Eating 6 Times a Day. Fact or Fiction?

Nutrition
61

[quote]forbes wrote:
hexx wrote:
jb99 wrote:
JMoUCF87 wrote:
Regardless, “LOOK AT MAH GUNZZ” is a worthless irrelevant argument and does nothing to prove your point.

It does if the majority of people with great physiques eat more frequently.

Look, I know there are people who can get by on only 2 or 3 meals a day, but if you need at least your body weight in grams of protein and 4000 calories a day, its pretty damn implausible to consume that in 2 or 3 meals. It all boils down to your needs.

I know as for myself, that when I eat infrequently, I had digestive problems and feel constantly bloated. When I eat 5 or 6 meals a day, the bloating literally goes away.[/quote]

I’ve been more of a lurker here and by no means a fitness expert, but having caught this thread…just wanted to point out that while difficult, hitting 4,000 cal in 2-3 meals isn’t THAT hard. Take a look at various restaurant menus, Chili’s comes to mind, and notice that some of the regular entrees will be 1,000+ calories.

May not be the cleanest food, but when we’re talking chinese buffets and ice cream, i don’t see where it hardly matters.

62

Well that’s a big factor, I am not trying to get 4 or 5k of any type of food. Eating 5,000 “good” calories can be difficult, of course I’d love to just eat triple whoppers all day.

63

[quote]MrB wrote:
forbes wrote:
hexx wrote:
jb99 wrote:
JMoUCF87 wrote:
Regardless, “LOOK AT MAH GUNZZ” is a worthless irrelevant argument and does nothing to prove your point.

It does if the majority of people with great physiques eat more frequently.

Look, I know there are people who can get by on only 2 or 3 meals a day, but if you need at least your body weight in grams of protein and 4000 calories a day, its pretty damn implausible to consume that in 2 or 3 meals. It all boils down to your needs.

I know as for myself, that when I eat infrequently, I had digestive problems and feel constantly bloated. When I eat 5 or 6 meals a day, the bloating literally goes away.

I’ve been more of a lurker here and by no means a fitness expert, but having caught this thread…just wanted to point out that while difficult, hitting 4,000 cal in 2-3 meals isn’t THAT hard. Take a look at various restaurant menus, Chili’s comes to mind, and notice that some of the regular entrees will be 1,000+ calories.

May not be the cleanest food, but when we’re talking chinese buffets and ice cream, i don’t see where it hardly matters.[/quote]

JB99 clearly has an idea of what works best for him. I used to carry around food with me on a regular basis and ate around 6 meals a day. Most were solid. I stopped and switched to larger meals, still clean, and noticed the changes I mentioned previously.
You still cant use yourself as an example in most cases as there are to many variables. I know powerlifters with huge amounts of muscle who eat crap whenever they want. They are thick and have a slightly higher bf, but still don’t eat but 2 or 3 times a day. I also know guys with prison builds who dont eat all that often and make good progress.
The 6 times a day mentality is shoved down everyone’s throat by the muscle magazines so most people adopt that way of eating when they get very serious. Some people think it is a magic bullet for all their physique goals, when in reality it is their crappy training and overall lifestyle that is holding them back.

64

The Warrior Diet can be downloaded for free. Look in the Alpha Cells.

I personally love this diet. My blood pressure went down to 106/68. The nurse said it was lower than many teenagers. My weight is down as well and I just plain feel better.

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The warrior diet is great for leaning down,i give you that.I myself followed the warrior diet for almost a year and i can still remember the epic meals i had.Gigantic salad with feta cheese and olive oil,an 12-egg omelet with veggies and goat cheese,handfuls of nuts and peanut butter and as a desert avocado with cinnamon.The only problem was that it didnt fit my schedule.I went home around midnight and then i had to eat my big meal in 60-90 minutes and then go to sleep.I was not enjoying my food that much but mind you my body adapted to eat

Now i started following an approach where i eat whenever i feel hungry.When i have morning workouts i will have some fruit,eggs and some dairy.If i also have capoeira class in the evening i will eat some oatmeal and eat the fruit later in the day.If i dont workout in the morning i will skip breakfast and have lunch.I have absolutely no problem doing that,since my body still remembers what hunger feels like.And i am not talking about the post meal growl you might hear,since most times it means that you need more WATER not food.

In my opinion the whole point of the 6 meals is that people can make smarter options,eat less and control their cravings.When i read Venutos BFFM book i thought that i had to eat a complete meal every 3 hours which was a bit rough.Then i read Enamaits first book,where he was suggesting things like kellogs(funny times)and i eased down a little on the meals.I started thinking that a fruit is a decent option as well.

Then came the revelation with the warrior diet where not only i learned when i was hungry,i also learned everything about healthy nutrition.I gave some foods a second chance and God i am happy that i did so!

