ParrotPalParrotPal Data · short read
Dinner carries over 40% of the day’s logged calories
Key findings
On fully logged days, UK ParrotPal members logged 41.4% of their calories between 5pm and 10pm, 26.4% at lunch and 13.8% at breakfast. Dinner was the biggest meal on 46.5% of days.
Britain’s diaries are back-loaded. Dinner held 41.4% of the day’s logged calories and breakfast 13.8%.
41.4%of the day’s logged calories came at dinner
Share of the day’s logged calories
By time of loggingThe typical dinner logged came to about 880 kcal, lunch 660 and breakfast 430. Lunch was the biggest meal on 26.2% of days and breakfast on 10.0%.
Late evening (10pm to 5am) added 8.1% of the day’s logged calories. Weekends spread out: dinner was 39.8% of logged calories on Saturdays against 43.2% on Mondays, with more in the afternoon (11.3% against 9.9%).
Meals are set by when an item was logged, which is usually but not always when it was eaten. Some members log a whole day in the evening.
What this means
Most of the day’s logged food arrives after 5pm. Dinner, not breakfast, is the meal that shapes the diary.
The figures
| Time of day | Share of the day's logged calories |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 13.8% |
| Lunch | 26.4% |
| Afternoon | 10.3% |
| Dinner | 41.4% |
| Late evening | 8.1% |
Method in brief. UK ParrotPal members’ anonymised food diaries, 1 February to 31 August 2026. A logged day has 3 or more items and 800 to 6,000 kcal on a UK calendar day; deleted entries don’t count. Breakfast 5am–11am, lunch 11am–3pm, afternoon 3pm–5pm, dinner 5pm–10pm, late evening 10pm–5am, by the time items were logged (UK time).
Aggregates only: every group shown has 50 or more members and no share rests on fewer than 10. Patterns in what members logged, not causes. who’s counted · the 50/10 rule · logged isn’t eaten · how foods are named and counted.
Full report: What Britain logs.
Questions people ask
What is Britain's biggest meal of the day?
Dinner: it held 41.4% of logged calories and was the biggest meal on 46.5% of fully logged days.
How big is a typical breakfast?
About 430 kcal when breakfast was logged.
Is logging time the same as eating time?
Usually but not always; some members log meals later.
Cite this
Free to use with credit and a link to the source page. The figures and chart are licensed CC BY 4.0.
Credit line
Source: ParrotPal food diary data, parrotpal.com/data/biggest-meal-of-the-day/
Citation
ParrotPal (2026). Dinner carries over 40% of the day’s logged calories. ParrotPal Data. https://parrotpal.com/data/biggest-meal-of-the-day/. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Embed the chart (an image with the credit link)
<figure><img src="https://parrotpal.com/data/biggest-meal-of-the-day/chart.svg" alt="Share of the day’s logged calories: chart by ParrotPal" width="760" style="max-width:100%;height:auto" /><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://parrotpal.com/data/biggest-meal-of-the-day/">ParrotPal food diary data</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>
Download the chart (SVG) · The figures (CSV)
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