2-Meals-a-Day vs. 6-Meals-a-Day Debate

[Psyber]

No way I can get in enough quality calories with two meals a day. That would require around 150 grams of protein per meal for starters. 

[saevel25]

6 minutes ago, Psyber said:

No way I can get in enough quality calories with two meals a day. That would require around 150 grams of protein per meal for starters. 

Sure you can. Just ask the people who do it. 

[Psyber]

57 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Sure you can. Just ask the people who do it. 

I could but I can't imagine why I would want to. Rather eat 5-6 500-600 calorie meals than try to get all that in at once.

[Lihu]

The benefits of 2 versus 6 meals a day possibly depend upon your body type?

[mvmac]

2 hours ago, Psyber said:

No way I can get in enough quality calories with two meals a day. That would require around 150 grams of protein per meal for starters. 

300 grams of protein a day is a lot.

52 minutes ago, Lihu said:

The benefits of 2 versus 6 meals a day possibly depend upon your body type?

I think it's just  preference. Your body will respond the same whether you eat 2000 calories in one meal or spread it out over five meals.

[Lihu]

7 minutes ago, mvmac said:

300 grams of protein a day is a lot.

I think it's just  preference. Your body will respond the same whether you eat 2000 calories in one meal or spread it out over five meals.

That's a 1.085kg of steak.

A 199gm steak has 55gm of protein.

[saevel25]

23 minutes ago, mvmac said:

300 grams of protein a day is a lot.

I think it's just  preference. Your body will respond the same whether you eat 2000 calories in one meal or spread it out over five meals.

300 would be good for a body builder or an active athlete who weights 200 lbs. 

probably 0.8 to 1.0 grams per lb is a good place for most people. 

[mvmac]

5 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

300 would be good for a body builder or an active athlete who weights 200 lbs. 

Right, which @Psyber may be.

[Pretzel]

The 5-6 meals a day could never work for me because I don't get hungry until after noon usually, and all food before then is generally unappetizing. I like to eat two larger meals just because it lets me sit down and eat until I feel full. 

[Psyber]

9 hours ago, Pretzel said:

The 5-6 meals a day could never work for me because I don't get hungry until after noon usually, and all food before then is generally unappetizing. I like to eat two larger meals just because it lets me sit down and eat until I feel full. 

It really depends on your goals. If building or maintaining muscle mass is your primary goal you need to learn to eat when you're not hungry but if you're goal is to just maintain a healthy weight I think you could find a way to accomplish that with two meals a day if you're careful what those meals entail. 

9 hours ago, mvmac said:

Right, which @Psyber may be.

That's about where I stand. I've cut down a little bit to get leaner to try and improve my flexibility for this season but I still keep the same protein intake as I am about 200lbs to try and keep as much muscle as I can while I'm burning fat.

[TN94z]

I was told a long time ago from a well known trainer that the number of meals didn't matter. It all comes down to getting in the appropriate amount of calories within that day. I've tried them all at one point in time. I found that it was much easier not to worry about the number of meals and just concentrate on the calories and macros. 6 meals a day is pretty strenuous for a lot people with their jobs. If you stress over getting your meals in, then you are working against yourself as stress does not work well for weight loss. 6 meals a day is not necessarily a BB thing. It's a metabolism thing. I remember when everyone went through the multiple meals a day so strictly they were setting their alarms to get up in the middle of the night to eat...haha. Come on man, that's too much.

[Psyber]

7 minutes ago, TN94z said:

I was told a long time ago from a well known trainer that the number of meals didn't matter. It all comes down to getting in the appropriate amount of calories within that day. I've tried them all at one point in time. I found that it was much easier not to worry about the number of meals and just concentrate on the calories and macros. 6 meals a day is pretty strenuous for a lot people with their jobs. If you stress over getting your meals in, then you are working against yourself as stress does not work well for weight loss. 6 meals a day is not necessarily a BB thing. It's a metabolism thing. I remember when everyone went through the multiple meals a day so strictly they were setting their alarms to get up in the middle of the night to eat...haha. Come on man, that's too much.

It's a BB thing to a degree due to the sheer amount of food. If you've never taken in over 4k calories a day of clean food I don't think you realize how difficult that can be if you don't spread it out over 5-6 meals. It all comes down to what your goals are. If your goal is to just not be fat and maintain an average level of muscle mass I see no reason you can't accomplish that in 2-3 meals a day. If your goal is to be over 200 and under 12% BF now you have a real challenge. Some people have freak genetics and can get jacked and lean eating a loose diet and pushing lawn mowers but for the rest of us this requires a lot of quality food. Even to hold 185 at 8% BF requires a pretty strict diet for most.

[mvmac]

12 minutes ago, Psyber said:

It's a BB thing to a degree due to the sheer amount of food. If you've never taken in over 4k calories a day of clean food I don't think you realize how difficult that can be if you don't spread it out over 5-6 meals.

Post below is OT

Spoiler

Have you heard about IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros)? You don't have to eat "clean" to be a BB or have low body fat percentage.

