Do you prefer 3 larger meals or snacking all day -what helps you?!

David_2015

Breakkie - 700
Lunch - 300
Dinner - 400
Snacking - 700

Love knowing I'm never more than an hour away from having something to eat!!

lemurcat12

3 meals (usually all decent sized and similarly sized) + (lately) a planned (smaller) snack. At least when I'm on plan.

I like having more time between meals and only added the afternoon snack because I tend to go from noon to 9:30 between lunch and dinner.

lectric102002

I've done the 3-hour diet for years. I eat every three hours, as exactly close to that time as possible. As soon as I get up, a piece of fruit or handful of cereal, breakfast at 8:00, 100 calorie snack at 11:00, lunch at 2:00, 400 cals or so, another 100 to 150 cal snack at 5:00 before I go home. Dinner at 7:30 to 8:00, try to stay around 400 cals, then frozen yogurt before bed. I'm never hungry and have lost 40 pounds in 5 months.

Try it. It works.

lemurcat12

People are different. I'd hate that and I always end up eating more when I snack more, even with healthy snacks. I just tend to find snack foods less satisfying than a real sit-down, cooked meal.

earlnabby

lemurcat12 wrote: »

People are different. I'd hate that and I always end up eating more when I snack more, even with healthy snacks. I just tend to find snack foods less satisfying than a real sit-down, cooked meal.

I'm like that too. Many of my snacks are really just my meals eaten in a couple of segments a couple of hours apart. I have a hiatal hernia so I can't eat a big meal at one time, but if I eat my entree and one side in a sitting, then wait for about 2 hours I can eat the other side dish and dessert if I have one. If I tried to eat it all at once, I would be in excruciating pain (that feels like a heart attack) for an hour or two until it digests.

970Mikaela1

6 or 700 calories at lunch. All the rest at dinner. 12 to 1400.

Liftng4Lis

I like having two meals with snacking thrown in.

hyIianprincess

I munch on something typically every 2-3 hours. I prefer smaller meals. Easier on my stomach. That way I don't get that heavy, sluggish feeling afterwards.

Winterlover123

Small things through the day starting at 10am, big dinner around 6:30 - 7pm-ish for me That's just how my work day tends to work out

PeachyPlum

I skip breakfast and eat two fricking giant meals.

It's awesome.

sardelsa

Hornsby wrote: »

600 cals for breakfast
250 for AM Snack
1000 for lunch
250 for PM Snack
1000 for dinner
250 for late PM snack

Give or take...

Ahh this was pretty much my bulking split. Memories...

But yea I do a small breakfast, medium lunch, large dinner with snacks in between.. I'm pretty much eating all day

SteveMFP123

350 breakfast
350 lunch
800 dinner
450 snacks

I enjoy eating still, especially at night so I save snack calories for then.

tomatoey

lemurcat12 wrote: »

People are different. I'd hate that and I always end up eating more when I snack more, even with healthy snacks. I just tend to find snack foods less satisfying than a real sit-down, cooked meal.

Same, no chance I'd be full (or functional) on say 400 calories (excepting the snack).

I'm in a hating cooking moment right now, myself. Can't be bothered to prep/cook/eat more often than 3.5 times a day. Boo to dishes. Lately, I just want to get the stuff down, and forget about it until I have to remember again.

tomatoey

PeachyPlum wrote: »

I skip breakfast and eat two fricking giant meals.

It's awesome.

I did this for a bit, kind of like an unintentional IF, just because I was too lazy to make breakfast, in my case. Very into the less cooking part, but less happy with the lack of energy and crabby mood that got me. Great if you can do it, though!

kisses71213

lectric102002 wrote: »

I've done the 3-hour diet for years. I eat every three hours, as exactly close to that time as possible. As soon as I get up, a piece of fruit or handful of cereal, breakfast at 8:00, 100 calorie snack at 11:00, lunch at 2:00, 400 cals or so, another 100 to 150 cal snack at 5:00 before I go home. Dinner at 7:30 to 8:00, try to stay around 400 cals, then frozen yogurt before bed. I'm never hungry and have lost 40 pounds in 5 months.

Try it. It works.

Thanks for breaking down the cals as I have about a similar limit. I believe my snacks have been too high in cals and so I found myself having much smaller meals... soon every time I ate it was only about 250 cals and I never feel satisfied. So I was thinking of just 3 large meals but not sure if I could go very long in between meals. However, your post has great advice. Eat every 3 hours and have smaller sized snacks. Thank you!

kisses71213

PeachyPlum wrote: »

I skip breakfast and eat two fricking giant meals.

It's awesome.

hahaha love it!

kickassbarbie

I'm a constant munchies type person. What seems to work best for me is four to five small snacks/mini meals (150-300 cal one of those is usually hot chocolate and squirty cream with mini Marshmellows before bed) and a normal sized (500ish cal) dinner. Sometimes an extra shake thrown in.

I don't think there's much correlation between meal timing and weight loss/gain though. Except for me im incapable of not snacking long term, three meals I struggle to hit my macros and seems to trigger weird late night carb binge behaviour after a week or two.

annette_15

Usually do
250-300 breakfast
250-350 lunch
300-500 dinner
400-500 snacks after dinner
25-75cal in milk for coffee throughout the day

Looncove_Farm

Always 3 meals and 2 snacks.
Breakfast 630am, snack 8am, lunch 1230pm snack 230pm, dinner 5pm, then nothing because we are so busy after dinner theres no time for snacking.
The times I put down are almost spot on each day. When my belly growls I eat something.

paulaviki

If I'm at work I need snacks. I tend to graze at work. At home I can easily just have 3 meals. I think it depends on how bored I am!

auntyp147

Both - normally 3meals and snacks during the day - but only when I'm hungry. Prefer eating more at night then during the day too. Did try snacking every 2 hours during the day once - but it didn't work for me - my tummy didn't like it.

BuckyArden33

5 meals a day/1 every 3 hours. seems to work for me

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bewarethedog

I eat breakfast (200cals), lunch (300-400cals), afternoon snack (100-200cals), dinner (600-700cals), and late night snack (whatever cals I have left). It usually works out so I'm eating something every three hours (8:00, 11:00, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00). If I go any longer between eating I start to get really hangry and act more like the hulk than a normal person should.

ab_1203

Three large meals for me of whatever I like, about 700 calories a meal. I hate not eating a lot of food at once, so it has to be three. I only snack once between and its a banana.

MonsoonStorm

3 meals.

The rest depends on how much exercise I am doing. If I am doing a fair bit then I eat in between too. Do what suits you.

rainbow198

2 - 3 well-balanced meals a day. No snacks. I get satisfied and satiated, but not stuffed. It is really great and freeing.

Back when my body craved sugar and carbs I had to eat all day or I would freak out, but not anymore.

jemhh

I prefer larger meals and then my snack is just to finish off my calories. My meals are usually 500-700 calories and then the snack is around 200.

This week my meals have been messed up and I have felt very...blah. I need to get back on track with my normal eating pattern because it works well for me.

fannyfrost

I snack all day. I have standard snacks and meals that have my protein and my carbs, my snacks are the veggies and such. I get hungry often, some days more than others. there are days I will eat a meal and be hungry 30 minutes later, other days, same meal more than enough. So I do a lot of veggie snacks. My average calorie intake is about 1500 a day.

This is what works best for me.