Sport uh oh another 6 meal Q

[Hoss]

i understand the concept behind eating 6 meals a day, to keep the metabolism going and burning off calories and such... but 6 meals is sometimes unobtainable, for multiple reasons.. 99% of the time i can eat 5, but i was thinking, if i skip or miss a meal, could i just do some cardio to get my heartrate up and burning calories. so basically...

7am meal
10am meal
1pm meal
3pm cardio
6 pm meal
9 pm meal

would that benefit me the same as 6 meals??

 

[neenaw]

eating 5 meals a day is ok anyway. as far as i'm aware, the recommended number of meals is 5 - 7.

if you are wanting 6 meals tho and if you are able to do cardio in the afternoon, why aren't you able to grab something to eat instead? even if it's just a banana?

 

[malkore]

the concept of eating 6 meals is a day is to keep the body constantly in a nutrient uptake mode. This keeps the metabolism up, instead of steep dips in metabolism when you don't eat for 5-6 hours.
Doing cardio, therefore, doesn't have the same effect as eating that 6th meal. Its not a bad alternative, but I agree with neenaw that tossing in another little snack would be a better alternative. A banana and a serving of nuts, for example.

To give you an idea of when I eat (with a typical 8-5pm kind of desk job) -
7:30am - meal
10:00am - meal
Noon to 1pm - workout
1:00pm - post workout shake (30g prot, 80g carb 0g fat)
2:30pm - meal
5:00pm - meal
8:00pm - meal

some people do better with 5 meals, some 6, some 7. when I bulk up, I aim for 7, but otherwise I go for 6, because that's about how often I get hungry when I'm eating properly.