How often do you eat?

neilarey

Administrator
DAREBEE Team
Shieldmaiden from Greece
Posts: 491
"Trust The Awesomeness"
Most people eat 3 times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some eat twice a day, some even eat once a day. Then some people micromeal or snack throughout the day.

How often do you eat?
Do you snack? How often?
What's your largest meal of the day?
When do you usually eat?
 

neilarey

Administrator
DAREBEE Team
Shieldmaiden from Greece
Posts: 491
"Trust The Awesomeness"
I used to eat three times a day but recently I switched to two meals a day :drink:

I have brunch (technically my breakfast is an espresso since I like training on empty in the morning) and then about 6-7 hours later I have dinner. Both my meals are pretty large and filling because they are designed to make me feel full and help me get through the day. Towards dinner I get pretty hungry but I try to avoid snacking if at all possible. I have impulse control when it comes to food so I need very clear boundaries and set meal times.

I have brunch at about 11AM and dinner at 18:00 or thereabout. I try not to eat my last meal of the day too late so I can also do some training later.

Both my meals are similar in what they are - lots of cooked food. I realized I used to pretty much have desserts for breakfast and it didn't do me any favors in regards to blood sugar levels. I used to get hungry about an hour after food. So now I have actual desserts but much smaller and right after my main meals. I am eating more vegetables and grain right now and I have reduced my fruit intake.

So far, this works for me and I am very happy about it :twirl: when I feel hungry it's not an overwhelming feeling like it used to be. It's manageable physiologically. Even though I only have two meals, both are special, delicious and filling. I have something to look forward to all day :D
 

JohnStrong

Well-known member
Guardian from Alberta
Posts: 458
"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. -Socrates"
How often do you eat?
Two meals daily.

Do you snack? How often?
After my morning workout I enjoy 2-3 cups of coffee with cream. I typically eat an apple before my noon meal. Occasionally other snacks include slices of cheese, or another apple.

What's your largest meal of the day?

Lunch. Usually 3-4 sausages of various kinds: farmer sausage, chicken sausage, pork coupled with simple sauces. This is typically followed by a couple figs for dessert.

When do you usually eat?

Noon and 6pm.
 

Anek

Well-known member
Sorceress from Bavaria, Germany
Pronouns: She/her
Posts: 2,169
"If the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember Cedric Diggory."
Unless I'm in a special situation (like today I forgot to take it with me) I have breakfast after the morning workout, soy yogurt with fruit, some oats, and some nuts. Lunch is usually something I had canned or freezed, so usually a soup or a stew. And dinner is often the main meal, if I cook, I cook for dinner. Usually a veggie side and a tofu, seitan, or beans based main.
I try not to eat dinner too late but usually it's between 6 and 7pm.
I tried intermittent fasting for a couple of weeks, but what it meant was that I was simply skipping dinner, and I'm not sure that's the right thing to do.

I tend not to snack during the day, but I am guilty of the worst snacking, the sweets after dinner. My willpower is only so strong...
 

Kanary

Well-known member
Amazon Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 325
"For the Light! For Victory! For Cake!"
How often do you eat?
Three meals and a snack (sometimes two snacks - see below), usually about every 3-4 hours

Do you snack? How often?
I usually plan for a mid-afternoon snack; usually that's something like an apple with peanut butter or celery sticks with cheese.
On days I have martial arts, there is sometimes a late night snack, if I am too hungry to sleep otherwise. That's usually just cheese or trail mix, but could include fruit or celery sticks.

What's your largest meal of the day?
Dinner

When do you usually eat?
8 am (breakfast), noon (lunch), 3 pm (snack), 6pm (dinner), 10pm (post martial arts snack) - I try not to eat after 8pm, but I don't stress about it if I need that late snack.

Editing for realization:
That evening snack on evening martial arts days is often paired with not having an afternoon snack because I'm having dinner a little early. So it's not "extra"; it's just making up for a snack I hadn't eaten earlier in the day. (Also, if I have two snacks, that's okay too.)
 
