6 meals a day

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  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    Meal timing is irrelevant. Calories in vs. calories out in a given period of time leads to weight loss.
  • BrentJulius
    BrentJulius Posts: 89 Member
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    I try to eat 6 meals a day and recommend it to clients at the gym I train at as well. Many people will discredit this method commonly referred to as "grazing". There is always a new method like intermittent fasting touted to work better, but I've seen 5-6 meals a day work well, tried and true, and if you ask a traditional figure model, bodybuilder or athlete it is a basic fundamental.

    It's understandable that many cannot do this due to their jobs etc, and so you make different plans but I feel grazing is the ideal and easy if you work at a desk or somewhere you can pretty much time out your meals with a reminder. The whole purpose is to never let yourself feel hungry and eat even when you are not hungry again yet. Once your gut has received the hormone responsible for hunger, it means your metabolism has already begun to slow and you are not going to oxidize as much body fat for energy as you would when your feeling well fed.

    Yes, of course a calorie deficit is the simple science behind weight loss, but you want to try and condition your body to burn the right kind of weight: fat weight, not lean mass. Muscle is what is responsible for burning calories so the more LBM you have, the more calories you need to sustain yourself and when you go long periods without food your body wants to begin using lean mass for energy over fat as a survival mechanism. There are 3500 calories in one pound of body fat, so you need to eat 3500 calories less than you burn over a given amount of time to lose 1 pound over that given time. So it is ideal to be in a deficit but eat frequently so your body has to constantly work to break down food (yes, this in itself takes energy) and this is also why we should eat foods that have been processed outside our bodies as little as possible (whole grains, whole fruits, vegetables, brown rice and other fibrous sources). This is also why you should have protein in every meal, because it slows the absorption of carbohydrates and you feel full longer, not to mention protects your muscles from being burned as energy.

    Another reason to eat frequently is because it makes it easier for to eat what you should and not what you crave when you get really hungry and helps not to over eat either. This is what I've found is the best method of helping people lose weight. If it was easy, everyone would be thin. It’s a lifestyle change that you have to be comfortable with because a “diet” will fail you every single time and you’ll end up losing muscle in the process and go back to a higher weight than you were before as a result.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Are you hungry every three hours? Do you need to eat that often in a day or are you fine with less? Eating more often won't cause more weight loss.

    If you do want to eat that often, break up your meals or add in snacks to add more meals in a day like the above poster mentioned.

    Eating more often will aid in weight loss. If you are only eating two to three meals a day, your body thinks "Oh, I'm not going to get more food for another 6 hours, I better store this food for energy." Food get stored as fat. If you are eating every 2-3 hours, your body thinks, "I know I'll be getting more fuel in a couple hours, I can go ahead and use this food for energy now". This increases your metabolism, which in turns helps burn fat.

    Probably why this guy is so fat...

    http://www.leangains.com/

    I don't practice this and I actually do eat 5-6 times per day, but the whole speeding up your metabolism thing is just a bunch of bro-science.

    Um, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. First, I'm 6'0" and 180 lbs, so, not so fat. Second, I'm a certified personal trainer, so it's not "bro-science", its real science. Maybe you should do your research before you try to insult people on a weight loss help website.

    Wasn't calling you fat bra...I was referring to the lean gains dude...making a point that that dude was once fat and is now a BB and does not eat 6 times per day. He practices IF. My point was that all of this meal timing bull**** is highly overrated. I said that I ate 6 times a day...I do so because I practically go insane otherwise. I don't believe in all of tis stoking the fires BS...people have success eating at all times per day and doing just fine.

    I don't have any problems with people doing what works...I do take issue when people say you have to do something to be successful.
  • Roll_Tide_Meg
    Roll_Tide_Meg Posts: 255 Member
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    Great advice! :) This is exactly what happened to me. I ate at 1200 calories, lost muscle, felt terrible, gained it back as soon as I started eating over 1200 calories and now I'm creating a new lifestyle for myself. TRYING to eat clean, lift weights, do some cardio, and eating about 2000 a day and working out 6 days/week. I already eat little snacks throughout the day so maybe I will try the 5-6 meals a day...couldn't hurt....didn't see one you naysayers that it would make me GAIN weight.
  • AbsoluteNG
    AbsoluteNG Posts: 1,079 Member
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    Eating 5 times a day is bad for your teeth. Ask your dentist! At least that's what my dentist told me which further reassures me that humans are not made to eat like a chipmunk. That's not to say that eating 5 times a day doesn't work. It works because it makes the person engaged with food all day long, constantly planning the next meal that's 2 hours away. At the end of the day, it boils down to your personal preference, lifestyle, and how satisfied you feel eating at your current frequency.



