Frequent meals vs. 3-square meals a day?

Think of an old steam engine, coal fired locomotive.  Say that you've got 100lbs of coal and throw it on the fire all at once.  At first it almost smothers out the fire because there's so much coal, when it does catch it really doesn't burn that efficiently because there's more fuel in the boiler than it can handle.  So....it flames up hot for a bit but then settles way down and limps along almost burning itself out.  There ends up being coal that wasn't burned and gets wasted.  It's left in the furnace to get in the way and prevents the boiler from functioning properly.  Now, what if you took that same hundred pounds of coal and put maybe 20 or 30lbs onto the fire?  You get a nice even burn, and produce a steady efficient fire.  The coal is able to burn a lot more efficiently because it's not smothering itself because it packed loosely and has more surface area.  There's very little waste allowing the furnace to operate at peak efficiency.  The train is running at a nice steady pace and just before the fire needs fuel the fireman stokes the firebox with another 20 or 30lbs.  The engine keeps churning and churning.  It's never longing for fuel and never wasting any energy.

Your body operates the same way.  Keep your fire stoked and your engine will operate more efficiently.