Eating 5x a day?

Follow your plan your way. Don't argue with your mother, but don't follow her advice either (when it is bad advice anyway)....

As others have said, it doesn't matter how often you eat as long as over all your calories are appropriate. If it helps you to keep from overeating at the next meal, then that is good.

I typically eat 3 meals a day and not a lot of snacks, and that didn't prevent me from gaining weight when I was eating too much in those 3 meals.

Yup.....sometimes mothers do not know best. After all, they are people, and they get misinformation, years of habit-making under their belts, and make mistakes - just like we all do. My own mother sounds like yours when it comes to dieting information she has chosen to believe.

Exhibit A: I was speaking with my mother about another (elderly) family member that doesn't eat enough every day, sometimes not even making it to 1,000 calories. (there are so many factors involved here that I am not going to get into) My mother balked at this because said person is already so tiny and doesn't need to lose any more weight (which I never said the person had done), but how she should probably be eating that much since she is so fat, blah, blah, blah.....which I responded by saying "No Mom, or you'll end up passing out and I'll have to take you to the hospital." She disagreed and I did not bother trying to educate her because she does not want to hear logic and truth; she just wants to complain.

Edited to add snack ideas: I also work a 9-5 and eat 5, sometimes 6 times day. I don't eat clean or anything, but I have seen results since I started MFP last year. I snack on Fiber One 90 calorie bars, Special K 90 calorie bars, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, apples, clementines, cheese sticks, peanut butter & apples, sweet potato chips, popcorn, strawberries & blueberries, rice crisps (those flavored ones), yogurt..and occasionally junk, such as Cheez-Its (because Cheez-Its are from heaven and can't be wrong).

Try not to let your mom stress you out too much...trust me, it will get easier to just let her stuff go in one ear and out the other, and just remember it is her way of trying to help, to show love, but it doesn't mean you have to do as she says.

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"Well, hey, then more power to ya!

Do what works, by all means. I just know that most don't respond well to that, in my experience. And many who do respond well to a point quit before long. if a person has pituitary, thyroid, or insulin/blood sugar issues, they'd definitely run into problems."
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Actually, people with insulin/blood sugar issues do best at eating at regular scheduled meals and snacks throughout the day to help keep their BSL even. I think you are getting hung up on the word "meal" when most of us who say we eat more than 3x a day are including snacks in between full-on meals.

Edited- There were too many quotes and I think deleted the wrong ones.....please forgive me.

I've never personally known a multiple meal eater to lose ANY serious amount of weight. I tried it years back and lost only water weight. Your body needs time to clean out the contents of your stomach, and no, you don't get away with just having caloric content in a surplus or deficiency since your body has to excrete insulin with each of those little meals, which is why some of the absolute fattest women just have a coffee and then a bagel and then some fruit, some pasta, and some fish, plus more fruit. And by the end of the day, they not only stay huge, but they always will because they just can't bring themselves to be hungry even for a little while, even if they do manage to eat somewhat healthfully.

We all need that "I'm full" feeling regularly. Plus, keeping track of the calories of 5 daily meals is very hard. I'd imagine that would be very easy to screw up.

surely you're joking. perhaps you hadn't read all the responses, but as i said.....i have always eaten multiple meals, it can in no way be described as an 'excuse to binge', nor is it inevitable that the food choices i make would be unhealthy simply because i spread what i eat out over several smaller meals throughout the day. weight loss has nothing to do with what you eat or when you eat, but how much you eat over the day. if what you eat equals more than what you use, you gain weight. the rest is irrelevant. obviously as you can see, your statement that no multiple meal eater would ever lose ANY serious amount of weight is completely unfounded and i am only one of many examples i'm sure.

Your mom is wrong. Then again, so are you (sort of).

Number of meals and timing of meals doesn't matter unless you are a diabetic or have other relevant health concerns. All that matters is calories in vs. calories out. If your calorie goal is 1500 and you eat one 1500-calorie meal per day and that's it, you'll still lose weight. You'll be hungry, but you'll lose.

