When do you eat most of your calories?

WelshMaid

I have heard the saying 'eat like a king at breakfast and a pauper at dinner'

SmartAlec03211988

Breakfast; I eat a third of my daily calories. By lunch, it's over half.

jacksonpt

Pretty steadily throughout the day. I've tried other approaches, all lead to similar weight loss, but eating throughout the day is easier for me to manage... so it's about preference for me, not effectiveness.

adam1885282

About half of my calories are between 5 pm and 8 pm. I don't want to "run out" so I stay light during the day and let dinner turn into evening snacks. I've done this most of the time I've been on MFP and haven't had any negative consequences I can tell.

sheppeyescapee

I try to balance it between all the meals and leave room for 3 snacks. I'm on about 1500 and any exercise cals on top. I'm not a big eater in the morning just can't stomach a big meal that soon after waking up.

victoriannsays

For me - it depends on my workouts. If I have to work a later shift and plan my exercise for the morning, I'm not going to eat a big breakfast then work out. Nor am I going to eat a massive dinner and then do an hour session. Again, I'd puke.

I usually try to keep my dinner within 500 calories. and spread the rest throughout the day.

AmandaReimer1

Dinner is usually my biggest meal. When I have a light dinner I'm usually starving all night and end up eating more than I should.

Esther50

My big meals are breakfast and lunch.
I drive an hour to work, so I leave at 4pm, get to the gym at 5, don't get home until 7pm, so it is pretty late for me to have a big dinner (you know prepare it, eat it and then clean up).
So it just works better this way for me.

kimchaneygriffin

dinner for sure and i am trying to change!

csuhar

Overall, mine tends to break down into Breakfast, a morning snack (which may just be items saved from Breakfast), lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack(s) as appropriate.

My general approach is to have about 2/3 of my daily calories before I go home from work. Because I eat everything from breakfast through my afternoon snack at work, it's easier to prepare these foods over the weekend and ration them out through the week.

Having 1/3 of my calories available for the whole evening leaves me with some flexibility and extra wiggle room built in for dinner, which helps to compensate for the fact dinner is prepared for the family, not for my specific goals. If dinner's big, I avoid snacking. But if dinner's small, it's easier for me to get a healthy snack from my kitchen than from the office snack bar.

It also lets me adjust for my workouts, which I usually do right after work. If I work out hard enough (and I often do), I may be able to do two small meals after work, rather than trying to play caloric Blackjack with just one meal.

ktrichards06

I try to have my meals be close to 400 calls and then 2 small snacks throughout the day and that leaves me at my 1600calories range!

iampam4399

I have heard the saying 'eat like a king at breakfast and a pauper at dinner'

My bariatric doctor once told me the same. Eat like a King at breakfast, a queen at lunch, and a pauper at dinner. Not always easy to do with small children.

NatalieSkywalker

small breakfast (200 calories)

big lunch (500 calories)
Mostly because at work we are given free lunches. There are always 3 or 4 delicious Thai dishes to choose from, I skip the rice and have soup and 2 of the vegetable/meat/fish dishes.

small dinner (250 calories)

plus one or two snacks.

jvbrooks

I usually skip breakfast -- horrible, I know -- but have a few pre-lunch snacks followed by a big lunch, followed by after-lunch / pre-dinner snacking, followed by a moderate dinner.

kristaleighwhite

Wherever they fall. Majority of the time, it lunch, dinner and alcohol.

:laugh:

kristaleighwhite

My largest meal of the day is always dinner. Unfortunately, I'm not in the habit of waking up early enough in the morning to make a proper breakfast, so I usually eat it at my desk at work (as I do with lunch). Dinner is always the largest and usually the most complete meal nutrition-wise, because I spend the time to make it so.

I have heard from both doctors and dieticians, however, that breakfast is not only the most important meal not to miss each day, but also, should be the largest. There are all sorts of compelling reasons and stats to back it up, including that people who eat large breakfasts are less likely to be obese or develop diabetes, and are more successful at sticking to weight loss plans.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/469196-what-should-be-your-biggest-meal/

serapi

I've heard people say your biggest meal of the day should be Lunch I've also heard Dinner (or Supper depending on where you live) should be.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has found that eating more calories earlier vs later makes a difference? I try to keep my breakfast (green smoothies lately) under 250 calories, I don't (usually) snack much.

Feel free to check out my diary, I haven't been overly consistent lately but I'm trying!!!

during the day

mmapags

I eat about 1/2 or more of my calories at dinner every day. The rest in the morning and mid day. It's all about personal preference, hitting the calorie and macro targets and energy levels and gym performance. Nutritional timing does not really matter.

bcattoes

On days I work (most weekdays) I eat most of my calories (about 1/2 for the day) in the evening. On the weekends or days off work, it varies. Sometimes I eat just one big meal in the middle of the day, sometimes most in the evening, sometimes I just snack all day. I almost never have a big meal early in the day.

cajungirltx

I seem to get hungrier in the evenings. I need to start eating bigger breaskfast with lots of protein.