In my opinion, "most" misunderstand the importance of Manipulating Calories and Manipulating Exercise and the importance "these two function in metabolism", and "think" frequent meals is the "key" to improving metabolism, when in fact frequent meals (while having an important "role" in ones diet and fitness) have minimal impact (if any) influence on metabolism.

A person's metabolism is a rather "heavily complicated process", but a lot of dust seems to settle on calorie (energy) and exercise manipulation.

Additionally, some underestimate the absolute power of the bodies adapting abilities to calories, exercise, and in what we do overall.

In brief, I have surrounded my own diet and fitness structure with the above in mind.

I have lost a lot of weight over time (and improved my muscle mass), by varying my deficits, eating at MT-Line (adding in an additional exercise to draw the deficit), and eating "over" my approximated MT-Line on regular scheduled intervals.

While I understand that the "efficiency" of the biological processes of the body can vary from person to person, and though we are basically the same, we do not all function the same, some just "miss the boat" on what their individual history is telling them--and "how" to use the knowledge of diet and fitness--to their individual history.

I dont know how many posts I have made (and others have made on the forum) on the importance of calorie manipulation and manipulating exercise to ones advantage. The myth of frequent meals (among regular members) should have been long gone by now, with the understanding that frequent meals can play an important function (like within pre and post workout meals, staving off hunger, etc). Of course I am not "undermining" the importance of frequent meals, but when it comes to metabolism its not an invigorating factor. There "are" alot of information on the "net" stipulating that frequent meals stimulate the metabolism, until other fact based data comes to surface, ignore it IMO, and use the other information that is associated with frequent meals to your advantage.


Best regards,


Chillen

actually im still not convinced at all but im glad that you actually looked at reputable sources to further your argument.
1.) 2 out of the 3 papers you posted are worthless because they didnt have any review, Im premed so I frequently use pubmed. Without a review the results are 50% of the time worthless most experiments miss dependent variables or have trouble finding the correct procedure/statistical analyses and anyone can do an experiment and obtain results but proving them is a much different story.
2.) the2nd paper and the review ive read myself and own both full articles because i thought they were interesting, the variables manipulated in the experiment arent quite on task w/ the subject
-such as obesity, several of the people in the study were found to have diabetes type II which completely negates any substantial findings in regard to metabolic rate because insulin receptors are tyrosine kinases. When the kinase cascade is interefered with the 2nd messenger amplification is also interfered with and in sum this makes the metabolic rate untestable because we still havent found away to quantify hydrophilic cellular membrane interactions. an we both know that eating smaller frequent meals has nothing to do with weight gain or weight loss anyway!!!!
Let me fully explain my first post. What I meant was that by eating smaller frequent meals you can further boost your metabolic rate up to full potential nothing can counter act the laws of thermodynamics, but the idea is pretty simple once you've entered the postabsorptive phase glucagon-->glycogen phosphorylase-->glycogen breakdown, by eating frequently we stay in the absorptive phase-->glycogen synthase-->higher insulin to glucagon/cortisol ratio.

I guess I can't prove anything, but it seems that if you would only eat one meal per day compared to 7 it MUST be better for your metabolism... ya know?

I mean, eating 7 meals might not speed it up, but eating just 1 might slow it down....... what do you think?

But that's just my logic, can't prove a damn thing.

thats basically my entire point and I 100% agree if your just tryin to maintain its not an issue but if your bulking you need to hold on to all your muscle or glycogen and if your dieting its most important because your body will try to compensate for those reduced cals by lowering your bmr, by eating more frequently you can trick your body to some extent.

Your very mislead to believe that you need constant meals to keep your amino acids flowing. wow that is so wrong.

I didn't just make it up I read it in the book "Burn the fat feed the muscle" by Tom Venuto.

Why do you think that is wrong?

The differences in eating 6 meals or 3 meals a day is marginal when it comes to metabolism.

Though there are plenty of reasons for bodybuilders and lifters to split their meals up that way such as:

-insulin control
- easier time getting required protein
- easier to eat a high calorie diet

Ive read running burns muscle, 200gs of protein a day etc, does that mean its true? of course not.

People need to think critically and ask who wrote this? what are their qualifications? does it contradict with other sources? is it peer reviewed? do they have any particular agenda or bias? etc.

You either misinterpreted what he was saying, or what his saying is false.

I typed his name in google, he looks like a gimmick. A plethora of money grabbing opportunties. I wouldnt be suprised if the protein industry or some other powerfull industry has payed him to write something favourable for them.hmmmm

No it's a very respected book, and he's very respected in the bodybuilding world.

Why do you think that is false?

Where is YOUR proof that we can store amino acids and that we shouldn't eat them every 3 hours?

I agree that your sources are for the most part reputable and I actually own a copy of burn the fat feed the muscle and agree that TOm Venuto has backed up the information he is sharing with convincing arguments. THe reason im making a big deal about this it could make a difference with people trying to lose a lot of weight, I myself lossed 100lbs and this method helped. Regardless of amino acid uptake or metabolism or whatever, it is a known fact that the absorptive phase is between 3 and 4hrs after a meal and insulin inhibits lipoprotien lipase and glycogen phosphorylase, In the post absorptive phase glycogen synthase and lipase are active, its simple as that. After this phase, the body must maintain blood glucose levels because the brain is an obligate glucose user because triacylglycerols cannot cross the blood brain barrier. The postabsorptive phase is essentially starvation mode. minimizing the postabsorptive phase, is the best way to keep your metabolic rate constant and at full potential. DO you think that its ok to eat right up until bedtime? do you think you should have your largest meal in the evening and not at breakfast? Do you think its ok to skip a meal or breakfast? If you dont agree with either of these statements then you need to look back at your sources and critically think about the reasons why these things occur and are relevant for yourself and not be dependent upon others who may or may not be right. Can you tell me scientifically why eating 3 meals aday is no differently then eating 6? Sometimes even reputable sources can be misleading. But im glad that your arguing a point because we both were able to develop a critical argument based upon. I'm not even saying that I am 100% right we still dont know all the effects and communication between hormones and how they work but Im just using known facts and generating an argument.

I do... what's wrong with it???

So nowadays a gimmick is someone that is a famous and respected body builder, fitness coach, and author ?

Im not sure what your point was, im not saying 6meals a day is bad (its good), what im saying is you dont need a heap of protein each meal to keep your muscles from catabolism.

Im not saying we can store amino acids, isnt that in my favor? Because they cant get stored all the extra amino acids will be excreted which is tough work on the body. (long term effects?). The onus is on you to prove we need lots of protein every meal, im not going to waste my time trying to convince the unconvincable..

Phate - youd be pleasantly suprised.

Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated! I think i will try and sort out a 5/6 meal plan with a decent amount of protein.

yah sorry about the confusion i thought someone said that its not beneficial to eat 6 meals a day, I agree w/ matt in that plasma clearance rate wont change so when you eat your protein (amino acids) isnt that big of a deal, when you break em apart is just easier to digest cuz protein is the hardest thing for your body to break down.