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.

Breakfast. A few bran flakes mk and sultanas.

Lunch. Boiled egg and one toast.

*milk

I mean this kindly, but if you think you have an actual binge eating disorder (your latest update suggests you think you might do?) then there is little point posting here asking what other people are eating and there is no point tracking your food intake up until the time of day you binge. You need to get some professional help if at all possible for the underlying issues. I say this as a recovering addict.

The only remotely helpful think I can think of otherwise is to not have snacks like crisps and similar in the house. Just have a blanket ban on them. It's so hard with food though. With drink (my drug of choice) it's relatively easy to insist on no alcohol in the house. Not so easy with snack foods when you have a family, although if you're in charge of the shopping I'd just insist on it. If you have kids, let them choose substitute healthy snacks they like. You've done well already to break the takeaway habit.

You have two issues that I feel you can quickly fix being:

1. You are eating calories at night time when you're body needs them during the day. At night your body processes these into stored fats.
2. You are consuming the wrong sort of calories as a result of being 'hangry' no energy to cook more, just pick at what's there.

In your position I would:

1. Increase breakfast and have it as close to getting up as you can. Cereal, eggs, toast - your choice

2 have a mid morning snack - banana, low fat biscuits like rich tea

1. Keep lunch to 400 calories - sandwich and yogurt. Or lean meat salads. Noodle bowls.
2. Snack at 4pm. Our hormone and blood sugar levels start to drop at this time so a snack will give you the boost. Healthy oat bar, small salad, small tuna wrap for example

5 dinner keep to 600 calories proteins and veg, reduce the carbs in this meal.

If you could plan your meals and stick to this you will stop feeling hungry in the evenings and start to loose weight. Don't deprive yourself of what you like, just limit it through the week. Small packet of crisps with a sandwich twice a week. Have a treat night for takeaway or nice food and walk half an hour/an hour in advance to earn it. (And you'll enjoy it more)

I've gone from a 14 to a 10 with just a few more pounds to loose. I don't have morning snack anymore as I don't need it but the 4 pm eat is key if you won't get dinner till 7 or 8. I batch cook too so a healthier option is never to long a way ( chillie and rice with a dollop of Cretme freiche) but I always have treat night on Saturday.

I have 2 types of days in my life and eat very different depending on whether it is a work day or not:
Breakfast on work days: brioche roll or a few spoons of dry cereal that I take to work in a pot
Breakfast on not work days: slice of toast

Lunch on work days: a microwave meal, often eaten in the middle of the afternoon, I don't have dinner on work days because I don't get home until after 9pm and I only have 1 break in the 13hr shift

Lunch on not work days: something like avocado on toast or mashed avocado in a wrap, crumpet with cheese, houmous with wrap, salami and salad sandwich, soup, jacket potato

Snacks: not usually, on a good day at work we might have half a slice of toast each in the morning but that is increasingly rare, at home I have 2 chocolate hobnobs dipped in tea in the afternoon, whatever other random things if I am hungry

TBH, I am not sure that my answers will be helpful to anyone. I am a healthy weight, but I am not managing my diet to make that the case. I eat shit a lot of the time and have no idea how I am still within a healthy weight.

Breakfast 2 weetabix with oat milk, sometimes a piece of toast with butter and marmite as well.

Lunch either a sandwich or leftovers

I’ll have some chocolate either mid morning or mid afternoon depending on when I feel like it. Sometimes both. Sometimes have cake if we have any.

Dinner is my big meal, occasionally have pudding. Very rarely eat in the evening.

On a normal working day :
Breakfast is cereal, eg weetabix or bran flakes, or porridge in winter. Tea, no sugar.

Then nothing until lunch which is usually a sandwich & fruit.

Mid-afternoon: More fruit. At least 1.5l of water throughout the day.

Normal dinner. No dessert or alcohol. No fizzy drinks.

At weekends I eat & drink whatever I want, including plenty of 🍷 & 🍺.

I'm a bit variable, today I had just a coffee before I went for a longish run. Had a banana about 10.30. Then at 12 I had JP, cheese and salad for lunch.

I had a couple of cocktail sausages and a few starburst today, dinner wasn't until 6 and I was starving!

Dinner was salad, pork chop, new potatoes, coleslaw and a yogurt.

