Reverse Diet
Posted by VeegCurious on Feb 17, 2009 · Member since Feb 2009 · 11 posts
Due to some calorie-intake concerns, I recently started consciously trying the "reverse diet"--eating my main two meals in the morning an afternoon, with dinner being a light snack. Anyone else do this, on purpose or accidentally? Are there any drawbacks or benefits?
I would say thats how one should eat. I prefer eating a large breakfast (filling) a decent lunch and dont need to bog down my body with a huge meal before I get some sleep.
I remember recently seeing the "Reverse diet" on a health channel as part of a special where people lost weight in nontraditional ways. To me, it really made sense to give your body more calories to burn off earlier in the day, and then less to try to digest later on. I have not tried it, but I know if I stick to not eating within 3 hours of going to sleep, my digestive system is much happier. I also love cereal for dinner. I think after this post I will try it. I would love to hear if others do too!
This is how I (kind of) typically eat - usually just a low-calorie salad for dinner, but a larger, more carb-filled lunch. I usually have a bagel/oatmeal for breakfast, and though while not a big breakfast, is probably more than what many people eat...
It's harder for me to sleep on a full stomach, and if I switch around lunch and dinner, I get hungry waaay before dinner. Sometimes it's a bit food-coma-inducing to have a large lunch (and then go to class or work), but I think it helps stave off afternoon snacking.
Well what we do here is eat only two meals a day which is a practice followed by most of the world I believe. I used to eat my supper for my breakfast for many years, that is spaghetti and such for breakfast and fruit for lunch. I would eat breakfast before 9AM and lunch around 3PM. If I was working really hard I might have a little snack of fruit and popcorn but still always try to keep this a few hours before retiring to bed. It is definately the late night snacks that are the killers to any diet as they are often high in fat (potato chips etc) or high in sugars. Then those calories are not used and usually only cause us to have a bad sleep. Since getting married, again, I have returned to eating "breakfast" for "breakfast" and "supper" for "supper" but still remain on the two meals plan which I have been on for about thirty years.
This makes sense to me. A combination of my final year of university and an illness made me drop a lot of weight very fast recently. The practice nurse I saw said that if I still find myself losing weight I don't necessarily have to change what I'm eating, but just shift everything a couple of hours later.
It can be a healthy way to eat, and having a large breakfast can get you going. I actually do the opposite. I am never hungry right away in the morning, and since I take care of my 3 kids while dad works 2 jobs, I rarely have time to eat more than a piece of fruit during the day, so I plan to eat a big meal after the kids go to bed. I just make sure that I have healthy snacks like fruit or veggies and hummus during the day, and even though supper is my big meal, it is well ballanced. Even though I eat late, I am almost always up till 10 or 11pm catching up on housework, so I have time to digest and burn off dinner.
Like a lot of you said, I was also kind of doing this most days naturally. I've always been the kind of person to wake up hungry (sometimes starving!) and to rarely be hungry in the evenings. To me it also makes sense to take in most calories when you'll have the opportunity throughout the day to burn them
Thanks for the replies everybody!
I wish I could do this. As GFVegmom said I am never really hungry in the morning, and even if I make myself eat breakfast I feel yucky for the rest of the morning. I do bring something to work to snack on in the morning (fruit, nuts, yogurt) so I'm not absolutely starving by lunch. My biggest meal is usually lunch, and then a somewhat smaller supper.
This has long been known. The old saying as long ago as the early 19th century was "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a merchant, dinner like a pauper."
My husband who has acid reflux decided to eat a very light supper "very early" by Spanish standards--normal here for supper is like 10 PM--so he will have some fruit juice and maybe a yogurt or something at about 7 or even 6, and that's all. Of course he wakes up hungry (gets up at 6) and has a hearty breakfast. He has lost weight without actually trying to do so.
My nutritionist being a Spaniard thinks of the boring (plain toast or cookies and coffee) breakfast. He allows me 25 grammes (1 0z!) of WW bread for breakfast, coffee and that's all. But when I finish with him (tomorrow hopefully) I will try DHs way for a while and see what happens. If I start to gain again, I'll go back to the small breakfast, midmorning snack etc.
It makes sense to me and I wish I could eat like that. I'm just never hungry in the morning and sometimes the thought of food is repulsive, like right now. But by lunch time, I'm super hungry and the whole rest of the afternoon, I spend thinking of what I can make for dinner, so when I get home, I'm really excited to make whatever I came up with. It probably doesn't help that I spend most of my day looking at recipes oh here.
