I understand that eating every 2-3 hours, no matter what, is necessary to make maximum strength/hypertrophy gains.
I see a lot of comments where people say something like “I didn’t eat for 3 hours… I felt like I was going to die!”. This doesn’t strike me as healthy. I mean, shouldn’t everyone with good insulin sensitivity be able to fast whenever is necessary?
I’d really appreciate if someone could chime in on this.
Actually, eating smaller meals more often is quite a bit healthier than the traditional three meals approach.
You ever check out the book Warrior Diet by Ori Hoffmekler (sp)?
No, but I know about the warrior diet. I’ve seen a lot of studies on the benefits of intermittent fasting and calorie restriction. Hence my interest on whether eating often is healthy.
I think the “If I didn’t eat every 3 hours I’d die of hunger” is just due to us programming our bodies. I know that I get hunger pains if I’m late with a meal but during times where my diet isn’t everything it should be I can go hours w/o feeling to hungry. It’s all what you get used to.
[quote]Zulu wrote:
No, but I know about the warrior diet. I’ve seen a lot of studies on the benefits of intermittent fasting and calorie restriction. Hence my interest on whether eating often is healthy. [/quote]
Eating often doesn’t automatically mean you have to eat a LOT. You can eat often and still eat light. The two are not closely connected.
zulu, its not necessary to eat every three hours. Get 1-1.5g protein/lb of bodyweight, eat plenty of healthy carbs(fruits and veggies too), and healthy fats, and you will gain weight. While trying to gain mass and consuming over-maintenance calories, you’re not going to fall out of a positive nitrogen balance if you eat your next meal 4 hrs. later. Too many people get wrapped up in eating every 2-3 hrs. It’s ideal, but if you eat something like a large steak meal, you can go another 4 hrs. and be fine. I myself eat every 3 hrs. or so, but I don’t let it become a hindrance. People shouldn’t overcomplicate the issue. Bring some jerky,nuts,fruit,protein shakes with you, and you’ll be fine.
Dr. Lowery covered this in one of his articles I bleieve. If anyone remembers the title please post it.
On some studies with mice the best way to improve there lifespans was to cut back on their caloric intake. Eating more, not necassarily more often but to get bigger is not health promoting. I dont think its as bad as smoking, not even close! but it does tax the body and you are exposed to more chemicals as well as cholesterol for example. If I remeber correctly Dr. Lowery said that eating clean was the best way to minimize this risks in eating more. If I can find that article I will post a link.
what i know from reading about traditional medicine (sufi/unani) or chinese or indian, is that you should eat as few meals as possible.
of course if you want to lose weight, you want to keep your metabolism running, and keep eating small meals throughout the day. altho this is good for metabolism, its heavy on the body.
if its health, and not fat loss, i think fasting is better. personally i eat breakfast, lunch, and at night i have one shake and maybe some fruit. if this warrior diet includes fasting id love to check it out.
[quote]Zulu wrote:
I understand that eating every 2-3 hours, no matter what, is necessary to make maximum strength/hypertrophy gains.
[/quote]
haha, proof in scientific literature please with up to date references?
some of the strongest human beings in the world eat 3-4x a day. i know a whole host of people who are much bigger, much leaner, and much stronger than the average person here and they eat 3-4 times a day.
it’s funny when stuff like this is said, especially on a hopefully scientific based site like this.
so, again, proof with up to date research, or even old research, that athletes under resistance training need to eat every 2-3 hours to maximize strength and/or hypertrophy goals?
any reference works as i have access to almost every medical journal.
i guess not. so much for being scientific, eh?
I’m not arguing whether either method is more healthy, but just because there are big healthy guys who eat three times day, that does not disprove the theory. It’s possible that these guys could be even bigger and/or more healthy had they eaten six times a day. One does not preclude the other.
One of the reasons for eating many small meals is to keep the metabolism primed.
So, I’m not sure the strategy of eating a lot of small meals is geared towards maximal size gains.
However, it does help avoid having the body become catabolic due to a lack of available amino acids in the bloodstream.
Finally, living longer sounds like the same thing as healthier, but it is not. It just means that various processes in the body appear to occur at a slower pace.
I recognize that living longer is desirable, but I’m willing to eat more to put on some muscle so that I can attain other health and lifestyle goals at the risk of a few years – because I’ll never know the difference one way or the other nor will I be able to nitpick the quality of life I’ve had over that time.
Relax already on the minutia and grand conclusions based on it.
[quote]vroom wrote:
One of the reasons for eating many small meals is to keep the metabolism primed.[/quote]
proof of this? again, any references for your claims or is it just off of the wall stuff? there are no studies that show any metabolic benefit what-so-ever in 3 vs 6 meals. nor any other combination.
again, proof? this is a scientifc based site, right? the theory is not even realistically logical if you understand basic human biology/physiology
as i read through the forum i am beginning to wonder if any of you, on a scientific based site, actually attempt to learn and/or analyze the scientific side of things, rather than just take someones word for it?
thinking is fun, no?
[quote]michaelv wrote:
I’m not arguing whether either method is more healthy, but just because there are big healthy guys who eat three times day, that does not disprove the theory. [/quote]
no, nothing “disproves” the “theory” - which hasn’t even been explained other than “i am sure of it!”, but then again nothing supports it except minor anecdotes here and there, just as there are a plethora of anecdotes that say more meals/day are not needed.
Dude, lighten up. Vroom’s not a freakin scientist. Most of us aren’t. We repeat what we’ve read, and we believe what we’ve read because THEY were well accredited scientists who quoted studies left and right.
If you really want to find out, look it up yourself. You’ve already been told what a vast majority of the people here believe. And we believe it because we believe the people who wrote about it. Go bug THEM.
Good grief! is John222 just Al Shades by another name? Lighten up. If it works for you then go ahead and do it, don’t just come on here and criticise what people do. Vroom seems to be making good progress following his advice, so why start attacking the guy?
I personally benefited from eating 6 times a day as my appetite prevented me from eating as much in 3 meals, and I also wasn’t left bloated and full half the day.
[quote]john222 wrote:
thinking is fun, no?
[/quote]
You know what else is fun? Actually conducting such studies YOURSELF instead of asking where such studies are.
Hey Johnny boy, you know what’s a proven contributor to decreased anabolism? Stress! Maybe you should consider chilling out a bit; it seems like you’re more interested in self-elevation than in having a rational scientific discussion.
Frequency of eating and concentrations of serum cholesterol in the Norfolk population of the European prospective investigation into cancer (EPIC-Norfolk): cross sectional study knock yourself out with this one.
This one might help the case for eating smaller meals more frequently as well: Metabolic effects of continuous feeding - PubMed
And feel free to check this out as well:
[quote]john222 wrote:
Zulu wrote:
I understand that eating every 2-3 hours, no matter what, is necessary to make maximum strength/hypertrophy gains.
haha, proof in scientific literature please with up to date references?
some of the strongest human beings in the world eat 3-4x a day. i know a whole host of people who are much bigger, much leaner, and much stronger than the average person here and they eat 3-4 times a day.
It’s all going to genetics. Someone eats 6 big meals a day, and lifting hard years. And still looking marathon runner. And if somebody want lose weight, it’s clever eat more often small meals than eating big meals. An average couch potato eats 2-3 medium size meals a day, and are still fat! I found best way to get mass eat 4-5 medium/quite big meals (some harder and longer days 6 meals). I feel bad try eating small amounts every second hour, or opposite way - 2-3 huge meals! Maybe it’s like training, there is no “only right style to eat for every person at this planet”!