You'll be happy to learn that simply eating food also causes you to burn calories - you actually burn calories when trying to digest and store food as energy. Therefore, eating food is considered thermogenic (calorie burning). Recent research supports the bodybuilding habit of consuming more frequent, smaller meals as an effective way to increase metabolism and store less fat. It's suggested that you consume 5-7 small meals per day, never eating to a point of feeling full (satiety). The total amount of calories you eat per day is dependent upon your current weight and your training goal(s). If you want to lose weight, then you need to consume fewer calories per day than you expend in both exercise and daily activity. Just don't reduce your calories by more than 400 calories per day, below what your body uses, as it is likely to begin conserving fat as a self-preserving mechanism to what it (your body) perceives as starvation. Increasing protein intake while cutting calories is wise, because protein helps to preserve lean muscle tissue, which is the catalyst for a healthy metabolism. Additionally, protein makes you feel more full, gram for gram, than either carbs or fat, so you'll actually eat less per meal if you consume a protein-rich meal.