Number of Meals in a Day - Nutrition Tips - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Hi, my name is Kia Sanford. I am a clinical nutritionist and counselor. With the number of meals one should have in a day really depends on what your activity level is and it depends on what your needs are. A lot of people get stuck in this idea of the three squares a day. That works for some people but not for everyone. Often times when you are looking at making a lifestyle change or you are looking at making a change that has to do with a certain disease state you are trying to get yourself out of, you may need to adjust that a bit. Oftentimes, what we need to do is separate those meals out so, it is not that you are eating more or eating less, itis just you are eating more frequently. So, if you imagine taking your breakfast and cutting it in half. Eating half at 8:00, half at 11:00, and then, having lunch but, you are going to have half of that lunch and have the other half at 3:00. So, you are really spreading it around the day so, it is the same amount of food but, you are giving yourself a chance to really burn it up as opposed to big lumps. And then, it sits there and then, it may be a big lump at lunch and you start to fall asleep at 3:00 in the afternoon. So, it is giving yourself a chance to really burn that fuel that you are bringing in and giving your body a chance to put the nutrients where it needs to go.
