timing of meals?

Has anyone heard anything about the timing of meals and its effect on weight gain/loss? My grandmother has said we should "eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner," and I'm wondering if there's any truth to that?

I think it depends on how you feel. Try eating different amounts for a few days and see what you prefer. I enjoy a large breakfast but I tend to keep all my meals around the same amount of calories. Alternately, I occasionally feel too full and nauseated after a large breakfast. It's a personal thing!

I eat 5 times a day... about every three hours or so to keep my metabolism working all day (My trainer and nutritionists both recommended this). My breakfast is normally a little larger and the rest of my meals and snacks are about the same size. I think it just depends on your body. I agree with skinnyogi though, try a couple different things and see what you like and how your body is reacting.

To me, the quote "eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner," makes me think in terms of quanitity of food, not necessarily timing.  But I think both timing and quantity are important to pay attention to if you want to effectively lose weight.  My husband and I went from eating late at night dinners past 8:00 several nights a week, to eating before 8 and making sure to begin eating as soon as we wake up with a light breakfast and then snack on something light every few hours along with eating a regular lunch and dinner.  I think the key to weight loss is in portion control, but not in just the 3 main meals.  I think you have to snack on healthy things throughout the day to train your body to crave smaller portions.  Like someone said earlier, eating like this (every few hours and beginning early when you get up)  versus just eating the 3 primary meals actually fuels your metabolism, causing it to burn faster.  Anyway, it's been almost 4 months now that we've been doing this and I've lost 22 pounds and he's lost 15 just from rearranging the quantities and times we were eating.  :)

I think, logically, it makes sense to 'front-load' meals a little so that you have energy when you need it most i.e. during the day when you're most active.  Studies show that people who eat a reasonable-size breakfast are generally slimmer and less likely to overeat than people who skip breakfast.  And the alternative (which many people do, unfortunately) is to skimp on breakfast and lunch and then eat a huge meal late on at night when all you do next is go to bed.  Which must be quite uncomfortable.  The generally slender French traditionally eat their biggest meal at lunchtime and (very importantly) spend quite some time over it. 

Obviously, the total calories for the day determines whether you're gaining or losing weight.  But if you space the food out well and get a steady stream of energy you're less likely to be looking for extra snacks or tempted to binge. 

Original Post by wannabepixie:

Has anyone heard anything about the timing of meals and its effect on weight gain/loss? My grandmother has said we should "eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner," and I'm wondering if there's any truth to that?

If you have a metabolism like mine, then yes, it sure does count.  When I was at my highest weight (and not exercising) I only ate once a day, but drank coffee the rest of the day and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't losing eight...or even worse, would gain!

What I've learned over the past 3 years is that I did some MAJOR damage to my metabolism.  I now eat 5 - 6 times a day...small meals throughout the day.  I have breakfast...snack...lunch...snack...dinner and if I still need to get calories in AND have time before bed, another snack.  The snack's are 100 calories or less, breakfast is usually about 100-150, lunch probably between 150 and 250 and dinner between 400 and 600.

My doing this, I'm starting to repair my metabolism...and I actually get hungry now if I go more them 2 1/2 - 3 hours between meals...before, my stomach NEVER growled, because my metabolism was at a crawl.

I've lost 247lbs and am still going!  I've got 7 weeks to lose as much more as possible before I have a breast reconstruction, after that, I'm just going to work on maintenance.

MsRobbyn

Everyone reply was very good and informative. I too believe in having a large breakfast it keeps u full as u may not need to have a snack before lunch.  I therefore follow the large lunch has it balance off my day.  I come to work at 8an and leave ant 4 or 5pm most of the times. My eating patterns are Bfast @ 9am, lunch @ 12, snack @ 3 and diner @ 6.  Because the gap from lunch to diner is longer i eat a large lunch, snack after, to that i don't crave and overeat at diner time.  Also my treat to my body is that i drink water before every meal and also in between so that i don't overeat and feel hungry.

Original Post by msrobbyn:

Original Post by wannabepixie:

Has anyone heard anything about the timing of meals and its effect on weight gain/loss? My grandmother has said we should "eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner," and I'm wondering if there's any truth to that?

