even bodybuilders are doing it

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:10 am

I get some emails from an exercise newsletter. The most recent one is for an ebook called The Renegade Diet, preaching stepping down from 6 to 4 to 3 meals a day for great muscles gains and a social life. Can't speak for the muscles but can second the social life. Thank you again, Reinhard for being ahead of the curve (along with hundreds of years of culture) and saving us a lot of dough.

from Jason Ferruggia "Then cut that to three meals with 5-6 hours between each. But still keep total calories the same at the end of the day. This optimizes leptin levels and improves your digestion.

"Studies have shown very little difference in the effectiveness of six meals per day over three."

Sure they have. The rest of the world thinner than us.

KL · Post by KL » Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:38 pm

Love this - thanks for sharing it with us.

Over43 · Post by **Over43** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:46 pm

In the "old" The Nautilus Diet book Ellington Darden (I imagine at the request of Arthur Jones) would promote eating 3 balanced meals a day, and that was all that was need to build muscle and burn fat.

Jones (arthurjonesexercisedotcom) believed that protein powders, body building suplements, etc. were just a gimmick.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:27 am

Interesting. I read a book of Darden's back in the early 90's in which he had several women with before and after's on a weightlifting regimen and no cardio. The women ate 1,100 calories a day. Of course, they looked good after.

At the time, (age 36) I weighed about my high school weight and wanted to cry over how fat I was every day. Now I would be shocked ever to weigh that little again. I went on to gain another 45 lbs. (55 at my highest, but wasn't there long). I'd be willing to bet all of those women in that book got fat later, too.

In fact, I lost weight right after that as well as dropping from 31% bodyfat to 19% in 6 months. I was only 4 lbs. higher than my weight when I was a freshman in high school (when I was also trying to lose ten pounds). I didn't go the weightlifting route. I lost on 1,200 calories a day and enough running to have me using ice packs several times a week. By a year later, I was back up with an extra 5 lbs. And so it went.