Is 3 set meals a day that important in weight loss?

I see people say that you should eat breakfast, eat lunch, have snacks, etc because it helps your metabolism, thus helping weightloss.

I am not a breakfast or lunch eater.

I like to eat something small mid morning and mid afternoon, then a larger dinner. It has been this way all my life, except when I was trying to force myself to eat breakfast, lunch, etc in hopes of it aiding whatever "diet" I was on.

I find that if I get up and eat breakfast, then I am hungrier throughout the day, compared to eating mid morning and I tend to eat much much more during the day the day then I normally would.

Is it still possible to lose weight when you aren't eating 3 balanced meals per day?

 

It's important for women to eat every 3 hours to keep their metabolisms running at peak. You already know that all diet exerts support breakfast as it "wakes up" your system. I think the reason you feel hungrier during the day when you start with breakfast, is that your body knows it's awake and should be eating. Having a light breakfast (like a whole wheat or light English muffin with 1T of jam or one packet of oatmeal) followed by a light snack (banana, fat free yogurt or special K bar), will actually help you burn more calories than you would if you weren't eating breakfast at all. Even though you're eating more. Just make sure you eat every 3 hours, even if it's something light; that way your body won't go into starvation mode.

 

I don't know if it's posible to lose weight without eating 3 balanced meals a day. Well I guess it must be possible; people with restriction EDs lose a lot of weight, but it's not exactly healthy is it?

I have made peace with the idea that I am not good at eating breakfast. Yes, it would be better for me and yes, I would perhaps "lose faster." But it makes me too hungry all day long--and I have to force myself to eat that early, anyway. So I've let it go. I tend to eat my meals more closely timed during the day, with the "breakfast" equivalent only an hour or so before lunch. Lunch is my "big" meal usually, and then I tend to graze as guided by hunger and nutritional needs for the rest of the day. This works for me and does not seem to be a problem in losing (I've lost 6 lbs in the 4 weeks I've actually followed my CC program).

 

I think what you eat is more important than when you eat.   But the reason you're hungry is because your metabolism is working.  The longer you don't eat, the longer your body is in mellow saving fat mode.    I can go all day long until almost dinner time if I let myself.  I don't get hungry because my body has been used to starvation mode for the previous 14 years or so.  I only had coffee in the morning.  Then didn't eat until lunch time and then didn't eat until about10-11am.  And that would be an apple and a granola bar.    Then I would be starving for lunch at 1:30pm.    

I have changed that now.  I actually eat something for breakfast now.  A bowl of kashi cereal or a banana or some low cal waffles with PB, or scrambled eggs.   And that will last until lunch time as long as I drink water throughout the day.     

You should eat something within the first hour you are up and out of bed.    It doesn't have to be anything big! Just eat a piece of fruit or a glass of milk.   Something with a little bit of calories to tell your body that you are awake now.    And yes, you will be hungry for your mid morning snack and for lunch.  Small portions and healthy stuff will get you through. 

Well, if you're not eating over 1000 calories a day, then you probably will lose weight, but that's not a healthy way to do it. I'm just like you...well, I used to be. I never ate breakfast, skipped lunch, and ate a large dinner. See, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, though, because 1) It gets your metabolism going and 2) It's important for telling your body if it's going to store your fat or burn it. People see breakfast foods as pancakes, cereals, muffins etc, but you shouldn't be eating those foods for breakfast. At breakfast you want to make sure you get a good balance of all the foods you need. Fruit is a great thing to have for breakfast, as well as healthy cereals--Even General Mills cereals are good because they have so many vitamins. Skim milk or 2% is good to have to. With the meats you have to be careful...Bacon is not the way to go. You'd want to try something very lean--or just not have meats at all for breakfast. And you most likely won't get your veggies in. But the important thing is to get vitamins, carbs, and fiber to keep you energized for the day and to boost your metabolism.

Lunch probably shouldn't even be until 2:00 in the afternoon, depending on how early you eat breakfast. Lunch is a great time to get your veggies and meats. But lunch is really just to give you a little more boost for the rest of the day, so if your eating junk and no fiber that boost isn't going to last long and your just going to be hungrier.

Then dinner...Well, dinner's not all that important. The problem for Americans is that dinner is the biggest meal of the day, when really it should be the smallest. We probably eat 500-800 calories at dinner and we don't need all those if we're just going to go to bed in a few hours and sit around the TV until then. I think breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day because you'll have a lot of energy and best of all, you'll be burning off all those calories you ate.

And yes, about what coppertop_4 said. "The longer you don't eat, the longer your body is in mellow saving fat mode." When you don't feed yourself regularly your body goes into starvation mode so that when you do feed yourself it'll take those calories and fats and carbs and proteins and stick them to you, instead of using them. That's why people who eat breakfast actually do way less. (As long as they're eating healthily and not overeating). But yes, not eating all day then eating a generous dinner will cause you to gain weight...or at least keep you from losing it.

You probably will get hungrier throughout the day because your not used to eating at those times, even though your body wants you to. The best thing to do is to have a small snack inbetween meals. Maybe a nutrigrain bar--Those are delicious. Or a small cup of fruit instead of pretzels or a candy bar. Also exercising helps with your hunger. I've found that if I exercise I'm not as hungry as usual. Plus, exercising allows you to eat more food. So that's a plus! And yes, drink cold ice water. That's actually known to boost your metabolism by 24% or so and will help clean your system out and help you look your best!

Sorry this reply was so long! Hope it helped!

Original Post by rwarfel:

Just make sure you eat every 3 hours, even if it's something light; that way your body won't go into starvation mode.

 

This is just plain bull.  Not eating every 3 hours so you won't go into starvation mode?  That is just plain stupid.

You can't go into and out of starvation mode like walking into and out of a room.  It takes an extended period of not eating enough to trigger.  I wish people would stop spreading this starvation mode crap.

Ok, if I understand all this correctly.......

The importance of eating breakfast is because it gets your body going. Doing this will keep your body from storing fat when you do eat later in the day, it will encourage your body to use the energy(calories) you eat later in the day.

I once saw a tv program where this family began eating dinner foods at breakfast and breakfast was their largest meal. Then they'd have lunch. For supper they'd have breakfast meals, a small one.

The lady claimed to lose a great amount of weight doing that. I wouldn't mind trying it, but I'd don't think I'd switch the order of the types of food, but maybe eat a large breakfast, a smaller lunch, and an even smaller supper.

Getting vegetables in at breakfast time is easy for me. I love southwestern omelets or eggs, filled with onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc.

Thanks for all the replies, greatly appreciated.

It depends on the individual.  CC nutritionist, Mary Hartley, has written many articles on the subject.  You can find her under the Advice tab, Experts section.  Here are just a few of her articles.

Jump-start Your Metabolism

Mini-meals and Metabolism

What Is a Balanced Diet?

1500 Calories in Three Meals-a-Day

1500 Calories in Six Meals-a-Day

Thank you for the links, very interesting.