5 meals a day?

ehte_h

Guys I could really do with some guidance on this. I kill it most days in the gym, exercise has never been an issue for me. However it's the nutrition where I let myself down. I'm 5ft 4 weigh 200 pounds and I could ideally do with losing 50 of them, my body type is endomorph. My progress so far has been slow and rocky to say the least considering i've almost been here a year. I've been told to eat 5 small meals a day, and I have been trawling the internet to find out what they should be. The problem is there is so much advice out there, it's almost like information over load. What I would lie is someone to tell me what 5 meals I should be eating. Please tell me actual meals, not just protein here , carbs here etc. I would like a menu plan which is easy to prepare and something I could make in advance. I'm also a vegetarian please help!

missfluffyuk

Do you eat eggs? I can't help you with the meat substitutes, but I can offer you a look at my food diary -- go back a few weeks to find better days. I'll post an example of what I try to eat here as well:

1st meal: coffee, apple & peanut butter
~Workout~
2nd meal: omlette (1 whole egg, two whites), with 50g ham, spinach, 2 - 3 cherry tomatoes, 1/3 grated carrot.
3rd meal: salad with tuna
4th meal: whatever gets made for dinner, usually chicken or fish & vegetables
5th meal: warm drink before bed.

If you look at my diary, I split my day up into time periods of typical meal times, and typical snack times. I'm thinking of changing this into flat periods of x-hour blocks. I think I'll go do that now... Yeah...

ehte_h

That's great thank you so much. Gonna take a look at the diary for more ideas

kenscarlson

I just joined MFP yesterday I and intend on using the 5 meal/day plan... I think this is a good fit for me because I never used to eat breakfast in the past but I always seemed to intake far more calories at the end of the day because because of my huge lunch and late dinner. This will certainly have an effect on my metabolism.

Here's my first weeks plan and I chose each meal carefully so I could get a balanced nutritional intake. I plan on getting more creative and mix up these meals with others but for now it sure is easy preparing meals when they are all the same.

This is my first 7 day plan with 5 meal/day plan

7am - Oatmeal 1 cup + some raisens and 1 tblsp honey
10am - 2 cups spinach salad + balsamic vinigerette
12:30pm - 1 can tuna in water, whole grain bread, light mayo
3:30pm - 1 whole baked yam, skinned, then diced (read up how amazing they are)
6:30 - Dinner varies every night since i'm with wife (also eating well) Usually quinioa or brn rice or couscous with lot of fresh veggies and a sauce of some kind. We also have chicken and fish but are trying to cut back to 2-3 times per week. (look at Cafe Yumm sauce)

I am also having kale shakes made with orange juice in the mornings too, they are another supefood/drink

jdub1011

I know what you mean about too much information on the internet regarding nutrition. I was in your shoes about 9 months and 25 lbs ago. I workout 4 days a week with a former college strength coach. Lots of heavy resistance lifting and sprints. I do eat 5 times a day. My suggestions is find some low fat/high protein "go to" foods that you really enjoy. When I look at my diary it is a few things that I consume often. A typical day looks like this:

Pre-workout: OJ, oatmeal with blueberries (or other fruit) and a splash of 1% milk
Post-work: Eggs. Usually a 2 or 3 egg omelette or scrambled eggs. Occassionaly a fried egg sandwich.
Lunch: Salad with left over meat from the previous day's dinner (turkey, tuna, chicken, lean steak or salmon). I add as many fresh vegetables as I can - onions, peppers, avacados, etc.
Snack: Fruit (banana, grapefruit) or Greek yogurt
Dinner: Lean meat, vegetables, quinoa

I have yet to get tired off any of my "go to" foods. Visit the Men's Health website to find good information on nutrition and some great recipe ideas.

mbeuchert24

jdub1011 wrote: »

