recently i changed BI advisors because i had a chance to actually meet one. so today he tells me i should add an extra meal (that would be number 6) to my precontest diet. now i deffinately trust him, but this is a really hard idea to get used to. so i thought id ask u guys what u thought since he probably wont be able to answer my email back till monday. im 6 weeks out as of today and at 6% bodyfat. i was experiencing some hunger pangs before but not too many. my stregnth is going wayyyyy down since the 8 week out mark, and my upper body is looking great but my legs still need to lose some fat.
so if you can i would really appreciate someone explainin the idea behind the increase.
thanks
ben

The best person to explain why an increase of one meal per day will benefit you is the BI advisor who recommended the meal. You mentioned that you've actually met this BI advisor is person, so there's no better way for an advisor to get an idea of what you need to do for a contest than to meet face to face.

I'm not sure how many contests you've entered, but a common and often times fatal mistake committed by competitors is trying to incorporate the ideas of two, three, five, six different people into their prep programs. If you have a BI advisor, trust his/her recommendation and follow it to the letter. Discuss your concerns with him/her. The last thing you want to do is listen and try to follow the advice of multiple persons when prepping for a bodybuilding contest.

For my last contest, my BI advisor added a 6th meal to my nutrition plan at 4 wks out. I didnt question the approach, but if i had reservations about the idea, i would have discussed those with him. I suggest adding the 6th meal and discussing the plan with your BI advisor next week. You're 6 wks out...adding a 6th meal will not derail your prep.

well thank you very much, i appreciate your help, i feel much better about it now. ill be lookin forward to eating the extra food
thanks
ben

Generally more frequent meals mean that your metabolism stays at a slightly higher level during waking hours because your body is expending some energy just to digest each meal and your insulin levels tend to be more consistent. Smaller more frequent meals also mean that your body tends to use the food energy more efficiently - to fuel muscles with glycogen as opposed to converting extra calories into body fat stores as might happen with say three larger less frequent meals.

This may or may not touch on why your advisor thought it best to go from 5 to 6 meals for you now, but in general this is part of the thinking behind eating planned meals 5,6 or 7 times a day.

Another factor is that if we go too long between adequate meals our bodies can start to become catabolic - i.e. they start to also burn muscle for energy (don't want that now do we!) So an extra meal in the mix may keep you from falling into a catabolic state as the day goes on, which is especially likely when you are on a calorie restricted diet such as at 6 or less weeks out from a contest. Good luck with your contest prep!