Bodybuilders spend hours at the gym building large amounts of muscle mass, and they support that with regular feedings—this usually means six meal times a day. Of course, these aren’t runs to Burger King. Bodybuilders typically have protein at every meal, some consisting of shakes.

Try to eat your first meal within an hour or so after you wake up, and then eat about every two hours after that. It’s important that your six-meal schedule works with your lifestyle, though.

Six Small Meals a Day

1. Breakfast: Egg whites with potatoes, turkey bacon, [or] pre-made breakfast muffins with turkey bacon, egg whites, and vegetables.
2. Snack: Fruit smoothie with protein powder.
3. Snack: Hard boiled eggs (whites only)
4. Lunch: A healthy fat like an avocado with chicken or turkey or lean bison or beef.

Some appropriate high-protein snacks include:

• 1 cup of 1 percent milk fat cottage cheese.
• one slice of bread with peanut butter and a glass of 1 percent milk.
• a single-serving container of plain Greek yogurt with berries.
• three hard-boiled eggs.

This is the prime time when the body is in muscle growth mode, so you want to maximize it by feeding your body the nourishment that it needs. Eat frequently, every 3-4 hours, and aim for 6 small meals during the day. Try not to lump your calories into 3 big meals, as it will make you feel sluggish.

People who are trying to build muscle mass need to consume at least an extra 200 calories per day and perhaps as much as 500 to 1,000 calories extra per day depending on whether they are trying to gain weight or just turn fat into muscle. Eating every two hours can help you consume sufficient calories.

“For weight management, it is important to keep the metabolism in equilibrium. Eating every 2-3 hours maintains body processes and metabolism remains intact,” she says. This kind of eating pattern, she says, can also be beneficial for people on a weight loss plan or those with diabetes.

Experts recommend waiting about three-five hours between meals. The wait time between meals should be between three and five hours, according to Dr. Edward Bitok, DrPH, MS, RDN, assistant professor, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics at the LLU School of Allied Health Professions.

We recommend planning to eat dinner at about four to five hours after lunch. Keep in mind, if your dinner time fall in between the 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. timeframe, you are going to be reaching the last hour of your body’s heightened metabolic rate.

These studies have uncovered several observations about starvation: An article in Archiv Fur Kriminologie states the body can survive for 8 to 21 days without food and water and up to two months if there’s access to an adequate water intake. Modern-day hunger strikes have provided insight into starvation.

Coffee itself has almost no calories, so it already has that going for it. Several studies have examined whether fasting still demonstrates health and disease-prevention benefits if the people fasting drink coffee. The answer: yep! The benefits are intact.