To Snack, or not to snack, that is the question....

I would say that any set advice/rules on the number of meals or times of day to eat are suspect to anecdotal observations. I myself don't have a set number of meals/eating times a day, I just make sure to stay under my net calorie limit.

That is so funny, I just attended a nutrition seminar this weekend where the speaker said the same thing as this article. That snacking is not a godo thing, that if you eat enough of the right things you should not need to snack. He said that snacking or the need to snack is really in the mind not a nutritional benefit. Believe me I left there like WHAT, I like my snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. The funny thing is, the more I thought about it, thats just it, I like it, I dont have to have to have them, more routine than anything else. So I am on a 30 day see if its all in my mind need to snack thing. LOLOL So far so good, had more protien for breakfast this morning and didnt need the snack between breakfast and lunch today...I agree that its what works for you though because you can find a contradiciting article to say the opposite to just about everything. So, try it and see if it works for you...and if it doesnt, I say keep the snack. LOL

The main flaw in the article that sticks out to me is the idea that your body will ONLY burn when you put in and won't burn your fat. What about when you require more energy than, say, your 300 calorie breakfast gave you? OF COURSE you are going to burn your fat. And this article doesn't seem to take into consideration calorie restrictions in diets either.

It also talks about having large meals (particularly it mentions breakfast) and it says "oh just eat a large breakfast and you'll burn off your breakfast and fat between breakfast and lunch"........but what if you're like most Americans with a desk job. You just ate a huge meal and then you go sit on your butt for 4 hours. That doesn't seem logical to me in terms of efficient fat burning.

Personally, I never saw results until I went on a meal plan that incorporated spreading out my meals over the day. So.......my personal experience is that small meals through the day works, but then again I'm doing that on a calorie restricted diet. It might work if I ate 3 meals a day, too, but I would suspect it's the caloric intake and not the meal spacing that has the larger impact.

Personally, I like to keep my breakfast and lunch on the light side and eat my most substantial meal in the late afternoon/early evening, with no snacking in between. I tried to schedule my meals in many different ways, and I found this pattern the most natural and comfortable for me personally.

I'm the kind of a person who doesn't want food in the morning and I'm not hungry often. If I do try to eat on a six-meal schedule, I end up feeling bloated and like I've had too much to eat (even if my intake realistically wasn't higher than on any normal day).

I think that in the end it all boils down to what works for you, and the calories in vs. calories out. If you burn more than you eat, you'll lose weight. How to spread the intake throughout the day is up to the individual and what feels good for them.

I snack all day long and eat three smaller main meals. I've tried just doing three meals a day and, for me, I tend to over eat during those meals because I get really hungry in between so it was harder for me to control the portion sizes.

If you're under your basal metabolism, it doesn't matter when you eat, you'll burn the fat.

I definitely think it depends on the person. No, it doesn't speed up your metabolism or anything, but it can keep you from feeling hungry between meals, therefore keeping you from eating a ton. But, some people find that they eat too much when they snack.

Personally, I have to eat several times throughout the day. I take a medication that makes me have NO appetite (I sometimes don't take it if I know I'm going out to eat somewhere delicious haha) so if I don't schedule out my meals, I won't eat. It's easier for me to eat little bits throughout the day than to force a whole meal on myself when I'm not hungry.

Just depends on what works for you!