Think of your stomach as a bucket. When the bucket overfills with too much food, guess where it goes? Your belly! If you eat more frequently throughout the day you aren’t filling your belly with big portions of food that overfill the bucket thus making you gain weight. If you are hungry but wait till dinner to eat a giant portion, the bucket will, you guessed it, spill out the top! You know that really full feeling you get?

When eating six meals throughout the day you are consuming smaller portions so you don’t ever feel that “full” (bucket overfilling!) feeling. It is also a great way to speed up your metabolism without storing it as fat, since your body is more frequently digesting food. You are speeding it up so you can eat more food! When you only eat three meals throughout the day you are likely to snack in between. It varies, but snacking foods can be pretty unhealthy. When eating six, you will feel more satisfied throughout the day and will have more energy since you are more frequently supplying food to your body. Muscle growth also accelerates when you provide your body with food more constantly. Furthermore, it is a great way to control your appetite.

Simply figure out how many calories you need a day, and divide it by six. Find small meals that average about this number and you’ll be set! Making sure you eat at least 10 grams of protein with each meal is important, because it makes you feel fuller longer. Just make sure your meals aren’t the same sized as eating three times a day!