How often should I be eating?

[Teddy-G]

How true is the "every 3 hours" rule? I feel like I'm gonna end up eating too much then.

 

[fufu]

You don't need to eat every 3 hours, it is bullshit.

As long as you are meeting your desired daily caloric range, it doesn't matter. Do what works best for you.

What are your current goals with your diet?

 

[ScorpionKing]

It depends on what your trying to do. Post up your goals and Stats.

 

[blergs.]

I eat every 2-3 hrs ed
3 bigger meals us ually and 3-4 smaller ones

 

[bigsalad22]

You don't need to eat every 3 hours, it is bullshit.

As long as you are meeting your desired daily caloric range, it doesn't matter. Do what works best for you.

What are your current goals with your diet?

no disrespect fufu, but i don't agree.
its true that eating every 3 hours may not be necessary for everyone, but there's no way you can say it's bullshit.
depending on your goals and what sports you may or may not be involved in, what your daily activity is like, and what body type you have...things are going to differ for everyone.
if your a 250lb couch potato and just starting to train and diet, then i'd say eating every 2-3 hours is absolutely necessary to help boost your metabolism.
if your a 110lb toothpick looking to pack on some size then its also necessary because you'd need extra calories right?
if you try to pack in your daily caloric needs into just 3 meals...well then i feel sorry for you, because you'll never reach your full potential this way.
especially for a guy like fufu, cuz if you look at his pics...the dude's got a good physique. from the pics, looks like he's a wrestler and if he's really not eating every 2-3 hours now......wow. he's got all the potential to be a freak if he did.
do yourself a favor. eat every 2-3 hours. this is a formula that's applicable for most athletes and for all that are striving to meet their fitness/physique goals.

 

[Hutchym8]

I thought the "time line" for eating every 3 hours is refering to protein consumption in that the body can only absord around 40 grams of protein every 3 hours or so if u want to grow u need 2 get your body quality protein every 2-3 hours. Am i mistaken??

 

[fufu]

no disrespect fufu, but i don't agree.
its true that eating every 3 hours may not be necessary for everyone, but there's no way you can say it's bullshit.
depending on your goals and what sports you may or may not be involved in, what your daily activity is like, and what body type you have...things are going to differ for everyone.
if your a 250lb couch potato and just starting to train and diet, then i'd say eating every 2-3 hours is absolutely necessary to help boost your metabolism.
if your a 110lb toothpick looking to pack on some size then its also necessary because you'd need extra calories right?
if you try to pack in your daily caloric needs into just 3 meals...well then i feel sorry for you, because you'll never reach your full potential this way.
especially for a guy like fufu, cuz if you look at his pics...the dude's got a good physique. from the pics, looks like he's a wrestler and if he's really not eating every 2-3 hours now......wow. he's got all the potential to be a freak if he did.
do yourself a favor. eat every 2-3 hours. this is a formula that's applicable for most athletes and for all that are striving to meet their fitness/physique goals.

I think we actually may be agreeing more than you think.

When I said it was bullshit, I was referring specifically to what the original poster mentioned ,the "every three hours rule". This is because people use it as just that, a rule, some sort of dieting dogma that needs to be strictly obeyed. I'm not saying it never has its applications. I find people will follow this rule to a ridiculous extent and really re-arrange their lifestyles in an obsessive manner to do so.

I told him to do what works for him, if he finds eating every 3 hours to be the most practical and effective way to eat, then by all means I would encourage doing that. People get caught up in the black and white way of looking at things. You either must do this, or you must do this. You can pretty much get away with anything as long as you are controlling the big factors in your lifestyle, like daily caloric intake and activity levels.

Your examples are viable, and I mostly agree with them. But the thing is, we don't know about Teddy-G's goals and body type, therefore we can't give him any specific recommendations.

So this is basically as far as I have gotten -

He doesn't need to eat every three hours.

But maybe it would work well, it depends on his goals which we have yet to know.

And I personally do eat 5-6 meals a day, because it works well when I want to put on mass. If I happen to go past that magic 3 hour mark, I don't sweat it, I just make sure to eat more than I normally would later on.

