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Some people swear by eating three square meals throughout the day, while others practice intermittent fasting [3] where they eat all of their calories within a four-hour window. Although both approaches to diet have their pros and cons, which is most effective for weight loss?
As personal trainer Max Weber, NASM, ACE, showed in an Instagram post, you can actually eat as many as 12 meals a day or as few as two meals a day and still lose weight. Ultimately, it's about how many calories a day you eat.
"The truth is that you can eat as many, or as few meals per day as you'd like, assuming total calories are controlled [4]," Max wrote in his Instagram caption. "As long as you are hitting your macros and daily calorie targets, you can pick the meal timing strategy that works best for YOU."
He reminds us that calorie targets and macros [6] are more important to figure out first, then worry about meal timing. It may depend on your body and your schedule; some people need to eat first thing in the morning to fuel an intense workout and prefer to eat smaller meals throughout the day, while others can stick to two large meals and still do well with their weight-loss goals.