If you have a metabolism like mine, then yes, it sure does count.  When I was at my highest weight (and not exercising) I only ate once a day, but drank coffee the rest of the day and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't losing eight...or even worse, would gain!

What I've learned over the past 3 years is that I did some MAJOR damage to my metabolism.  I now eat 5 - 6 times a day...small meals throughout the day.  I have breakfast...snack...lunch...snack...dinner and if I still need to get calories in AND have time before bed, another snack.  The snack's are 100 calories or less, breakfast is usually about 100-150, lunch probably between 150 and 250 and dinner between 400 and 600.

My doing this, I'm starting to repair my metabolism...and I actually get hungry now if I go more them 2 1/2 - 3 hours between meals...before, my stomach NEVER growled, because my metabolism was at a crawl.

I've lost 247lbs and am still going!  I've got 7 weeks to lose as much more as possible before I have a breast reconstruction, after that, I'm just going to work on maintenance.

MsRobbyn

CONGRATULATIONS!! That is an incredible weight loss and you are obviously a champion. I used to have a no-growl stomach as well but in the past couple years I've been trying different weight loss systems (Rob Nevins, Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast...) and have had varying levels of success; calorie counting puts the onus completely on me (no points to blame, etc) which I find has helped motivate me. I'm still working on the caloric intake and portion sizes, and I thank you for your advice about meals/snacks.

Happy 4th! :)

I've been seeing a lot of this lately. I think it makes more sense to eat more at the beginning of the day too and that's why for the past week and a half or so I have been doing this (except on weekends really).

Eating about 150 calories every 2 hours-ish. I eat more for breakfast though... 250-300 cals and sometimes more for dinner... 250 cals. So far, it's working great for me. I never get hungry, don't binge, or crave much b/c I get to eat every 2 hrs!

Original Post by wannabepixie:

Original Post by msrobbyn:

What I've learned over the past 3 years is that I did some MAJOR damage to my metabolism. I now eat 5 - 6 times a day...small meals throughout the day. I have breakfast...snack...lunch...snack...dinner and if I still need to get calories in AND have time before bed, another snack. The snack's are 100 calories or less, breakfast is usually about 100-150, lunch probably between 150 and 250 and dinner between 400 and 600.

My doing this, I'm starting to repair my metabolism...and I actually get hungry now if I go more them 2 1/2 - 3 hours between meals...before, my stomach NEVER growled, because my metabolism was at a crawl.

I've lost 247lbs and am still going! I've got 7 weeks to lose as much more as possible before I have a breast reconstruction, after that, I'm just going to work on maintenance.

MsRobbyn

CONGRATULATIONS!! That is an incredible weight loss and you are obviously a champion. I used to have a no-growl stomach as well but in the past couple years I've been trying different weight loss systems (Rob Nevins, Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast...) and have had varying levels of success; calorie counting puts the onus completely on me (no points to blame, etc) which I find has helped motivate me. I'm still working on the caloric intake and portion sizes, and I thank you for your advice about meals/snacks.

Happy 4th! :)

Thank you!  Yeah, my stomach never ever growled before, and now that I am changing my metabolism, it does.  It was really weird at first, I thought I was sick or something was wrong with me because I'd have this grumbling in my stomach and a really weird feeling.  I later found out the weird feeling was because my stomach was empty and the grumbling was saying "Hey Lady!  Gimme some food!"  LOL

Depending on what I eat, depends on how soon I am hungry afterwards.  For instance, if  have 3/4 c. of scrambled egg whites for breakfast, with 2T of roasted garlic salsa, I'm usually pretty hungry again in about 2 hours.  If I make a chicken lavash wrap for lunch, that takes a little longer to digest...has something to do with the density of the food I suppose. 

I started my original life change following LA Weight Loss plan, but when I moved to Palm Beach, I tried 3 different centers and never really found any kind of connection with any of the staff.  Plus, they were more into pushing product then they were in really helping me to succeed. 

Like you, CC has helped me tremendously.  I even log the amount of water I drink so that I know I've drank enough.  I especially love the burn meter so I know how many calories I've burned throughout the day.

Keep up with CC and I know you'll have success!

Robbyn