Asking SCOTT STEINER for Wrestling Advice
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: South Carolina
Re: Workout/Staying in Shape Thread
In no way is it a myth. You eat three big meals you're overloading in nutrients and your body's storing the extra calories as fat. You eat three small meals and you're going to send your body into starvation mode. It's not a known fact that 6 meals a day positively effects your metabolism, but it's a solid theory.
It goes hand in hand with your results. 5-6 meals is optimal for your metabolism because it takes around 2 hours to digest each meal which burns more fat and amino acids last around 3 hours in the bloodstream before going into the body/being used as energy.
The main benefit to eating 5-6 meals a day is to better stabilize blood sugar levels/prevent hunger. When your glycogen levels go down your body has to find alternate energy to use (at times muscle.) If you think you'll keep the same metabolic rate from eating 3 meals a few times compared to 6 you're crazy.
You might not be catabolic if you go 5-6 hours without eating, but you're headed towards that direction and you're becoming less and less anabolic the longer you go without eating...
Source - Coastal Carolina University Exercise & Sports Science Major