Caloric "Spread"

The Smaniac · 03-30-2006, 08:50 AM

...didn't know quite how to put that.

My question is about the effect of how calories are spread throughout the day. Now, I'm not wondering about anything extreme like all at night, all in the morning or anything like that. I'm asking if it is bad to have larger "meals" and smaller "snacks" for my 6 or 7 meals throughout the day.

I usually eat a big breakfast, W/O drink, 2nd PWO meal, BIG PWO lunch, small afternoon snack, larger dinner and small evening snack on W/O days, and no PWO drink/meal on non W/O days.

Does the unevenness of my meals make a significant difference? I do it this way because it is difficult to get an even spread of calories in my snacks due to my status (poor college student) W/O resorting to cheap crap foods. I can get better quality calories from my 3 main meals at the dining hall. I know its minuitae, but I was just wondering.

Lost Dog · 03-30-2006, 09:04 AM

I think you're good with that sort of schedule. Eating something healthy, hopefully with a good dose of P every 2-3 hours is good, even if the cals are lower for the "snacks."

Even if it would be better to divvy calories/meal size up totally equally (and, I'm not saying it is), it would be trivial, the differences in the effect.

In general, the quality and amount of food you eat over the day is more important than how it's spread throughout the day. With the exception of making sure to eat every 2-3 hours, when possible.

Even the eating every 2-3 hours is debatable, in fact. This is more than you're interested in, I'm sure, but there are plenty of people that get lean, big, huge, skinny, whatever, on 2-3 meals per day.

Quality of food, calories, macros; you're good. You can perfect things or go with it...

Buk · 03-30-2006, 10:47 AM

I think small snacks between big meals are fine.

I am getting in good quality food, but for the fun of it just graphed my calories against the time of day. This is an average for the last 2 weeks. I wonder if my late surge should be reduced in favor of more early calories. The total consumption is around 2500 calories.
calories per hour.JPG
I usually workout around 11:00 AM or noon, play volleyball 2-3 times a week at noon, and sometimes workout around 7:00 PM.

BFG · 03-30-2006, 10:52 AM

as others have said difference tends to be negligible and little info out there taht offers any real drastic thoughts on the matter.

I tend to take my daily calorie intake split it by 6 then allow equal for 3 main meals and a lower equal for snacks.

Lost Dog · 03-30-2006, 01:01 PM

My biggest issue is that I'm not satisfied by the little snacks. My meals are mostly about the same size, otherwise I crave food pretty quickly after a small one.

BjsAust · 03-30-2006, 02:59 PM

I get like that lost dog. If I only have a little snack (say one of Johnkas bars) then I'll try to add some vegies or something to fill it out more.