You’ve probably heard of the paleo diet, vegan, atkins, raw food..and maybe a few more.

Well I’m adding another to the list today – ‘The Easier Way To Build And Maintain Muscle Without Driving Yourself Nuts Diet’. Think it’s gonna catch on?

The general idea is that you don’t follow the typical diet advice that’s been dished out for years on how to build and maintain muscle.

Most gym meatheads will tell you: “You MUST eat 6 ( even 7 or 8 ) smaller meals per day to give your body enough protein and get in enough calories.

“If you don’t you won’t be able to build or maintain muscle.”

If you’re talking to your local gym instructor, personal trainer, or any bodybuilder/powerlifting pals then there’s a fair chance they’ll tell you the same.

See, that’s the advice that’s been spouted out for years. “Eat six smaller meals throughout the day, with plenty of protein, that’s the way to build and keep muscle.”

Some even go for 7 or 8 meals, going nuts for calories and protein to build muscle mass. I know one bodybuilder who says he eats TEN smaller meals per day.

Surely we’re verging on ridiculous when it gets to that stage. That just aint natural. In fact, it’s mental.

Eating Frequently Is Not The Only Way To Build And Maintain Muscle

Don’t get me wrong, eating frequent smaller sized meals DOES work for building and keeping muscle. This article will simply demonstrate that it’s not the only way – and why there are also a fair few downsides to doing it.

You may have been trying to figure out how you’re going to manage to prepare and munch your way through so many meals in a day. You may already have been doing it in your weight training diet. Prepping food every night or morning, eating by the clock, counting calories and grams of protein like some sorta macronutrients military exercise.

You can choose to do that each day. Every day. Or you can eat in what I consider a more normal way (3-4 meals per day) and still build a strong, athletic, lean physique. I’ll also show how eating this way is highly effective in burning fat, while preserving muscle.

My Weight Training Diet – Why Six Meals Per Day Came Off The Menu

My weight training diet consisted of six smaller meals for the best part of a decade. Here’s what happened…

• It left me feeling bloated all the time.

• The constant clock watching for scheduling meals was monotonous.

• The endless food prepping made me want to chop my own head off.

• I spent way too much time on the toilet.

• I became a slave to my diet.

It was all way too stressful. But I still did it for those 10 years because I thought that was the only way to build muscle and stay in great shape. Looking back on it now, it was crazy.

I changed my mind around 2011, thanks to two people. Kettlebell and hormone optimisation expert Mike Mahler – and my flatmate at the time. My friend Ryan moved in with me after splitting up with his girlfriend and he was also into fitness. He also did some weight training and some mixed martial arts too.

Ryan was in great shape and his abs were always ridiculously ripped. To the point where I considered evicting him! I figured he must train harder, eat better and get in even more protein than I was. So I watched what he was up to – and was pretty shocked.

• While I was stuffing my face with a high protein breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up, Ryan would regularly skip breakfast.

• While I would be munching constantly to cram in calories and protein, Ryan would go long periods between meals and still maintain muscle.

• While I was so strict with my diet and struggled to see my abs, Ryan would occasionally eat junk food and STILL have that six damn pack.

• While I ate all the time, Ryan ate when he was “hungry”.

It didn’t make any sense. I was the one following a strict diet, timing my meals perfectly, counting grams of protein etc…and was pretty miserable with it all.

Ryan didn’t bother with all of that – and was in better shape than me.

I remember asking him: “When do you fit in your extra meals? Do you eat a lot when you’re at work?”

He said: “No, I don’t want to eat 6 or 7 times per day. I eat when I’m hungry and just make sure the food’s as healthy as possible.”

Around the same time I came across Mike Mahler, an American kettlebell and hormone optimisation expert.

Mike follows a vegan diet, eats just three or four times per day, and the guy is built like a machine. He also goes against the standard regular smaller meals theory and backs this up through his extensive research on hormones. (Which we’ll talk about shortly).

Mike Mahler and my friend prompted me to dig a bit deeper behind their success in staying strong and lean. I found they had the following in common:

• They would take longer stretches between their meals, maybe 5-6 hours. This optimised their hormones, particularly master hormone leptin and insulin. ( I’ll go into more detail on the importance of this later in the article ).

• They both managed to get enough calories in over the course of the day to maintain and build muscle. The bigger portion of these were post workout – the prime time for flooding the body with nutrients it needs to repair and build muscle.

• They didn’t stress out about meal frequency.

• ….oh and they both love hill sprints! Which I later discovered is amazing for burning fat while preserving muscle. (One of the reasons Ryan’s abs were so ripped).

