What do you eat for breakfast and lunch if you at a healthy weight?

[rosesbloom]

If you are a healthy weight, what kind of things do you eat for breakfast and lunch (and snacks if you have any) and what kind of portion size?

Why I'm asking if you're curious but feel free to ignore:

I need to lose weight as I have gone from a size 10/12 to size 16/18 in the last few years and I realised I have no idea what a "normal" breakfast and lunch looks like. I realised that the reason my weight has gone up is because in the evenings I am so hungry that it is like I need another meal and I end up going for junk food like crisps and chocolate because I am tired and hungry.

I usually eat:

• Breakfast: nothing, if I force myself to have breakfast I will have one weetabix
• Lunch: a sandwich, maybe an apple too
• Dinner: something reasonably healthy
• Evenings: around 500 (or more) calories of junk food

I am not a parent but I looked after my 3 year old niece the other day she had so much for breakfast and lunch and managed to eat it all and I realised my perceptions of breakfast and lunch are warped. I think I begin each day "on a diet" (aka subconsciously restricting my food) and by evenings I am so hungry it all goes out the window.

The book Brain over Binge is helpful for this. It explains how you need to eat more in the day time. Although it sounds like you know this!

I am dieting so I am currently having a protein shake for breakfast and lunch most days with some added MCT powder.

I have definitely found it helpful to up my protein and fat although I am not specifically low carbing.

Vegetable and cheese omelette usually, but I swap it about with porridge and sometimes granola with fruit.

Even with your update that puts you at 1700 calories a day if you include the evening junk food. There's no way you've put that much weight on if that's your intake. You're missing something somewhere. Likely culprits: alcohol, fizzy drinks, sugar in tea? I'm trying to think what else it could be. Any meds that might contribute - like change of contraceptive pill? Might be worth getting your thyroid checked just to rule that out.
Do you remember that Secret Eaters programme from years ago? There's often something that folk genuinely aren't realising they're doing (finishing kids plates, eating while prepping food, midnight munchies).... that sort of thing.

No breakfast except coffee
Small healthy lunch
Snack (often kids leftovers...) around 5/6pm
Dinner about 8.30/9pm
Tea, fruit and a couple of squares of dark chocolate after dinner

Maybe if you had dinner later you would be able to avoid the craving for junk? Or have tea and fruit instead? also... Don’t buy the junk!!

I'm working from home so can have cooked breakfasts now so today

B: 2 poached eggs on 2 slices of granary toast with butter

L: Chicken salad with 1 breast, 1 boiled egg, lots of salad veggies. Fat free plain Greek yogurt, mashed strawberries for sweetness

D: Will be homemade spaghetti bolognaise with 70g dry weight spaghetti, lean mince and bulked out with veg - peppers, onion, mushrooms, courgettes, grated carrot

Snacks - cherry toms and a banana if needed

No breakfast. Four to five hours after getting up I will have something breakfasty for what is I suppose lunch time ish - so in Summer that's usually strawberries, Alpro yoghurt and Grapenuts cereal, or in Winter porridge sweetened with St Dalfour Jam. I do though have huge bowl fulls of whatever it is, so that it lasts me till evening meal, with sometimes snacks of fruit/nuts/Nakd bars too.

Evening meal will be huge, with loads of carbs and veg too.

And before bed I nearly always have something bready and stodgy.

I am a Size 4/6 And don’t weigh myself.

I wake up early and need a substantial breakfast.

B: Wholemeal sourdough bagel toasted with butter And jam or a half an avocado, 2 fried eggs, a portion of fruit, large tankard of coffee with a splash of milk

Snack after dog walk/run: banana and a handful of almonds

L: usually reheated leftovers from dinner or a salad with some sort of protein, a bunch of chopped up veg, some kind of carb (Quinoa, lentil, white beans, potato)

Snack: handful of pretzels or a bit of dark chocolate or a small bite of a pudding thing I made.

Dinner: not much - usually just picking at whatever I am cooking as I am making it. And maybe a small portion of whatever it is if I am feeling peckish. I don’t really eat past 5pm as I go to sleep early and hate The sensation of feeling full.

@rosesbloom

Overnight oats for breakfast (try using vanilla extract and a bit of fruit to sweeten, rather than honey or sugar). My recipe is oats, semi skim milk, low fat greek yogurt, chia seeds, pinch of salt and dash of vanilla extract. A spoonful of healthy peanut butter (no palm oil or added sugar) and some fruit compote (which is just defrosted freezer berries), is a healthy and filling way to eat it. You can make overnight oats 3 days in advance, so it’s a good grab and go breakfast.

I usually have a wholemeal pitta with protein and salad for lunch. If I’m going into the office a take it with me to assemble when I’m ready to eat it (so it doesn’t go soggy). I usually have egg, hummus or tuna salad.

Snacks are fruit and / or a couple of oat cakes with low fat cream cheese.

Dinner is veggie chilli with brown rice, fish with small amount of new potatoes / mash and veg, lentil spaghetti Bol with salad.

I eat carbs but always the brown version and I don’t overload on them. I’m 40 and my BMI is 24.

2 weetabix for breakfast, lunch generally a supermarket sandwich around 400’calories, maybe a bag of crisps or mini cheddars.
Today for a change had a microwave Katsu curry at work :)

It sounds to me like you're reaching for the junk food in the evenings because you are hungry and that's an easy/readily available snack?

Try eating more and frequently through the day, I graze constantly!

Today:
Breakfast: black coffee and low fat yoghurt

2 Breakfast: 2 x toast with homemade jam

Lunch: Mediterranean couscous with 2 hard boiled eggs

Afternoon snack: protein shake with a banana added in the blender

2nd Afternoon snack: energy gel or bar while I'm out on the bike

Evening Meal: Pasta (tomato based sauce) or something with veg

I will probably have a cup of tea after my meal aswell, either green or with skimmed milk and I also drink around 2L of water throughout the day.

