Eating to Stay Anabolic: Meal Spacing
4 Top Pros Have Their Say
The Question is: I have heard that you are supposed to eat every two hours to stay in an anabolic state. Others advise that you eat every two to three hours. I guess you shouldn’t go much longer than that, but does it really matter if you eat every two hours or every three, as long as your total protein intake for the day is the same?
Dexter Jackson
You have to think not only in terms of how many hours apart your meals are, but also how large those meals are. As a bodybuilder, you don’t want to eat very large meals except on special occasions. Eating smaller meals more frequently, like every two, two and a half or three hours at the most, will boost your metabolism. Your food will be digested more efficiently, and you will be able to absorb and utilize more of the nutrients. I suppose it doesn’t make much difference whether your meals are two or three hours apart. Me myself, I like to space them two to two and a half hours apart. That’s where I am able to digest them properly and build up enough of an appetite to eat again.
Dennis Wolf
Let’s start by agreeing that the way most people eat, three meals a day, is not going to be enough for bodybuilders. Let’s say you are 200 pounds, and you need 300 grams of protein a day. Even if you could eat 100 grams at once for three meals, I doubt your body could use all of that at once. So we need to divide up the servings into five or six meals. If you do the math and see how much time you have between waking up and going to sleep, that gives you a good idea of how much time can go by between meals for you to hit the total number of meals you need. I think beginners don’t need to eat as often as more advanced trainers, because they aren’t putting too many demands on their bodies yet. When they start training more often, training harder and with more volume, their metabolism will speed up and they will need more food, and more often.
Another thing to think about is whether you are eating to try to gain, or eating to get leaner. I know in the off-season, I usually go three to four hours between meals because I eat more at each meal, and because I have more things like red meat and pasta that take longer to digest. When I diet, the servings are smaller and the food is very low in fat. Something like chicken breast or white fish along with white rice goes right through me. I get very hungry just about every two hours on the dot. I don’t think you should ever go five to six hours between meals. That’s definitely going to put you at risk of losing muscle mass because of catabolism.
Branch Warren
I have my protein total for the day and I divide it up into six meals. That’s what I need to eat from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. Since I don’t sleep more than six hours a night at the most, sometimes that means I get that last meal really late. Ideally, I eat at some point two to three hours after I finish my last meal. When I am in my final 12 weeks leading up to the Mr. Olympia, I don’t fly anywhere. It’s all local appearances. That way, I can stay perfectly on my meal schedule. When you travel, stuff happens that you can’t always prepare for. Flights get delayed or canceled. I bring meals with me, but there have definitely been times when I had to go five or even six hours between meals due to unforeseen circumstances. I do my best not to stress out over it, because that just makes things worse. And of course when I go hunting, I don’t stop every two hours to sit down and eat a meal.
My advice is to be as consistent as you can with your eating, every day. Get all the protein, carbsand healthy fats you need. If you are able to eat every two hours and you have the appetite, do it. If you can only eat every three hours, that’s what you have to do. You would want to eat a little more at each meal if you are eating five a day versus six. I do think you are really pushing it if you only eat four meals a day, though, and eating three meals a day like a regular person absolutely won’t cut it for bodybuilders. That means you are going four to six hours between all your meals, which is too long.
Dallas McCarver
It’s really an individual thing, and I think it has a lot to do with your metabolism and your appetite. I’ve known some very large men who got huge by eating four big meals a day, which were at least three hours apart if not more. I’ve also known guys who ate seven or eight meals a day. I think I recall that Dorian Yates used to eat four meals and drink two shakes every day.
As far as staying anabolic, I don’t think you’re at as big of a risk of losing muscle as most people seem to think. Unless you’re someone with a super-fast metabolism and you’re starving two hours after every meal, I’m sure you can go three hours between meals and you’ll be fine. I personally average two and a half hours between meals. If three hours go by and I haven’t eaten, something is wrong! I’m usually starving by then.
You also have to consider what’s in the particular meal. A meal that’s lower in fat like white fish and rice is going to digest much faster than a meal like a steak and a potato. And if you go and eat something like pizza that’s loaded with fat and carbs, you might not even feel remotely hungry for at least four hours. So to just say, “eat every two hours” or “eat every three hours” is silly. There are variables you have to look at. But you make a good point about the protein total. That’s probably a lot more important in the long run.
