,’ which is curated to show nutritious value obtained from the above-mentioned food groups arranged in a balanced way. 

A balanced diet plate of food typically provides around 50-60% of total calories from carbohydrates, majorly from complex carbohydrates (i.e., whole grains, millets), about 20-30% from fats (vegetable oils, ghee, etc.), and about 10-15% from proteins (legumes, milk and milk products). Half of the plate should be filled with fruits, green leafy vegetables, and other vegetables. The other portions should consist of cereals and millets, followed by pulses and milk or curd.