Your biggest meal of the day ?

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  • ProTFitness
    ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
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    Breakfast should be the Biggest meal of the day and dinner the smallest.
  • katietigar
    katietigar Posts: 9
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    Dinner is my biggest meal. I'm pretty sure this is not the healthiest choice. Some of this is because I am trying to eat my exercise calories on the day I burn them and I don't always know the if/when/how long when the day starts. If I know I am going to burn 600+ calories in a day I eat a much more caloric breakfast. I also eat dinner with the family and it is hard not to eat most of what they are eating and they are eating foods higher in calories. I snack much more on days I exercise to spread the calories out.
  • SheilaSisco
    SheilaSisco Posts: 722 Member
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    My meals are usually all pretty equal. I've heard eating a bigger breakfast is better, but I just can't seem to do it, plus when I have to open in the mornings it isn't really feasible. My dinner tends to be a tiny bit bigger, but only by like 100 cals, so I call them all fairly equal... :)
  • SweetBeth
    SweetBeth Posts: 87 Member
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    I always struggled making it from a bowl of cereal to snack time three hour later. So I made breakfast bigger. A full breakfast meal has been my best dieting tool. I'm barely hungry by time for snack, so I eat less. Which makes me eat less at lunch...and so on throughout the day.

    I don't always have time to make a full breakfast, so I've begun scrambling a dozen eggs on Sunday and eating a 2 egg size portion off of them for the whole week. Add in a little turkey sausage or bacon and that protein will keep you going for awhile. :-)
  • kelligonzales
    kelligonzales Posts: 391
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    you should be eating your most in the morning to help kick start the motbaolism...
  • cardbucfan
    cardbucfan Posts: 10,416 Member
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    I spread my calories out during the day but dinner is my biggest meal. I eat "regular" food with my family and it hasn't hurt me any and since my son doesn't get home from swim practice until 7:15, we often don't eat until 7:30 at night. I'm usually finished eating for the day by 8:30.
  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
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    For me, it's a tie between breakfast and dinner, with smaller meals mid-morning, noon-ish, and mid-afternoon.
  • LareishaH
    LareishaH Posts: 205 Member
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    Mine are generally spread pretty evenly throughout the day.

    Same here, and I exercise at night so even if I decided to have a larger meal for dinner, I wouldn't see a problem with it.
  • jamie1888
    jamie1888 Posts: 1,704 Member
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    This is a bit of reading, but lots of good info here....

    Nutrient Timing
    http://user210805.websitewizard.com/files/unprotected/AARR-Jan-2008.pdf

    Alan Aragon is a contributor to Men's Health Magazine among other things.

    http://www.alanaragon.com/Home.html
    The key here is "unbiased critical analysis of the latest research on nutrition, training & supplementation".

    Timing is NOT as important as most people think!
  • gatorflyer
    gatorflyer Posts: 536 Member
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    I think this is personal choice/preference as well as what works for you. I tend to have my biggest meal at the end of the day, the caveat being, not eating after 6:30. If there are situations where I know I'm going to have a bigger lunch, then my dinner will be smaller and vice versa. I hear people say that breakfast should be the biggest meal but I also think that has to be dependent on what you do in the day. I think having a desk job, if breakfast were my biggest meal, it would be the kiss of death. So, you may want to experiment and see if one way works better for you than another.
  • gatorflyer
    gatorflyer Posts: 536 Member
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    I think this is personal choice/preference as well as what works for you. I tend to have my biggest meal at the end of the day, the caveat being, not eating after 6:30. If there are situations where I know I'm going to have a bigger lunch, then my dinner will be smaller and vice versa. I hear people say that breakfast should be the biggest meal but I also think that has to be dependent on what you do in the day. I think having a desk job, if breakfast were my biggest meal, it would be the kiss of death. So, you may want to experiment and see if one way works better for you than another.
  • jrusso28
    jrusso28 Posts: 249 Member
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    This is a bit of reading, but lots of good info here....

    Nutrient Timing
    http://user210805.websitewizard.com/files/unprotected/AARR-Jan-2008.pdf

    Alan Aragon is a contributor to Men's Health Magazine among other things.

    http://www.alanaragon.com/Home.html
    The key here is "unbiased critical analysis of the latest research on nutrition, training & supplementation".

    Timing is NOT as important as most people think!

    Thanks!
    I will read through it.
  • Ral263
    Ral263 Posts: 318 Member
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    It does NOT matter what time of the day you eat your calories: if you are eating 500/500/500 at breakfast lunch and dinner or 300, 400, 800 instead-- calories or calories. If you are hungrier at dinner, eat more at dinner.

    I tend to eat a huge breakfast since my morning workout is 1.5 hours; my afternoon is only 1hr or so, so my dinners are usually smaller. It's personal preference; as long as your calories are consistent, your body has no idea what time it is.
  • jamie1888
    jamie1888 Posts: 1,704 Member
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    Just FYI -
    Alan is also one of the moderators on the Body Building.com forums
  • schlubba
    schlubba Posts: 26
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    That type of question is just like eggs really, you don't know what to think because of the varied articles out there. Is it good or bad to eat at night, are eggs good or bad? Soy was apparently so good for you and now it's close to being considered a danger food by some. There has been newer research that suggests eating more of your food at night because of the way the human body is designed. Just something to look into I guess, here is an article http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Opinion/Comments/weight-loss_0122110446.html and for more research look into the warrior diet. I'm not on it or don't follow any type of diet other than staying under my calorie goal for the day. I just read a lot since my wife keeps sending me articles to read in the hopes I lose my fat *kitten* :)
  • jamie1888
    jamie1888 Posts: 1,704 Member
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    oops. deleted
  • shirtswiththumbholes
    shirtswiththumbholes Posts: 179 Member
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    Dinner by American default. But I try to make Lunch the biggest so I have the rest of the day to digest and save a smaller meal for dinner. It depends on the day.
  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
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    I know what it should be, but my biggest meal is dinner. With my schedule I don't really have options. It has worked for me in the past.
  • BR1986FB
    BR1986FB Posts: 1,515 Member
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    Tossup between breakfast & lunch...
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    Mine are generally spread pretty evenly throughout the day.

    Same here, and I exercise at night so even if I decided to have a larger meal for dinner, I wouldn't see a problem with it.

    I work out at night as well. So I'll even eat more than just the standard 6x a day.

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