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Muscle maintenance while dieting
Assuming that protein intake is high, does meal frequency have any effect on how well muscle is retained while dieting? If so, how?
Everyone has an opinion on this, and it seems that most just repeat what others have said or report what worked for them (without having tried a different approach, which might have worked just as well or better).
The debate is obscured by fluctuations in water weight being reported as muscle retention/loss.
What's the right view?
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Assuming you're getting 3-5
Assuming you're getting 3-5 meals including your post workout shake, I don't think it makes a huge difference. The biggest key in my opinion is eating meat and being sure you're training hard.
Ike, Opinions aren't real
Ike,
Opinions aren't real science.
Studies have shown that when fasting up to a few days or so (I don't recall the exact number of hours), the resting metabolism increases and muscle mass is retained. I think it's safe to say that providing you are eating regularly every day, meal frequency isn't going to make a difference at all.
Please don't take my word for it though. In the book "Eat Stop Eat" by Brad Pilon, he sites the studies. I highly recommend that as a good read. The facts are there for you to see and decide if it makes sense to you or not.
And if you want to know, yes I did try something different last year when I found this out. I was very skeptical. But the facts were there so I tried it. And it worked. I started skipping breakfast and only eating 2 meals per day, lunch and dinner, and I lost 20 lbs. My belly is flat and I'm still just as strong as always. I'm still flipping a 600 lb tire and I can do this first thing in the morning.
As a side note, I have even experimented with one meal per day, but I didn't like it as much. I feel much more comfortable and in control with 2 meals per day.
I'm with you, Charles. I've
I'm with you, Charles. I've read eat-stop-eat and have been practicing intermittent fasting for a few months (leangains style - except my daily fast is longer than 16 hours). I'm never going back to eating stupid small, frequent meals. I've been eating once a day, within a one hour window. (When I get to sub-10 bf%, I'll extend the feeding window and eat 2 or 3 times to get more anabolic). I feel mentally sharper than ever, and I've lost 15 pounds and maintained most of my strength. It's so easy for me to control calories this way. SO EASY. Fasting all day is a breeze now. My mouth doesn't water a bit around food during the day. My days are much more productive. Not having to worry about breakfast is great! Also allows me to enjoy eating out. And when I finally do eat, food tastes SO GOOD. The cleanest food is so good that I think I'm cheating. But I've STILL enjoyed some sweets, and continue to shed fat. I could go on and on about how much I love this way of eating. The purpose of my post was to see if anyone felt inclined to argue for the opposite perspective.
Ike, I won't waste any of my
Ike,
I won't waste any of my time or your time discussing facts, because I know you've already reviewed the facts, tried it, and reaped the benefits. Let's just be thankful that we no longer have to be slaves to our own diets. It's all enjoyment from here on out.
i would'nt worry about meal
i would'nt worry about meal frequency. If protein is adequate, 3 or 4 meals should be enough. I prefer 4 meals. I figure about 60 or 70 grams of protein for each meal. One or two meals a day works for a while as long as you are training heavy but eventually you might want to build up some more muscle. One good thing about losing the fat is you can keep it off for a while after going back to to eating more. Thats when you take the opportunity to build more muscle. Then when you feel you are putting on too much fat you start the process over again.
When I used to compete in
When I used to compete in powerlifting, we used to have a saying "there are no excuses in powerlifting".
Some guys lifted in heavier weight classes with big bellies, and it helped them to get better leverages on their lifts. Others continued to lift in the lighter weight classes and they still had to try their hardest and do their best. With lighter weight powerlifters they have to rely more on technique. This holds true even if the extra weight difference is fat weight. The light weight lifters didn't make excuses and so they still did great, some of them even phenomenal.
I have known a lot of lighter weight guys who manage to maintain their muscle without a problem, even guys with very low body fat percentage and eating junk (just not being gluttons and eating too frequently). The body does a great job of knowing what it needs and telling you, if you listen. And just like how your body has hormones such as insulin and glucagon that work to keep your blood sugar stable (even if you overeat or skip meals for a day), your body is also good at keeping the amount of muscle that it needs to perform the physical demands that you put on it. That is why most of the lighter weight powerlifters are actually lean with a good amount of muscle.
So I don't believe in the fear of muscle loss while cutting anymore. Surely one will still have troubles maintaining strength due to glycogen depletion while cutting. That is inevitable, and it is also one of the reasons why a lighter weight lifter who is in weight maintenance will be much more likely to maintain or even gain strength as oppose to the fat guy who has to cut calories in order to shed the blubber.
So the way I see it is you have to lift heavy and try hard if you want to stay strong. It can be brutally hard work! Then if you have extra fat that has to go, do what ever you have to do with your diet to drop it. And don't use it as an excuse not to do the best you can. Still try hard. You might not do as well strength wise for a while until you are done cutting, but you will be able to do well again once you are already lean and working on maintenance.