Are Three Meals a Day necessary?

I have always eaten three meals a day.  That was the way my parents/grandparents lived.

Growing up as far as I remember all my friends had three meals a day.

Dear hubby usually only has two meals a day and sometimes only one.  Is this healthy?

How were you raised?  What is your norm?

3 meals is very late 20th Century to me.  Seems to be related to the nuclear family of 2.4 kids.  We did it when I was young, because that was what was socially acceptable.  But as I aged, my parents reverted to how they were raised - which is to eat one big meal that is both breakfast (breaking the fast) and dinner (largest meal of the day) about 11 am.  Then a smaller snack with tea in the early evening.  It's very much a farmer's meal schedule and was common where my family was from in England since medieval times (or before).  For people who weren't as affluent as our family, a meal a day or every other day was common.

Only really rich people had the luxury to waste daylight and fuel by cooking and eating three meals a day.  And as the standard of living increased for working folk, they too embraced the three meal a day idea.  At least, that's how it happened in that corner of England.  (it's nice to have family members who were old enough to remember the change - but also, that corner of England had 4 extra letters in the alphabet when my dad went to school, so it tells you a lot about how slowly they embraced the 20th Century.)

My doctor has me back on my ancestral diet of one big meal near midday and a snack in the evening.  The current name is "intermittent fasting" and it's supposed to be very good for keeping away many of the modern ailments like diabetes - if your genetics match well to that style of eating.  

I never could deal with breakfast anyway.  Sure, 4am is my usual start to the day, but I can't eat until nearly 1pm.  If I do, it wrecks my entire day and makes my blood sugar go out of control.  I'm very happy not  to have to stress out about it so much now that I have a doctor confirming it's not necessary to eat three meals - for everyone.  Some people it is.  There are a lot of factors that influence this.  

It depends on the individual. Some people must eat more frequently (i.e. those taking certain meds, kids). Some people are natural grazers. I am definitely more of a one smaller and one larger meal (so, pretty much two meals) per day person. In place of snacks, I do enjoy unsweetened tea or water throughout the day. I find that I feel generally sluggish and gain weight when I snack. I was raised with three meals a day, however. Another potential downside to eating fewer meals would be meeting nutritional needs (particularly when only eating one meal per day).

On work days I eat breakfast at 0430 before I leave, again at 0700 at work, lunch at 1000 at work, lunch again at 1230, and dinner around 1800 at home.

During days off I eat a regular breakfast lunch and dinner.

A lot of great answers, thank you ...

I am also a snacker ... I feel lots of small snack ... habits from work days 10 am and 2 pm ...

I do "intermittent fasting" daily, eating only between 4am and 8am, nothing else all day but water. It makes life a lot easier to not have to make a fire to cook and wash dishes multiple times a day, as r ranson mentioned above. I don't get hungry because i am eating to satiety.

"That corner of England had 4 extra letters in the alphabet when my dad went to school,"

Wow, what were the letters?

It's only been the last ten years that I realized I was different than most people in this regard. I experience mild hunger as pain and it becomes worse pretty rapidly, making it impossible to consider other aspects of my life. As a kid, my response was to pig out and get fat. As an adult, I've been trying to chart a new course for decades with mixed success. My very best balance is when I hike 4-6 miles in the woods and can afford the Calories associated with five full meals, but I only do that about once a week due to time constraints.

I've also just started a new thing this last year where I have a globus sensation in my throat if I don't swallow frequently enough. I've been combating that with a whole lot of celery. (This was incidentally brought on by trying to do intermittent fasting as a result of another thread here on Permies. I fear it has done me permanent harm, though it might be getting better now, after about a year.)

I used to follow the standard American diet (SAD) with 3 meals/day + random snacks.  Since I've converted to low carb and often carnivore eating, I've naturally pared back to 1-2 meals/day.  I also now fast regularly (1-3 days) at least once/month.  I've found that the higher fat/protein diet is nutritionally dense (you don't need to eat as much/often to get your nutrients) and very satisfying, so I no longer have the urge to constantly graze which resulted in putting on far too much weight over the decades.

Simply changing my eating pattern has had positive weight and health results, so I'll never go back to SAD.

So, in answer to the original question:
No, regularly eating 3 meals/day is absolutely not necessary and is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history.  Early man ate on a far more irregular schedule since there was no formal agriculture that allowed storage of food and hunting and seasonal gathering were their primary food sources.  Our bodies still know how to follow that irregular pattern with fewer meals.

@Meli Mot - Yes, one other advantage of eating 1-2 meals/day is reduced time in food preparation, cleaning and eating.  

Meli Mot wrote:I do "intermittent fasting" daily, eating only between 4am and 8am, nothing else all day but water. It makes life a lot easier to not have to make a fire to cook and wash dishes multiple times a day, as r ranson mentioned above. I don't get hungry because i am eating to satiety.

"That corner of England had 4 extra letters in the alphabet when my dad went to school,"

Wow, what were the letters?