I'll probably have some grapes/strawberries in a bit.

I do keto and IF (my bmi is 20 ish
Usually )

I eat between 12-7, out of those times I have black coffee water herbal tea

For brunch I have scrambled eggs , spinach , mushrooms, bacon or smoked salmon

Then I have dinner about 6,30 and usually have something like roast chicken or bolognaise but no carbs

Then I always have a low sugar pud like berries and Greek yog/nuts

I do not always stick to this , if I go out I have an evening off for eg

Breakfast - about 50g low fat cereal with 100g low fat yoghurt, piece of fruit, coffee with a splash of skim milk

Lunch - Half a plate of salad (all non starchy veg) with low fat dressing. With that I'll have something like a sandwich made with wholemeal bread, or vegetable soup (last one I made was spiced carrot and lentil), or maybe an quesadilla made with reduced fat cheese, Mexican beans and a wholemeal tortilla.

Snacks would be yoghurt or fruit.

Breakfast - big bowl of cereal and 2 cups of tea. Shreddies/muesli/shredded wheat.
Lunch - if at home I graze. Fruit. Crackers. Biscuits. Cheese.
If at work I eat pasta or rice and veg, usually. But I also eat cereal bars and fruit in between breakfast and lunch.
Dinner is late. Toast or veg and rice. I don't eat enough protein.
No desserts as I eat too late and am too tired.

My BMI is 21.

Breakfast - yoghurt with fruit & seeds or piece of toast with two scrambled eggs. Two cups of tea.

Lunch - Homemade soup (lentil or chicken & rice), salad with egg/cheese/chickpeas/tuna, eggs on toast, or a plate of random bits - avocado on rice cakes, cut up fruit, handful of nuts, boiled eggs etc.

Dinner is whatever we fancy - usually a big chicken & veg stir fry, salmon with rice and veg or some other variety of chicken and veg. We don’t eat much red meat.

Usually have another piece of fruit & sometimes a few squares of choc on the sofa for dessert.

The big rule I have is no snacking - when I first came to the UK I was so surprised at how many people ate crisps on a daily basis. They are definitely treat food where I come from!

Breakfast- granola with milk and fruit or 2 slices fruit toast and butter several cups of coffee
lunch- wrap with houmous salad/egg mayo salad/tuna salad or eggs on toast or cheese omelette.
snacks- mini magnum or small pack crisps or fruit.
evening meal- stir fry or pasta dish or chicken and rice and salad or fish and rice and salad.
Sometimes a few glasses of wine

Unlike most people it seems, I just can't do the 'eat hardly anything all day in anticipation of a bigger dinner' way of eat, as I just spend all day starving and miserable.

So I eat more for breakfast and lunch (and proper food, not fruit, cereal, yogurt, pastries or other insubstantial 'breakfast' food) and then in the evening, I just have something small/light like a small portion of normal dinner food, ie starter size, or something like soup.

Works for me. If you 'allow' yourself to eat in the morning and/or at lunchtime, when you're hungry, chances are you won't be bothered about much in the evening.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

No it isn't, that was made up by cereal companies and debunked years ago.

OP everyone is different but personally I've never found "eating more to eat less" works. You just end up eating even more. I can easily eat a big healthy breakfast and lunch, then follow it with a big dinner and an evening of bingeing. It's possible this advice is very popular because it's an attractive idea for an overweight people who like eating. Much more palatable than "eat less".

I have early shifts at work so if I'm working I'm up at 5am and I don't eat anything until I have a break at about 9.30 but I have a couple of cups of coffee. I would then usually eat a bacon and egg roll or a cookie from Gregg's. For lunch I'd have a sandwich with a bag of crisps and an apple. For a snack I might have a chocolate bar or an ice-cream on the school run. For dinner it can vary sometimes something rubbish like pizza and chips from the freeze other times a stir-fry or pasta. I sometimes have pudding or a snack of some crisps later. I would say my diet is quite high fat but my portions are fairly small and I'm quite active I do about an hour's worth of HIIT workouts a weeks and I try to do 2-3 10k runs. I don't deprive myself of anything but I know when I'm full or not hungry

I have to eat breakfast, otherwise I don't function properly.
Healthy BMI, love vegetables and fruit, dislike salad, several intolerances so kinda have to eat well.