I think people saying I am not tracking what I eat as I am not eating enough to gain weight don't realise what binge eating is like.

I do track my calories throughout the day (up until the evening junk food as by then I am hungry/bored/tired and don't care enough to write down what I eat) and I do only have maybe 1200-1500 in the day, it's the binging on top of that that has caused the weight gain. I am diligent with my calorie tracking, I track every cup of coffee that has just a splash of semi-skimmed milk, weigh out all my fruits and vegetables, all sauces and condiments, etc.

Are you drinking enough water OP? I drink a good 1.5 to 2 litres of water per day. Plus 2 coffees (splash of skimmed milk) and a couple of herbal teas at night, usually peppermint and camomile.

Breakfast: It varies. Often overnight oats with fruit. Today it was toast and marmite. Yesterday it was a ham, cheese pastry thing from a bakery. I might have a banana mid morning although I've been eating dates recently.

Lunch: Usually whatever is left over from the the previous day's dinner.

Dinner varies widely.

My BMI is under 20.

Don't like breakfast so just coffees, lots of them

Lunch:
soup and fruit
Leftovers from dinner (small portion though)
Sometimes a roll or sandwich but find bread bloating

BMI is normally 24
Breakfast - baked beans, fried tomato, 2 fried eggs / toasted cheese sandwich with salad /eggs and spinach in tomato sauce with toast
Lunch - sandwich, salad and fruit / homemade soup and bread/ toast and marmite.

Sounds a lot, but I don't always have breakfast and lunch. If I'm not hungry I'll just have either one of them.

Breakfast: nothing, if I force myself to have breakfast I will have one weetabix

Why would you force yourself to eat breakfast, or any meal for that matter?

I haven't eaten breakfast since I was 10 years old, because I'm never hungry when I wake up.

Lunch is normally a tuna sandwich and a small pack of crisps. Sometimes 2 poached eggs on 2 white toast. Sometimes a ham roll and salad.

I have porridge or eggs on toast for breakfast
Banana mid morning
Sandwich, wrap, jacket potato or soup for lunch.
I try to keep breakfast and lunch below 400 cals each

You’re probably eating at leaf as many calories again in the evening as you do in the day. Can you go to bed earlier with a book or tv program? Easier not to binge if the fridge is further away

Breakfast is two slices of low-carb bread with butter or Greek Yoghurt with nuts and cinnamon.

Lunch is usually boiled eggs, cucumber, chicken or tuna. Sometimes I have a low carb cheese scone with it.

Yoghurt with protein powder and berries, yoghurt with pb and banana, porridge, overnight oats, cinnamon bagel with butter as a treat. Sometimes I don’t eat breakfast though but I always have a good lunch.

Leftovers from the previous night for lunch usually. Chilli, jacket potato, chicken salad etc...

Try and eat my 5 a day by lunchtime so dinner veg is a bonus (and it doesn’t matter if I have fish fingers and baked beans on occasion).

Eat with the kids at 5.30/6. Might have a glass of wine or handful of crisps in the evening but often not. I overeat in the evening if I haven’t eaten decent breakfast and or lunch. I also overeat in the evening if I have too big a dinner as I hate feeling stuffed and it makes me eat more not less.

Something with beans on toast- usually mushrooms and an egg. Maybe some fried shredded greens. One slice of toast.

If I'm feeling lazy bran flakes

@rosesbloom I’ve just read the whole thread and see that you have BED.

From experience, you need to work on that before you over analyse the rest of your diet. It sounds like you actually would probably be a healthy weight without the binging. Try and spread your calories evenly over the day. If evening is when you binge (it was for me) I would clean my teeth and go to bed (Netflix not sleep) at 7 just to stop the habit of the evening roaming about the kitchen and eating the fridge/cupboard. It sounds ridiculous but it only take a few weeks to break a habit.

Using 16:8 worked for me. No breakfast. Small lunch at about 1pm, evening meal at about 7pm, then kitchen 'is shut'. It stops me snacking, - you know, when you drift into the kitchen of an evening and come out aving eaten (or carrying) 100s of calories worth of snack! That was my downfall. I had to teach myself to do an about turn when I noticed I had got to the 'easy snacks' cupboard (I know, I know), and make myself walk right back out! Maybe make a low-cal decaff drink on the way.

My BMI is 23. I have these types of things:

Breakfast:

• Porridge with whole milk
• Weetabix with full fat natural yoghurt

Peanut butter as a snack

Lunch:

• Cheese and crackers, boiled egg, chopped raw vegetables, apple, chocolate
• Greek salad, bread roll, tin of mackerel, apple, chocolate
• Beans on toast (2 slices), apple, chocolate

I like to have quite a substantial breakfast and lunch. I have an afternoon snack such as crisps.

I prefer to feel full throughout the day rather than eating lightly. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if hungry.

I also recommend the book Brain Over Binge. I found it very useful. An important part of not bingeing is eating adequately throughout the day.

Breakfast: a portion of higher fibre cereal with skimmed milk, two granary toast with honey or jam, or yogurt with a few blueberries or strawberries

Usually have cake of 1-2 biscuits with coffee

Lunch: cheese, tuna, egg or hummus with lettice or tomato in wrap or sandwich, omelette or cold boiled egg with salad, occasionally a jacket potato with cheese and beans or tuna. If I'm still peckish after, some fruit or a yogurt.

My BMI is about 19.5/20 and I eat a fair amount. At the same time I'm fairly active, a couple of exercise classes a week, or solid walk for an hour couple of times a week and a couple of short bike rides a week. I often do food shopping on foot a few times a week walking back up hill, and tend to walk rather than use the car for anything local.