 

 

[saevel25]

2 minutes ago, Psyber said:

If your goal is to be over 200 and under 12% BF now you have a real challenge. Some people have freak genetics and can get jacked and lean eating a loose diet and pushing lawn mowers but for the rest of us this requires a lot of quality food. Even to hold 185 at 8% BF requires a pretty strict diet for most.

Which probably makes it unreasonable to achieve unless you are an athlete. If you are anywhere from 12-20% body fat you are doing good. 

I think it would be easier just to cut the fat first then build back up the muscle. There really isn't a consensus on how much protein is needed to build muscle. Actually newer studies have found that there is an upper limit to the amount of protein that can contribute to muscle growth. 

Quote

"Based on the sound research, many review papers have concluded 0.82g/lb is the upper limit at which protein intake benefits body composition (Phillips & Van Loon, 2011). This recommendation often includes a double 95% confidence level, meaning they took the highest mean intake at which benefits were still observed and then added two standard deviations to that level to make absolutely sure all possible benefits from additional protein intake are utilized. As such, this is already overdoing it and consuming 1g/lb ‘to be safe’ doesn’t make any sense. 0.82g/lb is already very safe."

If you are eating over 0.82g/lb of protein you are just eating protein to use as filler for calories. Which is fine. Protein requires more energy to break down and it keeps you fuller longer. 

It's a tad easier now to do 2 meals per day when you realize that you don't need 1.5 grams/lb of protein :) 

[Pretzel]

18 minutes ago, Psyber said:

It's a BB thing to a degree due to the sheer amount of food. If you've never taken in over 4k calories a day of clean food I don't think you realize how difficult that can be if you don't spread it out over 5-6 meals.

I eat around 3500 calories a day in my two meals (less than during the summer, since I'm not going out and golfing each day), so it really just depends on the person. I prefer to eat a lot at once, but less frequently, compared to others (like you) who prefer to eat less but more frequently. I'm not someone who weighs in the neighborhood of 200 pounds though, I weigh somewhere around 160.

[Psyber]

3 hours ago, mvmac said:

Post below is OT

  Hide contents

Have you heard about IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros)? You don't have to eat "clean" to be a BB or have low body fat percentage. 

 

Spoiler

I have always really considered eating clean to be eating within your macros and sticking to nutritiously dense foods. I'm a big believer in controlling insulin and breaking meals into protein/fat and protein/carbs. I keep the fats low when an insulin spike is going to be caused by consuming carbs. Insulin being a storage hormone loves to save fat when a better source of energy is available (sugar). 

 

[TN94z]

6 hours ago, Psyber said:

It's a BB thing to a degree due to the sheer amount of food. If you've never taken in over 4k calories a day of clean food I don't think you realize how difficult that can be if you don't spread it out over 5-6 meals. It all comes down to what your goals are. If your goal is to just not be fat and maintain an average level of muscle mass I see no reason you can't accomplish that in 2-3 meals a day. If your goal is to be over 200 and under 12% BF now you have a real challenge. Some people have freak genetics and can get jacked and lean eating a loose diet and pushing lawn mowers but for the rest of us this requires a lot of quality food. Even to hold 185 at 8% BF requires a pretty strict diet for most.

I think you may have misunderstood me. I meant that as it's not "only" a BB thing. I have been there and done that. You are correct. To take in 4k calories with "clean" food, it's tough. It is easier if you spread it around with more meals obviously. But it's not a necessity. I don't like supplements personally, so I try to get all of my calories in with food. I don't think your diet has to be "strict" to be 12% or even 8-10%. I just think it needs to be quality foods. The trainer I used to work with has a few guys that have 2-3 cheat "days" during the week. And by cheat days, I mean they are eating 6-10k + calories on those days. Obviously they can't eat that much clean, but they will eat a lot of clean foods topped off with pizza or ice cream or whatever they wish to help hit the cals and are in that BF range. The key is getting your metabolism in check. I know that once I start watching what I eat and following certain macros, I will get to where I can eat like crazy! That's the key to getting all of those calories in with a couple meals. Just look at the warrior diet (I believe it was the warrior diet) for example. You eat very little during the day (blueberries, some almonds etc...) then you eat all of your calories in one meal. I've seen plenty of guys do well on this type diet too.

All of these different styles can work. It basically just comes down to what style fits you the best and will allow you to stick to it without a lot of stress over your diet.

[saevel25]

Note, you replied to a thread 3 years old ;)

21 hours ago, Guest George said:

Not every person has the opportunity to eat fve meals a day. Diet is only part of life and not the most important thing.

I would say what you eat matters the most in controlling weight. It's really tough to find the time and motivation to work off what a person overeats. Also, our bodies are designed to not starve. So weight loss will always be a struggle.

21 hours ago, Guest George said:

I'm following the Simple Weight Loss System combined with app for tracking calories like myfitnesspal etc. With moderate activity it works really good 🙂

Keeping it simple is always the best.