Have snacks or bigger meals? page

[Caveman Mark]

So am I better off having bigger meals and no snacks? Or smaller meals with a snack? I was thinking if I did bigger meals and nothing after dinner it would be more of fasting time. What do you guys think?
Thanks

Oh and I am looking for fat loss.

[Fitness Wayne]

Go with big meals and no snacks. I find that eating snacks a lot of the time make me hungrier then eating nothing at all. A snack often turns into a small meal or even a binge.

[Knifegill]

Another vote for giant meals, here. I only eat once a day during my work week. A good 3000-ish calorie cook-off: meat, eggs, veggies, etc. that gets me through the day, and then I sleep through the rest of it. But two meals a day is still very beneficial, especially when eaten near each other to maximize time spent in a fasted state.

[Drumroll]

One large meal for sure!

This is basically how I approach things myself, now.

[Kochin]

Depends on activity type. If you observe modern hunter-gatherers (Nat Geo vids are good for that), when walking around a lot (checking traps, searching for eggs and honey and, well "gathering") they snack. Continually. They eat before they set out and then eat random berries, nuts and insects as they walk along, collecting produce. HOWEVER, these snacks are small. They won't eat a handful of berries and then stop, they'll eat two or three berries and, five minutes later, do it again. TINY portions, very frequently. This is men AND women, btw. Both usually perform at least SOME gathering activities. If they go on a "proper" hunt, they (obviously) can't eat whilst tracking, chasing and killing an animal and usually are so excited at the prospect of fresh red meat that they don't snack on the way home, where they feast heartily on rich meats and fats.

So, if your activity comes in bursts, you're usually inactive and your bursts of activity are intense: one to two large meals a day, with IF.
If your activity is primarily endurance, low intensity and takes up most of your day, then snack and have, at most two VERY small "meals".

Of course, you're most likely to have "hunting" days (work days when you work out), "gathering" days (weekends and days off where you get a lot of walking and stuff in) and "rest" days (typically working, non-workout days where you have a break).
Try and have IF on "rest" days that are close to "hunting" days and, if you have a few "gathering" days, don't IF until you "hunt" again. So, for example:
Monday: Hunter. Breakfast. Work. Home. Work Out. Dinner.
Tuesday: Rest. Work. IF. No workout.
Wednesday: Hunter. Breakfast. Work. Home. Work Out. Protein.
Thursday: Gatherer. Work. Snack continually. Long walk. Home Body-weight session. Light dinner.
Friday: Hunter. Work. Home. Work out. Large dinner.
Saturday: Gatherer. Lie-in. Walk/jog. Snack continually. Go shopping. Snack. Relax a bit. Body-weight work-out. Protein snack.
Sunday: Rest/light gathering. Up early. Yoga. Tea. Read, relax, go for a brief walk. Have a late-afternoon snack. Relax.

[primalrob]

while i don't really practice this enough in my own eating, i recommend bigger meals without snacks. hunger and everything aside, eating those snacks can affect insulin, and that's not the best thing for fat loss. it's not a big thing, but it can slow it a bit. the total amount of food/calories is really the bigger thing when all is said and done.

[AMonkey]

It doesn't matter. Just do whichever method works for you. Personally I like no snacks since pre bought snacks are disproportionately expensive and I don't want to spend time preparing snacks. Cooking larger dinners is cheaper and more efficient use of eating time.

[Damiana]

Bigger meals. Those snacks can add up through the course of your day. Snacking is a horrible thing.

[jfreaksho]

Snacking, even many primal snacks, can keep your blood sugar elevated more than it otherwise would be, and slow or prevent weight loss. Don't do it unless you are trying to gain.