How Many Meals Do You Eat?
One of the popular diet and fitness myths is the concept of meal timing, specifically the idea that you should eat more frequently than the standard breakfast/lunch/dinner that north american society has become accustomed to.
Pro Bodybuilder Lee Priest "Bulking" in the offseason
This is a concept borrowed from bodybuilders who followed a ‘bulk and cut’ cycle routine where they would eat massive amounts of calories during their ‘bulking’ phase and then gradually drop their calories for their ‘cut’ phase.
In some cases it could have been necessary to eat 5-6 meals if these guys were trying to eat 5000-6000 calories each day…that would be 1000 calories at each meal…that is quite a bit of food, and it wouldn’t feel too good to try and each that much food in only 3 meals…think about how gross that would be, 2000 calories at breakfast lunch and dinner!
The pseudo scientific claims of ‘insulin control’ and ‘revving up your metabolism’ followed as a reason for eating in this pattern in order to lose weight…but the reality is that the frequency of your meals cannot change your metabolic rate, and it won’t make any difference on your hormone or insulin levels (beyond the effect that changing the total amount of calories would have).
This concept of ‘meal timing’ has been thoroughly investigated in the scientific literature and shown to be completely irrelevant to metabolic rate, weight loss, energy levels, hormonal balance (and just about any other claim that the fitness media drum is still beating)
I go into a much more in depth investigation into this concept in my new weight loss program called “The Anything Goes Diet” that will be coming out tomorrow! AWESOME!
But what about the snacks?
Anyway I’ll be posting some updates this week and more info if you’re interested in picking it up (on sale this week).
This is the diet program I’ve been working on for the past year, and if you been reading my blog for any length of time you might have already heard about this (or at least had an idea that I was writing this thing)
The take home message on meal timing is this:
Eat as many or as few meals as you like as long as your total calories are where you need them to be for your goals (weight maintenance or weight loss).
John
15 Responses to “How Many Meals Do You Eat?”
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January 17th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Amazing, I just looked up his photos and when he is ripped he really is. I admire those guys for what they do. We now know after all the transformation contest results that those guys must go very low on calories to get into shape!!! WOW. Would not it be easier to eat little more then maintenance level or almost what the maintenance level is?
January 18th, 2011 at 2:01 am
John,
Another problem I see is fringe competitors giving advice to [natural] bodybuilders. I seriously doubt sub-optimal training is causing one to miss out on 20+ pounds of muscle mass. And further advice is usually “eat, eat, eat”. What’s often left out is that it took illegal stacks to gain 20-30#s lean, and the addition of growth factors to compete at the national level.
A tangent, but needed to be addressed…
January 18th, 2011 at 7:29 am
With the help of you and Pilon, I’ve pretty much thrown the “eat 6 small meals a day” thought process out the window. On days when I’m not fasting, I might eat 2 or 3 meals, and that’s about it. On the weekends there might be some snacks in there but, for the most part, it’s just easier when it comes to planning daily meals to have less of them.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:53 am
Oh todays health & fitness community borrows a lot of stuff from bodybuilders. Who are not only on steroid and are definitelly not in a healthy category of population.
About the meal timing it’s BS obviously. Personally, I don’t even like the regular breakfast/lunch/dinner. Most of the time I have lunch, dinner and some snack in between.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading your book.
Greg
January 18th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Your book will be the easiest diet for most people, in my opinion.
I need more restrictions than this flexible plan, such as a pre-determined feeding window like leangains, as I’m afraid that too much freedom screws with my compliance as it gives me the license to eat at any given time, but I will introduce the principles of your diet into my feeding window.
I’m sure your book will help many people and I can see it being as powerful, mindset-changing and liberating as Eat Stop Eat. People really need these books to prove that fat loss is really simple.
It’s sad that it has become so convoluted, but I’m really happy that you will be able to re-introduce the much-derided only way of losing fat to the world.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:53 am
I probably eat 4 meals a day, not 5 or 6, but I am also not going for the body builder look. I do endurance training as well as a full weight training program. I am looking for advice on supplements to take before (even during) and after long workouts. Advice welcome. While googling the subject, I came across this funny video and I love the song in it. You can check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/user/endthebonk#p/a/u/0/TbJB9LxOBGI Watch it to the end and you can get the song for free and find out more about the products featured in the video. Anyone ever try them?