4 Top Pros Have Their Say
The Question is: I have heard that you are supposed to eat every two hours to stay in an anabolic state. Others advise that you eat every two to three hours. I guess you shouldn’t go much longer than that, but does it really matter if you eat every two hours or every three, as long as your total protein intake for the day is the same?
Dexter Jackson
You have to think not only in terms of how many hours apart your meals are, but also how large those meals are. As a bodybuilder, you don’t want to eat very large meals except on special occasions. Eating smaller meals more frequently, like every two, two and a half or three hours at the most, will boost your metabolism. Your food will be digested more efficiently, and you will be able to absorb and utilize more of the nutrients. I suppose it doesn’t make much difference whether your meals are two or three hours apart. Me myself, I like to space them two to two and a half hours apart. That’s where I am able to digest them properly and build up enough of an appetite to eat again.
Dennis Wolf
Let’s start by agreeing that the way most people eat, three meals a day, is not going to be enough for bodybuilders. Let’s say you are 200 pounds, and you need 300 grams of protein a day. Even if you could eat 100 grams at once for three meals, I doubt your body could use all of that at once. So we need to divide up the servings into five or six meals. If you do the math and see how much time you have between waking up and going to sleep, that gives you a good idea of how much time can go by between meals for you to hit the total number of meals you need. I think beginners don’t need to eat as often as more advanced trainers, because they aren’t putting too many demands on their bodies yet. When they start training more often, training harder and with more volume, their metabolism will speed up and they will need more food, and more often.
Another thing to think about is whether you are eating to try to gain, or eating to get leaner. I know in the off-season, I usually go three to four hours between meals because I eat more at each meal, and because I have more things like red meat and pasta that take longer to digest. When I diet, the servings are smaller and the food is very low in fat. Something like chicken breast or white fish along with white rice goes right through me. I get very hungry just about every two hours on the dot. I don’t think you should ever go five to six hours between meals. That’s definitely going to put you at risk of losing muscle mass because of catabolism.
Branch Warren
I have my protein total for the day and I divide it up into six meals. That’s what I need to eat from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. Since I don’t sleep more than six hours a night at the most, sometimes that means I get that last meal really late. Ideally, I eat at some point two to three hours after I finish my last meal. When I am in my final 12 weeks leading up to the Mr. Olympia, I don’t fly anywhere. It’s all local appearances. That way, I can stay perfectly on my meal schedule. When you travel, stuff happens that you can’t always prepare for. Flights get delayed or canceled. I bring meals with me, but there have definitely been times when I had to go five or even six hours between meals due to unforeseen circumstances. I do my best not to stress out over it, because that just makes things worse. And of course when I go hunting, I don’t stop every two hours to sit down and eat a meal.
My advice is to be as consistent as you can with your eating, every day. Get all the protein, carbsand healthy fats you need. If you are able to eat every two hours and you have the appetite, do it. If you can only eat every three hours, that’s what you have to do. You would want to eat a little more at each meal if you are eating five a day versus six. I do think you are really pushing it if you only eat four meals a day, though, and eating three meals a day like a regular person absolutely won’t cut it for bodybuilders. That means you are going four to six hours between all your meals, which is too long.
Dallas McCarver
It’s really an individual thing, and I think it has a lot to do with your metabolism and your appetite. I’ve known some very large men who got huge by eating four big meals a day, which were at least three hours apart if not more. I’ve also known guys who ate seven or eight meals a day. I think I recall that Dorian Yates used to eat four meals and drink two shakes every day.
As far as staying anabolic, I don’t think you’re at as big of a risk of losing muscle as most people seem to think. Unless you’re someone with a super-fast metabolism and you’re starving two hours after every meal, I’m sure you can go three hours between meals and you’ll be fine. I personally average two and a half hours between meals. If three hours go by and I haven’t eaten, something is wrong! I’m usually starving by then.
You also have to consider what’s in the particular meal. A meal that’s lower in fat like white fish and rice is going to digest much faster than a meal like a steak and a potato. And if you go and eat something like pizza that’s loaded with fat and carbs, you might not even feel remotely hungry for at least four hours. So to just say, “eat every two hours” or “eat every three hours” is silly. There are variables you have to look at. But you make a good point about the protein total. That’s probably a lot more important in the long run.
