Why you might need to rethink eating 6 meals per day!

husseycd

I think the only thing that interested me in this article was the note that increased meal frequency tend to lead to increased hunger. I've often wondered about that. I wait to eat breakfast until 10 or so (I get up at 6 a.m.) and have found I'm only really hungry once I start to eat. I naturally eat several small meals a day because I'm starving, but each meal is 200-300 calories. I've often wondered if I would feel less hungry if I just ate bigger meals less frequently.

In the end, it doesn't really matter for me. I'm at maintenance and pretty lean, so it's not like eating six times/day has made me fat or anything. I just get tired of eating all the dang time and being hungry minutes after I do eat.

kaseyr1505

When I am on my period, I eat 5-6 smaller meals, because if I don't, I get too lightheaded. I have lost 34 pounds, and have about 13 to go.

I dislike studies like this, because they don't seem scientific. I'm waiting for one that says "Overweight people drink water, so water causes weight gain"

So, I'm gonna keep on keepin' on, because it works for me.

sc003ro

How else can you get the gram of protein per pound if your trying to gain muscle.....your 240....you need 240 grams....you need 5 meals a day....80grams per meal waste it.

MeMyCatsandI

I'm starting to think my posts are invisible. :frown:

Not invisible. Just largely pointless.

Well, aren't you just a giant ray of sunshine!

angiez93

This simply suggests that people are unaware of their calorie intake. If someone is logging or otherwise keeping a pretty good generally tally on calories consumed, this shouldn't be an issue regardless of how many times per day you eat.

I would say the vast majority of people don't have a clue as to how many calories they are consuming so it would stand to reason that if they increased meal frequency they would also be increasing energy consumption.

These were exactly my thoughts. I eat frequently because otherwise I would be hungry all the time.

MeMyCatsandI

As I stated in my first paragraph, the paragraph that was actually written by me, not the author of the article, is that you should do what works for you! But the point of the article is really pretty simple. Don't eat 5-6 meals a day thinking that it stokes your metabolism or helps you burn more fat, because according to the studies mentioned, it doesn't. And though it does help to keep your blood sugar more level throughout the day, it is a consistently high level.

Of course we will gain weight if we eat more than we burn. That isn't even being argued. I found it to be an interesting read and thought others might too.

If it works for you, do it. But do it for the right reasons, whatever YOUR right reasons are! And more importantly, I think if more people read this (any other articles/studies like it) the old.... eat lots of small meals a day to keep your metabolism humming myth..... might be dispelled eventually.

Timimbo

I have done the 6 meals a day and 2 meals a day while cutting / putting on weight and they work the same. There was no difference in either. I eat when I'm hungry and make sure I hit macros and not go over. Don't stress over eating times, it's really not that hard.

ruthejp13

We had a guest lecturer in a nutrition class whose study wasn't published yet that said the opposite for female Olympic figure skaters. Just yesterday I rewatched the video and was reading thru the notes and slides. I'll post some later.

My name is Dan Benardot.
I'm a professor in the Department of
Nutrition at Georgia State University

let's look at what the science says
about strategies for decreasing body fat.
First, let's think about some realities.
Body weight and body fat are very tightly
regulated.
Recent energy regulation research reveals
that the role of insulin, the hormone
leptin, and the hormone ghrelin are very
important in energy regulation.
Insulin is a long-term regulator of
energy balance, food intake, and fatness,
adiposity.
And, glucose metabolism in adipose tissue
plays a role in leptin concentrations.
Deficits in the production of leptin,
have been shown to increase fatness, or
adiposity in humans.
And the enteric hormone ghrelin acts as
an appetite stimulating hormone and has
been implicated in both short and
long-term appetite, food intake, and body
weight regulation.

blah blah

it's been found that subject who skip
breakfast as adults had significantly
higher waist circumference and body mass
indexes.

blah blah

We're going to look at how energy
imbalances during the day can impact
weight.
The traditional view is that you would
look at the total energy consumed.
That is, the total energy caloric
consumption over 24 hours of a person,
than you'd look at the total energy
expenditure over that same 24 hours for a
person, and look at the ratio of those
two values.
If over the course of the day, 24 hours a
person consume, let's say 2,000 calories
and they burn 2,000 calories, then you
would say they are in perfect energy
balance.

When you look at energy balance, but in a
more microeconomic view instead of the
macroeconomic view of the full 24 hours
in the day.
In fact, when you take a microeconomic
view, you realize that what you're
assessing is one simple transitional
point over the course of a day.
You're not measuring what happens to
energy balance at all over the course of
the day, you're just taking one point in
the day and saying, this point will tell
us everything we need to know about a
person's energy balance.

blah

we've been studying the time that a
person spends in an energy deficit, the
time that a person spends in an energy
balance surplus, how big the energy
surplus is or how big the energy balance
deficit is.
And what we found is that the time spent
in an energy deficit and the magnitude of
that deficit, the time spent in an energy
balance surplus and how big the surplus
is, it's a very big difference in what
the obesity outcomes will be for that
person.

This guy talked for 2.5 hours and was monotone. The information was amazing. He concentrated on athletes but addressed the obesity epidemic and had an interesting study on people in a retirement home. I just wish I was able to attend the office hours and ask questions.

I highly recommend taking online nutrition classes. This one was from Vanderbilt on Coursera.org

edit to fix img

MeMyCatsandI

1. " However, researchers found no fat loss advantage to eating more often." - okay so what - did they find an actual disadvantage? other than in the surplus group?
2. I eat several small conscious meals (not necessarily snacking or grazing) - I know what I am eating and it is nutrient dense food and I count the calories so I am in a deficit.
3. I take offense to the opinion of the writer that everyone who chooses frequent eating is just mindlessly grazing on junk and therefore will not be able to sustain weight loss. pffft

1. As far as a person's blood sugar levels and fat burning levels I would say yes. Blood sugar was level but high. Those who ate more often never burned fat stores like those who ate less often.
2. I think MFPers have an advantage on this one. But I think many people outside of MFP are completely unaware of calories in food, how many calories they need, etc. So I agree that most people on MFP probably aim for nutrient dense foods for the mini-meals or between meal snacks. I think the general population probably doesn't.
3. I don't think she was saying all people who eat frequently are eating mindlessly. But I do think many are. And again, the simple fact that you're HERE would lead me to believe you know more than most about food and nutrition.

Birder155

Food for thought.
Thanks for posting this. :flowerforyou:

Currently, I'm eating an average of 4 meals per day but I'm going to try eating 3. I'll just add what I eat at my 4th meal to lunch or dinner and extend the time between my meals.

Much of my need to eat stems from food cues and not actual hunger.

Iwishyouwell

I think the only thing that interested me in this article was the note that increased meal frequency tend to lead to increased hunger. I've often wondered about that. I wait to eat breakfast until 10 or so (I get up at 6 a.m.) and have found I'm only really hungry once I start to eat. I naturally eat several small meals a day because I'm starving, but each meal is 200-300 calories. I've often wondered if I would feel less hungry if I just ate bigger meals less frequently.

Can confirm that, at leasts for me, eating often sparks off hunger, or at least cravings. Snacks and small meals aren't my thing for this very reason. I prefer to eat well and let a good, sizeable meal carry me over for a long time.