# of meals per day does NOT MATTER in terms of metabolism (blood sugar spikes are different but usually not relevant to most people). This is a nutrition myth perpetuated over and over and over by magazines and word of mouth. Eat 3 meals, eat 1 meal, eat 10 meals, just get in your proper calorie deficit and you are gold.
Some contemporary nutrition research by Lyle McDonald and Alan Aragon clarify this (who are PhD's in nutrition, not fitness magazine writers who tell you what you want to hear).