The truth is that the solution may be personal. Your ideal meal frequency will give you steady energy throughout the day. It will also let you get hungry enough between meals that you feel ready to eat a nourishing meal but not so hungry that you lunge for whatever food you can get your hands on. Ask yourself these questions:
• Do I feel satisfied at the end of a meal?
• How soon do I get hungry again after a meal?
• How strong is my hunger between meals?
• Do I even feel actual physical hunger?
If you feel starving between meals, that’s a sign that you need to eat more at your meals (possibly just more protein), or that you need to eat more often. If you feel the need to eat oddly soon after a meal, but don’t really feel hungry, it may be that you aren’t eating the combination of foods that best suits your body, so try experimenting. If you tend to be distracted while you eat, practice eating mindfully so you get the mental satisfaction of fully tasting your food. Appetite is in the mind as well as the body.
If you realize that you rarely experience true hunger, or feel overfull after you eat, you may need to eat less at meals, or eat less often. Small, frequent meals — especially if they morph into a grazing eating pattern — can cause you to miss out on the hunger and fullness cues that can serve as an internal barometer of how much and when to eat. This is why eating to “stay ahead of hunger” isn’t a great idea. Plus, when you’re eating all the time, it’s easy to eat mindlessly and have no idea what or how much you are really eating during the day.

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• Food & Nutrition