When I diet to get lean, I eat 4 meals a day out of practicality because I like to eat bigger meals to get satisfied. Plus, my cutting meals need to be prepared and controlled, and doing that for 4 meals is much easier than 5-6.

 

[gtbmed]

There's no definitive research correlating meal frequency and fat loss. The entire idea of an increased metabolism from an increased meal frequency hasn't been scientifically demonstrated.

Eat as often as you want. The best diet is the one that works for you.

 

[Teddy-G]

You don't need to eat every 3 hours, it is bullshit.

As long as you are meeting your desired daily caloric range, it doesn't matter. Do what works best for you.

What are your current goals with your diet?

I'm cutting at the moment. With my bulking cycles, I've always had 4-5 meals a day and they've given me the best results.

I had previously read that eating more frequently keeps your metabolic rate up, but then I read an article by Built in which she mentions that this isn't the case. This lead to my confusion. If I can get away with only eating 4-5 meals a day and meeting my caloric range, then that would be more practical for me.

 

[fufu]

I'm cutting at the moment. With my bulking cycles, I've always had 4-5 meals a day and they've given me the best results.

I had previously read that eating more frequently keeps your metabolic rate up, but then I read an article by Built in which she mentions that this isn't the case. This lead to my confusion. If I can get away with only eating 4-5 meals a day and meeting my caloric range, then that would be more practical for me.

Here's the thing, don't give that metabolic manipulation too much thought unless you are an obsessive bodybuilder trying to get to a very low body fat percentage. That is all detail stuff.

The total caloric intake is the big factor. If you find it is harder to stay within your caloric range by eating 5-6 meals a day compared to 3-4, then you should eat 3-4.

You may be increasing your metabolic rate by eating more frequently (yet to be proven conclusively), but if you are sacrificing your ability to control your daily caloric intake, what is the point? Prioritizing details over the big factors is not the best way to diet.

When it comes to dieting, very rarely can people do it "perfectly", and really there is no need to unless it is your job. You got to know that you can't do everything text book, because most people's lifestyles don't allow for that. But with concentrating on basic fundamental principals, you can still diet better than 90% of the people out there trying to lose weight.

 

[stevo123]

I found that when trying to lean up, eating smaller healthy meals were much easier to control the cal intake rather than gorging myself and overloading my body with a ton of calories especially in the late evenings

 

[bigsalad22]

I think we actually may be agreeing more than you think.

When I said it was bullshit, I was referring specifically to what the original poster mentioned ,the "every three hours rule". This is because people use it as just that, a rule, some sort of dieting dogma that needs to be strictly obeyed. I'm not saying it never has its applications. I find people will follow this rule to a ridiculous extent and really re-arrange their lifestyles in an obsessive manner to do so.

I told him to do what works for him, if he finds eating every 3 hours to be the most practical and effective way to eat, then by all means I would encourage doing that. People get caught up in the black and white way of looking at things. You either must do this, or you must do this. You can pretty much get away with anything as long as you are controlling the big factors in your lifestyle, like daily caloric intake and activity levels.

Your examples are viable, and I mostly agree with them. But the thing is, we don't know about Teddy-G's goals and body type, therefore we can't give him any specific recommendations.

So this is basically as far as I have gotten -

He doesn't need to eat every three hours.

But maybe it would work well, it depends on his goals which we have yet to know.

And I personally do eat 5-6 meals a day, because it works well when I want to put on mass. If I happen to go past that magic 3 hour mark, I don't sweat it, I just make sure to eat more than I normally would later on.

When I diet to get lean, I eat 4 meals a day out of practicality because I like to eat bigger meals to get satisfied. Plus, my cutting meals need to be prepared and controlled, and doing that for 4 meals is much easier than 5-6.

fair enough. i misunderstood you
thanks for clearing that up.
good post.

 

[premo]

if i were bulking id eat ever couple of hrs or so to get more calaries in rather then trying to stuff all into 3meals - if cutting id also do the same but make sre the meal every 3 hrs or so contained protein , in order to keep protein levels high when dieting and also i heard that your body can only absorb a certain amount per sitting so id do this to make sure i get enough in my body with out wasting