IMO, a lot of these things become myths because they do work for a very small minority of people under very explicit circumstances.

Eating every 3 hours keeps your blood sugar level steady. Can person only eat 2-3 times a day and stay skinny, of course they can, but the fact of the matter is that by eating 5-6 times a day will give them world of difference for the good. God I can’t imagine eating only 3 times day, not only would I lose lot of my muscles but I will be craving junk food/sweets as well because if I go 3 hours without eating my blood sugar level drops. In fact when I was on vacation for few days, I only ate 3 times aday, by the 3rd day I dropped 5 pounds of muscle.

Please read the response in full before you counter.

Sheesh, why does everyone want to look like Mary Kate? How come no one wants to look like Ashley Olson ??!! SHE's the one with the long, lean muscles! I bet she does Pilates.

And, Mr Scientist-Guy, did you know that "Between 50 billion and 70 billion cells die each day due to apoptosis in the average human adult." OMG!!! We're gonna DIEEE!!!!

Go hang out with some fitness girls or bodybuilders and see what happens to their body the minute they go from eating 3-4 meals a day to 6-7 meals a day. Not only do they lose lots of body fat but muscles become a lot fuller and stronger.

For those people who’ve been working out and dieting for a long time and still not in the shape that you want to be, then you HAVE NO BUSINESS GIVING ADVICE. IF THAT PERSON CLAIMS THAT THEY ARE RIGHT AND EVERYONE IS WRONG THEN WITHIN 16 WEEKS THEY SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM BEING IN AMAZING SHAPE, NO IF AND BUTS ABOUT IT!!!

OK, never mind the fact that study after study proved that higher clean meal consumption raises metabolism.

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001 Apr;25(4):519-28.
Compared with nibbling, neither gorging nor a morning fast affect short-term energy balance in obese patients in a chamber calorimeter.Taylor MA, Garrow JS.
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, King's College London, London, UK.

OBJECTIVE: To test if a diet of 4.2 MJ/24 h as six isocaloric meals would result in a lower subsequent energy intake, or greater energy output than (a) 4.2 MJ/24 h as two isocaloric meals or (b) a morning fast followed by free access to food. DESIGN: Subjects were confined to the Metabolic Unit from 19:00 h on day 1 to 09:30 h on day 6. Each day they had a fixed diet providing 4.2 MJ with three pairs of meal patterns which were offered in random sequence. They were: six meals vs two meals without access to additional foods (6vs2), or six meals vs 2 meals with access to additional food (6+vs2+), or six meals vs four meals (6+vsAMFAST). In the AMFAST condition the first two meals of the day were omitted to reduce daily intake to 2.8 MJ and to create a morning fast, but additional food was accessible thereafter. Patients were confined in the chamber calorimeter from 19:00 h on day 2 until 09:00 h on day 4, and then from 19:00 h on day 4 to 09:00 h on day 6. The order in which each meal pattern was offered was balanced over time. MEASUREMENTS: Energy expenditure (chamber calorimetry), spontaneous activity (video) and energy intake (where additional foods were available) during the final 24 h of each dietary component. SUBJECTS: Ten (6vs2), eight (6+vs2+) and eight (6+vsAMFAST) women were recruited who had a BMI of greater than 25 kg/m2. RESULTS: From experiment 6vs2 the difference between energy expenditure with six meals (10.00 MJ) and two meals (9.96 MJ) was not significant (P=0.88). Energy expenditure between 23:00 h and 08:00 h ('night') was, however, significantly higher (P=0.02) with two meals (9.12 MJ/24 h) compared with six meals (8.34 MJ/24 h). The pattern of spontaneous physical activity did not differ significantly between these two meal patterns (P>0.05). Total energy intake was affected by neither meal frequency in experiment 6+vs2+ (10.75 MJ with six, 11.08 MJ with two; P=0.58) nor a morning fast in experiment 6+vsAMFAST (8.55 MJ/24 h with six, 7.60 MJ with AMFAST; P=0.40). The total diet of subjects who had a morning fast tended to have a lower percentage of total energy from carbohydrate (40%) than when they had six meals per 24 h (49%) (P=0.05). Subsequent energy balance was affected by neither meal frequency (6vs2; P=0.88, 6+vs2+; P=0.50) nor a morning fast (P=0.18). CONCLUSIONS: In the short term, meal frequency and a period of fasting have no major impact on energy intake or expenditure but energy expenditure is delayed with a lower meal frequency compared with a higher meal frequency. This might be attributed to the thermogenic effect of food continuing into the night when a later, larger meal is given. A morning fast resulted in a diet which tended to have a lower percentage of energy from carbohydrate than with no fast.

Eur J Clin Nutr. 1991 Mar;45(3):161-9.
Influence of the feeding frequency on nutrient utilization in man: consequences for energy metabolism.Verboeket-van de Venne WP, Westerterp KR.
Department of Human Biology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

A study was conducted to investigate whether there is a diurnal pattern of nutrient utilization in man and how this is affected by meal frequency to explain possible consequences of meal frequency for body weight regulation. When the daily energy intake is consumed in a small number of large meals, there is an increased chance to become overweight, possibly by an elevated lipogenesis (fat synthesis and accumulation) or storage of energy after the meal. Thirteen subjects, two males and eleven females, were fed to energy balance in two meals per day (gorging pattern) and seven meals per day (nibbling pattern) over 2-day intervals. On the second day on each feeding regimen, the diurnal pattern of nutrient utilization was calculated from simultaneous measurements of oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and urinary nitrogen excretion over 3 h intervals in a respiration chamber. A gorging pattern of energy intake resulted in a stronger diurnal periodicity of nutrient utilization, compared to a nibbling pattern. However, there were no consequences for the total 24 h energy expenditure (24 h EE) of the two feeding patterns (5.57 +/- 0.16 kJ/min for the gorging pattern; 5.44 +/- 0.18 kJ/min for the nibbling pattern). Concerning the periodicity of nutrient utilization, protein oxidation during the day did not change between the two feeding patterns. In the gorging pattern, carbohydrate oxidation was significantly elevated during the interval following the first meal (ie from 1200 h to 1500 h, P less than 0.01) and the second meal (ie from 1800 h to 2100 h, P less than 0.05). The decreased rate of carbohydrate oxidation observed during the fasting period (from rising in the morning until the first meal at 1200 h), was compensated by an increased fat oxidation from 0900 to 1200 h to cover energy needs. In the nibbling pattern, carbohydrate and fat oxidation remained relatively constant during the active hours of the day.