big breakfast? small breakfast? 3 meals? 6 meals? Help!

How does everyone portion their food throughout the day? I have always had a rather light breakfast, but I always find myself eating things I shouldn't be by the end of the day. Therefore, I have thought about eating a larger breakfast and see if maybe that will help the afternoon binges. So how big of a breakfast should I have? any input would be nice :)

Try out different things so you can find what works for you.  What works for me probably won't work for you.  There is no correct way to eat for everyone (well, other than eating fresh foods opposed to processed foods).  There is no one size fits all when it comes to life, ya know?  Just be sure to have healthy snacks on hand in case you get munchy.

Most people I have read posts from on here eat a large breakfast, then about 1/2 amt of calories of their breakfast at lunch time and then a small dinner.

IE: 1500 cal total, eat 500 cals for breakfast, about 500 cals for lunch and a snack total and then split the other 500 between dinner and snacks

I personally do not eat this way.  When I work, I wake up at 5am and leave by 6am, and can't eat that much that early.  At work, I eat when I can, I work as a nurse in an ICU, and I work 12-14h shifts, so when I get home, it is about 8pm and I like to snack on multiple little things rather than eat a huge meal or be worried I have only a little bit of cals left.

When I don't work, I eat a small breakfast before I swim, then eat a late lunch2-3pm after swimming, it's my biggest meal, and snack at night.

I almost never eat more than 200cals for breakfast.  But as Jewels stated, what works for me may not work for you.  Just my input.

I would suggest that breakfast should be 25-30% of your day's calories.  so if your intake is 1500, go with about 350 - 400.  If your intake is 1200 go with 300-350.  If all your meals (including breakfast) have a good combination of high-fibre carbohydrate and protein then they'll last a little longer.

The 'six meals a day' thing is really a bit of a fad. Eating regularly makes a lot more sense than 'eating continuously'.  Constant grazing on very small meals can be quite an unsatisfying way to eat.  The traditional pattern of three main meals (and on a reduced-calorie diet they are not going to be enormous) plus one or two very small snacks in between to put you on is likely to be more practical.

I have never liked eating in the morning. I still don't actually, I just make myself in the name of health. As such I eat about 150 calories for 'breakfast' but then I make a point to snack several times throughout the AM. Nuts at 9am, a banana at 10am, that sort of thing. It's all about what works for you.

This is always a tough question to answer. As everybody so far has said, it depends on what works for you. For so long, the rule was to eat three meals a day, the reason being that after each meal, your body starts to get hungry for food about 3-4 hours afterwards. But again, everybody's different. Some people can eat 3 meals and it works for them, others need a couple of snacks between meals to help them out. If you are worried about snacking in-between meals, then your starting point should be to eat bigger breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Also, eat long enough so that your brain signals to your body that you are full. This usually takes about 20 minutes from the time you take that first bite of your meal. Once you've done it for awhile, you can see if that's what you need to do, or you may have to try something different.

For me, I'm not hungry in the morning, so it's a small breakfast of oatmeal or even just a mocha.  I have a mid-morning fruit snack, a hefty lunch (cuz I'm starving by then!), then a big dinner (my biggest meal of the day).  This works for me (although I usually feel hungry), and I've been losing an average of 1.4 pounds/week for the last 33 weeks.  

Think of this if you will. Why keep a full tank of gas if you are only going around the block? 

What I mean is, we don't (most of us) burn calories at the same rate in the evening or during sleep) so.....one day the light bulb went on...

This concept was actually my breakthrugh. I had lost, but then for 2 years had not been able to lose a pound. Spending time and money on various things, finally I zeroed in on the problem and proved it. My metabolism. I can't say whether what I do will work for everyone but this is what is giving me results and I'm thrilled: 

I  use the burn meter. When I get up in the morning what I've burned, say it says 500 calories, then that is what I eat for breakfast. 

500 calories. Then, as the day goes on I eat, 

but I record the calories and when the burn meter says 1350 (my alloted number of calories for the day) I make certain that I have consumed 1350 to match the numbers. Then,

(and this is sometimes hard) I stop eating for the day. 

For me, it's 3:40 or 4:00 PM. Now of course if I didn't have computer access, I would simply eat 1350 calories before 4:00 PM and figure I had done it about right. 

Since I've started doing this I am losing weight regularly and sleeping better. I am on cloud nine. 

All I can say is try it! 

I personally found the 6 small meals a day work the best for me. I never get real hungry. My docotor recommended I do this and I thought it would seriously cause me to gain weight but in reality I have been losing steadily. But as others stated each person has their own way that works for them and you just have to find which ways works with your daily routine.

Find out what your eating habits are. For me, I snack and munch all day, if I don't I eat everything in site at night.

I have about 300 for breakfast, 100-200 snack (usually from breakfast leftovers), Lunch 300-600 cals, Snack from lunch 100-300 and then a dinner with dessert.  My cals vary bc I'm maintaining to bust a plateau right now, but usually I eat 1600 or so (it's hard bc I workout hard, so sometimes I eat 1800+).

Do whatever you think will help. I have big breakfasts sometimes, which actually increases my appetite around lunch, but later in the day I'm pretty full.

It's up to you. If you think you are going to be hungry throughout the day on less cals, remember to eat healthy and include lots of protein and fiber.

I tend to do better on a smaller breakfast. For some reason a large breakfast seems to whet my appetite and make me hungrier for the rest of the day, thus making it harder for me to keep to my calorie "budget". I also tend to do better with 4-5 smaller "meals" than 3 larger ones. But I suspect that, as many others have mentioned before me, it's an individual thing.