“As Long As We Eat The Right Foods In The Right Amounts, Meal Frequency Is A Matter Of Personal Preference.” 

Before I go into more detail about going against the grain (pun intended) when it comes to the typical weight training diet, let’s talk about the case for eating 6,7,8 or more smaller meals per day.

Main reason #1: “You need to keep supplying your body with calories and protein throughout the day or you will lose muscle.” 

A study carried out by 11 sports nutrition experts shows that meal frequency is irrelevant, as long as enough calories and the right macronutrients are consumed over course of the day.

Dr John Berardi is founder of Precision Nutrition, who are world leaders in sports nutrition, and he is one of the most highly respected experts on diet and nutrition.

He says: “For years dietitians and nutritionists (myself included) thought that the best approach to splitting up your daily food intake was to eat small meals frequently throughout the day.

“From early research we assumed that this would speed up the metabolism, help control the hormones insulin and cortisol, and help better manage the appetite.

“However, a recent review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests otherwise.

“What this means is that as long as we eat the right foods in the right amounts, meal frequency is a matter of personal preference.

“You can eat lots of small meals each day (i.e. every few hours). Or you can eat a few big meals each day (i.e. with bigger time gaps between them).”

Their research on meal frequency was published here in March 2011. The 11 experts, one of which was Dr Berardi, examined research and looked at various factors including metabolism, blood markers of health, thermogenesis, protein metabolism and hunger and saitety.

While they listed benefits to increased meal frequency such as improving LDL cholesterol, decreasing hunger and improving appetite control, they concluded: “It appears from the existing (albeit limited) body of research that increased meal frequency may not play a significant role in weight loss/gain when under-reporting, restrained eating, and exercise are accounted for in the statistical analyses.

 “Furthermore, most, but not all of the existing research, fails to support the effectiveness of increased meal frequency on the thermic effect of food, resting metabolic rate, and total energy expenditure.”

Also debunking the ‘eat frequently to maintain muscle’ argument is the emergence of The Warrior Diet. Many thousands of people around the world – including big name athletes – are having huge success in sport and are developing strong, ripped physiques by following this diet…which is the complete opposite to the eating six or more meals per day.

The Warrior Diet, developed by sports scientist and former member of the Israeli Special Forces Ori Hofmekler, essentially involves fasting for as much as 18 hours per day and then feasting at night.

This radical way of eating has been shown to ramp up fat burning, boost energy – while surprisingly preserve muscle mass. There are countless stories of people getting in the best shape of their lives by fasting, or eating very lightly during the day, and then cramming in most of their calories at night. This of course also reduces the need for mind-numbing food prepping and eating constantly throughout the day.

The Warrior Diet is followed by sporting superstars including MMA former world champion Ronda Rousey, DC Maxwell, two time women’s Jiu-Jitsu world champion, and Pavel Tsatsouline, who basically introduced kettlebell training to the Western world back in 1998.

Pavel, author of Power to the People and The Russian Kettlebell Challenge, said: “I refuse to graze all day, I have better things to do in life. I choose The Warrior Diet.”

Main reason #2: “You can’t get enough calories in to maintain and build muscle by eating fewer meals per day.”

Calories are important, there’s no denying that. If you regularly eat too many you’ll pile on the pounds. If you don’t eat enough you’ll lose weight. We get it.

You can figure out roughly how many calories your body requires for energy and to maintain the same level of weight by using this simple calculation:

Bodyweight in lbs x 15 = number of calories. ( So a 180lbs guy needs approximately 2,700 calories per day ).

This is a rough estimate, although for people with an ectomorph body type – aka skinny hard-gainers like myself who struggle to put on weight – the bodyweight total would be multiplied by 16 or 17.

We’ll go into more detail about calorie consumption and your body’s protein needs a bit later. But first, we’re looking at getting in enough calories in just three or four meals rather than six or more.

This is simply done in two ways – eating more at each meal and adjusting your diet to include some more higher calorie foods. Increasing your intake of healthy fats is a good option as fat provides 9 calories per gram, while protein and carbs provide 4 calories (energy) per gram.

“….But Won’t Eating More Fat Make Me Fat?”

Not if you eat the right ones is the short answer. ‘Good’ fats are found in fish, plant foods such as nuts, avocados and olives, eggs and dairy. When pulling together your shopping list at the top have foods like salmon, almonds, free range eggs, tuna, olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk and butter.

There was a long-standing misconception that saturated fats were the devil and would clog your arteries until you died a slow, horrible, fat-filled death. The world is now waking up to the fact that saturated fats play several important roles in the body and leading medics and sports nutritionists have been sharing these benefits.

