3 meals vs. 6 meals

[Joe Stenson]

but an author / trainer will write pages and pages detailing all the HUGE advantages but in all honesty MOST people will not see much of a difference IMO

but if it helps motivate you, keep you focused, keeps you training and keeps you from missing workouts then go for it.. but then if thats the case.. whats bringing the results the extra meals or all the other benefits..

Exactly. Differences will be negligible at best, so do whatever you want. Some people like eating all the time, some don't. It's good knowing that both groups of people can have the same results though.

I just want to see less posts on this board where some guy asks for advice and people say "well your first problem is you're not eating enough meals". They don't even know why they're saying it; it's just common practice. Assuming the guy's eating at least 3 meals, which 99% of the time he is, that advice isn't useful and it's just complicating things for the dude even more.

 

[Redshoteye]

Joe,

I have seen (plenty of times in a relatively short amount of time) your mentioning of the fact that there are studies that demonstrate the fact there is really no point in eating 6 meals against 3 meals.

I'd like to see a couple of those studies, so could you please post a couple of links?

I'd be the first one willing to try this one out, since there is no denying that eating 3 meals is FAR more convenient than eating 6.

I normally eat 5 solid meals plus a PWO shake... I wonder what the effect would be of having 2 solid meals and a PWO shake.

Have their taken their premise to the extreme and compared the effect of having one single meal (comprising all your cals) per day? I personally think this is the point where the argument would not be valid anymore (then again, I have to read the reports though), since there was a max recommendation per meal of some 800 cals.

Every 3 hours is optimal, tried and true.

...it also will help to stick to those ultra-clean diets without going insane.

 

[Joe Stenson]

Every 3 hours is optimal, tried and true.

...it also will help to stick to those ultra-clean diets without going insane.

I think you just successfully ignored my entire post. If not, what part(s) did you specifically disagree with?

I'll concede that when dealing with whey, more frequent meals is the way to go. Personally I don't consume whey because I'd rather chew my calories, but you are right in that instance.

Aside from that, why is it "optimal"? "Tried and true" is debateable as well because how many people do you know who have eaten the EXACT same foods day in and day out for a period of weeks using 3 meals and then switched around to 6 meals? If you say you know anybody who has done this, I'm calling you a liar.

And to extend this you would clearly need a sample larger than n=1. If this procedure was repeated over a large enough sample size and your claims turned out to be true, then, and only then, would you be able to say it's "tried and true".

Like I said above, it's fine if you wish to continue using this method, as long as you realize that it's not necessary.