January 18th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
I got your book today John, out of curiosity, not as a diet, since I have a method that’s working pretty well for me… but to read up on your anti-regaining stuff and your opinions on yo-yoing.
I was skimming it and a lot of mentions are in there about yo-yo dieting. You make some really bold claims to have finally cracked the yo-yo cycle, but (I’m sorry to be blunt) neither you nor any of your clients have proven it yet… you’ve only recently lost the weight. I’ll be impressed if you, the friends and all the transformation winners still have the weight off in a few years.
The over-simplified claim (its almost magic bullet-ey in its over-simplicity) is that… hey… the reason you yo-yo is because the industry had you follow rules blindly, if you only knew you just need to eat less, you wouldn’t yo yo.
If I’m misunderstanding your premise, please correct me… but from my observations simply knowing that you need to eat less does not defeat the yo-yo… and plenty of people who know what you know, have yo-yoed. I’ve never followed dumb industry rules. I’ve been following the “everything goes” diet for 10 years. I’ve lost and regained the weight and I know countless of examples… we knew very well that we were eating over our BMR, but the hunger kept creeping back (over the years) and was so insatiable, that we had no choice not to eat more and more over BMR, until up to a certain point. Telling us to simply keep eating at BMR was akin to telling us “well just only sleep 3 hours a day, its simple”
Plenty of the theoreticians talking about a psychological/physiologial setpoint or otherwise is pretty convincing that long-term keeping the weight off is not a simple matter of “hey, well, you know, just don’t ever bmr, hahah, simple!” So I’m talking from both a theoretical and experience-based thing here…
My question:
Are you looking to do research to further deepen these claims? How much are you informed and researched on yo-yoing and weight regain among people who ARE aware of exactly what causes weight gain? Etc… etc… etc…
Will you be following clients/transformation winners honestly and following up if they do keep the weight off (when they’re not competing). If the goal is to create endless competitors who are always in an adonis competition, and that’s their only way to keep weight off, that is a pretty radical lifestyle change. And in fact, from my observation it seems the only people who manage to maintain restriction-based weightloss are people who do it professionally (basically professional dieters and people obsessed with it). I don’t think its a really strong system until it can be applied to the average jane/joe who doesn’t plan to compete for life to keep weight off.
p.s.
I like you a lot John, so don’t take this post as criticism. In fact, I want you to succeed and destroy the nutritional industry (which I hate with gusto). If you were shown tomorrow on CNN as the world’s leading weightloss expert I would be GRINNING with joy. If you had the best selling weightloss book, the same.
So these points I’m bringing are more to strengthen your position, not bring you down. I am simply trying to shine light on your weaknesses so you can build them up. One of them is maintenance, research on it etc…
January 18th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
hi john,
just got an email from Brad Pillon about your new book, my problem I am a skinny fat with good love handles that I cant get rid of slim biceps 13 flexed waist 33 weight 160 and I am 5 11 tall, so I definitely ned to lose fat and gain muscle but I am lost do I need your book or will it make things worse by losing further weight help if you can thanks as ESE did not answer the skinny case either many thnaks
January 19th, 2011 at 1:57 am
Sup Alek! Great points. I bought the book yesterday but have yet to read it.
I’ve never been grossly overweight, but I did lose around 5 inches in my waist in about 8 months. I don’t know what the definition of “yo-yo” is, but I did fall off the wagon for a while and gained an inch back. I can’t see it possible for the majority of people to never fall off the wagon. I’m glad I never gained all 5 inches back though lol.
I’m going to theorize that the most important thing in not yo-yoing is EDUCATION. Someone who knows how fat loss and fat gain works (e.g. it’s just about calories in vs. calories out) will just simply know how to fix his/her diet after falling off the wagon as opposed to someone who was taught he/she must only eat XYZ and not eat ABC because that person probably fell off the wagon because that strategy is no longer sustainable (so if that strategy no longer works, the person is effectively out of strategies to lose fat!).
January 19th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
roland,
Use diet to lose fat and lift weights to gain muscle.
If you waist is more than 45% of your height, you probably have unhealthy fat levels regardless of how “skinny” you are (or how little muscle you have).