This article includes an excerpt from the book ‘The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle: The Simple Plan to Flatten Your Belly Fast’, and lists seven major reasons for eating more saturated fats. These include stronger bones, boosting the immune system and improved brain health.

Steer clear of vegetable fats such as soy, sunflower, safflower and corn and canola oil. I might be stating the obvious but…avoid deep fried foods like French fries, deep fried chicken, fried rice and crisps/potato chips as much as possible. Too many simple carbs and high sugar foods like pastries, cakes, and white breads etc are also the enemy because they convert to fat in the body.

Five Reasons For Eating Fewer Meals Throughout The Day

So, we’ve dealt why eating lots of smaller meals every day is not necessary for building and maintaining muscle. Sure, it works – but here are five reasons for instead following the illustrious ‘Easier Way To Build And Maintain Muscle Without Driving Yourself Nuts Diet’.

#1  Taking longer stretches between meals optimises leptin (the master hormone) and keeps insulin sensitive.

Getting down to how diet affects our body at a core level is by looking at our hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers released into the blood which control the functioning of our brain and body. They are responsible for everything from mood and sex drive to physical performance and body composition.

Leptin is a powerful hormone produced in fat cells, which is in control of all other hormones in the body. Eating fewer meals optimises leptin. Eating often, especially with the wrong kinds of foods and in large amounts, causes leptin resistance. This leads to problems with weight, particularly around the midsection.

Hormone optimisation expert Mike Mahler says: “The way to get out of leptin resistance is to give your body a break. Just like we need vacations from work, our receptors need a vacation from having to deal with large volumes of food delivered often.

“Trying to lose fat? Take a page from Byron Richard’s outstanding book Mastering Leptin and stick to two to three meals a day, with five to eight hours between meals. The extended food-free meal breaks provide opportunities for the body to call on stored fat for energy.

“Instead of snacks, your body will fuel itself with free fatty acids, as long as you’re not in the aerobic zone. 

“For hard training athletes–especially those with low body fat levels–three meals a day will probably not cut it. Four meals per day–with about four hours between meals–is better.”

#2  To enjoy your food and avoid unnecessary stressing about diet.

The average person is only awake 16 hours per day so to manage at least six small meals per day you’re gonna have to eat every 2.5 – 3 hours. Every day. Every week.

This means always keeping an eye on the time to check when your next ‘feed’ is. It means disturbing your work to snack in the office, eating breakfast as soon as you can after waking up, munching when you’re not even hungry, taking food ‘on the go’ whenever you’re out and about, always thinking about what and when you’re eating next…

Dunno about you but I’m stressed even reading all of that!

How’s about we relax and just enjoy three or four meals – when we’re actually hungry – instead?

#3  To avoid constant crazy prepping.

When I used to eat the Meathead way I had an entire cupboard full of tupperware. About 93 tubs of all shapes and sizes – and with countless lids that never seemed to fit any of them. This was for all the ‘prepped’ small meals I would usually make at night or sometimes in the morning.

By my likely inaccurate estimations, I reckon I wasted about 157.5 days of my life in total preparing my ‘on the go’ food. The tuna pasta that I would eat mid-afternoon in between lunch and dinner, or the protein smoothie I would have between breakfast and lunch to bump up the calories and keep feeding my muscles protein. Just incase it reached 1pm and my biceps had completely shrivelled up of course.

Unless you’ve got your own personal chef, it’s a nightmare to keep up with food prepping.

#4  To ease stress on your digestive system.

The length of time it takes to digest food varies from person to person and it also depends on what type of foods you’re eating. In this newspaper interview, Dr Anton Emmanuel, consultant gastroenterologist at University College Hospital in London, estimates that it takes 2-3 hours for a 600 calorie roast dinner to be broken down in the stomach before moving on through the small instestine, colon and eventually being excreted around 24 hours later.

Constantly bombarding our stomachs with food so frequently will inevitably lead to the digestive system struggling to keep up, food being backed up, and our gut health being badly affected as a result.

All of this leads to common problems today such as constipation, wind, heartburn, and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

#5  Spend less time on the toilet pan.

Quite often those people eating smaller meals will consume a considerably higher number of calories than is necessary to keep building muscle mass.

Yep, more calories from good food sources, combined with proper weight training, does equal more muscle mass. It also equals more time in the bathroom when you overdo it so much.

Life’s too short to be sitting on the toilet pan…straining…and wiping your ass 79 times per week!