Skipping a meal to eat more later?

I usually eat only two meals a day - taken between 10am and 6pm. I don't really think of it as skipping meals nor by the trendy term 'intermittent fasting' - but at a daily 1200 calories, it's simply my preference. If I have a large first meal (weekend pancakes or full English) I'll adjust the second meal (fish and greens).

The only time I have a third meal is when I have a busy schedule and won't be able to take lunch until 1pm. In that case, it's coffee and a protein - either eggs or Greek yogurt with a little high protein granola or chopped nuts.

I think it’s a fairly common thing to do by people that are watching how much they eat. I just input what I’m going to have for dinner tonight to see how many calories I have to space out for the rest of the day.

I skipped breakfast for the first 6 months of my weight loss journey, since it left me more calories for lunch, dinner and an evening snack (easier to stick to my calorie goal).
While I have started eating breakfast on most days (high protein, to increase my protein consumption), I do still skip breakfast when I know I'll have a high calorie meal later in the day.

I don't see any problems with that strategy 🙂

As stated above, as long as skipping the meal doesn't make you overeat at the next one, it's fine.

it doesnt matter when you eat your calories. eat one meal a day or 10. as long as you are in your deficit, you will lose weight.

i very rarely eat breakfast.

OAS5 wrote: »

Sorry, I had no idea "weight loss world" was a bad thing. Let's call it, healthy way of eating world, skipping meals is frowned upon in general. I'm doing this today, but do rarely if ever do it. It's a once in a while thing to me.

IMO skipping meals is fine in the healthy eating world, too, as long as it doesn't have negative consequences for you personally (like that "getting too hungry then overeating" thing). People eat on all kinds of different schedules, either routinely or on odd days here and there, and do fine.

One of my personal thought-experiment tests: What are the odds that natural selection shaped us to thrive only when eating on a very regular eating schedule? I'm thinking those odds are low. (Sure, there are bad strategies at the extreme, but what you're talking about isn't extreme.) Humans are designed to be pretty adaptable, IMO.

Further, you seem to be talking about doing this now and then, which seems like even less of an issue. Some days I eat 2 meals, some days 3 or 4, some days snacks, some days not. While I was losing, it was a common thing to eat a light breakfast/lunch to save calories for a special restaurant or social meal. I lost weight fine, maintain weight fine, am healthy. 🤷‍♀️

It's fine.

I tried doing this last night, because my husband and I had a date night. While I did stay within my calories I was horribly, horribly grumpy after breakfast and lunch (I didn't skip entirely but ate significantly less.) Intermittent fasting is not recommended for me right now because I'm breastfeeding. I did have some success with it a couple of years ago, but I was doing it everyday and altered my meals gradually over time instead of making changes abruptly, which probably helped with the mood bit.

I think if the math works it's fine, but just be aware of how it might affect you and adjust accordingly. I think for future occasions I might take a weeklong look at my calorie budget and adjust several days rather than just the one, because then it won't seem like such a big deal.

OAS5 wrote: »

Sorry, I had no idea "weight loss world" was a bad thing. Let's call it, healthy way of eating world, skipping meals is frowned upon in general. I'm doing this today, but do rarely if ever do it. It's a once in a while thing to me.

I’ve never come across the idea that ‘skipping meals’ was bad, in any context. Curious as to where you’ve picked up that particular arbitrary piece of wisdom?

I skip meals - always have, dating back to school days. I never ate lunch - once I started work I skipped both breakfast and lunch. These days, I don’t eat until around 2pm, because that’s when I feel hungry.

I’ve never subscribed to the idea that hunger should be controlled by the clock.

Having said that - when I first met my husband he seemed to genuinely think that something dire would happen if he didn’t eat every 4 hours! 😂

He still doesn’t understand how or why I regularly go 16+ hours without considering food!

But certainly, saving calories when you know you have an occasion will do absolutely no harm!

Not sure about now, but I'm pretty sure that back in the day Weight Watchers frowned on skipping meals.

That's just like fasting I you mean? Works every time it's done right and I know a few people that do it