Eat every 3-4 hours. Myth?

RatioFitness said:

Firstly, you've confused "regular" meal frequency with higher and lower meal frequency. "Regular" meal frequency means eating the same number of times per day. That could mean 2 times per day on a regular basis or 9 times per day on a regular basis.

Secondly, you shouldn't come to conclusions after a "quick" search. You missed almost every study on the subject. If you look at all the literature on meal frequency then will be there is no metabolic advantage to higher frequency.

Thirdly, that position statement was utterly DESTROYED by Alan Aragon. You can read it here: http://www.leangains.com/2011/04/critiq ... -meal.html

If you want to fire me the studies I've missed, I'll be happy to read them. You can send me a private note if you don't want to fill up the topic.

Uhmmmm interesting link. I'll read but I gotta say the rabid intro before the paper was a bit of a turn-off. I just finished my nutrition certification with Dr. Berardi, and supplements were really downplayed except for fish oil, creatine, and protein powder in general. And even those were explained as being mostly useful for time-saving when clients can't/won't make time to eat properly. Clean, whole foods and mostly veggies where pushed as the main goal. The diet coaching he offers on his website may differ, I haven't taken it so I don't know. But that's my first impression, will go read now. Thanks for think! More info is always good.

Keep in mind that how you look does not reflect how healthy you are.

I will never downplay the importance of activity, I mean we are literally built to move for survival. That pretty much means quite a lot of movement 7 days a week, in all kinds of directions with varying intensity levels and durations. More than anything else, activity is the most important part of health.

After that, however, comes nutrition. Physical activity is the only thing that causes active remodeling of the body, which is why I place it first, but nutrition comes a close second. I absolutely support, agree with, and actively promote the idea you learned in your cert, which is that simply eating better food is the most important thing in anyone's diet. Supplements just end up filling in weak spots in a diet and are the more expensive way of doing so. It's only when you get to a fairly high competitive level that supplements beyond protein and perhaps creatine (though I personally group this in the "weak spot coverup" group since a proper workout + diet will produce rapid strength gains in pretty much everyone) make a difference that is worth the expense.

What I am referring to in my fatty liver comments is the effect fructose has on human metabolism. This is very well documented, check it out on pubmed. You can also watch "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" on youtube for free. It's 90 minutes, but I actually had a good time. I thought it would be a drag, but I enjoyed it. This is a good introduction, and features one of the foremost researchers in this area as the speaker. He does run down the "dark conspiracy" path a bit in terms of how big business exploits the love of sugar, but even this has at the very least grains of truth in it. The research is rock solid. You should definitely watch in my opinion, especially if you want to learn more.

DavidRPacker said:

I didn't state any conclusion, just posted some links to show how much work is being done,

Well, you stated "not a myth," which I took as your conclusion. Plus, most of your links weren't about the topic at hand. Do you see now how you confused regular vs. irregular meal frequency with higher vs. lower meal frequency?

Dave, if you intended to come across as impartial you would not have started with "Not a myth." I have a hard time seeing how that was intended to set up your post as "Just posting links to show how much work is being done."

I probably sound like a jerk, but it might be time to man up and say "Hey guys, I clearly jumped to conclusions" or "Hey guys, I guess I don't know how to communicate effectively." I apologize if that upsets you, but it is what it is. I wouldn't worry about it, if you search around enough you'll find several spots where I've ended up with my foot in my mouth and it tasted bad. I pulled it out, spat a bit, and learned to be more careful about where said foot tried to put itself, and these days I end up with it in my mouth very infrequently. It's all part of being in a public discussion on a subject that people have very strong beliefs in despite inconclusive research.

I eat as in LeanGains style. 16 hr fasts, 1-2 meals a day, 1 snack some times. I'm doing fine and so is a ton of other people. Like you said, you are unemployed, low in cash. Don't buy into the protein powder studies. If is more comfortable to eat 3 meals to you, then do it.

Wow I came back to two pages full of arguments lol. I didn't really get an answer but I'll trust the other guys like me who are on a college diet and are still working out, because we have no time and resources to invest into the Protein fad

When I have been ultra broke, its milk and eggs FTW.

Blairbob said:

When I have been ultra broke, its milk and eggs FTW.

+10!

Eating every 3-4 hours is a relatively new thing, even in bodybuilding. Steve Reeves, Jack Lalanne, Bill Pearl (at certain times) these guys did not eat 6 times per day it was 3 huge hearty meals. And this was only 50 years ago. Now I am not saying that there haven't been huge advanced in understanding nutrition and physiology, far from it. But I these guys made awesome progress in strength and physique with only 3 meals. In the end my point is similar to Razz's and Slizz's exercise is first, food quality close second, then when those two things are in order you'll probably have 90 percent of your gains and you can start playing around with stuff like meal frequency and supplements.

Me personally 6 meals per day never worked for me. I was always so full all the time that I could never eat enough calories by the end of the day (great for fat loss I suppose but my goal was weight gain). I didn't gain any appreciable amounts of weight until I switched to 3 meals.

slizzardman said:

Dave, if you intended to come across as impartial you would not have started with "Not a myth." I have a hard time seeing how that was intended to set up your post as "Just posting links to show how much work is being done."

I probably sound like a jerk, but it might be time to man up and say "Hey guys, I clearly jumped to conclusions" or "Hey guys, I guess I don't know how to communicate effectively." I apologize if that upsets you, but it is what it is. I wouldn't worry about it, if you search around enough you'll find several spots where I've ended up with my foot in my mouth and it tasted bad. I pulled it out, spat a bit, and learned to be more careful about where said foot tried to put itself, and these days I end up with it in my mouth very infrequently. It's all part of being in a public discussion on a subject that people have very strong beliefs in despite inconclusive research.

Yeeeeaaah, it's another reminder for me that I really shouldn't post in forums. Every few months I forget.

I seem to have to have a knack for making people think I'm saying almost the opposite of what I'm trying to say.

*ahem*

"Hey guys, I guess I don't know how to communicate effectively."

I'll go do some handstands now.

It happens, I hope to see you post around here more. Good luck with the handstands!

This isn't a community where people are going to jump down your throat, but we definitely call each other out when we see something that is clearly not quite right. I hope you learn to appreciate what we have here and choose to be a more active poster!