HOWEVER, it's true for a lot of us that eating small meals throughout the day keeps us satisfied, meaning we're less likely to get really hungry and eat everything in sight. I eat three meals a day with two snacks, just like you're suggesting. I'm never hungry. When I was eating three larger meals per day, I was way more likely to eat something I shouldn't have and go over my calories for the day.

But no, snacking itself does NOT make you "fatter." As long as you're within your calorie goal, it doesn't matter if you eat 10 times a day or only 1. So, keep snacking if it helps you stay within your daily limit. Snacking is pretty much my favorite thing to do.

Also, who cares what mommy thinks? You're an adult. Have a mind of your own!

Just eat ... and stay under your maintenance.

It doesn't matter how you eat, when you eat, why you eat ... as long as you stay under your maintenance you will lose weight.

While some people may binge if they eat a lot of small meals, another may binge if they eat too many big meals.

Find what works for you & stick with it. There is no right or wrong answer.

There is no blanket statement that will fit every persons body-listen to your own body make good food choices and stay within your calorie allowance-being a mother I understand how sometimes she can love children so much and want to "think for them" but it's really necessary to remember they are separate human beings they need to make up their own lives and they can think for themselves. Good wishes and great job in your endeavor to be healthy

most of my calories come from snacks lol. i could not live without snacks. <3Snacks.

...otherwise i binge too. 3 meals isnt enough. constantly need something in my mouth.. especially since i'm gonna quit smoking on monday yiiiiikes.

I just got into an argument with my mother about the benefits of having 5 small meals a day. Particularly, I've read that having the daily meals- bfast, lunch, and dinner with 2 small snacks in between helps keep you from binging. Well, she keeps nagging that snacking between meals is what's making me "fatter" and so today I felt that maybe I should cut snacks and eat only 3x a day. Today I wound up binging by dinner because I was so hungry. Granted, after looking back, I should have traded yogurt and protein bars for maybe veggie-protein based snacks instead but even when I brought that up, she insisted even eating vegetables alone is going to make me fat just due to the calories.

If eating small snack between meals is keeping you from binging, just continue to do so. Just make sure that you're counting those calories and it fits within your allowance. In that respect you are right. However the whole meal timing myth you've been reading about is just that a myth.
In her defense she's also right that if you over consume anything, even vegetables it will make you fat.

What the hell??? Her idea of losing weight is strictly cardio (cuz according to her, lifting weights makes women "bulky") and only eating one or two meals a day which I think is ridiculous. I am going to go see a doctor to get my blood tested for thyroid issues or PCOS, the latter which I have most of the symptoms for but she does not educate herself on this disease and won't take it seriously, saying that I don't really have it and use it as an excuse and simply eat too much. She looks at me in disgust when I eat more than twice a day and always mutters that I'll never lose weight if I continue to eat more than that. I feel that when I did used to eat only once or twice a day, I would binge like crazy and it may have shot my metabolism as well...

Well she's wrong, it's very hard for women to bulk up and in fact strength training is incredibly good for you.
Good luck with seeing the doctor.

My diary is currently spotty since I just came back after feeling down about my lack of success, but when I do use a food scale and jot down every ingredient in my food, clean or not, I usually only range from 1200-1800 cals a day and maybe 60-150 carbs. I eat mostly clean (I have the occasional slip up, I have a sweet tooth and I'm no food saint) and I recently upped my lazy 3x a week workout to 6x a week with HIIT and Pilates. I'm trying hard to believe I am doing everything I possibly can to get myself on the right track. I am so frustrated that my own mother is not supportive and just criticizes me and won't educate herself on health as it is today. Sometimes I don't think mother always knows best....

Don't worry about eating clean, worry about eating good food and hitting your macros. Also don't worry about her. Read a lot and make your own mind up. What works for some won't work for others and you need to find what's right for you.
It's hard but sometimes you've just got to tell family to shut up and get their nose out of your business.