I wasn't around then.   I don't know them all.  The ae merged together was common, so was the giant S/f and the double version of that.  If you've ever seen an old version of Canterbury Tails you can see the letters.   You can still hear  how they used to influence speech in the elders of the villages.  It was great talking with them about life during and after the second war and how technology changed things like meal time.

Tea time was first influenced by commercial breaks on radio shows, then later tv.  Everyone in town would put the kettle on at the same time and cause a brownout where the lights go dim.  Every night everyone in the village and possibly the country had a cuppa tea at almost exactly the same time instead of waiting for a break in the rhythm of the day.

Thank you for the quick reply! So fascinating how age-old traditions quickly got changed by modernity!

Christopher Weeks wrote:It's only been the last ten years that I realized I was different than most people in this regard. I experience mild hunger as pain and it becomes worse pretty rapidly, making it impossible to consider other aspects of my life. As a kid, my response was the pig out and get fat. As an adult, I've been trying to chart a new course for decades with mixed success. My very best balance is when I hike 4-6 miles in the woods and can afford the Calories associated with five full meals, but I only do that about once a week due to time constraints.

I've also just started a new thing this last year where I have a globus sensation in my throat if I don't swallow frequently enough. I've been combating that with a whole lot of celery. (This was incidentally brought on by trying to do intermittent fasting as a result of another thread here on Permies. I fear it has done me permanent harm, though it might be getting better now, after about a year.)

    Christopher, that must be an incredible challenge to live with. You have had a struggle. I just recently learned about this very real condition and how very, very, difficult it is to live with.  I'm guessing that since most people aren't aware of it, you've suffered through tons of unhelpful (and sometime hurtful) advice and comments.  
    I hope you know it's not a fault or failure on your part. Throwing compliments to you.
   And have you been to a physician/health care practitioner that you trust about your throat?  I've got a caretaker/ mothering gene that forces me to suggest that.  Please ignore if that was intrusive.
   

Susan Mené wrote:And have you been to a physician/health care practitioner that you trust about your throat?

My family practitioner sent me for an endoscopy to rule out GERD as the cause of the spasm. I experience mild GERD and the globus sensation feels like it's related to refluxy upset, but I haven't figured out the connection or how to manage it. I've also been to the ENT who ran a scope up my nose into the back of my throat, but everything looks good. I also experience a mild anxiety disorder and sometimes the spasm is related to mental health, so it's pretty hard to diagnose. So yeah, I've been attending it to pretty aggressively -- I've seen docs more times in the past 16 months than the previous five years. :)

We tend to to have a light breakfast …toast and coffee. Then we eat a heavier meal around 4:00 PM.   If we do feel the need to eat at some other time, it is in the form of a cup of light soup.   So, why am I not thinner?!!

The area of Mexico where I live the traditional way of eating in the countryside is two meals a day. Get up and start work--maybe have a hot drink but not necessarily. Work until 10-11 stop for a big breakfast. Then work until about 4-5 and have the main meal of the day at that time. Maybe have another hot drink before bed but not necessarily.

This fits perfectly into the new trends of intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.

I grew up in the US in the 70s-80s when Kellogg's convinced us that breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

In 7th grade because of bullying I quit eating lunch.  Did not eat lunch thru HS.  Most days did not miss it.  I can often do days when I only eat one meal and days when I eat the whole day in grazing mode.  Don't know if it is good of bad.  Just survivable.  Typically feel the best if I am matching what I feel like I need at the time.

We have plenty of eggs from our Chickens so my wife prepares a mixture of water Cajun spices etc. and we put boiled eggs( shelled) into the mixture . We keep a jar of this in our fridge and in the mornings I’ll eat me a couple of eggs to start my day, then we’ll snack around for lunch ie Sandwiches and so forth, then we’ll eat a nice meal in the evening around 6:00 pm.

Christopher Weeks wrote:It's only been the last ten years that I realized I was different than most people in this regard. I experience mild hunger as pain and it becomes worse pretty rapidly, making it impossible to consider other aspects of my life. As a kid, my response was to pig out and get fat. As an adult, I've been trying to chart a new course for decades with mixed success. My very best balance is when I hike 4-6 miles in the woods and can afford the Calories associated with five full meals, but I only do that about once a week due to time constraints.

I've also just started a new thing this last year where I have a globus sensation in my throat if I don't swallow frequently enough. I've been combating that with a whole lot of celery. (This was incidentally brought on by trying to do intermittent fasting as a result of another thread here on Permies. I fear it has done me permanent harm, though it might be getting better now, after about a year.)

My hunger is similar, think it’s either a rapid change in blood sugar or something neurological. But I HAVE to eat. Since eating higher protein and lower carb I can do 4x a day most days.

Most people can be content on 2 meals a day if they get used to it.  I tend to have one meal and one snack a day, though sometimes I have two meals a day.  Or one meal and two snacks.  The only time I have three meals a day is when we go on vacation with my father.

