Content continues below ad. Slim Down Now. Dietitian Cynthia Sasss new book Slim Down Now unlocks the power of pulsesa unique class of protein rich carbs including lentils, chickpeas, and many varieties of beansin a new eating plan to help you burn fat, feel more full, and have more energy. Learn more and buy the book here. Revealed The best times to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner if you want to lose weight and you need to make sure youre up by 7am. The optimum time to have breakfast is 7. The best time for lunch is 1. Leaving dinner later than 7pm can be a dieting disaster. People are less active in the evening, so calories are not burned. By. Emma Innes. Published. BST, 3. 1 March 2. BST, 1 April 2. 01. All slimmers want to maximise their potential weight loss by eating the right foods and avoiding the wrong ones. According to research, however, the key to success lies in the timing of meals. A survey has pinpointed the best times to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner if you want to shed as many pounds as possible. The optimum time to have breakfast is shortly after 7am, with 7. Lunch is best enjoyed earlier rather than later with the key time between 1. Dieters say the best time to eat breakfast is 7. They also say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Leaving dinner later than 7pm can be ruinous for diets the best time is between 6pm and 6. The timings come from a new survey by the diet company Forza Supplements, which asked 1,0. The research revealed 8. A further 7. 6 per cent said breakfast was the most important meal of the day and eating it daily had helped them cut calories. Its quite sweet she wont touch her food until exactly 6. Three quarters of those polled said they had benefited by having a light lunch and never skipping a midday meal. Dinner must be eaten early to maximise weight loss because people are less active in the evening meaning extra calories are more likely to turn to fat. Two thirds of slimmers recommended eating dinner before 7pm. Most dieters 7. Six out of ten respondents said that skipping any meal would make losing weight more difficult. The research proves the truth of the dieting mantra Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like pauper. The findings showed that the crucial four hours between 6pm and 1. The majority of respondents 5. A further 5. 4 per cent said they ate more than half their daily calorie intake during this period. What scuppered many diets was snacking around 8pm in front of the TV a lapse suffered by 6. Forza Supplements managing director Lee Smith said The key for many dieters is not how much they eat but when they do it. We found that the optimum times were 7. Most dieters recommended these meals be supplemented with low fat snacks when you get hunger pangs in later morning or mid afternoon. Mr Smith said the key to successful weight loss was never to skip meals. He added The results show that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day for successful dieters. Most diets fail at about 8pm when people start snacking in front of the televisionSkipping it just makes you hungrier and more likely to over indulge in later meals causing a surge in blood sugar. What you need to do is ease your body into a more consistent blood sugar pattern by eating three meals a day of between 4. The most important message is not to skip meals and not to leave dinner too late. Calories get burned up no matter when you eat them but if you eat dinner late, youre not as likely to get rid of those calories before going to bed. What you dont burn off is more likely to be stored as fat, as you become less active towards the end of the day. Eating too close to bedtime increases your blood sugar and insulin, which makes it harder to sleep. Your last meal should be lightest of the day and should be eaten at least three hours before you go to sleep.