I also don't do this even though I probably should. It makes me anxious/uncomfortable to eat a big breakfast. I'm trying to just eat smaller meals throughout the day in general. My favorite breakfast is smoothies, which are pretty big and filling, but I get sick of washing the blender every day, so I just have a banana or something. meh.
I would say thats how one should eat. I prefer eating a large breakfast (filling) a decent lunch and dont need to bog down my body with a huge meal before I get some sleep.
That's what I wanted to do. I'm never that hungry in the morning, unless I wake up early. If I sleep in, I'm full, but I get headache.
What you said makes so much sense; eating late at night close to bed time is unhealthy. I had a best friend whose parents made her eat dinner at 8 because that's when her father got home from work. Her bedtime was at 8:30. ???
I think everyone's body is different. Some people will adapt easily to different things.
I could see myself eating heavily in the morning, moderately at lunch and lightly for dinner. But since I do not have time to do so, the point is moot. As it is now, I eat or drink my breakfast on the train or during the commute to work.
I have tried to do this several times before, because I know it would be good for me. Besides in Germany you typically have a good breakfast of rolls and various toppings for breakfast, a big meal for lunch, and a light meal of rolls again in the evening.
I try to make my main meal at lunch time, but I keep forgetting. Like someone else said, I spend all day thinking of wonderful things to cook for supper and then rush home and cook a hug meal at the end of the day. I just need to switch it up a little.
I am going to try and get back to doing a big meal for lunch and light for dinner. Which means, I better start doing dishes so I can make my big lunch then! ;D
Yeah, I hate having a huge breakfast too. It's just too heavy, and I'm not really hungry in the morning (I'd rather have the satisfaction of satiating hunger later in the day). It's useful to me to not have a heavy breakfast but have something, because I tend to run before lunch and it's a hell of a lot easier for me to run without a huge meal digesting, even if it's hours later.
Yeah, I hate having a huge breakfast too. It's just too heavy, and I'm not really hungry in the morning (I'd rather have the satisfaction of satiating hunger later in the day). It's useful to me to not have a heavy breakfast but have something, because I tend to run before lunch and it's a hell of a lot easier for me to run without a huge meal digesting, even if it's hours later.
I have to say I never wanted breakfast when I lived in the States, either. But of course as a kid what I was offered was cold milk and toast or cereal, which grosses me out even yet. At any time of day! And since in school we had lunch at 11.30, I guess I didn't have time to get hungry anyway.
When I was singing in a choir I could never eat before a performance, partly from nerves and partly because you can't do, say, "The Creation" on a full stomach. Afterward--I'd eat anything I could get my hands on!
I basically do this/try to do this, but it becomes slightly more difficult when I work all day, or work late. I think I'll focus on taking a bigger lunch to eat on lunch break, and do the snack at night. What kinds of dinner snacks do you all eat? When do you eat them? I think I'm having vanilla soy yogurt and popcorn tonight. Probably a fruit, too.
dinner snacks: fruit, hummus, ... does salad count as a snack? caloricly it is, right?
I have heard a lot about switching your heavy meals around, esp. lately. I really want to do it, and for the most part I can (I work the midnight shift, so my dinner time is everyone else's breakfast time and so on). But like most everyone else I really don't want to eat a whole lot of food when I wake up. Perhaps it's because I am not accustomed to it? I wonder if you started eating a very light dinner, thus causing a more hungry feeling in the morning how long it would take for your body to assume that that is the normal food pattern? I am sure that I can create the new pattern for my body.... humm...
I have heard a lot about switching your heavy meals around, esp. lately. I really want to do it, and for the most part I can (I work the midnight shift, so my dinner time is everyone else's breakfast time and so on). But like most everyone else I really don't want to eat a whole lot of food when I wake up. Perhaps it's because I am not accustomed to it? I wonder if you started eating a very light dinner, thus causing a more hungry feeling in the morning how long it would take for your body to assume that that is the normal food pattern? I am sure that I can create the new pattern for my body.... humm...
Yeah! I used to never eat breakfast (like, my whole childhood/adolescence) because it grossed me out, and I wasn't hungry. Then, I decided that I should eat breakfast, so I started doing it..and now I couldn't go without! Just like drinking lots of water.
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