Is it bad to skip lunch?

DrunkInAGolfCart
DrunkInAGolfCart Posts: 57 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I have never been someone that eats much during the day. My parents basically used to force me to have breakfast as a teenager. Lunch, however, they had no control of. By the time I was 13 I started using my lunch money to buy cigarettes. I'm 28 now and damn, I still can't really do lunch (also gotta thank idiot teenage me for the smoking habit).

I force myself to have breakfast but I am very active throughout the day and don't tend to get hungry until the evening. My mum is really on at me about this and says my metabolism will slow down etc.

I would think that so long as I'm within my calorie limit I'll lose weight regardless?

Replies

  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
    As long as you're getting your calories in through other meals/snacks, then meal timing shouldn't matter. There's been a few times where I might accidentally work through lunch (curse you, term papers), and all it means is that I need to add some more calories to my dinner and bedtime snacks if I end up netting below 1200.
  • ellskiNZ
    ellskiNZ Posts: 32 Member
    I don't think it matters if you don't feel hungry, there's a lot of research to suggest 'metabolism slowing down
    isn't really a big concern. I don't eat breakfast most days, and it's not a problem.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    edited May 2015
    Meal timing doesn't affect weight loss. Your metabolism won't slow down. Don't force yourself to eat breakfast if you'd rather have a big dinner.
  • Unknown
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  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,510 Member
    When you eat doesn't matter so long as you're eating sufficient calories when you do eat. Many people have success with 16:8 intermittent fasting, where you eat all your calories in an 8 hour window, maybe have a read up on that?
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Skip breakfast and lunch if you want. Eat at supper time. You will be fine as long as you are counting calories.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    your body doesn't care when you eat.

    some days i eat breakfast, some days i dont.

    makes zero difference in weight loss.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    I would think the worse part about skipping lunch would be not having a break.

    Like say your working 9-5 having half an hour to have some lunch is a good break. Or are you having a break but just not eating.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    If you are not hungry and are functioning well then it doesn't matter if you eat your calories later in the day.

    I was a breakfast and lunch skipper in my youth and now eat a small breakfast and a normal lunch because I do get a little hungry and function better this way now.
  • DrunkInAGolfCart
    DrunkInAGolfCart Posts: 57 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Like say your working 9-5 having half an hour to have some lunch is a good break. Or are you having a break but just not eating.

    Heh but yeah, I'm actually a proffessional busker (for now anyway haha) so I make my own breaks. It would be much harder back when I worked an office job because it was a fun sort of routine going to lunch with the girls in the office (though I still was never hungry!). Nowadays I stop every couple of hours for a smoke and reward myself when I come home in the night with a big dinner.
  • DrunkInAGolfCart
    DrunkInAGolfCart Posts: 57 Member
    Oh, and thank you to everyone for your replies. So helpful! I'm totally going to skip breakfast from now on!
This discussion has been closed.

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