What time of day do you eat the most calories?

metalmaiden17

I grew up eating my largest meal in the evening, and am still doing so. Is there a better time of day to eat a larger meal for optimal weight loss, or is it really just about how many total through out the day? Any advice?

Thanks!

whmscll

Total throughout the day. When you eat does not matter at all.

cwolfman13

it doesn't matter. dinner tends to be my largest meal of the day.

_John_

daytime

RiseHigher

It doesn't matter for weight loss, but as an athlete I tend to eat more around my main workout, which is normally in the morning.

jaga13

It's just a matter of preference. I tend to spread it out evenly, but occasionally dinner is a little more.

Gska17

Often lunch & snacks during the day add up to more than dinner because I'm bored at my desk. After dinner I can clean up & more onto another activity.

hgycta

Meal timing has been shown in several studies to be irrelevant, so find out whatever works best for you and stick with it!
For me personally, I prefer my larger meals to be at night. I'm maintaining on 1,600 calories a day and save 900 for when I get home (500 for dinner, 400 for dessert), which is just over half of my caloric goal for the entire day within just a few hours.
I find this to motivate me to be good all day so I can enjoy that higher calorie meal with peace of mind, and it keeps me full through the next day so I don't feel the need to serve myself a gigantic breakfast.
But again, everyone is different so play around with your numbers for a bit!

missjones513

Dinner. My logic is so I can be full the rest of the evening and not do a bunch of snacking.

socioseguro

I agree with other posters. Time of the biggest meal of the day varies as per each individual. It is irrelevant to weight loss, as long as you are eating at a deficit.
I have my daily workout in the early morning, therefore that is the time when I have most of my daily food intake. Pre workout and post workout.

abatonfan

Meal timing does not matter. You could eat all your calories at breakfast, or you could eat all of them right before bed. What's best is finding meal times that fit your needs best (if you hate breakfast, there's no need allocate calories for it then. If you love grazing, then fit more calories in for snacks. etc.). Personally, I eat most of my calories between 1-9PM (small breakfast at 7, lunch at 1, snack at 4, dinner at 7, snack at 8).

professionalHobbyist

By 4:00 I have eaten most of my calories

If you are lifting, meal time matters

Visit muscle fitness web page and find lots of info on the topic

If you are rebuilding muscles after breaking them down lifting, it will take a little fuel.

Having some gas in the tank prior to exercise matters for me.

I don't know about non exercise and meal timing. When I started caring about my nutrition happened to be when I started caring about exercise.

No help on that one!

FitPhillygirl

The bulk of what I eat is in the evening. That is the time of day when I burn the most amount of calories and need the fuel to power through my HIIT and strength training workouts.

Ready2Rock206

I eat most of mine early in the day because I'm hungry and then I run out of calories by evening so I only have a few left for dinner. I don't necessarily recommend that strategy though. Do what works for you - timing doesn't matter.

Hypsibius

I get so much conflicting information on this one, that I tend to ignore it now. It seems intuitive that eating in the morning would mean you're burning off more throughout the day (http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/158/1/85.full) but I'm told more modern research has shown this to be a lot of hocus pocus (one meal a day, six? Your body doesn't care).

So I just eat when I'm hungry. Largest meal tends to be at dinner. Hasn't seemed to affect me much -- other than that it's easier for me to eat lighter throughout the day than to have heavy meals earlier and skim down on dinner.

professionalHobbyist

And don't forget food coma effect..

I can have a big lunch at work and come back and fall into a serious food coma

Not good

mattyc772014

Eat your calories whenever you want. Really does not make a difference. It is a good idea to eat some balanced food after a workout. Personally I cannot eat alot before I workout. Does not sit well in my stomach.

Emilia777

hgycta wrote: »

Meal timing has been shown in several studies to be irrelevant, so find out whatever works best for you and stick with it!
For me personally, I prefer my larger meals to be at night. I'm maintaining on 1,600 calories a day and save 900 for when I get home (500 for dinner, 400 for dessert), which is just over half of my caloric goal for the entire day within just a few hours.
I find this to motivate me to be good all day so I can enjoy that higher calorie meal with peace of mind, and it keeps me full through the next day so I don't feel the need to serve myself a gigantic breakfast.
But again, everyone is different so play around with your numbers for a bit!

I like your style . But yeah, meal timing doesn’t matter, do what works for you. I don’t eat breakfast so I just have two big meals and one or two snacks in the afternoon/evening.

arabianhorselover

Gska17 wrote: »

Often lunch & snacks during the day add up to more than dinner because I'm bored at my desk. After dinner I can clean up & more onto another activity.

Same with me for many years. If I wasn't allowed to eat at my desk I probably wouldn't have been fat.

Need2Exerc1se

I do the same OP, and for the same reason. I consume most of my calories in the evening. That's the way I was raised and have always eaten. It's natural to me.

pumpkinpocalypse

I usually always have a larger breakfast (500 calories) than the rest of my meals since I wake up and eat very early, around 7am, and never have lunch until 12 so i need to eat more to get through my day's biggest gap between meals. Dinner sometimes is light and sometimes is pretty heavy depending on that night's activity and wether or not im cooking up something ambitious, but it's always generally 400 to 550 calories. I can't handle more than that in one sitting, even less if i'm working out a few hours after. I don't like eating too much at dinner, neither eating past 7 pm, because i get trouble digesting and i feel really full for a long while so the earliest i can get rid of that odd uncomfy feeling, the better (especially since were less active in the evening). But that's just for me!

Sarasmaintaining

I usually break my daily fast around noon with my biggest meal, usually 800-1,000 calories. Like others have said, meal timing is a preference thing.

Francl27

Whatever works for you. Typically my biggest meal is lunch, then breakfast, then dinner.

Cocoa1020

I don't think it matters to much, but i heard if you have a heavier meal earlier in the day it helps you eat less later on. Might be a myth

raelynnsmama52512

Usually dinner for me, anywhere from 3-600 calories. I prelog my day so that makes it easier to make things work.

atypicalsmith

Think of calories you put into your body like gas you put into a car. It doesn't matter when you drive the car, it won't use up any more or less gasoline. I prefer to save my calories up for early evening and eat enough to where I won't snack, but not so late as to invite acid reflux.

LosingItForGood13

Myself around 2 and dinner by 6

vgrezzy

it really doesn't matter, i tend to have mine around my workouts, but whatever is most convenient for your schedule and works best for your body

lizzocat

I eat all of my calories throughout the day, and usually have a scoop of protein powder at night, it works for me. Whatever works for you, I don't think it makes a difference when you consume your calories