why it is encouraged for the average person to eat 4-5 small meals per day

There has been a lot of debate about this recently, with studies showing the eating smaller meals can cause people to overeat and studies showing that eating the traditional 3 times a day cause the body to go into “starvation” mode. I believe it comes down to what works best for that client. In other words, there is no “one fits all model” to nutrition.

That being said, the only thing known for certain, whether you follow the 4-5 small meals a day or 3 meals a day, is that the more calories in, than calories out will cause weight gain.