I find it easier to eat fewer meals & I get in most of my cal by 2 in the afternoon...I eat a lite dinner w/ mostly veggies & only a little bit of animal or clean proteins...
I find it makes me feel better all around. It is intended to keep your blood sugars even & your fire burning in your metabolism. I just plan my meals ahead of time...like Ill bring some unsalted nuts in a small container & a piece of fruit or a yogurt (4oz) or some cheese & fruit..something w/ natural carbs & high protien & fiber..Or maybe try a protein shake..even the premade ones are good ...just watch the sugars.

There are a couple benefits to spreading out your meals.

As someone has already pointed out, breaking up your meals spreads your nutrition and calories out over the day, which can help with exercise recovery and muscle-building. Basically, it keeps you from going "catabolic" during the day, and losing muscle mass. And you don't have to be a bodybuilder to benefit from this effect, since anyone who wants to be more fit and "toned" wants to preserve lean tissue while reducing body fat levels.

It also keeps you from consuming more calories in a single meal than your body needs to fuel your basic bodily functions and activities in a 2-3 hours window. Energy from food doesn't get "pooled" in reserve like amino acids (well, it kind of does, but it get's stored as body fat), so most people don't need 800-1000 calories in a sitting. Anything beyond what you're body will utilize in the next 3-4 hours will get stored as body fat.

So spreading out your calories into 300-400 calorie meals is more efficient.

Eating more frequently also keeps blood sugar levels nice and steady, which can keep your energy up and prevent crashes or over-eating/hunger later in the day. Blood sugar spikes also can contribute to fat accumulation in the body, so minimizing them can help keep you leaner.

Finally, you do get a slight metabolism lift from more frequent eating, although the research around this shows it to be fairly marginal -- maybe a few dozen extra calories burned a day.

The biggest mistake people seem to make with the 6-7 small meals approach is that they don't balance the meals out properly. Every meal, whether it's a snack or lunch, needs to all three macro-nutrients: a complex carb, some healthy fat and lean protein. Often, people will eat an apple for a snack and then complain that they feel unsatisfied an hour later. You really need to add some protein and fat to the snack (like some natural peanut butter) to make this approach work.

I generally eat about six meals a day, and personally never found it to be difficult. The trick is to keep plenty of healthy foods around at your desk or in your laptop bag or around the house -- things like oatmeal, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, whey powder, vegetables and even low-sodium soups that you can make on the fly. If you keep these things on hand, it's not terribly difficult to make this work.

matt

I've had success on 5 meals a day as well as 3 meals +snacks a day, which to me is the same deal. I have to eat more than morning noon and night anyway. I've lost weight both ways.

Well I'm not really sure about that, but I just have the regular 3meals a day
and have lots of low caliores snacks in between. Or lots of fruits and
vegetables it really fills you up a lot. or water. And by doing that I've been pretty
succsefull even sometimes when i do no excerise I still loose weight, but thats
everyone once in a while and its like 2-3pounds a week. (:

3?

6?

It's not going to make a difference assuming calories and macros are accounted for. This has been discussed to death around here.

No idea what Macros are, but what he said.

I haven't seen any substantial evidence that spreading your meals out gives any MAJOR benefits. It's the same with "don't eat after 7pm" nd all those wives tales.

Calories in, calories out has worked for me for the past year... and it's helped me shed 80+ lbs.

Macros are your protein, fats and carbs.

People get so damn blinded by what they read or research that they forget the fact that reality is playing out right in front of their eyes. They 'learn' themselves into a very tiny box.

Well, some ppl r just so afraid of lipid that they try to avoid them in every meal regardless of the fact that lipid plays an important role in helping ur body to take in and dissolve others substances. Me, i think it's a good idea to split up ur meals into 5 or 6 small meals a days. That prevents u not to eat too much at a same time without always feeling hunger. But this may be hard for some for the first time hihi.