5 Pro Athletes' Nutrition Tips - And Whether You Should Take Them Seriously

5. Cristiano Ronaldo - Have Six Small Meals A Day

Cristiano Ronaldo has been one of the best soccer players in the world for quite a while now - long enough in fact that he’s entered the conversation for greatest in history. He, too, is remarkably effective for his age, and is specifically known for consistently displaying a nearly otherworldly physique. And among his nutritional tricks - as seems to be the case for a fair number of top athletes - is the habit of having six or so small meals a day, rather than two or three traditional meals.

This is sometimes recommended as a means of keeping one’s metabolic rate up, and thereby burning more calories over the course of the day. And there may be some merit to that notion when you train as much as a top athlete, and thus need more regular “fuel.” However, for an everyday nutritional routine, this frequent-small-meal routine has been referred to as a persistent myth. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but the simple truth is that the total amount of food one eats determines how many calories are burned in the digestive process - not how often one is eating.