4-6 meals a day?

impudentputz
impudentputz Posts: 479 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Who does this and how many calories(generally) is each meal you eat? Currently I am eating 3ish meals a day with a few snacks while at work was thinking of switching it up to see how it works. Any thoughts?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    meal timing doesnt really make a difference in weight loss, its calories that count. make sure you are gettign plenty of protein and fruit and veg.

    for the record during the working week it looks something like this:

    breakfast (350)
    morning snack (200)
    lunch (400)
    afternoon snack (150)
    pre workout snack (150)
    tea (800)
  • sewingdiscontent
    sewingdiscontent Posts: 112
    I do this. I eat between 200 and 300 cals a mini-meal. I like it bc I always am getting to eat something and bc my stomach doesn't get super full all. This has led to my actual stomach shrinking and me feeling full with less food.

    It does require a lot of food prep though. I feel like I am always chopping vegetables, but to me, that's a good feeling and I have the time.
  • Dpade1337
    Dpade1337 Posts: 21
    The idea behind the eating 4-6 meals, or eating every 3 hours is to keep your metabolism up. I don't know about all of that. I do know that since I started eating 200-300 calorie meals every 3 hours, I feel significantly less hungry all the time. I'm not trying so hard to space meals and snacks. IT keeps the cravings away. It works for some people and not for others. I would say try it for a few weeks and if it's not for you, no harm done!
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    The idea behind the eating 4-6 meals, or eating every 3 hours is to keep your metabolism up. I don't know about all of that. I do know that since I started eating 200-300 calorie meals every 3 hours, I feel significantly less hungry all the time. I'm not trying so hard to space meals and snacks. IT keeps the cravings away. It works for some people and not for others. I would say try it for a few weeks and if it's not for you, no harm done!

    The idea WAS that eating around 6 meals a day would boost your metabolism. Unfortunately, it was something that came about back in the 60's and 70's with no proper scientific backing. It has since been debunked.

    It will all boil down to you and how you like to eat. You'll find many people on here who eat 6-8 meals on one end of the spectrum, and others like myself who eat 1-2 in a fasting style approach. Both can produce results.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    The idea behind the eating 4-6 meals, or eating every 3 hours is to keep your metabolism up. I don't know about all of that. I do know that since I started eating 200-300 calorie meals every 3 hours, I feel significantly less hungry all the time. I'm not trying so hard to space meals and snacks. IT keeps the cravings away. It works for some people and not for others. I would say try it for a few weeks and if it's not for you, no harm done!

    The idea WAS that eating around 6 meals a day would boost your metabolism. Unfortunately, it was something that came about back in the 60's and 70's with no proper scientific backing. It has since been debunked.

    It will all boil down to you and how you like to eat. You'll find many people on here who eat 6-8 meals on one end of the spectrum, and others like myself who eat 1-2 in a fasting style approach. Both can produce results.

    ^ that.
  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
    You lost 82 pounds doing it with 3 meals and some snacks. Why mess with it now. Its not really going to change anything, because your intake happens over a longer time frame than just an hour.

    I like to eat breakfast and have some snacks at night, to prevent me from rage binging everything in the fridge, but that is a completely different reason.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    Who does this and how many calories(generally) is each meal you eat? Currently I am eating 3ish meals a day with a few snacks while at work was thinking of switching it up to see how it works. Any thoughts?

    4-6 meals a day? I have a job, I don't have time for that.

