Meal Timing

Meal timing is an important factor to consider especially in trained athletes who have already mastered sustainability in their diet with proper calorie and macronutrient targets. It refers to the time between meals relative to each other. Keeping in mind that adherence to your diet is most important, you should spread out your meals according to your schedule and preference. For example, if your diet has high calories it makes sense to spread out those calories into 4-6 meals as opposed to 1-2 very large meals to make the diet more sustainable. If your diet is very low calorie it might make sense to eat less frequent but more calories at each meal. Another aspect to consider is digestion rate since larger meals take longer to break down while different protein and carb sources differ in how long they take to digest. Fats will slow down digestion and the time it takes to shuttle nutrients into the muscles. Therefore, it requires some strategy to plan out your meals. 

Choose food sources and a meal schedule that work with your lifestyle. For athletes with performance or aesthetic goals, focus on carbohydrates in the pre, intra and post workout window while keeping fats to a minimum in the post-workout as they will delay carbohydrate digestion. Protein should be evenly divided up into each meal throughout the day. Adjustments will be made along the way based on adherence and there are many ways to manipulate your meals to get results.