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lofivelcro

Well-known member
Hunter from the sticks
Posts: 593
"Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today"
I eat three traditional meals a day. Breakfast, a light lunch, and dinner. Rarely snacks, except for when I wander past something lying around and it catches my interest.

I usually eat some kind of tinned fish for breakfast, something light for lunch like sandwiches, and the main meal for dinner, which can vary alot depending on what we have in the house, if I caught fish or rabbits, or if we planned something.

Meal times are around 8:30, 13:00 and 20:00, depending on different factors.
 

Sif_Shepard

Well-known member
Fighter from the Normandy SR-2
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 519
"ad astra per aspera"
I eat whenever I start to feel hungry. I don't pay much attention to it anymore, it's awesome. I'm a night owl so my second meal of the day is usually when wife gets home from work and if I'm going to cook anything nice it's most likely this meal. Sometimes it keeps me full for most of the day and I'll have a light third meal or some snacks in the evening, but other days it's a more "normal" three meals a day, usually with a little snack or two. We have these bite sized soy protein packets from the Asian market that are marinated in either 5 spice or chili oil that I'm obsessed with and make a great little snack (also very good in ramen). Some days I just feel like grazing. Chocolate almond milk, Soon brand veggie ramen, triscuits, and frozen dumplings, french fries, or anything else I can toss in the air fryer got me through ed recovery.
 
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lofivelcro

Well-known member
Hunter from the sticks
Posts: 593
"Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today"
Snacks were invented by the food-industry in the 80ies to make us eat all day. The result is obvious.
The problem with the obesity epidemic in the USA isn't snacks per se, but the ingredients used you don't find as much in Europe. HFCS for example, among many others. If you read up on the effects of that, you'll get nightmares (hint: depression and unsatisfied appetite, just to name two)
 

Sif_Shepard

Well-known member
Fighter from the Normandy SR-2
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 519
"ad astra per aspera"
Modern snacks have been around since the 50s at least, I would argue that the problem is more complex than that. Food tasting better and the workers shifting to more desk work has roots in the issue, but most everyone that I know that has a problem with their weight has it because for more than 2 decades starting in the 80s we were told over and over again that we were worth less if we had bigger bodies, and that caused people to do anything and everything they could to be thin. The toll of yo-yo dieting is so harmful both mentally and physically, and there were a huge number of people like me who were stubborn, tenacious, and determined enough to never give up on the diet industry, assuming that if they just tried hard enough something would eventually click, and literally dieted themselves into a higher weight. I eat and snack more than I ever did before in my two decades of living with an eating disorder, and I am healthier than I ever was back then. If left alone to just eat when our bodies tell us to, reverting to a healthy set-point weight is what we're programmed to do.
 

OJJJEM

Well-known member
Mother of Dragons Posts: 583
I eat two meals a day and give myself up to two snacks a day. Breakfast and dinner are my largest meals, with breakfast being smaller than dinner. I also try to eat an early dinner because I'm a big eater... Breakfast is usually a carb-protein combo, such as fruit and nuts. Dinner is inconsistent and usually big enough for the kids to take to lunch the next day. I've found that intermittent fasting, or at least not having any major meals between breakfast and dinner, is gentler on my body.
 

Nevetharine

Well-known member
Viking from The Depths
Pronouns: She/her
Posts: 868
The toll of yo-yo dieting is so harmful both mentally and physically, and there were a huge number of people like me who were stubborn, tenacious, and determined enough to never give up on the diet industry, assuming that if they just tried hard enough something would eventually click, and literally dieted themselves into a higher weight.
I fall into this camp too.
 

koriandr

Well-known member
Heroine from Europe
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 67
"Headbanging to classical music"
Most people eat 3 times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some eat twice a day, some even eat once a day. Then some people micromeal or snack throughout the day.

