Breaking up a large meal... beneficial?

hypo

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I have a habit of cooking a lot of food at one time, and slowly picking on it over the next few hours. For example, I'll cook up half a pack of chicken breast tenderloins on the george foreman grill and a cup or two of brown rice and eat 2 or 3 meals from it about an hour or two apart from one another.

I know breaking up meals increases metabolism, but how far should you space your meals apart? And also is there a point when further dividing your meals will be pointless? For instance, 6 meals a day is all the seperation you need and 10 a day won't be any better.

Thanks for any views!
 

NPursuit

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There was a discussion about this a year or so ago, and basically the research people posted up concluded eating small amounts of food continuously throughout the day was pointless.
 
RobInKuwait

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There was a discussion about this a year or so ago, and basically the research people posted up concluded eating small amounts of food continuously throughout the day was pointless.
What is the ideal spacing between meals?
 
milwood

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eat something at least every 3 hours and include protein of some kind.
 
RobInKuwait

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eat something at least every 3 hours and include protein of some kind.
I guess my question should have been: Why is a shorter time period between meals not better?
 

dsl

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it takes the body 2-3 hours to digest a meal. so if u eat say, every 2.5 hours, then u will keep keep your metabolism at its peak. eat every hour and u will not succeed at raising your metabolism above its peak.
 
RobInKuwait

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it takes the body 2-3 hours to digest a meal. so if u eat say, every 2.5 hours, then u will keep keep your metabolism at its peak. eat every hour and u will not succeed at raising your metabolism above its peak.
So are you saying that, theres no disadvantage to snacking all through the day, but theres also no real advantage......or that eating every 2-3 hours is superior to snacking through the day?

I'm curious because often times I eat every hour, especially on training days. I've read that the 4 hours after you work out is the best time to metabolize food, and that its good to have 3 meals (including the PWO shake) during that time. I realize that a shake metabolizes in less time than solid food, but the other two whole food meals would metabolically overlap each other.
 
exnihilo

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Well, there is no increase in resting calorie expenditure (i.e. metabolism) from eating frequently. The clown is a big fan of it though so there is probably some benefit to be derived from it.
 

dsl

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So are you saying that, theres no disadvantage to snacking all through the day, but theres also no real advantage......or that eating every 2-3 hours is superior to snacking through the day?

I'm curious because often times I eat every hour, especially on training days. I've read that the 4 hours after you work out is the best time to metabolize food, and that its good to have 3 meals (including the PWO shake) during that time. I realize that a shake metabolizes in less time than solid food, but the other two whole food meals would metabolically overlap each other.
well, i personally wouldn't want to graze all day-i like to get full. but from a physiological point i can't answer this . i can only rationalize that i would want to get all my calories from a meal at once rather that guess my body's rate of digestion.

and yes, your body is primed to shuttle nutrients to your body after a workout. and i have always read to have a post-workout shake, then a meal 1 hour after. And to resume normal eating times after (which should make the 3rd meal less than 4 hours after working out).
 
Dwight Schrute

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it takes the body 2-3 hours to digest a meal. so if u eat say, every 2.5 hours, then u will keep keep your metabolism at its peak. eat every hour and u will not succeed at raising your metabolism above its peak.
You can't put any type of number on digestion. Some meals can take as long as 9 hours while other take 30-45 minutes.
 
Dwight Schrute

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So are you saying that, theres no disadvantage to snacking all through the day, but theres also no real advantage......or that eating every 2-3 hours is superior to snacking through the day?

I'm curious because often times I eat every hour, especially on training days. I've read that the 4 hours after you work out is the best time to metabolize food, and that its good to have 3 meals (including the PWO shake) during that time. I realize that a shake metabolizes in less time than solid food, but the other two whole food meals would metabolically overlap each other.
It depends on what you're snaching on. If you eating high fats foods then it is rather pointless as the time it takes to breakdown fats and oxidize them will always overlap. However if you are eating a fairly clean diet I found great benefits in terms of overall mood, satiety and general energy levels. I beleive even though it might not have any effect on BMR I think it has several benefits on how the body utilize nutrients. The body can only utlize so many calories at one time. Even though metabolism might not be increased (I still think it does to an extent) the partitioning effect IMO is much better this way. The results I have seen greatly favor eating smaller meals with more frequency.
 
RobInKuwait

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It depends on what you're snaching on. If you eating high fats foods then it is rather pointless as the time it takes to breakdown fats and oxidize them will always overlap. However if you are eating a fairly clean diet I found great benefits in terms of overall mood, satiety and general energy levels. I beleive even though it might not have any effect on BMR I think it has several benefits on how the body utilize nutrients. The body can only utlize so many calories at one time. Even though metabolism might not be increased (I still think it does to an extent) the partitioning effect IMO is much better this way. The results I have seen greatly favor eating smaller meals with more frequency.
Sounds good. Thanks for the info Bobo!
 
hypo

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putting a 2-3 hour stamp on digestion, like bobo said, isn't really too practical. Small meals will take less time, as will high GI carbs and fast absorbing proteins like whey.

I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, if you couldn't tell I'm in college with time to kill so that's the only reason I can eat every hour :)
 

dsl

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well , guess that u live and learn right? :box:


I'm curious, Bobo, if u have had any of your clients start eating 7 or 8 times a day to see if it helped them burn fat any better. Or is this really just too much?

*don't answer if it will give away any of your trademark secrets*
 
Dwight Schrute

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Not really. I stick to 6. I don't tihnk increasing by only 1 or 2 is going to make too much of a difference (but you never know!!) ;)
 

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