I often eat every few hours or more often, throughout the day, but I've found I'm more successful eating 3 meals and snacks if needed, when I'm actually losing weight. It's much easier to gage my hunger level, and eat when I'm hungry. I'm almost never out of the house, so mindless munching is an issue. Its also much easier to keep track of calories/carbs/protein whatever you are tracking if the meals are less frequent or you portion them out ahead of time.
But more importantly than HOW often, is WHAT I'm eating. Each person is different. Low Carb, Low Fat, High Fiber, they each are different, and we react differently to them.
In this instance 'best' is defined as feeling full for hours, mind off food until I'm hungry,
and losing weight since I'm full on less calories.
I do best eating as many legumes as possible- lots of burritos, chilli, lentil soup and veggie burgers, lots of fruit, and finding as many ways as possible to add lots of flavor, minimizing the fats like cheese or butter, but some Evo is ok. and finding as many ways as possible to maximize my serving size for the fewest calories. Making "tacos" with lettuce instead of the tortilla shell, for example. Each tortilla has 100 or more calories, depending on size. It's not an original idea, but this way we are filling up on the great flavors and proteins instead of refined carbs. My fav is curry fish or chicken tacos, or curry lentils are great too and fairly quick, since there's no soaking.
The option that gives me the most peace of mind is to not have a specific plan. Just eat lots of healthy produce, lean proteins, and limiting the high fat dairy and other very caloric foods like pasta, rice, and to a certain extent bread. Don't forget lots of water, and if you like it, tea. I love mint tea flavored water, especially in summer.
However, for someone avoiding carbs all the legumes, carrots, and raisin bran I eat is an absolute nightmare. So what works for you will vary, hence why there are so many plans to choose from.
*You'd think when I'm eating legumes often I have gas, but I usually don't. I'm used to eating high fiber foods, and I rinse the beans during the cooking process, if I'm using dried beans. In the case of lentils, I haven't found any canned except for extremely salty soup, so I always make those from dried lentils. Since I'm the only one in the house willing to eat that many beans or any lentils, it's a way for me to make my food ahead of time too, since they usually don't want any. I haven't done that in a long time though, I'm all talk right now.
