Is this a really bad pattern of eating?

So I'm eaaaaaasing my way into the LE diet.

I did the LE for PCOS on my last sway (which ended with a boy), so I'm going for the tried and true LE.

So here's what's happening: I'm having coffee with cream/sugar first thing in the morning. I try to go for a run before eating. Then I hold off until anywhere from 12-2:00 for my first meal, which is a low cal/low fat/low protein meal. If I haven't run in the morning, I run about an hour after this first meal.

Around 3:30-4:00, I get really hungry again. I'd try to wait until dinner, but I usually can't hold off, so, I allow myself a "meal" (which is usually what I'd call a snack in real life), but it's over 50 calories, so...it's a meal.

Dinner is with the family, and I try to avoid the meat, but again, am pretty hungry again, so I get a few bites of meat (not beef), but end up getting two servings of whatever we're having, then a light dessert (a few cookies maybe) + wine, so I can see that whole final shebang being 800 calories at least.

I think my totals for the day are staying within LE limits, but is it bad to eat super light all day, then pile on the calories at the end of the day? I think I've heard Atomic say: it doesn't matter so much WHAT you eat as WHEN you eat.

Thanks for any advice!

I think I mentioned this already but I NEVER recommend going back on standard LE for anyone. The alternate version has had better results and several people who got boys on the standard, switched to PCOS version and got girls after a failed sway.

That is a perfectly fine eating pattern and very much what I did. I had 3 meals and most of my cals were at dinner and I also had a bedtime snack. For sure I was eating at least 800 cals late in the day.

I didn't say that. I don't know who did but it wasn't me. It matters what you eat, in terms of sticking in the limits, and I am much more flexible on when you eat. I want you guys to do whatever works for YOU personally in the times of day you eat and how much you eat at them. Even if people need breakfast, even if people have to go to 4 meals a day. Flexibility and individuallizing the diet to work for you will make it much easier to stick to the diet day in and day out.

Oh yay! That's good to know, makes me feel better. I read an essay somewhere that you said this:

"What you REALLY don't want to do is eat your normal LE Diet and THEN eat a ginormous meal as a cheat."

So I wasn't sure if that meant my 900 calorie dinner - if maybe having one big meal (rather than 3 small meals) was the problem.

What I was saying is that you don't want to eat 1500-1800 cals on LE Diet and then on top of that add in another huge meal as a cheat. What people do is that they'll try to be "good" and avoid something they're really craving, and then they'll eat all their regular LE Diet food and then they still want the cheat and have it, and then think "well now I've blown everything" and eat everything in the house. If you want a cheat meal, just ahve the cheat meal, instead of trying and trying to be "good" and blowing it all up anyway.

Has nothing to do with a normal meal as a part of LE Diet.

I gotcha. Makes sense, thank you!