How Many Meals a Day Should You Eat?

There is no one correct number of meals to eat every day... So how many should you eat?

The classic breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks??Five meals a day, eating every two hours to “boost your metabolism”? One a day? Fasting until 3 or 4 P.M., and then feasting for your one and only meal?

Like all questions related to health and nutrition, it depends. Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to build muscle? Enhance your athletic performance? Your dietary approach SHOULD vary depending on this.?

This article is for someone who is confused and frustrated in their attempts to lose weight.

First, a Word on Metabolism:

Your metabolism, which we’ll define as the number of calories you expend in a day, is made up of four factors:?

1.?????Basal metabolic rate (BMR)?- keeping a 98.6-degree core temperature, maintaining muscle mass, general maintenance of body...

2.?????Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) – doing chores around the house, walking into the grocery store, fidgeting, brushing your teeth, etc.?

3.?????Thermic Effect of Food?(TEF)?– digestion, transportation, and storage of nutrients you consume

4.?????Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT)?- scheduled training time

The four factors that make up your?constantly changing?metabolism are listed above in order of their contribution to it. The greatest contributor is BMR - simply keeping your body alive and functioning. The second is NEAT – being a generally active person. Then the thermic effect of food and, lastly, the set amount of time you spend exercising.?

The reason I mention this first is that there is no eating pattern that “boosts your metabolism” or “supercharges fat loss”. There is simply the number of calories you consume in a day and the number of calories you expend (metabolism).?

To start, I recommend that every person (aside from highly active and competitive athletes) consume all calories in a 12-hour window or less.?

Stretching your fasting period out has a host of health benefits and is a built-in way to restrict the volume of food you eat. For most normal people, having a shortened feeding window will make it more difficult to overeat.

For those that struggle controlling themselves with food (me to this day), we need to ensure there is discipline in our approach to diet. This comes in the form of setting a firm “eating window” and prioritizing protein and whole foods in that period. It’s far more difficult to overeat potatoes, berries and salmon than homemade brownies.

Okay, onto meal frequency. Again I’m going to approach this article from the perspective of someone who is trying to lose weight (fat).?

1.?????Three meals a day?

If you enjoy the act of eating - which is valid and confirms you’re human - three meals a day is a realistic option for achieving your goals.?

The fasting craze has demonized this meal, but I usually recommend people eat breakfast. The studies are clear:?a breakfast high in protein will limit overconsumption of calories?later in the day (THE?most common problem I see with weight loss clients is nighttime overeating). Protein is the most satiating nutrient – in other words, it is the most filling and hardest to overeat.?

Another note on protein: the thermic effect of food (TEF) - or the amount of energy used to digest, transport and store it - is the highest in protein of the three macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat). In other words, eating protein in itself burns more calories than eating carbs or fat.?

A gram of protein contains 4 calories. Of those 4 calories per gram, roughly 20-30% of that energy is used to digest, transport, and store it. This means of the 4 calories you get from a gram of protein, only 3 of them actually “count”. THIS IS HUGE!?

Action steps: Eat a protein-heavy breakfast, a protein-heavy lunch, a protein-heavy dinner, and protein-heavy snacks. Theme? Eat more protein.?

Eggs and cheese - meat – Greek yogurt with walnuts and berries – a protein shake - four accessible, bang-for-buck breakfasts. Rinse and repeat with every meal: Whole foods and protein focus.

2.?????Five or more meals a day?

If you?really?enjoy the act of eating, five or more meals a day is another realistic option to achieve your goals. Again, there is no “metabolism-boosting” effect from eating more meals (it all comes down to calories in and out), but psychologically the act of eating more frequently makes it easier to resist cravings.?

Five or more meals in your eating window means your meals will be smaller. The same principles of protein and whole foods apply, just less volume.?

This is more legwork involved on your end in the form of preparing this number of meals, but if this is sustainable for you, go ahead!

3.?????One meal a day?

Same theme: As long as this is realistic for you, AND you’re able to hit ample amounts of protein in a day (0.7 grams per pound of bodyweight, minimum), this is a realistic option to achieve your goals. For most, this is not a sustainable plan for life due in large part to social gatherings, but it is a worthy experiment to see how you feel not eating for an extended period.?

This meal frequency takes some adjusting to. Expect severe hunger pangs, as your body is not used to fasting for 20+ hours a day.?

DO NOT use this as an excuse to hammer a whole pizza and ice cream in your one meal, as you can still easily overconsume calories if you get into this pattern. I’ve done it myself. The rationalization is too easy, and for that reason I usually don’t use the one-meal-a-day strategy.?

Also, think about the relationship to food this creates in your brain: restrict, restrain, and binge. While this strategy can certainly work for many in the goal of weight loss (it’s tough to overeat protein and whole foods in a short, one-meal window), it can definitely backfire. Know yourself.?

So...

One thing is for sure: you must EXPERIMENT for yourself.

The quantity, then quality, of food is what matters most for weight loss. After establishing this, you need to find an eating pattern that works best for your individual situation.?

If five, one, three or nine meals a day is realistic for you to follow for the rest of your life, then stick with that plan (keeping a minimum of a 12-hour period of fasting each day for its health benefits). Every meal should be based around protein and whole foods. Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store. That is generally where the whole foods are.

Hope this helps.?