Timing matters. More calories in morning?

I eat the highest amount of calories with breakfast, then less at lunch and even less at dinner.

I have to say that since I've developed this pattern, the weight loss has come faster.

When I was fat I skipped bfast to "cut calories" and then I would stuff my face after dinner because I was famished.

Eating fat in the morning, and a heavier bfast than dinner helps me stay in my calorie goal these days.

1) from the full article, it's not clear that eating less than the assigned calories was recorded as noncompliance
2) as I read it, a participant could report eating more than 10% above the assigned calories two days a week on average (with no upper limit to how much above the assigned calories were consumed) and be included in the results
3) calorie intake was self-reported (participants were given a list of food choices, but complying with those food choices and measuring amounts was up to the participants)
4) as I read it (although it's possible details on food choices were omitted), the big breakfast group was asked to eat tuna sandwiches and a salad for breakfast, along with some milk chocolate -- I'm thinking some people might not have been wolfing that down at 6 a.m.


I realize isolating 90+ people in a lab for 12 weeks is costly and a barrier to getting volunteers, but I would think in this day and age of meal delivery services, actually giving them the food and collecting the leftovers wouldn't be such a high hurdle, and would address at least some of the self-reporting issues.

You lose weight with a caloric deficit. When you eat the calories makes no difference, as long as you can stick to the deficit.

Did I miss it? How controlled was the study? How many participants?

My calories are equally spread out throughout the day through 3 meals and two snacks. Fasting, except water, for 12 hours between about 6 pm and 6 am, after supper through breakfast the following morning. I’ve lost half my body weight.

Everyone is different. I guess the advice that I received very early on, here on MFP, was right for me. Do what works best for you. As long as you eat at a calorie deficit you will lose weight. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for all. A lot of great advice on MFP, and a huge data base of successful dieters.

The only thing cut and dried about losing weight is, consuming less calories than your body burns.

your body does not care what time of day you eat your calories (medical conditions such as diabetes aside)

eat it in 3 equal meals. eat 10 small meals, eat 1 big meal. do what works for you.

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I’ve just looked up that old adage ‘Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dine like a Pauper’ to discover it is actually attributed to a nutritionist, Adelle Davis, in her 1954 book.

However it’s thought that this was based on a much older publication ‘The Haven of Health’ from 1584 by Thomas Cogan. He stated ‘Butter is gold in the morning, silver at noon and lead in the evening’.

So, clearly the idea that the bulk of energy intake earlier in the day is not a new concept for health! Interesting. 🧐

It makes a lot of sense, logically, that eating the bulk of food intake at a time of day when we’re more likely to be relaxing is not ideal, but it’s also how most people’s lives work in terms of schedule etc.

If there is a benefit I suspect it’s too slight to have a revelatory impact that’s worth the disruption to social scheduling for most.

Yes, people have been trying to convince people there is one preciously true way to eat for a very long time


As to the OP, keep in mind that scientific certainty is not found in one study, even if it is well designed. It takes multiple studies, carried out by different parties, replicating results over and over again, without equal studies failing to replicate those results, to start to arrive at a consensus.