We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

MYTH OR TRUTH!?!

OMGeeeHorses
OMGeeeHorses Posts: 732 Member
edited January 19 in Health and Weight Loss
You should eat your heavier meal as your lunch and have a delicate meal for dinner as its easier to digest when you sleep at night?

Is this truth or myth? I have always wondered this as I have a ton of friends in my life telling me to do this, that it will make a difference in how my body burns things :) thanks!!

Replies

  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    You should eat your heavier meal as your lunch and have a delicate meal for dinner as its easier to digest when you sleep at night?

    Is this truth or myth? I have always wondered this as I have a ton of friends in my life telling me to do this, that it will make a difference in how my body burns things :) thanks!!

    It won't make a difference as far as net fat gain/loss assuming the same total intake.

    It may make a difference in how you feel and/or how you perform and for this reason I would let your preferences decide how you do it.
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
    Calories in, calories out. I eat a super tiny breakfast and a bigass dinner, and then snack until bed.
  • JTS_go
    JTS_go Posts: 65 Member
    It may depend on your own daily rhythms. I've heard something recently about a study that says a longer stretch of time in the evenings (including sleep period) without eating can help ( http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/18/science/la-sci-fasting-diet-20120518 ), but I think lab studies oversimplify the human body's process in order to stay within the regimental requirements of the scientific process.

    I do know that if I have a good lunch, and then something smaller right after I get home from work (between 6-7), I'm not hungry for the rest of the night, and I actually feel hungry for breakfast when I wake up, which feels good. If I delay dinner until later, my cravings for less-good choices increase significantly.
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    You should eat your heavier meal as your lunch and have a delicate meal for dinner as its easier to digest when you sleep at night?

    Is this truth or myth? I have always wondered this as I have a ton of friends in my life telling me to do this, that it will make a difference in how my body burns things :) thanks!!

    It won't make a difference as far as net fat gain/loss assuming the same total intake.

    It may make a difference in how you feel and/or how you perform and for this reason I would let your preferences decide how you do it.

    Listen to this guy :)
  • LucyT4dieting
    LucyT4dieting Posts: 284 Member
    As we are all individuals, each person gets to decide for themselves what works best for them. Try experimenting a little to see how you feel after eating a small lunch and big dinner vs. a larger lunch and smaller dinner or even a larger breakfast and smaller lunch and dinner. Give it a few days before you decide. The bottom line is calories in/calories out.
  • alondrasilva10
    alondrasilva10 Posts: 63
    Calories in, calories out. I eat a super tiny breakfast and a bigass dinner, and then snack until bed.

    I also do this. They say the most important meal of the day is breakfast but I do not care. MY most important meal of the day is dinner :)
  • OMGeeeHorses
    OMGeeeHorses Posts: 732 Member
    Well I know what I am doing :), I was just wondering if this was a truth or myth type thing. I tried doing a smaller dinner yesterday as my lunch was a HUGE meal because its normally after I exercise and my stomach is growling and well when I did this I got a MAJOR headache. I drank tons of water that day so I know it wasn't due to hydration...so only thing I changed was the way I ate.
  • pickledginger
    pickledginger Posts: 172
    Mostly, I suspect it varies a lot from one person to another - metabolism isn't quite so one-size-fits-all as they used to think, back when all the studies used healthy, fit, 20-ish males.
    Based on the studies I have seen lately, what does seem to make a difference is breakfast - carbs at breakfast seem to have maybe twice the effect on blood sugar as carbs eaten at any other meal, perhaps because they interact with the body's WakeUp-WakeUp morning surge in blood sugar. And protein at any meal seems to tend to increase alertness, while carbs tend to promote relaxation and Zzzzz ...
This discussion has been closed.

Categories