    Hodgetwins eat only once or twice a day and they're pretty fit. They've been doing it for over a year now.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3m6cT51bWY
  • simplydelish2
    simplydelish2 Posts: 726 Member
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    Eating 6 small meals a day compared to eating 1 large meal a day has no special effect on increased weight loss.

    This is correct!
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I try to eat 6 meals a day and recommend it to clients at the gym I train at as well. Many people will discredit this method commonly referred to as "grazing". There is always a new method like intermittent fasting touted to work better, but I've seen 5-6 meals a day work well, tried and true, and if you ask a traditional figure model, bodybuilder or athlete it is a basic fundamental.

    It's understandable that many cannot do this due to their jobs etc, and so you make different plans but I feel grazing is the ideal and easy if you work at a desk or somewhere you can pretty much time out your meals with a reminder. The whole purpose is to never let yourself feel hungry and eat even when you are not hungry again yet. Once your gut has received the hormone responsible for hunger, it means your metabolism has already begun to slow and you are not going to oxidize as much body fat for energy as you would when your feeling well fed.

    Yes, of course a calorie deficit is the simple science behind weight loss, but you want to try and condition your body to burn the right kind of weight: fat weight, not lean mass. Muscle is what is responsible for burning calories so the more LBM you have, the more calories you need to sustain yourself and when you go long periods without food your body wants to begin using lean mass for energy over fat as a survival mechanism. There are 3500 calories in one pound of body fat, so you need to eat 3500 calories less than you burn over a given amount of time to lose 1 pound over that given time. So it is ideal to be in a deficit but eat frequently so your body has to constantly work to break down food (yes, this in itself takes energy) and this is also why we should eat foods that have been processed outside our bodies as little as possible (whole grains, whole fruits, vegetables, brown rice and other fibrous sources). This is also why you should have protein in every meal, because it slows the absorption of carbohydrates and you feel full longer, not to mention protects your muscles from being burned as energy.

    Another reason to eat frequently is because it makes it easier for to eat what you should and not what you crave when you get really hungry and helps not to over eat either. This is what I've found is the best method of helping people lose weight. If it was easy, everyone would be thin. It’s a lifestyle change that you have to be comfortable with because a “diet” will fail you every single time and you’ll end up losing muscle in the process and go back to a higher weight than you were before as a result.

    Like I said above, I eat 6 times per day because of a lot of the behavioral things you mention. But I'm trying to figure out from this how long you think it takes for your body to begin to catabolize muscle. Do you really think that intermittent fasters are going to start to lose muscle just by not eating for 16 hours? Do you have any evidence that IFers lose more lean body mass than people with more traditional eating schedules?
  • goodtimezzzz
    goodtimezzzz Posts: 640 Member
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    at least 6 I sometimes go to 12 or even 15 meals a day...fantastic!!
  • Cptrob
    Cptrob Posts: 80 Member
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    Are you hungry every three hours? Do you need to eat that often in a day or are you fine with less? Eating more often won't cause more weight loss.

    If you do want to eat that often, break up your meals or add in snacks to add more meals in a day like the above poster mentioned.

    Eating more often will aid in weight loss. If you are only eating two to three meals a day, your body thinks "Oh, I'm not going to get more food for another 6 hours, I better store this food for energy." Food get stored as fat. If you are eating every 2-3 hours, your body thinks, "I know I'll be getting more fuel in a couple hours, I can go ahead and use this food for energy now". This increases your metabolism, which in turns helps burn fat.


    This is exactly what the program said!!!


    are you guys for real???
  • nmmom2
    nmmom2 Posts: 172 Member
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    I eat about every 2 hours. This keeps your blood sugar level even throughout the day, so you don't get spikes, which can cause cravings and the afternoon slump. I have eaten this way for several years and my body has become used to it and I start to get hungry about 2-3 hours after my last meal. I have so much more energy eating this way and it keeps me from hitting the vending machine at work.

    Typical day:

    6:00am-Chocolate Whey Protein Shake-before I exercise.
    8:00am-3 slices turkey bacon and either a smoothie with greens or oatmeal with an apple and a few pecans
    10am-red bell peppers/cucumber slices/baby carrots-with homemade guacamole
    12pm-lunch-usually a grilled chicken breast and salad
    3:00pm-green smoothie
    6:00pm-Dinner

    It takes planning and preparing everything the night before that way I just pack my cooler before I leave for work in the morning.
  • Cptrob
    Cptrob Posts: 80 Member
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    at least 6 I sometimes go to 12 or even 15 meals a day...fantastic!!


