How many meals do you eat a day? And what do you eat for them?

[roniather0bbersdaughter]

I was raised by my grandma and she was an aristocrat, but poor by the time I was born. Each meal was a grand affair. I’ve carried it on out of habit but it’s a half-hearted copy of what she did and it only just really came to me that I seem to eat many more meals than other people (which explains why I’m fat). It’s always been:

Breakfast: Usually a mug of cereal, or a piece of bread with butter. Eaten right when I wake up and washed down with a cup of tea (never any milk or sugar.

Elevenses: Usually some sort of sweet bun, or bread with honey. Again with tea.

Dinner: Always two courses. First being some soup with a bit of baguette, second being the proper dinner. We always drank buttermilk, but I rarely buy that now and generally have water.

Tea: As in, afternoon tea at about 4:00-4:30. Cakes and biscuits and that sort of thing, w/ a drink of tea of course.

Supper: Basically sandwiches, nothing hot unless there’s any soup leftover from dinner. Of course this also included drinking the final cup of tea of the day.

What do you all eat? If you eat only 3 meals a day do you snack? Do you usually eat your main hot meal in the evening?

[00100001]

Well, the reason meals were a grand affair for those vair wealthy, wea because there's fuck all else to do when you aren't working, and someone else is cooking.

So you fill the time by faffing around and changing for meals.

[delilahbucket]

Two meals a day, rarely have breakfast, sometimes have brunch, main meal in an evening, sometimes two courses on a Saturday evening. All that cake and biscuits is just diabetes waiting to happen!

[roniather0bbersdaughter]

Oh I’m aware, but when she was raising me she did all the cooking. I seriously don’t know how/why she bothered to make it as big a thing as she did

[00100001]

But to actually answer your OP, generally

Breakfast - varies really, often egg based though. Or yoghurt, fruit and porridge oats. Sometimes toast, sometimes pastries.


Elevens - Maybe a slice if toast, piece of fruit, bowl if cereal, cheese and crackers, slice if cake

Dinner - main meal, could be anything


Supper - as 11s and 4s

Lunch - mostly leftovers from the last day or so.


Fours - as 11s

[00100001]

Oh fours should be between lunch and dinner

[roniather0bbersdaughter]

@delilahbucket I agree about the cake and biscuits. I feel like your method makes much more sense, I feel stupid for getting used to such a number of meals but am only overweight, not obese, so hopefully I’ve caught it in time.

[bridgetreilly]

Three meals, which is normal.

Breakfast: natural yoghurt, chopped nuts, frozen blueberries, cup of tea.
Lunch: I do low-carb, so this might be cheese, apple and nuts, or tuna mayo in a lettuce wrap, or egg muffins, or soup.
Dinner: cooked meal, usually some combination of meat and veg, but it's a pretty wide range.

If I need a snack, it's usually nuts, but could be olives, cheese, cherry tomatoes or similar.

I would usually have a cup of tea mid-morning and mid-afternoon, but I try not to have snacks as a regular thing.

[vanillandhoney]

Three small meals and two snacks. Today's food looks like this:

Breakfast - greek yoghurt with raspberries. Coffee with milk.

Lunch - mediterranean vegetable and sausage frittata. Fruit juice.

Dinner - homemade cottage pie which includes tomatoes, peas, carrots and green beans.

Snacks - pumpkin seeds, strawberries and a Nature Valley cereal bar. I'll probably have some more fruit before bed - grapes or similar, plus maybe a small bag of crisps or club bar.

I tend to have breakfast at 9am, lunch at 12.30, snack at 3, a small dinner at 5pm and then a kind of small supper/snack at 8pm or so.

[FlowerArranger]

The main problem is that we have become accustomed to grazing. Many people have become used to eating bits and pieces throughout the day. And when they're not eating, they are drinking a latte or whatever.

There was a time, not too long ago - I remember it! - when people ate 3 meals a day, and there was no such thing as take-away coffee.

Or crisps every day. Crisps were a treat! OMG I'm old...

[EmeraldShamrock]

There is a lot of carbs in your meals. It depends if at home or work.
Breakfast - Tea with 2 sugars.
Eleven - Scone, yogurt, banana/ nothing if I'm a home except tea.
Lunch - Sandwich, crisps. Same as home adding a yogurt.
Dinner - Mainly a light vegetarian meal I hate feeling full.
Evening - Soup or beans on toast.
Generally eat at home from 1pm till 9pm. I should eat earlier but I don't have an appetite.

[ColdForFive]

Two proper meals and snacks:

First thing - coffee

Brunch - egg +bacon on toast or straight to lunch - cheese sandwich + crisps or something like that.

Snack - veggies steamed with some butter or hummus + veggies or maybe something naughty (today pain au chocolat)

Dinner - whatever I want to cook. It’s just me this week so it’s been quick things like tortellini or maybe even a pizza. Next week when I have DS it will be spag bowl type things.

