How often should you eat?

[Nigel_Benn]

As a boxer how often should u eat each day? if ur trying to go up in weight? if ur losing weight? or if u wanna stay at the weight how often should u eat?

[Smith]

No less than 4 times a day, whatever your goal.

Me personally, I eat 6 times a day;

Breakfast
Snack/Shake
Lunch
Snack/Shake
Dinner
Snack/Shake

[AK-47]

Yeah like the guys above said 6 small meals is better than 3/4 large meals.
I try to do that but dont like eating the same shit all day long and cant be asked cooking stuff so i just munch on snacks like fruit and health bars all day long lol

[joekirkbycobra]

every 2 or 3 waking hours

[Relentless]

eating 6 meals isn't as easy as it sounds.

[knockout]

3 times a day space it out about 4 hours because it will give the food inside of you to digest if you dont you will be fat.

[jimmie]

I eat fairly small meals 5 times a day I need it to stay strong while working a 8 hour shift and coming home then working out it keeps me enegized and im the type of dude that the majority of what I eat just passes threw my system. A typical day for me is

12:30 PM Breakfest - Usually a bowl of Ceral or Oatmeal.
2:00 PM Lunch before Work - Usually something like a Meat and Vegatables meal.
6:30 PM 1st Work Break - 2 Tuna Fish Sandwhiches on Whole Wheat(need my protein),Bananna.
9:30 PM 2nd Work Break - A Fruit Cup and a small Bag of Chips or some Blueberries just basically some snacks to keep me going till I get off work.
12:30 AM Dinner # 1 - Whatever Family made for Dinner we eat alot of stuff like Fish,Steak,Pork Chops and Spaghetti during the week.

Also I get atleast 1 Protein Shake a day,Add Flax Seed Oil in my Breakfest,Drink alot of Water and Orange Juice im big on Potassium.

[Smith]

eating 6 meals isn't as easy as it sounds.It is when three of these meal are small snacks/smoothies/protein shakes.

[joekirkbycobra]

aswel as eating 6 times a day other views are that you should only eat when hungry but im a 6 timer myself last food 2 hour b4 bed

[Rain]

eating every 2-3 hrs helps to stop your blood sugar level from dropping too low which wich make you feel lethargic

[knockout]

eating every 2-3 hrs helps to stop your blood sugar level from dropping too low which wich make you feel lethargic4 is better 2 hours?:? no way your gonna get fat.

[viru§™]

From T-Nation.com.

#2: Your metabolism is like a fireplace.

You and I both know that frequent meals are the absolutely best way to get bigger, leaner, stronger, faster, and healthier. Unfortunately, your fat uncle Guido doesn't, and insists that one big pasta meal at dinner and nothing during the day will be sufficient to get him lean. You've got two options to get the message across to him:

1. Give him this study, which showed significantly greater fat loss in subjects consuming six meals instead of two meals — even when total calories were held constant.
Iwao S, et al. Effects of meal frequency on body composition during weight control in boxers. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 1996 Oct;6(5):265-72.

2. Tell him this:

Pretend that you wake up in the morning, and you want to start a fire in your fireplace (your metabolism). To get the fire going, you need to add more than you'd need to simply keep it going — so start with a few logs, some newspaper, and kindling (plenty of food at breakfast). After the fire is already going, you'll need to add a log or two (smaller meals) every 2-3 hours to keep it going strong.

Sometimes, the wood might be drier, so you'll need to add more wood at particular times of the day (post-exercise). Generally, though, your fire will burn strong all day long if you just keep adding a log here and there.
If, however, you don't put in the time to get it going first-thing in the morning (skipping breakfast), there isn't going to be a fire for the rest of the day. Likewise, if you just put a bunch of wood in there at the beginning of the day and then ignore it until the evening (dinner), you're going to have a cold house at dinnertime!

[joekirkbycobra]

From T-Nation.com.
love the example of using a fire place

[mrh1275a75]

what about eating before bed?

[Koa]

Don't eat before bed unless you want to gain weight.. Or if you are extremely exhausted from training, have some cottage cheese and a little oatmeal, not much.

[Koa]

Also, carefull with your snacks. Make sure you have a little carbs with your proteins, otherwise you send your body into catabolism, where it consumes proteins instead of carbohydrates. When your body runs out of carbs and starts consuming proteins, it doesn't care where it gets proteins from.. Could end up comming from muscle, as well as that 50 g protein shake with no carbs you just guzzled down.