What's your preferred eating frequency?

When in a calorie deficit, I eat my first meal post-workout (usually quite a bit of protein) around noonish, then a huge dinner around 5-7pm, then the rest of my calories (typically another 500-1000) right before bed.

When in a calorie surplus, I usually eat breakfast in addition to the above.

How you get your calories, whether by 'grazing' all day or eating a few large meals, doesn't matter. Just don't eat more than you need (or less if you want to lose) and all is well.

I find I do best with a hearty breakfast, good lunch, afternoon snack & satisfying dinner.

6am breakfast
8am coffee
11am apple
2pm lunch
5pm dinner

I love days like this!

I like my three meals (breakfast usually small as well: yogurt, fruit, or oatmeal). I tried the 6 meals and i didn't feel good at all. I felt exactly how you described.

Though some say this is bad, I enjoy late night snacking. What works for me is to have a moderate breakfast to get me through the morning, usually a light snack in the early afternoon, and then I graze all evening

Constantly.

i like big meals, so however sumo wrestlers eat, that would be my preference. with less calories

I eat every two hours, so I have to be careful keeping calories.
At times I have to force myself to only eat three times a day.

2am: pre-workout snack
6/7am: coffee
9/10am: breakfast
12/1pm: lunch
2/4: lunch 2
5:30/6:30: dinner
7/8: snack

I eat every day.

If I could eat constantly, I would. But for now I have the three meal, two snack, then late night eating that's way more a snack... Sometimes I eat a snack before dinner, too. Ok, I guess I eat all day.

Preferred eating frequency? ALL THE TIME!!!
What I normally do? What works for me, which is to eat several meals a day (4-6 small meals).
You have to find what works for you. And, that can change from time to time.

Constantly eating it seems just stick to my calories. Sometimes 8 times a day sometimes 2 and sometimes none but average is 4-5 times lol.

it really depends on school and work. Typically it's 3 meals and one late night snack. My meals aren't really one plate though. I jsut pick at different things and then include everything i eat as a meal. Does that make sense? I dont set up a plate and say "ok, this is my dinner." It's much more of a series of side dishes I eat over like a half hour.

I know its common around most weight loss practices to do the typical 3 meal, 3 snack thing (probably due to the highly perpetuated "eating more often speeds up your metabolism" myth), but I personally can't do it. I feel like all the times I've tried that, it's kept constantly thinking about food all day long, and never feeling truly satisfied or full after eating cos my meals had to be so darn tiny!

Lately I've kept it at three solid meals a day, sometimes two, breakfast being a small & simple serving of oatmeal with soymilk, walnut pieces & a banana. I prefer waiting until I'm actually a bit hungry, and then eating to my fill and not having to eat until several hours later. I enjoy my meals better that way as well, and I'd much rather save my calories to have a bigger serving of a hot dinner or lunch, than use them towards snacking on fiber bars or peanuts during the day (which usually don't do much for my hunger). But thats just me.

Anyone else have eating patterns that differ from the "norm" or are we all doing the snacky, frequent small meal sort of thing?

I ate 3 very small meals a day and a snack. I had been dieting for 15 years and did the typically yo-yo so got frustrated and developed my own "plan" eating what I liked on small plates, mostly healthy foods. One of the diets I did had recommended not eating after 7pm so I did that. Once I saw the scale going down and got a feel for how much less I needed to eat for the weight to consistently drop and realized I probably had enough to eat for the day I stopped eating at say 5pm or 3pm. I lost 40 lbs this way and my doctor thought it was great. I have NEVER been one to fast, in fact I didn't think I ever could because I always felt so weak and I thought it was not good for me. But I suddenly realized by stopping my eating early in the afternoon I was actually fasting 15-17 hours. I lost 40 lbs this way and my doctor said it was great. He checked my blood work and all my hormone levels were normal (for an over 50 year old woman). I was working with one of my super fit martial arts friends and told him I thought I found the secret to be "mini meals" and "mini fasts" so he told me to look up Eat Stop Eat (he had lost 30 lbs doing the same thing). So I looked it up and was reluctant to buy it even with my friends recommendation, but I finally got it. I learned that during fasting your body produces HGH during hours 15-24. I never did fasts longer than 24 hours. I lost my last 17 lbs of fat by doing 24 hour fasts (eating one meal a day). My doctor approved. I can't recommend you do this. Discuss it with your doctor first if you think it's something you want to try. This worked until I got down to 10% body fat (never been there in my life before, it was scary at first, but my doctor said I was fine!) Once a female gets down to 12% body fat then she has to worry about starvation mode, so I definitely had to eat more.

I've been maintaining under 12% body fat for over a year now at almost age 52 and all my blood work shows that I'm as healthy as ever. Now I skip breakfast instead and workout fasted. This is another thing I didn't think I could do. I felt weak and for the last year I've been telling everyone I can't workout fasted. But since I am too lean to do 24 hour fasts I miss out on the HGH production. I recently learned that your body also produces HGH when you workout fasted. So I decided to try it and get over my phobia about it. It's hard at first then you get used to it. Now I can't stand working out if I'm not fasted first (I simply go in the morning before eating). It only works with zero calories. Tea or coffee with no cream, just stevia.

So now my eating has evolved to skipping breakfast and starting my eating window at lunch time (whenever that is) and eating until bedtime. But I am no longer in the weight loss phase of my journey, I'm in the maintenance phase.

THE BOTTOM LINE: It does not matter what your eating pattern is. All that matters is the calorie budget at the end of the day. A calorie deficit for weight loss and keeping within calorie budget. A bunch of mini meals makes it harder for most people to stay within a calorie budget, but if they can still remain at a deficit it works, if they can't remain at a deficit it does not work. Simple as that.

Before and after pictures to see how it worked for me, eating less to lose at a calorie deficit no matter what the eating pattern, and working out to develop the lean body mass. End of story. Still eating at my calorie budget for a tiny person with only 104 lbs of lean body mass. Small people must eat less (hint, if you are short you are probably small under all the extra fat).

BEFORE:


AFTER: