What if I told you to eat only one meal per day? Don’t worry about anything else. Don’t worry about what you eat. Don’t worry about when you eat. Just eat one meal per day. And don’t snack. Gather everything you eat in a normal day. Throw it on your kitchen table. Try to eat it all for dinner. This [...]
What if I told you to eat only one meal per day? Don’t worry about anything else. Don’t worry about what you eat. Don’t worry about when you eat. Just eat one meal per day. And don’t snack.
Gather everything you eat in a normal day. Throw it on your kitchen table. Try to eat it all for dinner. This would change things, no?
Some people wouldn't be able to eat everything. Others would be able to eat everything… and then some (priming is dangerous). So it's silly to say meal frequency and meal timing don't matter. They do. They absolutely do.
But they don’t. (For now.)
Meal frequency history
Back in 2006, I ate six smaller meals per day. The dominant thought, at the time, was that frequent feeding kept your metabolism hot. You needed to add small logs to the fire often, otherwise it would go cold.
But that's not true.
Food's impact on metabolic rate is more of a quantity issue, rather than a frequency issue. In other words, eating two meals per day won't be all that much different than eating six meals per day, as long as the food you eat is held constant.
And thus, the meal frequency pendulum has since swung in the other direction.
Intermittent fasting
Ten years ago, if you didn't eat small meals frequently, you were a psychopath. These days, if you don't intentionally block off a portion of your day to not eat (and eat bigger meals, in general), you're considered a psychopath.
The pendulum did what pendulums do.
People were tired of packing six-eight-twelve different Tupperware contained lunches, which paved the way for intermittent fasting.
Although “intermittent fasting” has many different faces, the gist of it is this: intermittent fasting is all about not eating. And, unlike the smaller, more frequent feeding craze of the 2000's, there's actually some research in favor of fasting.
Time-Restricted Feeding
Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF) is an example of a nutrition protocol that places a premium not eating. TRF involves eating all of your food (coffee and tea included — everything except water) within a twelve hour window, usually correlated with the rise and fall of the sun. The idea behind TRF being: humans are diurnal creatures and our organs have adapted to a 12 hour “on” cycle and a 12 hour “off” cycle.
Preliminary TRF studies are interesting.
In rats, TRF leads to a decrease in fat mass and an increase in muscle mass regardless of what food is being eaten. In other words, you eat ice cream, pizza, and, of course, take your fish oil capsules. Because fish oil without the fish itself has to be a good idea. After all, reductionism has always been a reliable way to tackle complex biological phenomena.
- In Universe X, you eat this in a 12 hour window.
- In Universe Y, you eat this in a 16 hour window.
At the end of the day, you’ll be leaner and more muscular in Universe X. Which means: ALL HAIL TRF!
Or not.
This matters more
Although the results of TRF are compelling (for rats), my brain forces me to contextualize the importance of meal frequency (and meal timing). Imagine you're one of the OG pirates crossing the Atlantic. Your gums are swollen, your lips are bleeding, and you're losing teeth. You have rashes all over your body.
Scurvy is killing you.
Some dude comes up to you. He's holding something round and colorful.
“Bruh, is that an orange?” you ask.
“Sure is,” he says. “Want it?”
“Oh wow,” you say. “You know, I'd love to eat it. But I'm doing this intermittent fasting thing, and I'm outside of my feeding window right now. What's that? Yeah, I know I might die overnight. But us fasters gotta' fast. YOLO.”
Paint the picture
Before you gnarl into prism of insecurity about when to eat, you should be (a) controlling your calorie intake for your goals, (b) using a body composition based macro split, and (c) eating a variety of non-starchy vegetables, so that your body doesn't grow a fucking goiter in lieu of a micronutreint deficiency. (If you need help with the above three things, see Noobtrition.)
So take everything you SHOULD eat (and drink) in an entire day and throw it on a table. Grab a camera, take a picture. If you're eating everything in the picture (no more, no less) every day, when you’re eating is less of a concern… AT FIRST.
If you're NOT eating what's in the picture and fretting over meal frequency or meal timing, I'll have an assassin excise your left testicle. If you're a female, I'm taking the right ovary.
Behavior change is…
One of the reasons behind my lack of care in regards to meal frequency and meal timing for noobs: behavior change is muy hard. And the more things you try to change, the more difficult behavior change becomes.
Sure, you can have an epiphany and, one day, change everything about what you eat. You can change what you eat and when you eat without hassle. But epiphanies (and environmental extremes) are exceptions, not rules.
Most everyone needs to lessen the behavioral burden, and changing what you eat without changing when you eat helps you do that. So, in general, for noobs, the best feeding schedule is the one you’re used to. If you’re used to eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then keep eating those three meals. If you’re used to eating more meals, then eat more meals.
Meal composition
To bridge the gap between painting the perfect picture and forgoing breakfast for the rest of your life, focus on meal composition. In other words, if you're confident in your ability to eat what you're supposed to eat, strive to sit down in front of a “complete” meal.
Complete meal:
- Protein source
- Non-starchy veggies
- Energy (carbs and/or fats)
Protein has a high satiety index. It makes you feel full. Non-starchy carbohydrates are chock full of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. They are low energy, high in volume. They also keep you full. “Energy” referring to an energy carbohydrate source, an energy fat source, or both. (Sometimes energy will be carried alongside the protein, pending which food you're eating.)
Something important (maybe)
I’d rather you eat Mother Nature’s foods and it's lesser processed variants (read this if you don't know what that means) during whatever time window, as opposed to eating junk food during a twelve hour window. I realize the latter is part of the allure of TRF and some intermittent fasting strategies.
Some people might have an easier time changing when they eat, as opposed to changing what they eat.
But, well, fuck that. I have opinions. This is one of them.
If you’re consistently hitting your calorie and macronutrient quota, then meal frequency and meal timing is the next frontier. But, until then, don't let the cart assfuck the horse.