We often get asked how many meals we eat a day, how often, caloric amount and so fourth.  At Science and Strength, one thing we implement in our life and share with the reader is to simplify life, especially in reference to food choices.  Food is a simple choice, at it’s basic level we all need it for survival. 

But, lately with the abundance of nutrient-poor, high caloric foods available on demand, we are simply consuming too many calories.  We need a way to easily manage how much we eat.

The body needs both calories and nutrients for optimum performance.  Furthermore, we are evolutionarily designed to save calories for leaner days.

Luckily, for many of us leaner days in terms of starvation are not a concern.  However, being overweight and slew of problems that come with it is a concern; along with physical appearance.  Make no mistake, physical appearance is still very much a precedence when it comes to social acceptability, romantic relationships and even career advancement in certain areas. 

Regardless of your personal reasons to build a fit body; the bottom line, we need to create an eating environment that stimulate leaner times, so the body can burn more fat.  Hence, the question we get asked most often: How many meals do we eat to keep our 6-packs 24/7? 

In this article, we will share with you our eating habits that keep us not only looking fit and lean, but also stronger and faster.

number of meals soup

Dupinder’s Weekday Meals

Dupinder is a mother of 2, stands tall at 5’7, weighs 120lbs and can squat her bodyweight.  The latest point is her bragging right, she has worked hard for it.  Weight-loss, fitting into her jeans from high school were all superficial goals, passed long ago.

Now, she eats to feed the machine and enjoy wine and cheese as a treat, when time allows.  The diet and eating habits that got her to this point and taking her further are listed below.  She eats to maximize on building muscle while concurrently burning fat. 

Dupinder’s Monday to Friday eating habits:

Breakfast @7:30am

High Energy Protein rich smoothie @11am

Lunch @1:30pm

Micronutrient rich green smoothie @4pm

Dinner @6pm

There are NO additional calories consumed between 6pm until 7:30am. 

Approximately 13.5 hour nightly fast.   

Victor’s Weekday and Weekend Meals

Victor is a father of 2, stands tall at 6 feet, weighs 210lbs and can squat well over his bodyweight for reps.  The latest point is his bragging right, he has worked hard for it.  Fat-loss was the initial motivating factor that has blossomed into S&S’s Stronger, Leaner, Faster philosophy.

Today, he too eats to feed the machine.  The diet and eating habits that got him to this point and taking him further are listed below.  Victor eats to maximize on building muscle while concurrently burning fat, keeping his shredded body and 6-pack abs year-round.

Victor’s 6-hour eating window 7-days a week looks like this:

Protein rich smoothie

Breakfast for Lunch — It’s a big meal!

Micronutrient rich green smoothie @5pm

Dinner 6pm latest

There are NO additional calories consumed between 6pm until 12am.  Victor does Intermittent Fasting 6:18 (eats for 6 hours and fasts for 18 hours); and he is now working towards a Warrior’s Diet, 4:20 (eats for 4 hours and fasts for 20 hours). 

Family Weekend Meals

As for the weekend, S&S family treat themselves to either a pancake or waffle breakfast with a variety of egg dishes from omelettes to quiches.  Weekend breakfast, like their weekday breakfast, is usually high fiber, high protein and high energy meal. 

So, Dupinder will often skip her morning (11am) smoothie.  Furthermore, breakfast is often around 9am increasing Dupinder’s weekend fast to 15 hours.

Victor sticks to his 6:18 or 4:20 hour eating plan and will consume food as normal weekdays.  He enjoys his breakfast for lunch.

Dupinder and the kids have flexible weekend eating times depending on activities.  But, the whole family will still drink an evening micronutrient rich green smoothie (4pm) and dinner around 6pm.

Nibbling, Small Meals eaten Often — 3 meals + 2 snacks

This style of eating works best for Dupinder as it fits in with her daily schedule.  She eats breakfast with the kids and enjoys a protein rich smoothie as a morning snack.  Her daily work is both mentally and physically demanding so, a 1:30pm lunch works well. 

how often to eat meals She doesn’t enjoy salad and is always looking for innovative ways to get her micronutrients in.  The kids feel the same way about salads and too have now become accustomed to the 4pm green smoothie.  6pm dinner works well as it’s often after activities and 3-4 hours before bed for Dupinder. 