We're older and retired and eat when the mood strikes us.  I usually cook one meal a day in the late afternoon and we eat fruit and such during the day.  We're pretty hard-headed about doing what we want to and if we were hungry we would eat more.  Other than normal age-related stuff and my auto-immune malfunction we're quite healthy and within normal weight.

Sharing food seems to be the human equivalent of grooming each other in primates.  We even have traditions of breaking bread (or eating something else depending on the location) together as a sign of friendship.  

As a now, one meal a day household, sure we eat together.  But not every day.  Not every meal.  Just when our personal mealtimes line up.  It's nice, but we are still comfortable we are part of the same flock even if we don't share a meal.  We have other, smaller rituals.  

Three meals a day people seem to take a lot of comfort in the frequent sharing of food.  Like without it, they are like a new chicken in the flock - they can't tell if they are welcome or not.  The three meals gives them a sense of security that we are together.  We are friends.  I think that's lovely.  It's a wonderful ritual to have.

I just cannot eat that much in a day.  I suppose my metabolism is too slow that a single serving will sit in my stomach for 20-40 hours before going down enough to make room for the next meal.  I don't know how people do it.  

The doctor has the on three pills a day 30 minutes before meals so it is good I am a three meal person ...

Now to get use to the side effects of the pills ... nausea, hot flashes, etc.

Used to teach nutrition.  Everyone's body is different, and also changes over time.  Additionally, nutrition can be impacted by disease and/or chronic conditions.  So, what works at one point in life, it changes over time.  Most important is to listen regularly to what you're body is telling you.  Does something that you used to love no longer sit well with your body in some way?  Stop eating it.  Are you craving something in particular?  Try a little bit, and see if that brings you more energy or upliftment.

Generally have found/experienced, both self and students, that the more whole fresh food eaten, the less food needed, since this contains the most complete nutrients, and fewer meals needed to meet nutritional needs.  The more food is cooked, the less nutrition, and in most cases, the less value it has for the human body (there are a few circumstances where a food item is more assimilable if it's cooked, though not the norm).  Lack of/low movement, disease and chronic illness can also impact (usually decrease) the amount of food the body can tolerate or process.  Ergo, as people age, the amount of food intake often decreases.  So many variables, and those are some of the considerations.  A single meal a day can be just fine, and important over a week's time, to vary the food intake to cover the nutritional bases.  Hope that helps bring some peace of mind and/or clarity in some way.

I notice my body seems to favor the same that R Ranson mentions as the ancient way, i.e. breakfast as the major meal and then a smaller evening meal. I was just considering today how it seems for me ideal. In the mornings I feel like staying close to the house for cooking and less laborious work, then in the noon and afternoon and evening it seems easier to get out of the house and to do more intense work. I am similar in that three seems like too much, too often. Buddhist bhiksus and bhiksunis follow a style of eating that is similar, eating only between dawn and noon, which seems very reasonable.

I eat once in the afternoon around 5-7 pm, go to bed as soon as it gets dark, wake up between 3 and 5 am, eat a light breakfast, go back to sleep, have coffee between 7 and 9 am, and it repeats. I also usually take a midday nap.

This is the Romanesque meal timing.

It's a natural consequence of lacking central heating.

The afternoon meal is dinner. You should eat something calorie dense to get decent sleep.

The very early meal is supper, since the convenient thing is to turn the leftovers from dinner into soup. This is also the time when the night is coldest, and you need calories to stay warm.

Then you go back to sleep or get your work done. And afterwards is coffee and a sweet for breakfast since you are breaking the fast between supper and dinner.

Lunch comes from European tea culture, where tea and light refreshments were served at noon by wealthy people. It's a status meal, not a necessity.

When industrialization and heat stoves changed nighttime calorie needs, is when supper was no longer observed as such, but became an alternative name for dinner.

Anne Miller wrote:I have always eaten three meals a day.  That was the way my parents/grandparents lived.

Growing up as far as I remember all my friends had three meals a day.

Dear hubby usually only has two meals a day and sometimes only one.  Is this healthy?

How were you raised?  What is your norm?

#Anne Miller- I grew up on three meals a day until I hit my pre-teen years. Then it was two. Now that I’m an older woman 🧖🏼‍♀️ I still do two but half meals suit me best. If I’m still hungry before bedtime, half a banana is plenty.

The quantity and periodicity of meals has a meaningful impact on nutrient uptake independent of total nutritional content.  For example, the protein saturation threshold of blood is actually quite low in light of dietary needs. Protein synthesis is quite slow which often results in much of the protein people (over)eat being filtered out as waste while the very same person remains chronically protein deficient.  

A healthy person of normal body weight can only assimilate about 40g of protein in a four hour period but we need about 0.5-0.7g per pound of body weight per day to maintain healthy muscles and connective tissue. People building muscle or healing from traumatic injuries need more. Since the amount we can use from one meal is limited additional meals are needed for more. The blood saturation levels of the other macro nutrients are much higher, practically, but similar constraints exist for many micronutrients.