I would eat below your BMR while lifting weights to lose the fat while growing muscle. Just be aware that you can lose fat a LOT faster than you can grow muscle.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
@Alekishere
I dont really understand your post. There is no “solution” for keeping the weight off other than eating at your BMR. Its silly to ask for a real solution for yo-yo dieting. People have to understand that they cant overeat if they want to maintan the weight off. Its a permanent choice, and what John is trying to explain is that if youre gonna keep the weight off for life, is not by cutting carbs, or restricting foods etc, its by eating what you like, not being deprived of anything, BUT understanding that you have to be in control of the AMOUNT of food you eat.
Its like expecting to workout, gain muscle and keep it for life…Its never gonna happen, if you stop working out, you will lose the muscle, simple as that. You start eating too much, you will gain the weight. No solution for that, EVER.
Also, people dont overeat because “the hunger is insatiable” people overeat because food (specially caloric dense foods) taste awesome. 100% of the time I overeat is because i enjoy what im eating, not because im still hungry. Some people overeat for boredom, stress, etc etc….but not because of Hunger.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:40 am
John,
We have a better series that I think would be a good fit for your experience. We are doing a video series that asks the following questions. What would be your strategy with a trainee that had to get photo shoot ready in 12 weeks with a grocery budget of $125 per week and access to the gym three days a week? The deadline is Feb. 1st.
Follow up questions:
I don’t like eating breakfast. Do you have a strategy where I can skip breakfast?
What should I do on my off days?
How would you hold me accountable?
Do you advise cheat meals?
How long will the workouts be and how will they be designed?
If you accept the challenge please feel free to send me a 30 minute video answering these questions. Your response will be included with other experts and your bio will be included on the website when it is released. The only rule is no profanity. Thanks.
Jimmy Lamour
January 20th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
“100% of the time I overeat is because i enjoy what im eating, not because im still hungry.”
Well said, MikeGP! I’m the exact same way. I don’t get that hungry, or even have cravings really. I just enjoy eating, and tend to find it hard to stop once I start. It’s bad habits more than anything.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Jimmy,
Sounds interesting, Ill see if I can put something together. What format do you need the video?
JB
February 5th, 2011 at 6:39 am
So we agree then. My issue is with John claiming he found a solution to yo-yo dieting, when in fact he didn’t. Make sense? He says he found the reason people yo-yo diet, and he thinks its because people din’t know they need to eat less.
That’s like saying the reason we have poverty, is because poor people don’t know they need to work. Its just insulting in its oversimplification.
And what I said, and you missed is that people gain the weight back DESPITE knowing you don’t need to over-eat. Does this make sense to you? The setpoint causes so much unbearable hunger and food-seeking behavior that it becomes IMPOSSIBLE to maintain the weight. The person knows he needs to eat only 1800kcal to maintain, but eating anything less than 3000 makes them feel like fainting and like they’re out of breath and lacking in energy and focus.
What Barban doesn’t cover is what happens when over-time it becomes harder and harder and harder and harder to not over-eat. People’s hunger gets so great, that simply eating at BMR feels like starvation.
Telling people “well, to maintain your weight once you reach your goal, just stop at BMR”, is like telling people “well, just don’t breathe for 2 hours”.
And my point is that he promises a way to do this, but doesn’t give it. Telling a person “well, just don’t eat more”, is like telling a shy person “well, just be confident”.
Just knowing and deciding to do something is not enough. What if a woman told you “you know what you need to do, in order to be successful with women? Just be charismatic. Yep, just decide to turn on that charisma, and just be charismatic, its a choice, just decide to be the coolest, hottest, most interesting guy, and its that simple”
Again, he promises to have cracked the code, but offers absolutely nothing in terms of dealing with the issues of maintenance (hunger increasing, lethargy increasing, food-seeking behaviors getting worse and worse and worse).
If a doctor told you “well, just decide to only sleep 3 hours a day for the rest of your life”, how does that feel? And then if you say that its not do-able over the long-run, you’re told “dude, you don’t get it, its a DECISION, just decide to only sleep 3 hours for life, don’t obsess about details”. Nobody’s obsessing about carbs, nutrient timing to begin with… Just saying that “knowing that you need to sleep just 3 hours a day”, is not enough to actually only sleep 3 hours a day for the rest of your life.