So try to find out what works for you :wink:

66

[quote]jb99 wrote:
I am finished with this thread as well unless the experts Hexx and JMO want to show how their knowledge has lead to an impressive physique. Oh wait, they both probably look like shit. I have called them out repeatedly and they so conveniently forget to respond.[/quote]

Dude… congrats on your progress. Good for you. You look great in your avatar shot. But i think if you go back and read this thread again at a later date you will just see a guy who lashed out defensively when someone disagreed with them.

I am not involved with this conversation and that is how it appears to me. Just because you have a great physique, does not mean you are right about everything. And if you are going to call out everyone who disagrees with you to put up pics… we’ll …thats just lame.

67

If you have found something that works better for you then that is a good thing. You may find tweaking with it every now and then will lead to better results.

My body responds much better to four to six meals. When I switched from two to three meals over to six meals a day I lost weight and saw a definite improvement in body composition. Over the years I have experimented and tweaked my intake and have discovered several things that just work better for me.

Christopher

68

[quote]DJS wrote:
jb99 wrote:
I am finished with this thread as well unless the experts Hexx and JMO want to show how their knowledge has lead to an impressive physique. Oh wait, they both probably look like shit. I have called them out repeatedly and they so conveniently forget to respond.

Dude… congrats on your progress. Good for you. You look great in your avatar shot. But i think if you go back and read this thread again at a later date you will just see a guy who lashed out defensively when someone disagreed with them.

I am not involved with this conversation and that is how it appears to me. Just because you have a great physique, does not mean you are right about everything. And if you are going to call out everyone who disagrees with you to put up pics… we’ll …thats just lame.[/quote]

I understand that, that’s why I was saying what worked well for ME. If you look at the majority of my posts I always preach that every person is different. Whether it be how they respond to training, nutrition, or cardio, each person will react differently. I was only stating that I found that the more frequent meals worked best for me. Once it became an argument where two nobody’s were calling me a troll and a “juiced out bro-tard” that is when I decided to call them out. Once you start throwing around names and bashing someone you better be able to back it up, and since they seemed to know everything I was extremely curious to see how they applied their knowledge.

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I’ve tried both, and have seen better results on fewer meals/day. While we’re tossing stereotypes out the window, I also have found good results from skipping breakfast and having a protein shake during my morning workout.

Bottom line:

Do your own math.

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I love how people say do what works for you. For the most part, what works for you works for the vast majority and vice versa

71

I say that mainly for two reasons.
1.) Peoples genetics vary greatly, this needs no explanation. So while one person may get away with eating candy all day and be extremely lean (Lamar Odom) others may struggle to keep their weight in check even on a relatively clean diet.
2.) People are so sensitive on this site and unless you want to answer question after question about every comment you make then you are better off explaining that you do a certain thing because it works particularly well for you. That way, if you have a decent physique it is hard to argue with.

72

If you’re not hungry basically every 3hrs, you need to be training harder.

EDIT - Ok, looks like Dave_ already covered this well.

[quote]Dave_ wrote:
If you are training as hard as you should be, you’ll be hungry all day long.

For instance, after hitting “upper” a couple of days ago, I had my usual recovery shake, followed by a couple of pints of full fat milk, and within 20 mins I was so ravenous I just about ready to eat whatever I could get my hands on.

I immediately went to a chinese buffet, including plenty of aromatic duck, sweet n sour chicken, crispy shredded pork, chinese ribs, chinese chicken, salmon, king prawns, apple fritters, ice cream, fruits, more ice cream, more fruit, more ice cream…

I ate until it felt as if the food was filling up to the back of my mouth. I couldn’t bend over without puking a bit in my mouth and my waist had probably hit 40"+ (from about 36"). Then, within 30mins, I was hungry again, and munching 300g of cottage cheese and a bowl of oats, washed down with another pint of full fat milk.

There is a very similar variations upon this theme every time I train, which is usually at LEAST 5 time per week, upper/lower split. On “lower” days I am usually far hungrier.

The point is, if you are heading for success and training your balls off, then you will need to increase the volume and frequency of your meals to make the gains you want.

[/quote]

73

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
The body would “absorb” it, but I’m sure taking in 130g protein per meal would prove to be quite difficult.[/quote]

My breakfast:

200 g cottage cheese (30g protein)
2 scoops of whey (50g protein)
MD bar (20g protein)

Have you PERSONALLY seen any benefit to eating frequently?

And as for me, eating 4500 calories in 3, or even 2 feedings - and without eating anything sweet aside from fruit, or junk - is cake.

[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Eating 6 meals a day will make you fat.
Eating 6x a day may or may not make you fat depending on what your eating. People never looked at the details of eating 6x a day when this method became big. Originally 2 or 3 times were equivelent of snacks, and the 3 main meals were smaller. You would have things like a shake, or an apple and orange juice, this slowly turned into six complete meals. Of course overloading on food will make you fat.
[/quote]

I like this a lot. I’m gonna take some ideas from this/protein pulsing; have 3 big meals and 3 quick-digesting, protein-heavy snacks in between (shakes, eggs).