How often do you eat?
Do you snack? How often?
What's your largest meal of the day?
When do you usually eat?
I tend to eat 4 times a day, my biggest meal being breakfast. Recently I've been over-snacking for some reason, which has led to weight increase, which isn't ideal. But I reckon this snacking is based on stress, which I'm trying to manage. My breakfast is maybe around 60-90 minutes after I wake up (many factors are involved). Then lunch is conducted after 4 hours or around that time period. I usually just eat what was left from breakfast or from dinner last night. That's my fuel for my workout, afterwhich comws the Snacking, which continues throughout the entirety of my afternoon. Dinner depends on when I cook it.
So, my plan is to start fasting, to mitigate the total calories consumed per day or to start tracking my calories in general, which gets tedious quite fast. My main problem is sweets, but my partner has a sweet tooth and all of my efforts to remove them has fruited in me also contracting this "illness" lol.
 
Rogue from Germany
Pronouns: they/them
Posts: 5
How often do you eat?
Two - Three meals a day, depending on what I'm doing. During the week during the semester it's three (breakfast, lunch at the canteen, dinner) but on weekends or during semesterbreak just two (a much later breakfast and dinner)

Do you snack? How often?
Depends how stressed I am. During normal times, I'll sometimes get me some chips and chocolate and eat those (and then often skip dinner which is.... not ideal, I know) but I'm working on making that less often. During exam time? I basically live on snacks both healthy and unhealthy ones. Also drink a smoothie with protein powder after workouts which I guess counts as a snack. Will also sometimes get something quick from the bakery or eat a quick protein bar or smth if I need to get somewhere and don't have time for a proper meal but am hungry.

What's your largest meal of the day?

If I eat in the canteen lunch, if not dinner.

When do you usually eat?

During the semester: morning: anywhere between 7 and 9 depending on when the first lecture of the day is, midday: between 11-2pm bc that's when the canteen is open, dinner sometime between 7 and 9pm..
Semesterbreak7weekends: breakfast somewhere around 10-11, no lunch or just a small snack, dinner anywhere after around 6pm

my adhd meds make me not feel hungry so during the semester I just make myself go to the canteen even if I don't feel hungry bc I know I need it, but outside of it I don't have that structure so I just don't eat until they wear off and I go whoops. Should actually make it a habit to carry snacks like nuts and raisins and things around to just eat while working or whatever, bc the crash if I really haven't eaten anything since breakfast is pretty bad to the point where I am then too hungry to cook anything so end up eating something less satisfying. that is just quicker.
 

Syrius

Well-known member
Valkyrie from The Sonoran Desert
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 541
"Energy and persistence conquers all things. -Benjamin Franklin"
How often do you eat?
M-H, 5 times a day. Light breakfast, small snack, light lunch, small snack, medium dinner.
On the rest of the days, usually twice, with a snack allowed.
Do you snack? How often?
Usually twice a day. Sometimes if craving something sweet, a frozen fruit bar for dessert.
What's your largest meal of the day?

Dinner.
When do you usually eat?

M-H:
0545 breakfast (meal bar/shake)
0800 light snack (usually cheese and crackers)
1130 lunch (meal prep cooked meal)
1400ish light snack (varies, lately it's been Smuckers PB&J)
1730ish dinner, sometimes later

F-Su:
0800ish breakfast (eggs or something) sometimes meal shake with a snack
Usually a small snack somewhere between
1700ish dinner
F-Su is a lot less structured, mostly because I don't take my ADHD meds on the weekends and I tend to get distracted and not eat until hungry or blood sugar has gotten really low. I just eat when hungry on these days.
 

Booster2442

Well-known member
Hero from Georgia, USA
Pronouns: They/Them
Posts: 67
"The Greatest Hero You Never Heard Of"
How often do you eat?
2-3 times a day. I work an office job and I don't give myself time in the mornings for breakfast, so I tend to take an Atkins shake and maybe a slim jim.

Do you snack? How often?
Depends on the day really? I'm on keto so not very often. During my work days I will snack on slim jims or roasted almonds. Mostly just drink water.

What's your largest meal of the day?

Probably dinner. My mom is usually the one cooking but if not, I tend to put the most net carbs into dinner or eat whatever I'm lacking on (protein, fat, etc.)

When do you usually eat?

Breakfast: 8:30am-10am (depends on day)

Lunch: Typically 12pm-2pm

Dinner: 5pm-7pm
 
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