I would argue that eating less frequently actually has more benefits than eating multiple smalls meals per day.

In my opinion, people should be able to comfortably go 4 or more hours between meals, and if you can’t it’s a good sign your blood sugar isn’t well balanced and needs to be addressed. In fact, the need to eat frequently, getting irritable between meals and getting that hangry feeling are all signs that your blood sugar is disrupted and the strategy of multiple meals per day is not working for you. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather just eat, be satisfied and move on, as opposed to feeling the need to snack every 2 to 3 hours during the day. The human body has evolved to go long periods of time without food.

From an evolutionary (and practical) perspective, how would the need to eat at 8:00 am, 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm actually work or make sense? Throughout history, meal times have been variable. So, to think that by simply eating less food more often throughout the day will address and affect all of these factors is simplistic at best. There are many factors that contribute to and affect our metabolism such as age, gender, diet, weight, muscle mass, blood sugar, hormones, stress, environmental factors and thousands of other body processes that are too long and too complex to list. Your metabolism is the sum of certain processes in your body it is a combination of chemical processes from various complex systems that give you life. It is not an organ that lives in your armpit. But what I find hilarious is that most people have absolutely no idea what their metabolism actually is! Your metabolism is not a thing. People love talking about their metabolism. So, whether you eat a chicken breast at one meal or cut it up and eat it across 6 different meals makes absolutely no difference to your metabolism. In fact, evidence shows that it is the total volume of food that you eat during the day that is more important. In reality, there is no advantage to eating multiple small meals per day. Because the process of digestion raises your metabolism slightly, one might assume that eating more frequently would help to keep your metabolism elevated throughout the day and, in turn, burn more energy and more fat. The concept that eating many small meals per day boosts metabolism is an easy one to buy into because, at first glance, it appears to make sense. In fact, there is very little if any evidence to support this idea which is exactly why you don’t need 6 meals per day and there are much more important things to focus on. You’ve likely heard the concept that eating more often “boosts” your metabolism, but is there actually any truth to this? Turns out, the answer is no.

One of the most heavily discussed topics in the nutrition and fitness industry is how many times per day to eat. Why You Don’t Need 6 Meals a Day Think eating 6 meals per day is the key to boosting your metabolism? Think again.

6 meals a day plan