This is largely down to what works for each individual person and cannot be a blanket prescription across the boards. I have a fast metabolism and am always hungry and I ate 3 meals a day every day. I just pushed back my breakfast as long as I could. So i would eat at 10:30-noon depending on when I had gotten up and when I was hungry, then again midafternoon, and then again sometime before bedtime. I coulnt'd go to sleep on an empty stomach. So sometimes that ended up being only 4 hours between meals, sometimes more like 6. If you're eating mostly carbs and do not have PCOS or IR, your blood sugar will have time to drop in that time period. The important thing is that nice long run at night, between bedtime and when you ahve your first meal in the morning. 12 hours- ok, 16 hours - fantastic.
Your needs can even change from day to day, so please don't beat yourself up if one day you can;t make it as long as you could another day. the foods you eat, the amount of running around you do, your metabolism and where you are in your menstrual cycle can make you have different levels of appetite from one day to the next and it's fine to stay flexible from day to day and not feel like you ahve to stick to a strict schedule. It is GOOD for boy moms who are sometimes more tightly wound, to play things by ear a little bit!!