I try to eat a small but protein-packed breakfast, a largish lunch and an afternoon snack, and a small dinner. That seems to work for me.

It makes sense to me that dinner be a large meal. It's often more than 12 hours before I eat my next meal. Even if I'm just sleeping, my body needs energy.

Love that movie...

I get painfully hungry before bedtime if I haven't had a large enough meal for dinner.

I'd say that 5 out of 7 days I eat my main meal in the evenings. It usually switches to mid-day on the weekends, although I'm not entirely sure why.

I eat slowly to avoid indigestion, so my largest meal requires an appropriate amount of time, and my time is usually at its most leisurely around dinner. Wolfing down a large lunch in the middle of a work day doesn't sound like any fun.

Weekends are the exception -- I often have a large brunch and eat lightly the rest of the day.

Lately I've been eating my main meal during the day and doing larger smoothies in the morning and again for dinner or blended soups.

I do not agree with the premise "It's commonly understood that we should consume the largest amount of our caloric intake during the daytime when we're most active." I don't think there is any evidence that it matters when we eat, just how much.

The main reason I eat lightly during the day are exactly the same as those cited above: I don't want to feel sluggish during the day as I spend the majority of it sitting down in front of a computer. Granted, I do manage to get up a few times a day to stretch my legs for an extended period but that the last thing I want is for a big meal to be sitting in my stomach making me sleepy.

I transitioned to lunch being my bigger meal a year ago and I rarely get hungry after a light dinner nowadays. It took a while to get over that conditioned desire to eat a big satisfying meal when I got home, but I found it to be more of a psychological attachment than a physical need. The challenge is that in the evening there’s more time to sit around and daydream about food as opposed to during the workday.

I find that I eat healthier with lunch as my big meal because I have to plan it out in advance. Playing around in the kitchen after a long day at work leads to impulse decisions.

I make big meals on Saturday and Sunday, and then use the leftovers for the hearty-protein component of my lunches for the workweek. I portion out the fruits and veggies and pack my lunchbox the night before.

I feel like I'm most active in the evenings, especially since I'm sitting at a desk during the day. I do tend to eat larger lunches on weekends.

When I think of large lunches, I think of celebrations--in my family Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners are always at lunch, and then there's Sunday dinner.

I agree with eruyi. I tend to be very active in the evenings because I'm at a desk all day.

I usually have breakfast before work, a mid-day snack of an apple or something, a late lunch (around 3) and then a filling dinner after the gym (around 8). Weekends, though, are a crapshoot.

It is a toss up between lunch or dinner. It we eat a big lunch, then often we just have something light for dinner if anything at all. If lunch is light or early though dinner is usually more substantial.

Hmm, I think I need a better definition of what "largest" meal is.

For example, sometimes my breakfast is small, just a pb&j sandwich or cheese with tortilla and spinach, or fruits. Sometimes I make myself a 32 oz. smoothie when I'm in a rush to get to work and I drink it on the way and the rest at work.

I'm lucky to have a 45 minute lunch break working in retail. My lunch is the same size as whatever I may have for dinner. Even when I used to have a 30 minute lunch break in other jobs, I still managed to have a dinner sized lunch meal. That was because it was easier to take my own lunch, therefore having control of what I eat.

For dinner, my meal size is about the same as lunch. Sometimes I have an early dinner (7:30 pm) or sometimes a late one (10:30 pm), so I end up staying up until at least midnight so as not to go to bed right away.

I don't really snack through out the day either. I don't have time for snacking. The only time I snack is when I'm home, but that's because I generally eat less on weekends, especiallyif I'm home all day. Or if I have class on a certain nights right after work and I know I won't be getting a proper dinner until I get home at 9:30 pm. But that would usually be a smoothie or a pb&j.

But suppose someone were buying food for lunch, the size of that meal is still large. I think that what we eat for lunch is too little is a misconception. Generally we eat faster (if we have to eat in 30 minutes or less) so we feel like we have less food. But I think the meal sizes are about the same.

Then again, there are some people that could benefit from making better food choices. If your lunch time is very limited, say 15-20 minutes, having some crackers and yogurt is not gonna fill you up. Or having a protein/fiber bar is not gonna help you either. You'd be better off having hard boiled eggs with greens and fruit every day.

They say it should be breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. I'm not that hungry first thing in the morning, so I have a light breakfast and a hearty lunch, and for dinner something light, like a salad, some roasted veggies and some fruit.

I want to "ditto" what peasandcukes said.

As a school librarian, I need my energy during the day. It took some time, but once I got used to eating a larger breakfast and lunch, I generally only wanted a small dinner. I've found that I'm also less likely to overindulge this way (since I can't eat any more lunch than I brought).

I consider breakfast as my main meal of the day. It gives me power.

But my biggest meal is dinner. It consists of a fresh salad, a protein meal and a dessert. :)

Mine varies from day to day. They're all pretty much the same, lately dinner has been lighter/smaller. On weekend, breakfast is definitely my biggest, most filling meal of the day but on work days it's really a toss up. My breakfast is always a decent size, my lunch is usually smaller and dinner really depends on how much energy I've used during the day... and what recipes I've come across :)

When I worked at a place with a subsidised canteen many of the (particularly single) guys used to eat huge meals at lunchtime and light stuff in the evening because it saved money and cooking. I would have been asleep all afternoon if I ate what they did!

I try to eat about 4-5 "meals" a day, none of them really large/heavy. I feel best when I keep my energy fueled. I'd probably eat the most calories mid-day if I had to choose.

I'm too pregnant to eat a lot at dinner right now - if I eat what I used to consider a large dinner, I can't sleep. So I eat a larger lunch spaced out from about 11am to 4pm. Example - fruit at 11, sandwich and soup at 12:30, hard boiled egg at 3:30. Then I don't need to eat so much dinner. I might keep the trend post baby.

It's not all about food! It's about company! My biggest meal of the day is dinner, but that's only partly because it's when I have more time to cook and eat - it's also because that's the only time of day when I have time to cook or enjoy the meal with other people, or go out to eat, or enjoy drinks or dessert with it. Of course, I could only eat small salads with others, but that's less enjoyable, and I'm sure if I did I'd be more hungry during the day, so I'd have to eat a larger proportion of my calories out of microwaved tupperware between work obligations. No fun.