Meal Frequency: 3 Meals Vs. 6 Meals A Day

Chances are that you’ve read that particular piece of advice a fair few times in magazines or diet books, and heard it delivered as some kind of gospel on weight loss shows on TV as well.

 

But just because you’ve heard this advice to eat smaller meals more often lots of times, that doesn’t automatically make it true. Throughout the 1980s, for instance, we were all told that fat was the devil – it caused heart disease, premature deaths, and was the cause of many a failed diet. Then in the 90s and 2000s, low carb was all the rage – according to many experts, you only had to look at a slice of bread or piece of fruit and you’d pile on the pounds. But nowadays, we know that both fats and carbs are important parts of any healthy weight loss diet.

 

It’s similar now with meal frequency – for the last few years, the advice of eating little and often has been touted as one of the keys to losing weight. However, this isn’t necessarily true. In this article, we’ll examine whether you’re better off eating 3 meals or 6 meals per day if you want to drop some pounds.

What Are the Advantages to Frequent Eating (6 Meals per day)?

- Eating smaller meals or snacks more often, as opposed to three large meals, can potentially keep you feeling full and avoid cravings.

 

- If you’re often thinking about food, this meal frequency allows you to eat more regularly and take your mind off food.

 

- Energy levels are maintained throughout the day if you eat more often, but smaller meals.

 

- You can have one meal immediately before a workout and another one after, thus providing your body with energy and nutrients to perform at its best during your workout session and kickstart recovery as soon as you’ve finished exercising.

What Are the Disadvantages to Frequent Eating?

- For some people, eating more regularly actually stimulates hunger, leading them to ultimately consume a higher amount of calories in any given day.

 

- Eating more often also means more frequent rises and falls in your blood sugar levels.

 

- It’s easier to over-consume calories mindlessly if you are intentionally eating often.

- Planning, preparing and cooking your meals can be extremely time consuming on this type of schedule.

 

- Maintaining this type of meal plan can be antisocial if you’re out with friends or colleagues, and have to delve into your bag every few hours to pull out Tupperware containers full of food.

Advantages to Infrequent Eating (3 meals per day)

- You only have to make three meals.

- Blood sugar levels remain lower for most of the day.

- Some people find bigger meals more filling.

- A regular three meals a day potentially means better nutrient partitioning. This refers to what your body does with carbs, proteins and fats. Some research suggests these macronutrients are more likely to be used for energy, muscle growth and hormone production than stored when you eat less frequently.

- There are many benefits associated with fasting, the main one being greater longevity.

Disadvantages to Infrequent Eating

- Larger meals can make you feel sleepy and drowsy.

- If you have a small appetite, eating enough calories in each meal can be challenging.

- Potential loss of concentration when you’re hungry between meals.

- Increased temptation to eat junk food if you still have time to wait until you next eat.
 
Notice one thing though – the issue of metabolism wasn’t discussed. The main reason why many people favor the “little and often” approach with 6 meals per day is because they believe that more frequent eating results in a larger metabolism boost, which in turn burns extra calories and sheds fat quicker.

However, this isn’t the case. It is true that every time you eat, your body has to burn calories to digest food. This is known as the thermic effect of feeding, or TEF. However, TEF is proportionate not only to how often you eat, but the number of calories you eat too.

For example, if your calorie intake one day is 1800, and you split this evenly into 6 meals of 300 calories each, you may burn 100 calories through TEF at each meal. If you were to only eat 3 meals of 600 calories each, you’d get a less frequent metabolism boost, but where the calorie content is double, TEF would double too, and you’d burn the same number of calories.

As is so often the case, the answer here is “It Depends.”

As already discussed, there are no real definite physiological advantages in favor of either approach.

 

For the average person with a family, hectic social life and working a nine to five office job, 3 meals a day may work better. In the morning, make sure you have time for a good breakfast. Research shows that those who eat breakfast tend to have higher dieting success rates. This may be entirely coincidental, as there are plenty of people who can skip breakfast and get through to lunch with no worries whatsoever, but on the whole, eating breakfast does help you make better food choices for the rest of the day.

 

 

When adopting a three meal a day diet, your breakfast should be roughly one third of your total calories for the day. The good news is that this probably means your new breakfast is bigger. Get some good quality protein in there in the form of eggs, turkey bacon, Greek yogurt or a protein shake. Add some carbs from oats, fruits or wholegrain toast or wraps, and make sure you’ve got fat too – nuts, avocado, peanut butter or full fat dairy products like butter or whole milk are good choices.

Go through until lunch, only consuming non-calorific beverages such as water and black tea or coffee.

At lunch, follow the same guidelines as breakfast, but change your food sources.

Same goes in the afternoon – plenty of fluids, and you can chew gum if you get cravings, but you should keep your calorie intake to the bare minimum. Eat the final third of your calories at dinner.

If you’re exercising as well as dieting, try to train close to one of your meals, so that your body has enough energy to perform, and ample calories to recover.

If you don’t think 3 meals a day will work for you, feel free to go with 6. This works better if you work on the road, or have an active job. You might not always have time to sit down and eat a big meal, and have to grab food on the run.

You still need to make healthy choices, and above all, ensure that you’re eating the right number of calories. One area where many frequent eaters fall down is calories. They trick themselves into thinking that by eating more and more often, they’re burning more calories, and all too soon, end up vastly over-consuming food. Each meal you eat should have around a sixth of your total calories in it. Stick with the same guidelines as above, but make your portions smaller. You may prefer to go for 3 meals and 3 snacks, rather than 6 small meals too.

The frequent feeding option also favors athletes. Training every day, often more than once can be extremely draining and demanding, and a constant supply of nutrients is essential for maintaining optimal health and performance.

Whatever approach you decide to go for, plan carefully, and stick with it.