3 meals a day vs 5 or more small meals

For weight loss? Doesn't matter.
For muscle gain? Doesn't matter.

For convenience or if you have a weak digestive system? Sure!

I only rarely eat a large meal, and basically graze all day. Works for me.

Not sure what you mean by this. If you mean healthier, or better for weight loss, it doesn't matter which way you choose. If you mean better for your sanity, well that's up to you. If you want to lose weight just eat less calories than you burn. If you want to be healthy watch your macros and keep them balanced and eat nutrient and vitamin rich foods.
When you eat your calories and how you spread them out is simply a matter of preference. I do think these choices affect your metabolism a tiny bit but not enough to worry about it. It's all just hype.
Right now I am doing 16:8 fasting. Not to help me lose weight faster but because I feel better pigging out for 8 hours and abstaining for 16 hours so that I can.
Some people like to eat all day.
Some people like to pig out one day a week and then eat at a bigger deficit the other 6 days. This affects your metabolism the most.
Lots of options out there. It just depends on your goals. What's important to you?

verizonkelly4 wrote: »

I normally eat 3 sensible meals a day with maybe a healthy snack in-between is eating 4/5 or more small meals better??

For weight loss, there should be no difference. CICO (calorie input vs calorie output) is the main factor in weight loss.

If wanting to improve insulin sensitivity (if pre-diabetic or type 2 diabetic), then 3 meals is probably better than 5 as it give the body a chance to lower insulin levels more between meals. Longer at lower insulin levels should lead to increased insulin sensitivity. (Also if pre-diabetic or type 2 diabetic research indicates lower carbs seems to be the way to go).

If you eat more fats and protein, you should feel hungry less often.

Everyone is different and you will need to find the combination of macros that suits you.

However, CICO is the key to weight loss. Not too little (or your metabolism stalls) and not too much.

Eating more often doesn't help metabolism, but it helps me not be hungry all the time *shrug*. I dislike the feeling of being overly full, so I eat Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Snack, Dinner, and sometimes Evening Snack (but that's usually my 'treat' and has nothing to do with the hunger). Second Breakfast is about the same size as Breakfast, but my Afternoon Snack is typically much smaller than Lunch. Dinner is around 500kcal, regardless.

verizonkelly4 wrote: »

Fascinating!I i know i hear about eating more often to keep metabolism up but im getting thats more hype than reality. If your staying within your caloric and macro goals.

Over the long term, metabolism acts more like a set point than a than being hyper reactive to circumstances.

What this means is that if you eat too much less over a number of days, the metabolism slows down to compensate (your BMR goes down to try to match average calories out to your average calories in to preserve your energy reserves - you become less inclined to do activity and your core body temperature is maintained slightly lower). In this situation, after a period of restored calorie consumption the weight comes back on before the metabolism resets to a higher base.

If your daily average calories remain only slightly under your metabolic requirements (like 500 calories or less). The metabolism changes very little and allows you to gradually reduce weight. Extreme example of this was the "twinkie diet" (This is type of diet is NOT recommended as it is unsustainable, would leave you constantly hungry and has adverse affects from grossly out of balance nutrients).

From my self research, CICO governs weight, macros govern hunger and insulin levels, meal times help govern insulin levels.

Interesting study amongst many other resources is the "Aetiology of obesity series" - This goes though a number of things about CICO, eating time, insulin, etc... Backed by scientific studies and observations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpllomiDMX0 (it's a good start point, but not the entire picture).

Most things I refer to will be on the assumption that the body is "generally" healthy and all systems working as they should.

If self researching this area, look at all data (not just things that confirm your point of view). There are numerous medical conditions that can prevent CICO from working. There are circumstances where more meals a day is better than fewer (like when very low energy reserves or prone to hypoglycemia).

I eat smaller meals more often so I can get the protein levels that I Want.