How Many Meals Should I Eat a Day?

How many meals a day should I eat? The answer to this question really does depend on what you do for a living, and how much time you have. However, first of all I think we need to define what “a meal” means.

The problem that a lot of people have is that they think they always need to eat very large meals; so, when we tell them that they need to eat more frequently, for example four or five small meals a day, they think that they will have to eat the size of meals that they are used to eating, such as breakfast, lunch or dinner.

That is not actually the case; we should look at the meals as “feedings”.

We do suggest that everyone has breakfast and then, ideally you should have a little snack – nothing major, just perhaps celery with some almond butter or a similar snack – mid morning. This is followed by lunch. Then you should have another snack in the afternoon, because that is when you generally begin to get tired; then later you will have dinner.

You will end up having around four or five small “feedings” a day.

What happens is that, because you are eating more regularly by having a good quality breakfast and a mid-morning snack, you will not be eating large meals. Therefore, you will actually find – and studies have proven - that because you are eating more frequently, you will eat less calories overall than people who just eat large meals infrequently.

The key is realising that they don’t have to be large meals; they are just small feedings of food that will keep your blood sugar raised and keep your metabolism going and keep you energised.

By missing meals and eating meals infrequently, you are going to find that you actually eat larger meals when you do eat, and you won’t eat as well; you will be struggling with your blood sugar and therefore craving sugary foods.

This is our recommendation and something that we have found to be very effective for all the people that attend the DVCC and make great transformations – they have small, frequent meals.