Several Small Meals
- Thread starter The Rose
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imported_andré
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yes.
At the end of the day what really matters is calories in versus calories out. Personally I usually do 5 big meals and a couple of fruit snacks troughout the day and when I cut they're just smaller meals. Splitting your intake will allow for better blood sugar management and a steady flow of aminoacids in your blood stream all day, which is important fro hypertrophy, but I don't believe it will make a huge difference.
Frankly I think you can do fine with 4 meals or so when cutting.
If you think about it, our bodies were designed to survive on very large meals once a day or so, followed by periods of lower calorie intake. This eating several meals a day thing is a pretty recent trend. Anyway, I digress, this is hardly related to your question. I sugest you read the interview with Lyle Macdonald at wannabebig.com. The man knows his stuff.
Frankly I think you can do fine with 4 meals or so when cutting.
If you think about it, our bodies were designed to survive on very large meals once a day or so, followed by periods of lower calorie intake. This eating several meals a day thing is a pretty recent trend. Anyway, I digress, this is hardly related to your question. I sugest you read the interview with Lyle Macdonald at wannabebig.com. The man knows his stuff.
[b said:
that same theory tells us that our bodies adapted to eat as much food as possible in one go and store what it didnt immedeately require as fat. Then use as little of that fat store as possible because we didnt know when or where the next meal was coming from.
So if you continue to eat like that, then you will store fat. Once fat accumulates, it is quite hard to shift.....its designed that way for survival.
Eat more than you burn and you will gain; burn more than you eat and you will loose. That is the fundemental understanding of wieght gain/loss. However, our bodies were required to complicate the issue by for survival purposes.
By eating smaller meals more frequently, you will not be providing the body with such an excess of nutrients and thus less fat storage. Furthermore, if inadequate nurient supply is the rate limiting factor in hypertrophy, then a constant supply of nurients throughout the day will solve the problem.
Maybe restless is right? maybe im right? try both ways and see? In short, science is constantly leading us to new discoveries and oftentimes provides us with useful insights, BUT there are many things it has not yet fully explained. Especially those mechanisms of human functioning ie hypertrophy and nutritional pathways. Science is guiding us to the light, but we have not arrived yet.
(sorry for the digression........im in an odd mood)
Yes, but at the same time there's little fatty acid mobilisation for energy because you're always providing fuel to it. Like I said, at the end of the day, it's pretty much calories versus calories out that dictate weight loss.[b said:
Anyway, of course I don't recomend you take in 3000 kcals (or whatever) in one sitting while cutting, but I also don't think that there will be a huge diference between 6 or 4 meals a day, provided there's enough and adequate nutrient intake pre/post workout.
As restless said,
the idea about multiple meals being useful for fat loss was that correlational studies showed that people who ate more often (but not anymore) were a lower bodyweight, they guessed this was from the increased thermic effect of food becuase of eating more often. In experimental work, it showed no difference.
As in if you eat 3000cals in 6 meals, you have a thermic of say 10% a day, if you eat 3000kcal in 3 meals you have a thermic effect of ~10%, it makes no difference.
In terms of maintaining nutrient intake limiting fat gain or increasing fat loss, it makes no difference. Eating 1-2 large meals per day may store more energy as fat, but this will be burnt off (if at maintenance or -ve balance) during the post-prandial period.
the idea about multiple meals being useful for fat loss was that correlational studies showed that people who ate more often (but not anymore) were a lower bodyweight, they guessed this was from the increased thermic effect of food becuase of eating more often. In experimental work, it showed no difference.
As in if you eat 3000cals in 6 meals, you have a thermic of say 10% a day, if you eat 3000kcal in 3 meals you have a thermic effect of ~10%, it makes no difference.
In terms of maintaining nutrient intake limiting fat gain or increasing fat loss, it makes no difference. Eating 1-2 large meals per day may store more energy as fat, but this will be burnt off (if at maintenance or -ve balance) during the post-prandial period.
I think it isn't as important as you might think. You can get the same benefit from eating meals that take a long time to digest (steak + fiber). However, in the period immediately surrounding your workout, I would suggest a small meal both before and after. Ideally they would be liquid meals. Then a big slow digesting meal 1-2 hours later.
If you are dieting, many small meals can help retain some mass by preventing acidosis and controling appetite.
If you are dieting, many small meals can help retain some mass by preventing acidosis and controling appetite.
Thread at Avant Labs Forum
(long... and strays back and forth.. but very pertinent toward the end for sure).
(long... and strays back and forth.. but very pertinent toward the end for sure).
Acidosis is common in extreme dieters or people with an aversion for puking. 
It is when your acid/base balance gets out of wack due to a lack of insulin, or starving yourself (not spreading your meals out enough). The body does not have enough bicarbonate, an acid neutralizer, to balance the acids produced. This can occur when the body uses fats for energy instead of carbohydrates.
What is the worst that can come from prolonged acidosis? Death. Don't worry though, eating 3 meals a day is enough to stave off acidosis, provided you do not go the restroom and gag yourself after each meal.
It is when your acid/base balance gets out of wack due to a lack of insulin, or starving yourself (not spreading your meals out enough). The body does not have enough bicarbonate, an acid neutralizer, to balance the acids produced. This can occur when the body uses fats for energy instead of carbohydrates.What is the worst that can come from prolonged acidosis? Death. Don't worry though, eating 3 meals a day is enough to stave off acidosis, provided you do not go the restroom and gag yourself after each meal.