Largest meal?!

Becka77

I try to keep them the same at around 300cal each with light snacks in between. Although, I tend to be hungriest after I workout, and during the week I workout right after work so I usually wind up adding in some extra calories at dinner.

You should listen to your body and do whatever feels right for you. I used to never eat breakfast, other than drink coffee, and usually have a diet coke for lunch and then by 5:00 I would be starving to death and wind up overeating because I couldn't get rid of that "starving" feeling.

When I first started my lifestyle change my first step was to force myself to eat breakfast and lunch and that alone has helped a lot. If I start to feel hungry in between meals I have a light snack to tide me over. I don't have a problem overeating now, because I don't let myself get to the point that I feel like I'm starving.

Becka77

I liked your response. It makes a lot of sense to me that any extra calories would turn into fat if the body isn't using them. What about how to eat when you are doing a hardcore workout? Is there a certain way to eat around that? I guess, I never know if or what I should eat before the workout and what to eat/ how to eat after the workout. Does it matter if you eat a meal afterwards if your workout is in the afternoon, or should you just eat lighter after you finish working out? Am I just overthinking it?

I personally can't workout on a full stomach because it makes me feel heavy and sluggish, especially if it is intense cardio, but I also can't workout on an empty stomach or I get nauseous so I usually just have something light beforehand, like a piece of string cheese and then I eat afterwards. I am always the hungriest right after I workout. According to what I've read, you should have some sort of carb and protein within 30 minutes of working out to aid in recovery.

Stewie316

Dinner is my biggest meal and breakfast is my smallest. I tried having breakfast be my biggest meal in the past, but I would end of eating more by the end of the day. I find what works best for me is to save half of my calories for dinner. At breakfast, I'm not that hungry and am fine with a cup of coffee or tea and something that's less than 200 calories.

godblessourhome

Dinner is my biggest meal and breakfast is my smallest. I tried having breakfast be my biggest meal in the past, but I would end of eating more by the end of the day. I find what works best for me is to save half of my calories for dinner. At breakfast, I'm not that hungry and am fine with a cup of coffee or tea and something that's less than 200 calories.

same here.

lilmissy2

I agree that it doesn't matter as long as you are eating regularly. I can kind of see the logic in 'eat smallest for dinner because you only have sleep to burn it off' but that's not really the way it works. If you don't take in enough energy earlier in the day (and remember we are aiming for a deficit afterall) then your body will start to burn fat, when you eat your dinner it will go back to burning food until the energy from that food is gone. If you eat more at the beginning of the day and less at the end then your body will burn mostly food during the day and use fat overnight. So it doesn't really make any difference whether that time where you are not burning food is during the day or overnight, as long as your overall calorie deficit for the day is right.

mamagooskie

Lunch is usually my biggest meal. I used to hoard all my calories for night, but that didn't work for me, so I changed things up and this works better.

My lunch and dinner are quite often similar in calories with low cal snacks mixed in as needed.