Back before their was an invention of refrigerator what time of the day did our ancestors eat and how many meals did they eat per day?

It has varied considerably over time. In medieval times for example, breakfast was usually just a snack, and some people didn't eat it at all. It might just be bread and ale (or wine for wealthy people). It was normally eaten very early in the morning. Most people worked in agriculture, and so woukd get up quite early, earlier in summer than winter.

Dinner, the main meal of the day, was eaten sometime between 10am and noon. In a wealthy household, there would be two or maybe three courses, each with a selection of different dishes laid out for peopke to choose from, rather like a modern buffet.

Supper, a lighter meal than dinner, was eaten sometime around 6 or 7 pm.

This pattern continued through the early modern period, but in the 18th century, the upper classes began to eat dinner later and later, with supper being pushed later as well. Dining at 3 or 4 became the norm, then later. Generally, the posher you were, the later you ate dinner.

To fill the widenng gap between breakfast and dinner, 'luncheon' a snack eaten at around midday, became customary. This might be cold meat, bread and cheese, or perhaps some leftovers from last night's dinner. Working class people continued to have their main meal at midday.

In the 19th century, the custom of eating a substantial breakfast, with eggs, bacon, sausages, etc, became popular. In an upper class household, there might be a wide choice of dishes, with chops, kidneys, kippers, cold meat, kedgeree (a dish of rice, smoked fish, and curry), etc.

Luncheon remained a light meal for upper class English people (in France the midday meal remained the most substantial one). Dinner got later and later, until upper class people were eating at around 8, while working class people would normally eat at whatever time they got in from work.

The custom of having a buffet style dinner died out in the mid 19th century, with the modern fashion, of one dish served at a time, taking its place.

The refrigerator might not have existed but refrigeration did. Though it was not nearly as efficient as a refrigerator, people knew how to keep things cool.

The Icebox (precursor to a refrigerator) - Basically, but a block of ice in a box in the bottom compartment. The energy from the ice keep produce relatively cool. Though they were messy, could be a bit moldy and other stuff.

A pit in the backyard. Basically, build a large closet underground, that way, the heat wont spoil everything because the ground (and shade) keep everything cool.

A closet

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Really depends where you were, people had different methods of preservation. Simple ice can do wonders. Or Ice and smoke. I forget if it was the Huns or the Mongols, but they ate beef jerkey (sort of). The salt and the dried meat kept longer than regular meat.

Of course people had 3 meals a day before the refrigerator. Though they did not eat cereals for breakfast (that's a modern invention circa 1880's). Peasants ate porridge (and as Terry Jones put it, porridge was basically everything you could find and boil it for two hours).

Before refrigeration, most people ate 3 meals a day assuming they could afford it, that is - some sort of early morning meal for breakfast, something to eat around midday, and an evening meal.

The difference was that back then, people couldn't keep perishables like milk, meat, fish, and fresh produce fresh for very long, especially in warm weather

So they'd have to go food shopping every day, or almost every day, and buy just enough for that day's meals.

When they ate had more to do with work, since before WWI people often worked 10 hrs a day 6 days a week.

Before there were refrigerators, ice boxes served about the same purpose. People got ice delivered once a day. Before that, housewives often shopped every day for meat and veggies. Most people didn't eat meat that often.

Going back millennia into the past, up to the middle of the 19th century, cities were limited in size to what a person could walk in a day. There were small markets in every neighborhood that had fresh meat and vegetables delivered every day.

This "ancestor" thing is kind of funny.

A fridge required electricity to work -- a lot of homes were NOT wired for electricity.

Your "ancestors" were riding to work in a bus.

They were taking the elevator up to the 20th floor in a skyscraper.

They would grab a steamy hot dog and an ice cold Coke from a street cart for lunch.

Before grabbing their bus for home they would run in for an ice cream at the soda shop.

In their kitchen at home there sat a huge double thick wooden ice box with a strong fan on top to circulate the ice block inside.

Many homes were family home and had just never been updated wiring the entire house --- or partially wiring it

The use of Ice Boxes aren't exactly the ancient tools of our ancestors but simply one off of means of keeping food cool.

Cellars were hugely used also, especially using cold stone or brick, beautifully preserving veggies and spices.

In many places around the country meat can be prepared and properly package and preserved while winter holds true.

Ice Houses were built warehouse ice -- very solid, very, very cold buildings - would also keep the ice very cold and firm.

from the 1700's right up and through the 1st World War there was a huge business in cutting ice out of lakes and frozen rivers and storing it in huge buildings with really thick walls. Blocks six feet by four feet by maybe a foot thick would be sawn...with really big saws.......out of lakes in Maine,New Hampshire Michigan, Germany, Scotland etc etc etc and the ice stored and sold right through the summer.

In Nineteen Oh Three Maine exported Four Million TONS of ice,mostly to Boston but some all over the world; a thousand tons of ice sent to Panama.......in wooden sailing ships, no less..... lost almost two thirds to melting before it could be sold......but that three hundred tons was priceless

The horse draft machinery for cutting ice from large bodies of water still exists in museums, the foundations of ice houses are still found near these lakes. The ice cooled the household ice coolers. Industries packed the ice in the Winter, distributed the ice in the hot Summer.

Smoke houses cured the meat and packed it in salt to save it in the hot months...they didn't live as long into old age as we do now!

A common style of cooking before refrigeration was the pot hung over the fire. It would contain porridge or soup, or often as not as sort of combination dish, made of grains, dried beans, vegetables and on rare occasions, a soup bone or scrap of meat. This was eaten at all meals, reheated as needed or served cold.

"Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."

Yum.