    Def 15. ;);) anything more than 15 and the metabolic furnace stops functioning.. and metabolic damage shall occur.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Great advice! :) This is exactly what happened to me. I ate at 1200 calories, lost muscle, felt terrible, gained it back as soon as I started eating over 1200 calories and now I'm creating a new lifestyle for myself. TRYING to eat clean, lift weights, do some cardio, and eating about 2000 a day and working out 6 days/week. I already eat little snacks throughout the day so maybe I will try the 5-6 meals a day...couldn't hurt....didn't see one you naysayers that it would make me GAIN weight.

    That's because it won't make you gain. The problem people have is saying that it has some kind of magical impact on your metabolism...as someone who has done both IF and now eats 5-6 times per day, I can tell you it has no magical powers and doesn't help you lose weight. It's a fine way to eat if it fits your lifestyle because ultimately, that's what it's all about...it's just the stoking the fires BS that gets everyones feathers ruffled.

    I lost weight just fine doing IF...I lose weight just fine eating 5-6 times per day. I'm personally happier eating 5-6 times per day simply because I love food and enjoy eating...but it has no magical effect on my metabolism.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Meal frequency does not arbitrarily increase thermogenesis. If a given frequency increases activity or performance then obviously one should adhere to that, but that's going to differ from person to person.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17483007



    Diet induced thermogensis isn't frequency based. The idea that you should eat more frequently so that your body has to spend more energy breaking down the food is incorrect. It's based on quantity and macronutrient composition.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
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    .

    Obviously the theory behind it is to keep your metabolism stoked by consistently giving it fuel to burn. You can still give it too much fuel though so you do need to keep an eye on your calories and macros.

    Good luck!

    With respect... there is no such thing as "metabolism stoking"
  • homeyjosey
    homeyjosey Posts: 138 Member
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    meal timing is irrelevant. I used to "graze" and didnt work, I never felt satisfied.

    I turned to Intermittent fasting (leangains protocol) and got to where I wanted to be. I lost weight, gained lean mass, and recomped to below 10% BF while eating 1-ish meals a day(4 hour eating window)

    but do what works for you
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    anything less than 3000 cals and 6 "meals" a day doesn't make sense to me. 6 snacks maybe.
  • elleloch
    elleloch Posts: 739 Member
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    My meal times begin at abut 7:30 am and vary in calorie count. My diary is always open.

    730 - breakfast
    10am - snack
    Noon - lunch
    2pm - snack
    4pm - snack
    6-7ish - supper
    10pm or so - post workout snack (I work out at night)

    Depending on the intensity of the workouts I can eat anywhere from 1800 or so to 2300 calories a day, eating seven times.
  • tinabatinaflc
    tinabatinaflc Posts: 98
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    I try to eat 6 meals a day and recommend it to clients at the gym I train at as well. Many people will discredit this method commonly referred to as "grazing". There is always a new method like intermittent fasting touted to work better, but I've seen 5-6 meals a day work well, tried and true, and if you ask a traditional figure model, bodybuilder or athlete it is a basic fundamental.

    It's understandable that many cannot do this due to their jobs etc, and so you make different plans but I feel grazing is the ideal and easy if you work at a desk or somewhere you can pretty much time out your meals with a reminder. The whole purpose is to never let yourself feel hungry and eat even when you are not hungry again yet. Once your gut has received the hormone responsible for hunger, it means your metabolism has already begun to slow and you are not going to oxidize as much body fat for energy as you would when your feeling well fed.

    Yes, of course a calorie deficit is the simple science behind weight loss, but you want to try and condition your body to burn the right kind of weight: fat weight, not lean mass. Muscle is what is responsible for burning calories so the more LBM you have, the more calories you need to sustain yourself and when you go long periods without food your body wants to begin using lean mass for energy over fat as a survival mechanism. There are 3500 calories in one pound of body fat, so you need to eat 3500 calories less than you burn over a given amount of time to lose 1 pound over that given time. So it is ideal to be in a deficit but eat frequently so your body has to constantly work to break down food (yes, this in itself takes energy) and this is also why we should eat foods that have been processed outside our bodies as little as possible (whole grains, whole fruits, vegetables, brown rice and other fibrous sources). This is also why you should have protein in every meal, because it slows the absorption of carbohydrates and you feel full longer, not to mention protects your muscles from being burned as energy.

    Another reason to eat frequently is because it makes it easier for to eat what you should and not what you crave when you get really hungry and helps not to over eat either. This is what I've found is the best method of helping people lose weight. If it was easy, everyone would be thin. It’s a lifestyle change that you have to be comfortable with because a “diet” will fail you every single time and you’ll end up losing muscle in the process and go back to a higher weight than you were before as a result.

    finally. everyone, listen to this.
  • goodtimezzzz
    goodtimezzzz Posts: 640 Member
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    at least 6 I sometimes go to 12 or even 15 meals a day...fantastic!!


    Def 15. ;);) anything more than 15 and the metabolic furnace stops functioning.. and metabolic damage shall occur.

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