Do you actually need to eat 6-8 small meals to keep your metabolism revved up so you shed fat all day and keep a stable stream of nutrients flowing to build strong, massive muscles?

If you’ve been around the fitness scene for any amount of time, or have read a few diet books or articles, you would think the key to this one is a plain why not? ” but the fact is

The 6-8 meals a day Advice Is A False Report!

The advice is based on studies completed around the thermic effect of food (TEF). You see, each time you eat, your body uses more or less 10% of those calories (total) to give power just to digest the food…

When this was discovered, people misconstrued the research by saying the more you eat (frequency) the more calories you’ll burn all day but then this was a slip since the math doesn’t work out.

* Six small meals of 300 calories (6-300) = 1800 calories total.

* Every meal you burn 10% of calories = 30 calories burned with each 300 cal meal

* Total cals burned because of TEF = 180

Thus differentiate that to a normal diet of 3 large meals:

* 3 Large Meals of 600 calories (3-600) = 1800 calories total.

* Every single meal you burn 10% of calories = 60 calories burned with every 600 cal meal

* Total cals burned due to TEF = 180

So you see, if the calories are alike, it doesn’t matter how you divide them up ” you’re still burning the same amount of calories and altering your metabolism the exact same way no matter how you eat regularly.

Will Eating More Often Lead To More Lean Muscle Gain?

The short answer is no. Eating protein constantly actually causes your body not to synthesize it as much. Eating more total calories WILL lead to building more muscle but the meal frequency has little to do with it.

More important for lean muscle gain is the timing of your meals, specifically the post workout meal needs to be high quality to make sure you’re getting good nutrients into your body when it needs them the most.

Will Eating A Smaller Amount of Meals Cause Muscle Loss?

A lot of guys who lift weights consider (and I used to) that not eating 6-8 meals per day will put your body into a catabolic state. Which means because you’re not eating loads of food and keeping the levels of amino acids in your blood elevated your body will utilize your muscle tissue as fat.

This is not true either at least not to the extent that you’ve heard. Because even if you just eat one big meal per day, it can take up to 12 hours to digest” steadily releasing amino acids into your bloodstream the whole time.

When Should You Eat 6-8 Meals

In order to gain a LOT of weight ” you need to increase your calorie consumption to gain weight and put on muscle, so if you’re a big guy and you have to eat 5,000 calories a day to put on mass it might be easier on your stomach and digestive system to consume 5,000 calories broken up into a bunch of smaller meals.

If you’re making use of loads of energy ” If you’re a top athlete who burns a ton of energy like Michael Phelps who consumes to 12,000 calories each DAY and eats like an elephant. Likewise guys in the military in boot camp frequently eat as much as possible when they get the chance but still turn out losing weight

If you have a thing about it – Several people may feel extra full 6-8 eating reduced meals per day grazing for their food consumption. I’m not one of those people but more power to you if you are.

I guess being knowledgeable about this will definitely help you feel enriched in your chase for better fitness, I know I believed this false report for a LONG time because practically the whole world put in a good word for it.

What Do I Do Personally?

I do intermittent fasting. And I LOVE it. I vary between a warrior diet style eating schedule (when I’m maintaining my weight) and the lean gains eating style when I’m focusing on putting on muscle mass.