Who here eats 6 (small) meals a day?

I eat when I am hungry and it tends to be 6 times a day as logged but in all truth my snack may take me 2 hours to consume but it was not my lunch or breakfast per se so I log as a snack. I don't care when I eat as long as I eat when I am hungry and stay within my calorie ranges. If my body is hungry it will let me know therefore I eat I don't intend on starving myself!!

With that said my problem is not with food and food is not why I am where I am--overweight--medication is so maybe it depends on the person, situation etc and if you have an issue with food and eating to much and not being able to limit yourself when need be. Who knows but what I do know is your body will tell you when it needs fuel=food you just have to be willing to listen to it

I eat every 2-4 hours. For me, it helps keep my blood sugar stabilized - which helps to keep me from binge eating. I also just feel better overall when I eat regularly.

I don't have a set amount of calories I eat at each "meal". I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full.

I do! I eat breakfast, 10am, lunch, 3pm, dinner, and 8pm snack. I'm always hungry and want to eat, so it kinda keeps my hunger at bay. My snacks are usually around 100-200 cals.

I feel like I'm eating all day long, but really it's more like 5 times...I try to have 3 "meals" and at least 2 snacks...seems to be working for me!

I did this under a PT and found my idea of 6 "small" meals was way off. The aim was to gain weight in muscle and at the same time reduce fat. I ended up gaining weight in both muscle and fat.

The "small" size was described clearly to me (I just could not eat that little). Esentially your own fist is the measure, each of the 6 meals should have 1 fist of carbs and 1 fist of protein. (note: no mention of fat is intentional as that apparently does not matter !! )

Sounded easy to me too !!

The other side of this argument is why 6 meals? And do you really need 6 meals? The theory is that by spreading out the food intake you are less hungry and still getting the correct amount of calories. On the other hand I have MFP friends who are following intermittant fasting (they only eat once a day after 5:00pm) with good results.

My advise, if you are up for 6 meals a day try it, but keep a close eye on your weight and % body fat. I could see myself drifting back to fat !!.

With the 6 meals a day regieme I was working out with 3 Weights sessions and 3 cardio sessions a week (one rest day). Never doing cardio on weights days. Also cardio days were intense 20 min workouts no more. The idea was to trash my muscles and have a week of recovery per muscle group.

I tried the 6 meals-a-day thing after reading Bill Phillip's book Body for Life a few years back. At least for me, it just didn't work out, but part of my issue was that I wasn't hungry 6 times a day. I felt eating smaller portions that often, especially when you're not hungry, took more discipline and will-power than I was willing to develop at the time. Sort of the equal but opposite problem of denying yourself food when you really are hungry.

Right now, I do the one meal a day thing on a low-carb diet as described above. Once your body is able to make the switch in burning stored fat effectively for fuel (i.e. ketosis) instead of glucose, it's really not as hard as some imagine it to be. Though, through trial and error, I did find that trying to do vigorous workouts in the morning while intermittently fasting until 5PM didn't work out so well since vigorous exercise naturally increases appetite. So now I schedule my vigorous workouts (like strength training) to later in the afternoon, closer to 5. But throughout the day, I'll do some light to moderate walking whenever I can.

There's a lot of ideas on how to allocate your meals throughout a day, but just experiment and take notes until you find a routine that you think can be sustainable for you. At the end of the day, all that really matters is whether it works well for you or not.

My personal trainer told me to do this and I thought he was crazy, but it works! I lost 22 lbs (have since gained a few back so I'm re-committing myself). It's important to eat something within a half hour of waking up to get your metabolism working again. My diet is roughly as follows:
6:45 wake up
7:00 oatmeal with fruit (1/2 or sometimes whole banana, 1/2 cup blueberries or strawberries) and walnuts (1 oz)
9:30/10:00 apple with almond butter
12:30/1:00 salad with turkey or grilled chicken
3:00 pear, pineapple, banana, or some other fruit
5:00 carrots
7:00 cardio and/or weight training
8:00 grilled chicken with veggies

Let me know if you have questions.

^^^^^ i agree with this.. i dont see why people think eating 6 times a day is dumb? youre never hungry, and depending on your goals, you can spread your protein intake out through the day.. I lost about 40 pounds doing this in 7 months..

I eat 3 meals a day and try and snack between each meal.

Meal frequency is irrelevant unless your are an athlete

Irrelevant to weight loss directly, yes. But some studies do show that eating more frequently may help to speed up metabolism, which means a higher fat burn. Although, this is not proven, there are many correlations with this fact.

It's important to eat something within a half hour of waking up to get your metabolism working again.

Your metabolism works all the time. There is no need to start it up again in the morning.

This is partially correct - your metabolism slows down when not digesting, and speeds up when you eat (and need to digest).

I eat every two hours, starting with breakfast at 6:00AM and I don't eat after 6:00PM. I lost 52 lbs in 8 weeks at the beginning of the year and have kept it off using this method. Snacks are always fruits/yogurt/protein bars or shakes. I record it all in myfitnesspal and try not to exceed my calorie goal for the day.

Meal frequency is irrelevant unless your are an athlete

Irrelevant to weight loss directly, yes. But some studies do show that eating more frequently may help to speed up metabolism, which means a higher fat burn. Although, this is not proven, there are many correlations with this fact.

Some people are lead to believe this due to TEF, but assuming the same macronutrient composition there will be no difference in TEF

from Lyle McDonald

Say we have two people, both eating the same 3000 calories per day from identical macronutrients. One eats 6 meals of 500 calories/meal while the other eats 3 meals of 1000 calories/meal and we’ll assume a TEF of 10%. So the first will have a TEF of 50 calories (10% of 500) 6 times/day. The second will have a TEF of 100 calories (10% of 1000 calories) 3 times/day. Well, 6X50 = 300 calories/day and 3X100 = 300 calories/day. There’s no difference.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html

You can't argue with Lyle. :drinker:

I eat 6 times a day simply because I like to eat and I feel better if I eat frequently.

I end up with 6, just so i dont have to eat so much at once, but when I'm short on time, I just end up eating meal after meal to keep up haha

And what is/are your workout regimen? I feel that as I start to workout more, I'll probably need to be eating 6 small meals but I can't fathom the idea. I've done it before and it feels like I'm always eating and sometimes I'm not hungry enough to eat that much. And I'm just curious to see how everyone else does it.

My dairy is open - check it out.
I eat 6 meals a day - LOVE IT!


In general I do 90 minuted of cardio with 30 minutes of resistance 6 days a week.

I rest resistance Tuesday and cardio every 10 days or so.
My resistance is lower weights but high reps, then heavy every 3rd workout.

And I split my body into 3 muscle groups:
1. Legs
2. Chest- triceps - shoulders
3. Arms - back

I do a lot of weird things for cardio like military march, boxing type training,
dancing, floor rolls, squat thrust intervals and the good ole jumping jack.
And I jog, swim, play tennis, fast walk and bike.

Lost 64lbs and nearly 20% body fat - it works for me.