Meal Frequency Uncovered

The topic of meal frequency is something that I often get asked about and is also an area that invokes many extremes. Until recently there was a general consensus that frequent feeding was beneficial for fat loss as it was thought that frequent feeds, in some cases as often as every 2 hours, would boost your metabolism and hence result in greater fat loss. More recently, at the other end of the scale, intermittent fasting has become extremely popular. Advocates have managed to get great results from either protocol as well as many others in-between. So what is optimal? There are always people who will thrive and manage to achieve great results with various methods of dieting, but here are my personal thoughts on meal frequency and what I deem to be optimal protocols for both building muscle and reducing body fat.

More recent studies have shown that the energy used in the digestion process of many small meals or fewer larger meals is the same providing the same foods and amounts are consumed. Take a very large 500 calorie meal, compromised of a protein source, carbohydrate source, fat source and some fibre. If that meal was split into 3 (keeping the macro-nutrient content relatively even in each meal), no study has shown that more total energy will be expended digesting the 3 smaller meals than it would be to consume the one larger meal. This is not to say that frequent feeding is not useful, which I will come to in a moment.

At the other end of the scale, intermittent fasting advocates long periods – 8, 16 or even 24 hours where no food is consumed at all and then usually consuming all of your daily calories in one or two meals. People can absolutely achieve great fat loss results from this (as they can with frequent feeding) but only if they still get the composition of their diet right! Despite the suggested hormonal benefits of intermittent fasting, again no study has shown that it is better for fat loss results if the same calories and macronutrients are consumed as they would be with a standard 3 meal protocol or even more frequent feedings. People can absolutely lose fat with intermittent fasting – if they still get their total calories and macro-nutrient breakdown right! Generally for weight loss, get the calories right, ensuring you are in a caloric deficit and you will lose weight. However, the body is a little more complicated than that and notice how I say “weight” and not fat loss. Without the right manipulation of insulin and timing of certain foods (ie around the time of the workout to benefit from the greater uptake of nutrients into muscle tissue and the use of nutrients for the processes involved in muscle protein synthesis) and without the right macronutrient balance, then you increase the chances of losing lean mass in addition to body fat. Even if you are not concerned with muscle mass and simply wish to lose fat, this will have detrimental effects over the longer-term as a reduction in lean mass leads to a reduction in metabolic rate.

If adding muscle mass is the goal, or losing fat whilst maintaining muscle mass, then more frequent feedings than those implemented by intermittent fasting for example are optimal. It is important to maximise favourably, the ratio between the generation of new proteins and protein degradation. After consuming a meal rich in the amino acid leucine (around 3g being the minimum leucine content) muscle protein synthesis will be stimulated – this is why we use BCAA’s around cardio, to minimise the degradation of muscle tissue, effectively tricking the body into thinking that it should be building muscle and not catabolising it. When muscle protein synthesis is stimulated in a fasted state by leucine or branch chains alone, it will die off extremely quickly if the body does not have the other “parts” needed to create the proteins. These other parts would be the other essential and non-essential amino acids. With these parts available, protein synthesis can continue for up to around 3.5 hours. After which time, it drops dramatically until another bolus amount of leucine is used to re-stimulate protein synthesis. Again, it will only continue if the other amino acids are available to create the proteins. Ok, so you are probably thinking, great so I just need to eat every 3.5 hours and I will maximise protein synthesis? Or if I eat every 2 hours I will be sure that it never stops right? Well, again it is not quite so straightforward! You see protein synthesis rates are maximised soon after the consumption of the leucine rich meal or shake, but then start to drop off throughout the 3.5 hour period. It has been shown, that this drop off also occurs even when the blood plasma amino acid levels are still high! So, eating another meal 1.5 to 2 hours later is not going to overcome this refractory response and will just add to the concentration of amino acids into the blood. The refractory response though can be overcome, by consuming a bolus amount of leucine which will reignite protein synthesis and make use of the other “parts” still available in the blood stream. This bolus leucine needs to come from a source that will enable the leucine levels in the blood stream to rise rapidly as what is known as the mTOR complex (a large molecule heavily involved in starting the cascade of events that lead to the synthesis of new proteins) will only trigger muscle protein synthesis in response to detecting a large “hit” of leucine. Just adding another slow digesting meal is not going to do the trick, therefore adding a whey isolate shake, or even some BCAA’s between meals can help maximise protein synthesis. There are certain anabolic advantages to increasing levels of other amino acids in the blood too and hence why including whey isolate shakes between your main meals is a great option!

When it comes down to dieting, there is one major psychological benefit to frequent feeding too, if you are consuming a meal or shake every 2 to 3 hours of so, this means that your next meal is never far away! Having to wait 5-6 hours for a meal when you are trying to stick to a diet and hunger levels are high can be a nightmare and is extremely difficult to deal with for any period of time! But if you know that your next meal is never far away, it gives you a light at the end of the tunnel and you will find it much easier to hang-on and stick to the diet!

The psychological aspect is huge! So whether you are looking to burn fat, with no concern for lean mass (although a concern is still beneficial as mentioned above!) or if you are dieting to strip away body fat whilst maintaining muscle, frequent feeding in my opinion really is the way to go!