While I never thought I’d agree with Headhunter, I quite like the idea of eating less throughout the day and then going bonkers around workouts. BTW, I barely eat any carbs aside from fruit and veg as it is, for the same reason (carbs make me sluggish when I have too many).

74

[quote]chillain wrote:
If you’re not hungry basically every 3hrs, you need to be training harder.

EDIT - Ok, looks like Dave_ already covered this well.

Dave_ wrote:
If you are training as hard as you should be, you’ll be hungry all day long.

For instance, after hitting “upper” a couple of days ago, I had my usual recovery shake, followed by a couple of pints of full fat milk, and within 20 mins I was so ravenous I just about ready to eat whatever I could get my hands on.

I immediately went to a chinese buffet, including plenty of aromatic duck, sweet n sour chicken, crispy shredded pork, chinese ribs, chinese chicken, salmon, king prawns, apple fritters, ice cream, fruits, more ice cream, more fruit, more ice cream…

I ate until it felt as if the food was filling up to the back of my mouth. I couldn’t bend over without puking a bit in my mouth and my waist had probably hit 40"+ (from about 36"). Then, within 30mins, I was hungry again, and munching 300g of cottage cheese and a bowl of oats, washed down with another pint of full fat milk.

There is a very similar variations upon this theme every time I train, which is usually at LEAST 5 time per week, upper/lower split. On “lower” days I am usually far hungrier.

The point is, if you are heading for success and training your balls off, then you will need to increase the volume and frequency of your meals to make the gains you want.

[/quote]

Sorry, but this is a dumbass thing to say. I am NEVER that hungry. EVER. And I can’t help but wonder how you can eat till you’re absolutely full and be hungry again in 30 minutes. Food does not digest that fat; especially rich food.

But hey, man, good on you if that’s what gets you results. I am not like that, and the flipside of that is, I have no trouble admitting what I’m suggesting won’t work for you.

Everyone’s different; when I eat till I’m full, I stay full for a long, long time, even if I just went through a gruelling workout.

75

[quote]G87 wrote:
jehovasfitness wrote:
The body would “absorb” it, but I’m sure taking in 130g protein per meal would prove to be quite difficult.

My breakfast:

200 g cottage cheese (30g protein)
2 scoops of whey (50g protein)
MD bar (20g protein)

jehovasfitness wrote:
Ther eare studies showing that frequent meals are beneficial for body comp, blood profile, etc.
Yet, JMof- will come on posting about the superiority of 3 meals, yet he will say that 4 meals is good too.

Have you PERSONALLY seen any benefit to eating frequently?

And as for me, eating 4500 calories in 3, or even 2 feedings - and without eating anything sweet aside from fruit, or junk - is cake.

Airtruth wrote:
Eating 6 meals a day will make you fat.
Eating 6x a day may or may not make you fat depending on what your eating. People never looked at the details of eating 6x a day when this method became big. Originally 2 or 3 times were equivelent of snacks, and the 3 main meals were smaller. You would have things like a shake, or an apple and orange juice, this slowly turned into six complete meals. Of course overloading on food will make you fat.

I like this a lot. I’m gonna take some ideas from this/protein pulsing; have 3 big meals and 3 quick-digesting, protein-heavy snacks in between (shakes, eggs).

While I never thought I’d agree with Headhunter, I quite like the idea of eating less throughout the day and then going bonkers around workouts. BTW, I barely eat any carbs aside from fruit and veg as it is, for the same reason (carbs make me sluggish when I have too many). [/quote]

you need another 50g of protein for breakfast there hoss

76

wow- that’s what I get for posting after getting out of bed. 30g, not 50

77

[quote]jb99 wrote:
Here is all you need, take a look at my pictures and then take a stroll over to your mirror…[/quote]

Lol

This should have been the end of this thread.

78

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
I love how people say do what works for you. For the most part, what works for you works for the vast majority and vice versa[/quote]

It does? It sure doesn’t seem that way to me… Apart from all the anecdotal evidence being supplied in this thread, don’t you think that different genetics can result in our bodies responding to the same stimuli very differently?

79

[quote]Vanre wrote:
jehovasfitness wrote:
I love how people say do what works for you. For the most part, what works for you works for the vast majority and vice versa

It does? It sure doesn’t seem that way to me… Apart from all the anecdotal evidence being supplied in this thread, don’t you think that different genetics can result in our bodies responding to the same stimuli very differently?[/quote]

Well to some degree, of course.

But, we are all humans, and for the most part react similarly. Of course, I probably have to write a whole article on this to not be misunderstood

EDIT- misunderstood

80

I agree that there are general principles of nutrition and physical fitness that apply to the majority of people. Newbies learn those principles when they start out, as well they should.

However, it’s not a black and white world. There is no “one size fits all”. Once you have the basics down, to continue advancing you need to experiment, and customize your approach to what works best for your body.