6 times seems about right, 4 real food meals and 2 supplemental.
it all depends on,,when and what for!
if you are jobless and all you do is train watch tv sleep and hormonizing yourself,,you will do fine with 3-4-5 meals a day,,,and grow easily with out as much calories since you dont waste much other than training and breathing,,,,
if you are a construction worker or your work involve moving a lot and stress.. that is also a bodybuilder,,,7-8 sometimes 9 meals a day will be needed,,simply due to the calories you burn every day due to you being super active,,,
the many meals a day thing is done mainly when dieting for competition,,,when every thing counts,,,that is where small portions and many meals a day will help tremendesly,,,diet is very clean and nutrition every 3 hours is a must wether youre jobless or not because the diet is clean and clean diet will make you hungry every couple hours especially when bodybuild and hormonized,,
always make sure you dont over eat,,,meaning eat till you feel nurished and thats it,,then you will be able to eat those many meals wether dieting or not,,,
offseason accuracy is less important because you will be able to compensate by eating bigger portions and more calories in one meal,,,but when dieting for competition you gotta eat specific portions and that is when number of meals matter depending on your daily activities as mentioned above,,again i am talkin 2000 here and not 1960s,,,today the bodybuilder is bigger in general,, and need more nutrition and thats where all this come into play,,,if you try to follow the 1960s routine of 2-3 meals a day you will indeed get big,,, but 200-220 big not 250 big,,,and thats where the nutrition and drug timing come into play.
another thing,,,
your body doesnt give a shit if you drink your meals or eat them,,,it dont make a diff,,,you can drink 6 meals a day and look same as a guy who chew them,,,you wont enjoy your food as much and maybe lose some teeth due to inactivity
but! your body wont know the diff,,,
solid food only matters when dieting and wanting to get down to 4-6% foro cometition purposes,,,that is where liquid food usually makes you retain more water,,,and will hide your muscle definition,,,so you can be as muscular as the guy next to you...but you wont be able to see it as well when it come to cuts.
so when dieting for
competition i recomend to eliminate protien shakes,,,and liquid meals,,,
when dieting/cutting to look good at 7% you can use couple liquid meals couple solid meals and you wil do fine