Skipping breakfast significantly increases your risk of obesity, but eating four or more times a day rather than the standard three is likely to help you remain thin, according to University of Massachusetts Medical School researchers.

In a one-year study of the relation between eating patterns and obesity for some 499 participants, the researchers found that those who skipped breakfast were 4.5 times as likely to be obese.

The researchers reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology that they also found that greater frequency of eating breakfast or dinner away from home increased the likelihood of obesity.

But they said they found that those who ate four or more times a day were only half as likely to be obese as those eating three meals a day.

Lead researcher Yunsheng Ma, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, speculated that increased eating frequency may result in less hunger and buildup of fat.

"Further investigation of these associations in prospective studies is warranted," the researchers concluded.

Other sources: American Journal of Epidemiology