eating all my calories for dinner

I do the same thing..with a DH and 3 small children I cook dinner every night and most of my calories also come from this meal...like almost half for the day! It hasn't hindered my weight loss, at least not yet. What time do you have dinner? We usually eat at 5 so I don't think that is too late. I usually have a snack afterwards also.

If your trying to loose weigh you should try to get most of your calories 3/4 of them in before dinner and save the last 400-500 for that meal. Not eating enough during the day can cause binging later becasue you had not got enough calories in. You want your biggest meal to be breakfest not dinner

Eating a larger portion at dinner is normal for a lot of people but you need to make sure you are still fueling your body during the day by eating something. If you don't feed your body throughout the day your metabolism will slow down and those large evening meals may become a problem. Try to spread the calories out more and don't save them all for dinner every night! Good luck!

If your trying to loose weigh you should try to get most of your calories 3/4 of them in before dinner and save the last 400-500 for that meal. Not eating enough during the day can cause binging later becasue you had not got enough calories in. You want your biggest meal to be breakfest not dinner

I eat like this every day ( Leangains, intermittent fasting) and I've never binged during my eating window. Rather the opposite. Also the entire "breakfast is the most important meal of your day" doctrine, I don't see the sense of it. There were however some studies, carried out with money from cereal makers that hammered this into us.

I agree with what a lot of people are saying for an 'ideal' arrangement. I have two small children and a picky husband (who does not like fish or chicken, and only grudgingly accepts pork), so I am kind of in the same boat. When it comes to breakfast, lunch, and snacks, I have a lot of stuff on hand to make single serving things. Dinner, well I tried cooking something diet-y for myself and then something 'normal' for them, and it was just too much hassle.

I try to limit my breakfast and lunch to under 700 calories (combined, so if I want something semi bad for breakfast, I just do an extra healthy lunch, or vice versa). My snacks I limit to under 100 cals each (because my personal rule is that if it's over 100 cals, it's not a snack). Now, some days, I do great during the day and have like 1500 cals left for dinner so I decide we're having cheese steak night. If I've had a day where I've really been pushing my personal rule limits, then I make a more healthy dinner (and usually I'll warm up some of the canned chicken I keep on hand to have as my protein while hubby and kids have some kind of beef).

Anyway, the short of it, I've been doing really well in losing weight. After less than a month, I can already fit into some clothes that I haven't been able to wear since last year. I'm sure if I balanced everything out more and made sure that every 'meal' had about the same amount of cals, and every snack did too, it would help. Just like, currently I go to the gym in the evenings, but I know that if I went in the morning it would be better for me. There's the 'ideal' and then there's what's practical. I've been doing much better than I expected from dieting and exercise, so I don't think you've got much to worry about.

Your calories should be more evenly spaced throughout the day. It's very difficult for your body to run on few calories for most of the day and over time that can create a response similar to starvation mode. Eating most of your calories at night also means that you're more likely to eat more carbs and fat than your body can use for energy, which means the excess, which would be A LOT, would get stored as fat.

Plan your day ahead of time, that way you'll be able to evenly space your calories through the day and you'll make sure you're eating the right amount, including exercise calories.

Any proof for what you're saying? I'm not trying to be difficult here, but the "stoking your metabolism" thought is not really backed up by research either.

One advantage of consuming all calories that are allotted to you within a couple of hours (4 in my case, 6 for most people who practice intermittent fasting) is that at least one time a day you'll have a satisfying "full" meal, instead of getting hungry 6 times a day on smaller quantities of food. I need to drastically reduce my calories and I've found that intermittent fasting is the only way I can feasibly do this. It's not for everything, and I'm in a special category, I'm aware of that. But I've also learned that many of the myths surrounding meal frequency or composition just don't hold true.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, I do that too. Just be sure you are giving your body some fuel periodically thru out the day. That helps the body release actual fat, instead of hanging on to it for fuel. A doctor told my husband that recently. It helps in losing belly fat especially.

I wonder at that doctor's schooling

I tried it all. one meal a day plan, breakfast as the most important meal of day, three meals, six meals, etc.
I think it all depends on your schedule and your work and home requirements of your time. So I am no fan of any
of the options cause it also depends on the time of the year. But I find a binge the most when I am not eating during the day
at regular intervals of about 200-300 calories per meal. I also find that the more I exercise the harder night time gets as I am starving
at that point. So a change in protien and carb levels are required.
But like I said you have to adapt with your life to find a situation that works. Now if I could find someone else to diet for me. . .lol!