Breakfast most days is porridge with almond milk, fruit (usually berries, fresh or frozen) and nuts or peanut butter. Sometimes have granola, eggs or homemade pancakes.

Lunches:
Leftovers if there's any
Soup
Nairns gluten free flatbreads with egg or tuna mayo
Jacket potato with Tuna or prawns or beans
Veggie omelette
Occasionally beans or eggs on gluten free toast
Falafel, hummus and crackers or oatcakes
Sometimes I love eating shit like waffles, eggs and beans, proper comfort food
I often roast a load of vegetables (dependent on season) with olive oil and herbs to have alongside the above.

Snacks (banana with peanut butter, oatcakes with peanut butter, boiled eggs, crisps, dark chocolate)

1 spoon granola, one of oat bran, one of All Bran with a spoonful of Greek yog and a load of frozen blueberries.

One slice of wholemeal bread with an egg, or soup, or tinned sardines, or half fat cream cheese. Salad.

Some sort of snack: e.g oat biscuit and small amount of cheese, satsuma.

Dinner: modest carb portion, loads of veg.

I mean a normal dinner but I go easy on the rice or pasta, and include lots of veg.

Such an interesting thread. Seems like many slim people eat

bananas
oats/porridge
eggs/mushrooms/tomatoes
yoghurt
houmus
crackers
salads

a definite lack of processed foods but I suppose that’s not rocket science!!!

I’m not sure if anyone has recommended it, but read The Glucose Revolution and/or follow the author on Instagram (The Glucose Goddess). Key takeaways are first meal of day should be savoury (doesn’t matter if it’s at breakfast time or later). Also, eat full fat versions of things (eg Greek yog). Less sugar more protein. Also the ‘Zoe nutrition’ podcast is eye opening.

to answer your question. I’m a size 10. I eat for breakfast pretty much everyday 2 eggs with veggies and extra egg whites and a slice of buttered sourdough (wholemeal and/or seeded) toast. Lunch is something substantial like a salad with grilled chicken or fish and some form of carb (possibly more toast or some sort of cooked grains). I rarely snack in the mornings. Usually a few squares of dark choc after lunch.

Like others, I have to consciously curb what I eat otherwise I’d be at least a stone heavier. Lots of protein and a balance of fats and carbs is key for me.

currently at the top of the healthy BMI range trying to shift a few lbs. Yesterday my 1700 calorie meal plan (with an emphasis on protein & fibre) ended up nearly 1800 but I had:
B: overnight oats made with 40g oats, 90g alpro coconut yogurt, frozen raspberries, sultanas & 120ml alpro high protein milk with 5g pea protein powder mixed in.
S: light babybel, carrot, cucumber & celery sticks
L: 3 slices ham, 100g low fat cottage cheese with pineapple, a load of salad & a toasted bagel
S: apple & peanut fulfil bar
D: 275g rump steak, 60g (uncooked weight) bulgar wheat with lemon juice & coriander stirred through, cherry tomatoes ("roasted" in the steak pan) and steamed asparagus and sugar snap peas
Also did over an hour of cardio (cross trainer & bike in the gym and a short swim).

My usual "go to" breakfast is 120g of alpro greek style yogurt, a banana or berries and 45g Aldi protein granola. Had that this morning with raspberries and used the 2nd portion of the bulgar wheat from last night with salad and tuna for lunch. Dinner tonight is chicken pesto pasta with brocolli and high protein pasta.

Beginning each day on a diet is a miserable existence. No wonder you feel hungry all.the.time if you are constraining yourself from eating.

It can also be a sign that your body doesn't deal well with starchy carbs. You eat some, insulin is released to clear the sugar from your bloodstream. If too much is released, your blood sugar crashes down lower than it should be and you get that 'starving hungry' feeling making you feel as if you would die if you didn't eat.

One sure fire way to keep your blood sugar level and get off that rollercoaster is to eat low carb. There is a low carb thread here on Mumsnet with an eight week programme starting on 25th July. Very supportive group with lots of knowledgable and experience supporting the new joiners and returners. Lots of recipes and inspiration for every meal.

Don't be put off by the 'bootcamp' name. BIWI who designed it and runs the programme only gets her big stick out if we go off plan.

Have a look, it might be exactly what you have been looking for. Certainly changed my life and all for free.