Eating Schedule

you don't have to eat every 2-3 hrs or even eat breakfast, it provides no additional benefit to weight loss. so really eat when you want and how often but fit it all into your calorie goals

@helenOk this helps! Usually dinner is my biggest meal and I am trying to move away from that because I get home from school so late. I will try to make lunch my biggest meal!

@acg I have been trying to speed up my metablolism bc I can go all day and only eat twice but by doing so I overeat. So it was suggested to me to eat smaller meals more frequently. I will begin to think more along the lines of fitting food into my calorie goals as opposed to eating every few hours!

well eating more often won't speed up your metabolism, but if you're doing it as a means to control eating habits it could be beneficial. really whatever is easiest for you and something that you can adhere to is most important

but eating several small meals keeps your blood sugar levels more even, helps fight hunger

this is a recent study done

Leidy HJ et al. The influence of higher protein intake and greater eating frequency on appetite control in overweight and obese men. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010 Sep;18(9):1725-32

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of dietary protein intake and eating frequency on perceived appetite, satiety, and hormonal responses in overweight/obese men. Thirteen men (age 51 +/- 4 years; BMI 31.3 +/- 0.8 kg/m(2)) consumed eucaloric diets containing normal protein (79 +/- 2 g protein/day; 14% of energy intake as protein) or higher protein (138 +/- 3 g protein/day; 25% of energy intake as protein) equally divided among three eating occasions (3-EO; every 4 h) or six eating occasions (6-EO; every 2 h) on four separate days in randomized order. Hunger, fullness, plasma glucose, and hormonal responses were assessed throughout 11 h. No protein x eating frequency interactions were observed for any of the outcomes. Independent of eating frequency, higher protein led to greater daily fullness (P < 0.05) and peptide YY (PYY) concentrations (P < 0.05). In contrast, higher protein led to greater daily ghrelin concentrations (P < 0.05) vs. normal protein. Protein quantity did not influence daily hunger, glucose, or insulin concentrations. Independent of dietary protein, 6-EO led to lower daily fullness (P < 0.05) and PYY concentrations (P < 0.05). The 6-EO also led to lower glucose (P < 0.05) and insulin concentrations (P < 0.05) vs. 3-EO. Although the hunger-related perceived sensations and hormonal responses were conflicting, the fullness-related responses were consistently greater with higher protein intake but lower with increased eating frequency. Collectively, these data suggest that higher protein intake promotes satiety and challenge the concept that increasing the number of eating occasions enhances satiety in overweight and obese men.

The person who posted you dont have to eat breakfast is very incorrect. Any research will show that breakfast or 'breaking the fast' helps you fuel your body for the day ahead and gets your metabolism working.

and you can break the fast hrs after you wake up with no ill effects on your metabolism, you would have to fast for 48-72 hrs before seeing a significant metabolic slowdown. again it's all personal preference, if you're not hungry in the morning, there is no reason to eat. if larger meals are more satiating for you, eat larger meals more infrequently

all diets work the same way, caloric deficit.