Go Fit: How many meals per day?

Scott Markey | Fitness

There is no way you can keep building any significant amount of muscle and burn body fat if you persist in only eating three meals a day.

The reason you have been able to elicit a response from your body until now only consuming three meals a day is because your body was previously untrained. In other words, when going from no weight training to weight training several times per week, you will see a change in your body, even if your dietary habits remain unchanged.

However, this will only work for a short time; once your body’s demands exceed the nutritional support it gets from three meals per day, it is only a matter of time before your progress grinds to a halt. Imagine how much greater your results would be if your muscles began receiving twice as many nutrients.

The thought of eating six meals a day turns a lot of people off. Eating more meals does not necessarily mean eating more calories. For example, you may be eating 3,000 calories per day now in three meals; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you add a mid-morning snack time, a mid-afternoon snack time, and a post-dinner snack time, you would have a total of six meals.

If you break up your normal caloric intake of 3,000 calories over these six meals, you end up with six meals of 500 calories each. “So what?” you say.

By spacing out the caloric intake over the period of the day, you stimulate metabolism, supply muscle tissue with a more constant stream of nutrients, and minimize the chance of extra calories being deposited as fat. It also enables you to take in more nutrients.

As your muscles grow and start placing more demands on your system, you need to feed them more to get further growth. This means increasing both nutrient and caloric intake. But you can’t just increase the calories you are consuming at your three meals. This would result in overload, as your body can only absorb so many nutrients and utilize so many calories at one time. The surplus would be deposited as fat if it weren’t used for energy immediately.

The logical solution here would be to increase meal frequency. So try to increase your meal frequency, but lower those calories at each meal. By doing this, once again you will be able to add more meals and feed those muscles. In return, your body will reward you with more muscle and less body fat.

So good luck everybody, and do not hesitate to e-mail me with your results.

– Scott Markey has over 25 years in the fitness and health industry. He has graced dozens of magazine covers and specializes in physique management, training and nutritional consultation. You can find him on Facebook or reach him at scottmarkey@yahoo.com.