    I do two or three max.
  • girllovedcupcakes
    girllovedcupcakes Posts: 109 Member
    I just switched from 3 meals 2 snacks to 5 meals. I just took part of each meal and moved it into my snacks. I have an open diary if you want to see what I do. Im finding it get hungry less with this new arrangement. I only have 2 meals that require any prep day of and that is breakfast and dinner. The three meals in the middle are all preped in advance and they only require to be kept in a fridge or lunch box, no heating required.
  • aelunyu
    aelunyu Posts: 486 Member
    I think at some point we all did this in the bodybuilding circles. At one point I was up to 8. I'll say this. It doesn't hurt. It also doesn't help. Meal frequency has no direct effect on weight loss that has been observed. That's not to say people that eat more frequently arent skinnier. Causation is not correlation, rather, it's the implied discipline that comes with such a practice. If you're emphasizing meal timing/frequency, you're most likely tracking things pretty diligently, thereby advancing your weight loss efforts.
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    My wife has Chrones and through her own research found that the :many small meals" is not what it was cracked up to be. 3 normal meals is better for digestive health.
    For people with disorders like IBS and Chrones, digestive normalcy is a bigger challenge so I take heed to the information my wife finds.
  • foodfastfit
    foodfastfit Posts: 154 Member
    If you're a low carber, then you'll be fine eating fewer meals. However, if you're not tracking your carbs, then dividing up your daily intake into many smaller meals will help to keep your blood sugar from spiking and also your energy level and mood stable.
  • Bamacraft
    Bamacraft Posts: 175 Member
    I eat 4-6 meals/day most days. On days i workout i aim for ~2000 cals. I try to keep 4 of my meals at ~400 cals (eggs or chicken breast or baked fish, brown rice, raw green veggies/steamed veggies) and then use the remaining 400 for snacks spread out between those 4. apples, nuts, a protein shake after lifting etc..

    I have a desk job and when here all day its hard not to want a snack or something. The smaller meals help me prevent over doing it calorie wise. Plus, eating 2-3 large meals makes me sluggish and sleepy all day.
  • rabblerabble
    rabblerabble Posts: 471 Member
    Eating 5-6 small well balanced meals a day is working for me. Sure it all comes down to calories in versus calories out as some have noted, but I feel that my metabolism burns a lot more calories when I'm eat more frequently.

    You think about it, and many people eat that many times a day anyway. Not unusual for someone to have a breakfast, eat a donut or pastry mid-morning, have a lunch (often fast food), grab a candy bar or bag of chips from the vending machine during the afternoon, have a hearty dinner with dessert, then have a bag of popcorn late at night watching TV. That's 6 meals with at least half of them being rather unhealthy.
  • JustJennie1
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,749 Member
    I used to eat every 2-3 hours but it got to the point where I was constantly hungry and thinking about my next meal/snack. It was also a PITA when I went places because I had to make sure I packed snacks.

    It did nothing for me weight-wise and was rather quite annoying.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    The idea behind the eating 4-6 meals, or eating every 3 hours is to keep your metabolism up. I don't know about all of that. I do know that since I started eating 200-300 calorie meals every 3 hours, I feel significantly less hungry all the time. I'm not trying so hard to space meals and snacks. IT keeps the cravings away. It works for some people and not for others. I would say try it for a few weeks and if it's not for you, no harm done!

    The idea WAS that eating around 6 meals a day would boost your metabolism. Unfortunately, it was something that came about back in the 60's and 70's with no proper scientific backing. It has since been debunked.

    It will all boil down to you and how you like to eat. You'll find many people on here who eat 6-8 meals on one end of the spectrum, and others like myself who eat 1-2 in a fasting style approach. Both can produce results.

    ^ that.

    second that...

    OP - I would say eat when you are hungry and don't eat when you are not hungry ..I eat about four times a day but if I am not hungry sometimes it is only three times ..just depends on the day...
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    Meal timing and number of meals doesn't matter

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11319656

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1905998

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

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15085170

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8399092

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8383639

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21123467

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985
  • shannashannabobana
    shannashannabobana Posts: 625 Member
    I tried doing this for a while and hated it. I feel better on 2-3 meals a day. I only snack if I'm really hungry. If I eat enough at mealtime I don't need snacks or breakfast.
  • palmerar
    palmerar Posts: 489 Member
    I have some digestive issues, and I find that eating smaller meals actually helps, I am eating less food so there is less bloating/ tummy aches/ strange tummy noises. Also, since I am eating less I eat more slowly so I try to take the time to enjoy my food, which probably also helps with digestive issues. I am a bored eater too so when I am able to eat every 3 hours or so, I do not have the impulse to go buy a cookie or chocolate or latte. However, I do reserve a good portion (600-800) of my calories for dinner, so basically I have 3 small meals and 1 big one. Do what works best in your schedule and with your goals.
  • OkieTink
    OkieTink Posts: 285 Member
    I have better things to do than time meals. I eat when I'm hungry, and I eat until I'm no longer hungry :)

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