i'm a little confused about something.

acording to a few studies, meals increase cortisol (c) levels (protein
being the chief culprit), while reducing testosterone (t) levels
(probably due to increased skeletal muscle uptake) for 2-3 hours after
the meal.  (one study found that a meat + high animal fat meal didn't
affect t levels, but its contradicted by several other studies).  daily
t production is only 15% of the picture (most of it is produced during
sleep), but still, keeping the body catabolic all day seems
counterprodutive.

however, while ive never seen any studies on this, it's commonly
claimed in the weightlifting community that you need to eat a
protein-rich meal/supplement every three hours in order to prevent
muscle wasting, as well as to revv up your metabolism, and prevent that
fat storage that you would get by eating bigger meals just 3 times per
day.  (i would think that, as the stomach takes longer to empty after a
large meal, the amino acids would be steadily released into the
bloodstream over a number of hours, so you wouldn't need to eat every 3
hours?!)

so, it looks like eating every three hours effectively keeps the body
in a high-cortisol state, the opposite of what you want when either
dieting or trying to gain muscle...or even trying to maintain a normal
libido..  it also looks like eating small meals frequently minimizes
per-meal fat storage and increases your metabolism, and makes it more
feasible to eat more calories per day, which would be important when
trying to gain muscle.

so, which would be better?