I don’t tend to snack any than that, but I do drink too much wine.

Weight is generally consistent.

[vanillandhoney]

The main problem is that we have become accustomed to grazing.

There's nothing wrong with grazing/snacking though as long as your adjust your meal size accordingly. The problems only occur when people eat the snacks in addition to full-sized meals. I prefer to eat little and often so I snack twice a day but reduce my meal size so I'm not over-eating.

[DailyMailHater]

Breakfast: smoothie made with alimony milk. Frozen berries, banana and honey or fruit and Greek yogurt

Lunch: some form of salad with egg or meat or a tuna pasta type salad or quiche that i have made

Evening homemade curry or pasta or any traditional meal really.

Don’t really snack if i do it usually fruit

[topcat2014]

Do tell me about your aristocratic ancestors OP, sounds interesting

[ManualFlusherSnot]

I normally have 1 meal a day, sometimes 2. I just don’t normally get that hungry until about 2-3pm then I just think I may as well wait for dinner. I do eat a massive plate at dinner time though.

[tempnamechange98765]

Three meals a day. I'm out of the habit of snacking...until around 4pm then I seem starving all evening! It's habit, trying to get out of it...

Breakfast: either porridge made with almond milk and berries, or poached eggs and quinoa ryvita
Lunch: often a wholemeal pitta bread with salad and things like ham/feta cheese, or egg. Or maybe an omelette. Always try and have salad veg, cucumber, tomatoes, raw carrots etc
Dinner: meals made from scratch, usually involve carbs eg rice, sweet potato, pasta etc.
Snacks: I'm a terrible afternoon/evening snacker. I have fruit and healthy things like hard boiled eggs but I also pick at the kids' leftovers, crisps, yoghurts, dark choc etc.

[mummillion]

2 meals a day and one of them is a smoothie ( almond milk , banana and peanut butter ). The other will be some grilled chicken/ beef with veggies , or an omelette or a salad .

[Sodamncold]

Bloody hell that sounds like my worst nightmare

Where’s your fruit?
You must spend most of each day sitting down... eating!

[DonnaDarko]

Lately, it's been

Breakfast: A coffee and a banana while DS is having his cereal. Today I had porridge instead and got really bloated, so not doing that again!

Lunch: salad or soup or eggs , whatever we have in the house

Dinner: proper food, usually homemade.

I eat fruit a couple of times in the day but I also snack quite a bit. Love snacks 😳

[mummillion]

And forgot to add snacks will be - an apple / nuts / piece of cheese . 2 coffees a day.

[TheHumansAreDefinitelyDead]

My German grandmother fed me like that, including the buttermilk

And she heavily believed in soup

[SayakaMurata]

My meals are similar to previous comments. Today was...

Breakfast, yogurt with strawberries and a pear. Coffee.

Lunch, homemade leek and potato soup, homemade wholemeal bread, some leftover lettuce, cucumber and peppers from yesterday.

Dinner, roast lemon chicken with celeriac and cabbage.

Snacks, coffee, herbal tea, a couple of medjool dates, Satsuma.

I would love to snack on biscuits, bread and honey and cakes but I really can't as I would very quickly be a couple of stone heavier!

[Oddgirlout]

I only eat twice a day and no snacks. Too much wine I think accounts for the little bit of weight o carry. I second wanting to hear about the aristocratic ancestors!

[raspberryk]

When I was a child at my grandparents we had...
Porridge, muesli and fruit available for breakfast, occasionally toast and a boiled egg. With juice or milk and tea.
We had milky coffee or milk and a biscuit at 11, SOMETIMES there was cake.
Lunchtime 12.30 was the main meal, hearty soup sometimes as a starter, or as the main with bread if there was a stodgy homemade pudding. Usually meat, potatoes and 2 veg and fruit and evap for pudding.
Teatime was early so no snack but it could be sandwiches, eggs, ploughmans, salad or anything cold usually.
Supper would be a weetabix for children.

Now we have 2 or 3 meals, for example if we have cooked breakfast or a brunch then we skip lunch. We do snack and I'm a sod for eating in the evening.
Normal types of meals, soup, jacket potato, salad, sandwich for lunch. Could be any type of main meal for dinner.

[40somethingJBJ]

Usually 2 meals as neither ds nor I are really breakfast people when we first wake up, although I insist he has something when he’s at school. We have something like scrambled egg on toast/crumpets/pancakes and fruit (or sometimes bacon) at about 11-12, then an evening meal at 6ish, which is always a cooked meal and varies from pasta bake or fajitas to a full roast dinner. If we have a pudding, it’s yoghurt/jelly and ice cream or something similar (ds doesn’t like cake, strange child!). We’ll have a banana or other fruit mid afternoon and ds normally asks for a bag of crisps and a glass of milk before bed.