Q: I recognize the value of eating often. what do if you can only eat say three times in a day due to work or other restrictions ? is it possible to eat more early in the day say at breakfast and lunch and use the extra calories till the next time you can eat or will that simply crash your metabolism and cause gains in fat, I know that marathon runners use carb loading as they cannot eat and run at the same time.

A: While eating frequently is certainly preferable, you have to work (and eat) within your schedule. If all you can do is three times a day, then that's what you have to do. As you said, you will just have to eat more in each sitting. I would increase the size of all three meals, but save most carbs for breakfast and lunch and make dinner lighter in carbs (a nice big salad would be perfect) but with more protein and healthy fats.

Because your metabolism will likely not be able to stay as high with just three meals, if you are switching from, say, six meals a day to three, then you'll probably need to lower the overall calories slightly so each one of the new meals will be slightly less than two of old meals.