I know what you mean about too much information on the internet regarding nutrition. I was in your shoes about 9 months and 25 lbs ago. I workout 4 days a week with a former college strength coach. Lots of heavy resistance lifting and sprints. I do eat 5 times a day. My suggestions is find some low fat/high protein "go to" foods that you really enjoy. When I look at my diary it is a few things that I consume often. A typical day looks like this:

Pre-workout: OJ, oatmeal with blueberries (or other fruit) and a splash of 1% milk
Post-work: Eggs. Usually a 2 or 3 egg omelette or scrambled eggs. Occassionaly a fried egg sandwich.
Lunch: Salad with left over meat from the previous day's dinner (turkey, tuna, chicken, lean steak or salmon). I add as many fresh vegetables as I can - onions, peppers, avacados, etc.
Snack: Fruit (banana, grapefruit) or Greek yogurt
Dinner: Lean meat, vegetables, quinoa

I have yet to get tired off any of my "go to" foods. Visit the Men's Health website to find good information on nutrition and some great recipe ideas.

I know this is an old post, but my husband just got home from deployment and we are going to work on our eating habits starting next week (he wants to take in some of the food he missed while gone LOL), but we were talking about different things and he told me I should be eating 5 small meals a day...so I did a search for that and this was the best post that came up.

But basically I said the same thing to him, that there is so much information that I didn't believe him that I needed to eat 5 meals a day LOL. He works in the medical field and told me he would bring home the recent, peer reviewed articles he came across.

I was just looking for ideas, I think I'm at like 1300 - 1400 calories right now and I don't usually have time to make myself breakfast M-F (but hopefully once I get some energy back that'll change), I love eggs, so options that I could make a head of time would be good. I usually don't eat until I get to work and then I usually have toaster waffles, instant oatmeal, or instant cream of wheat. My lunches have been leftovers or eating out. My dinners while my husband have been gone have either consisted of snacking, or I used meal subscription boxes (amazing food, but not low in calorie).

Michael190lbs

eating 6 times a day or twice a day I can guarantee you there is no difference your body consumes calories and burns calories the frequency of those consumed calories doesn't matter one smidge. Yes you will read that it does all over the internet typically from people selling ads or products. Why?? Humans believe there is some magic method to weight loss when the truth is " You are what you eat" when comes to weight.. Get yourself the minimum protein and fat then find your baseline calorie range for maintaining weight. Once you can do that decrease or increase calories to body weight ratio

extra_medium

You can eat 10 meals per day or one meal per day.. what matters for weight loss is how many calories you consume vs how many calories you burn over time.

AnvilHead

^ Both the above posts are correct. Meal frequency/timing is irrelevant to weight loss - eat however many meals works best for your personal preference, workout performance, etc. As long as you're in a calorie deficit you'll lose weight whether you're eating one or ten meals per day.

Want a couple studies to back that up?:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494

Wetcoaster

tziol

Find unprocessed food products that you like and prepare meals from them, where ideally in each meal you will consume 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fat (this is not a rule so its up to you how you divide). In each meal don't consume more than 70g carbs and 25-30g proteins as your body will not absorb more than that in one meal. Don't eat too much fruits as you may consume too much fructose (simple sugar). Beside that count calories if you need to.

psuLemon

Meal frequency and somotatypes (endomorph) are both myths. Below is a group that can help you with recipes. But you can also just google vegetarian recipes. I like mccormick.com for recipes, but I am not sure how many they have for vegetarian. There are no specific meals you should be eating or number of meals. Find foods you enjoy, get a food scale and focus on getting a variety of nutrients.


http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/45-happy-herbivores

J72FIT

Wetcoaster wrote: »

+1

soccerkon26

Eat when you want and what you want, as long as it's within your calorie goal you set on MFP.

That being said, you can check out my diary. I eat 6 meals a day

BillMcKay1

I eat 6 a day but not really for any "training" reason. I eat 6x as I have found it keeps me from getting hungry and potentially over ingesting calories. For others they prefer 3 bigger meals a day. Some do intermittent fasting.

There is no right or wrong way as long as you control caloric input/output to remain in a deficit.

You just have to find what works for you.