4 Meals a Day?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey guys, I’ve tried posting on bb.com, but everytime I find myself facing a somewhat difficult question regarding training, T NATION has always been more helpful with the quality of the replies I was getting, so I decided to try again.

Some background infos:
6’0 200-205lbs roughly 11-13% bodyfat, been lifting on and off since I was 16 (currently 21), my lifts are really nothing impressive for my stats and they’ve been stuck there for a while. I only started taking my diet seriously recently and for the past 2 months those are my average macros:

105 / 448 / 244 (3649 calories) I basicly maintained my weight with this, but had a really hard time hitting my desired macros EVERY day and I know that consistancy is key.

So I was wondering if dividing my meals in eating 4 times a day could work, would like something like this:

8am: wake up, drink 1L water
9am: 20/150/50
11am: lift
12pm: 30/150/60
4pm: 30/100/60
9pm: 30/100/60

Totalling: 110 / 500 / 230

This is obviously not a perfect plan, hence why I came here to obtain some opinions from people who know more than me about nutrition.

Maybe a couple questions to guide the replies

  1. Would the time between meals cause me to enter in ‘‘catabolic’’ mode?
  2. Will I be able to absorb >50g of protein per meal?
  3. Regarding question 2, if not, that would limit me to 200g per day, would that be nearly enough?

Thanks a lot for you time.

2

instead of having your meal at noon why not drink some whey, and then eat an hour after that which would close the time gap on your last two meals?

3
  1. No. Large feedings can take 8-12 hours to be absorbed fully and the body doesn’t “go catabolic” instantly after that even.
  2. Yes. It’s not like your body absorbs it all at once, it sits in your gut, is digested slowly over the course of several hours.
  3. You’re fine eating 230g.
4

4 meals a day is fine, anywhere from 3-5 is good enough, it just depends on how you eat, your lifestyle, and what you enjoy. I generally eat 3-4 decent sized meals a day, and then a Metabolic Drive shake 1-2 hrs before bed.

and ‘catabolic mode’ between meals? uh… no.

absorbing 50g per meal… no, all of that protein is not going to be absorbed and go straight to your biceps. but what the fuck else are you supposed to eat? eat a lot of protein, eat a lot of good fats, and eat carbs to your tolerance.

for example, this is what I did today.

meal 1: 9oz sirloin burger, 5oz pork loin w/ marinara, handful walnuts, 1 cup black/blueberries

peri-workout stuff (1 scoop each of Surge Workout Fuel/ANACONDA/MAG-10)

meal 2: 5oz pork loin w/ marinara, 8oz chicken kebab, green beans w/ olive oil, 2 slices Ezekiel bread because I was still hungry

meal 3: 4 egg scramble w/ mushrooms/spinach/tomato/onion, cooked w/ coconut oil

and if I want something before bed, 2 scoops Metabolic Drive shake w/ 2 tbsp cocoa nibs