Meal frequency

Hi Thrive Forum!

This is my first time posting. I am currently working through F1, H1 and Stretch Series. I am now up to Step 7 of Thrive. This may or may not be covered in later steps but I thought I would throw the question out there.

Before starting Thrive, my daily nutrition consisted of four meals. 7am (Breakfast), 11am-ish, 2-3pm-ish, 7-8pm (Dinner). I am keeping this frequency during Thrive and implementing the steps as I go. I train once, sometimes twice a day (jiu jitsu as well as GST). 

I note that so far Thrive 'prescribes' 3 meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Should I be pushing my two meals in the day together to create a large lunch at 1pm or so? This would mean a pretty massive meal! How do people go with this?

A pretty typical day of eating for me looks like this:

1. Chicken or turkey mince with two eggs, garlic and handful of spinach. A coffee w/ almond milk (not a fan of dairy due to asthma and allergies/hayfever). i was having sweet potato and fruit here but have now removed it. 

2. Lean meat w/ broccoli or zucchini, rice and a cup of salad (red and yellow capsicum, lettuce, cabbage and carrot) drizzled in a lemon juice and avocado oil. Sometimes a piece of fruit.

3. Same as 2.

4. Usually a bit more creative than Meals 2 and 3 but same principles. Meat, veggies, starch (usually potato or sweet potato). 

I have implemented the Lunch steps into both my Meal 2 and 3 and was wondering if this was the right way to go about it?

Any feedback would be great! Not sure how to tag Jeff in this as I'm new here and still learning how to use it.

Cheers

Ryan. 

Hi Ryan,
If I recall correctly, for the case you needed an extra meal during the day, @Jeff Serven recommended that it should be composed like lunch, perhaps a little smaller.

You can tag someone by putting an "@" before their user name.

Thanks @LeonhardKrahe 

I did some more poking around on the forum and found some similar answers!

Cheers

Stay with 2 lunches. If you are doing that much work and you feel you need it, do it. 

For 90% of people 3 meals is good. But, it does depend on what you are doing. 

Nice one,

I'm in a similar position to @Ryan Lewis - I do my GST workout most days and also train BJJ 4 days a week. I have a variation, I tend to do the three meals, but on days where I've got Jiu-Jitsu I am having a small meal later in the afternoon to carb up a little before training. Eg. 1/2 cup seasoned sushi rice with some sliced Japanese pickled mackerel. 

I work 12 hour days when I'm in the field.  I'm not physically active at work but 3 meals spread out over 12 hours is hard for me.  A meal at beginning, middle and end of shift means they are 6 hours apart.  How should I break up my meals throughout the day?

So I decided to experiment with the 3 meals and a snack mid-afternoon.

I have upped my carbohydrate intake slightly for the lunch and dinner to compensate. The snack is half a serving of protein, a small handful of nuts and a piece of fruit. It seems to be working really well (and it feels like I am preparing less food.....I'm not a massive fan of spending time in the kitchen!).

The biggest change so far I have noticed (I'm now up to Step 10) is having a protein and fat breakfast and ditching the carbs. I am staying satisfied longer in to the morning where I used to get hungry a couple of hours after breakfast. 

Thanks @Jeff Serven and everyone else for the input! 

Cheers

Sounds like your doing good Ryan!

Patricia, sometimes I bring a really big lunch and split it into two on the long days. Try that or Ryans suggestion of a snack.