We all do the best we can, especially when balancing the eating needs of other people (husbands, children, etc.). But, it looks like there is some research to support the idea that while eating meals infrequently can increase weight-loss, it has some other poor effects when it comes to overall health (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2008/080215.htm).

FTA:

The first study analysis showed that consuming a one-meal-per-day diet, rather than a traditional three-meal-per-day diet, is feasible for a short duration. It showed that when the volunteers were "one-mealers," they had significant increases in total cholesterol, LDL "bad" cholesterol and in blood pressure, compared to when they were "three-mealers."

The changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors occurred despite the fact that the one- mealers saw slight decreases in their weight and fat mass in comparison to when they were three-mealers. Those findings were published in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Ruby70 - Careful with lodros idea of intermittent fasting! I am far from an expert in any of this, so if you want real advice I would speak with Doctors or nutritionists. However, I have lost 95 lbs, so I think I know a little. I can tell you that fasting/starvation is NOT the answer. Been there done that, it has the opposite affect from what you want. Your body does need food for fuel everyday. Good luck!!

Ruby70 - Careful with lodros idea of intermittent fasting! I am far from an expert in any of this, so if you want real advice I would speak with Doctors or nutritionists. However, I have lost 95 lbs, so I think I know a little. I can tell you that fasting/starvation is NOT the answer. Been there done that, it has the opposite affect from what you want. Your body does need food for fuel everyday. Good luck!!

To add that intermittent fasting in how it's usually done would give you an eating window from about 1 PM to 7PM. It is not about starvation either, because you eat sufficient calories every day. I don't know what fasting regime you followed, but it wasn't the Leangains way of intermittent fasting, which gives you an eating window of about 6 hours DAILY during which you eat. But, as I also said I realize I am in a special category. So I really wonder at the agression.

Good luck all.

Ruby70 - Careful with lodros idea of intermittent fasting! I am far from an expert in any of this, so if you want real advice I would speak with Doctors or nutritionists. However, I have lost 95 lbs, so I think I know a little. I can tell you that fasting/starvation is NOT the answer. Been there done that, it has the opposite affect from what you want. Your body does need food for fuel everyday. Good luck!!

To add that intermittent fasting in how it's usually done would give you an eating window from about 1 PM to 7PM. It is not about starvation either, because you eat sufficient calories every day. I don't know what fasting regime you followed, but it wasn't the Leangains way of intermittent fasting, which gives you an eating window of about 6 hours DAILY during which you eat. But, as I also said I realize I am in a special category. So I really wonder at the agression.

Good luck all.

Agression? You have the nerve to question my Doctors schooling, but I am the agressor? Interesting. If you are in a "special" category and decide to use a radical plan to lose weight, that is certainly your perogative. I am merely cautioning those of us in the "usual" category against trying radical methods employed by those in the "special" category. However, to my knowledge people are people. Health and well being is determined by the same factors. I really question the schooling of whoever is telling you that you are in a "special" category.

Ahhhh, now I truly get it. Lodro keeps mentioning leanagains. Essentially his posts to this blog is advertising leanagains, which is a website that will get you to subscribe to their methods, for a FEE. That's why he is poo pooing the known, tried and true methods, he's being paid to do so. It's all an effort to get us to spend our money on yet another get slim quick scheme. Sorry, won't work. There is no easy way to lose weight, good old diet management and exercise is the only way to get there. The kicker is that endorsing products, websites, etc is strictly forbidden by MFP. So again, I implore you all not to listen.

I noticed that I was also eating more at night so I've been working toward balancing my calories more throughout the day. The reasons I decided to do this are:
1. stabilization of blood sugar so I don't have a hunger swing at a time that I can't solve that issue in a health way to support my desired goal
2. I need to learn to eat smaller meals with satisfaction - I was afraid that continuing with a large meal would not help me learn portion control nor satisfaction with smaller portions.
3. I'm trying to improve my sleep quality at night and have found that fewer calories at night helps me sleep better
4. Studies show that 78% of successful losers eat breakfast so by eating a smaller meal at night, I'm then ready to eat something the next morning.

by making this change for me, I've noticed that the weight is coming off faster than it was when I was staying within calories, but not spreading them across the day.

as others have indicated - we're all different and our bodies respond differently to stimuli.

good luck everyone and may those pounds melt off!