Actually the main reason why it is recommended to eat 6 times a day is simply because it becomes nearly impossible to fit the daily food into just three sittings.
Personally, I just eat 3 meals a day with 2 super tiny snacks and make a huge smoothie for the rest.
while this "could" be true if you are a pro athlete a la GSP, for the general population, 3 squares a day with or without snacking is all that is necessary...again, this is a personal thing. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Personally, I eat in a condensed feeding window, and I have no trouble at all putting away food. If you look at hunter gatherer models (which are the most accurate way of looking at the way our paleo ancestors used to live) they live very much on a fasting/feasting type of eating system. They are not fat, they are not sick, and they, in many circumstances have more muscle, are stronger and have more bone density that modern "westernized" civilization. Now, before someone accuses me of telling you to go hunt a mammoth, that's not at all the case, I'm not talking about historical re-enactment, I'm talking about context. This is a HUGE topic, and maybe deserves another thread.
Point is ,if
1) eating 6 times a day suits you and works, do it.
2) if eating 3 times a day suits you and works, do it.
3) if fasting 15 hrs and eating for 8hrs works, do it........get my drift?
the human body is more than capable of adapting to a lot of eating types, and macro nutrient breakdowns (like the kitavans vs the inuit, both are extremely healthy).
4) You cannot out work a shit diet.
5) training Stimulus >> training duration