One of S&S food philosophies is to stop eating at least few hours before bed to maximized on the time for fat breakdown. 4 to 6 hours after eating your last meal is when the body starts to breakdown stored fat to fuel the body.  By this time the liver glycogen is depleted.  This is also good news for the carb lovers as breakfast is the best time to enjoy carbs and fill up your liver glycogen levels before they get stored as fat.

Benefits

  • This type of eating fits in well with most people’s work schedule.
  • Keep the hunger at bay, as the next meal is only few hours away.
  • You have been fuelling yourself throughout the day and 10-hour nightly fast is easier to handle.
  • You can add a variety to your diet with different styles of meals and snacks.

Drawbacks

  • Meal planning — you need food on hand to keep away from treat foods.
  • You are eating often, about 5 meals a day, and may feel it’s ok to grab a take-out lunch and drinks with co-workers as you had 4 good meals that day. 
  • If not planned well, can lead to eating more calories overall.

Intermittent Fasting, Big Meals in a Time frame

This is a style that Dupinder has also tired for a few months.  But, for her body type and eating habits she simply was having tough time consuming required calories in the time frame.  As a result, she was losing significant amount of weight and needed a larger eating window. Hence, the shorter nightly fast on weekdays and longer fast on weekends works best to manage her weight and lean body. 

With active trial and error this style of eating works well for Victor.  The above 3 meals and 2 snacks a day lead to overeating and weight gain.  Victor has been intermittent fasting for well over 2 years now.  He started off slow, a 10-hour nightly fast as Dupinder does above, then gradually worked his way to 12:12, 14:10, 16:8 and now, working towards 20:4 (fast for 20 hours and eat in a 4 hour window). 

Benefits

  • You don’t have to pack different meals, count calories per meal and carry them around.  Often, you can pack a number of fruits, vegetables, one or two large containers of food and a smoothie; you are set for the work day.
  • Saves Time — you will save time on cooking, packing meals and even eating. 
  • Low calorie consumption — often times, its hard to eat a lot of calories in a small window of time.  And, you are likely to eat less overall. 
  • Fat Burning Maximized — the body is on constant fat burning mode, starting at 4 to 6 hours after your last meal. 
  • 24/7 Lean and Shredded Body — Victor is shredded 24/7, all day and night even after eating for 4-6 hours!   All extra calorie and fat stores get utilized nightly.
  • There are numerous other benefits to I.F. that are out of scope for this article and will be discussed at a later date. Please Subscribe to our Newsletter to be notified.

Drawbacks

  • Initial Hunger — this is something you will even experience with the regular nightly fast but, it does dissipate as your body needs time to adjust to a new style of eating.
  • New Lifestyle Adjustment — initially, this may require moving your workout time around or skipping breakfast outings with friends.  But, once you get the hang of it, your friends too come around and start to fast with you, once in a while at least, and have a late brunch.  As for the gym, your body will adjust to beast-mode and a workout on an empty stomach will not be a problem for you.
  • Nutrient rich calories — you need to be picky about your calories to meet your nutritional needs.  You have a small window of eating time and can’t afford to fill up on junk food like  pizza, burger/fries, soda and apple pie.  This style of eating will run havoc on your health, with or without I.F.
  • Not a free-for-all — Treats are kept at a minimum and fuelling the body takes precedence.  However, after eating your required nutrient-rich calories, you are able to enjoy treats as stomach space allows.

Final Thoughts

For a Stronger Leaner Faster body, food has to be nutritious first and foremost.  The only way you will stick to something is if it fits in with your schedule, family commitments, goals — lifestyle. 

There really is no magic number of meals, amount of calories that one can consume to lose weight and build a leaner body.  It’s trail and error and seeing what type of eating style is right for you.  Above we shared our current eating habits but, it took us a long time to get here.

Take our eating habits as a sample, try them out but be open to customization and finding your personal path. Even Victor and Dupi eat differently because it meets their individual goals, body type and lifestyle.  However, the basic food philosophy of eating nutrient-rich calories first and foremost before treat foods takes precedence for a leaner body.

If you are looking for a step-by-step guide to eating healthy and cleansing your palate from take-out flavours be sure to learn more about our The No-Diet Book.  We will be posting an article with Top Tips to customize your best number of meals soon. Be sure to Subscribe to Newsletter!