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5 meals a day schedule, counted from the time you wake up

Five meals, 3 hours apart, starting when you get up. The schedule below is already filled in for a 7:00 AM wake-up. Change the time and it moves with you. Free, no email, no account, nothing to install.

  1. 7:00 AMBreakfastas soon as you wake up
  2. 10:00 AMMid-morning meal3 hours after you wake up
  3. 1:00 PMLunch6 hours after you wake up
  4. 4:00 PMAfternoon meal9 hours after you wake up
  5. 7:00 PMDinner12 hours after you wake up

Five meals, 3 hours apart. The last one lands 12 hours after you wake up, at 7:00 PM.

This page is the whole tool - it works right now, in this browser. The BeCute app is a different thing and it is not yet on the App Store or Google Play; the early access waitlist is the only way in before launch.

How these times are counted

There is no research behind the numbers and no algorithm: it is one line of arithmetic. The first meal is your wake-up time. Every next meal is 3 hours after the previous one, so meal five lands 12 hours after you got up. Wake at 7:00 AM and you get 7:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 7:00 PM.

Three hours is a spacing, not a rule of nutrition: it is simply what splits a normal waking day into 5 even parts. Shift your wake-up time and every meal shifts by the same amount.

Five meal times for the most common wake-up times

The same arithmetic, run ahead of time. Find the row closest to your own morning, or put your exact time into the field above and read the 5 times off the page.

Every row is the same shape: 12 hours from the first meal to the fifth, 3 hours between neighbours. Move the wake-up time by an hour and all 5 meals move by an hour. The last row wakes up in the afternoon, and the fifth meal simply crosses midnight and says so.

How to use the five times you just got

Enter the time you actually get up, not the time you would like to get up. The whole schedule is counted from that single number, so a wake-up time you never hit produces five meal times you never hit either. If your mornings differ on weekdays and weekends, run the field twice and keep two schedules.

The schedule is a set of anchors, not a set of alarms. The gap is the only thing being counted here, and being twenty minutes late to the third meal changes nothing, because there is nothing on this page to break. The calculator stores no times, remembers no visits and asks for no account.

When one of the times is impossible - a meeting sits on it every weekday, or the last meal lands later than you want to eat - move the wake-up time instead of the meal. Entering a wake-up time one hour earlier pulls the whole day forward by an hour and keeps the 3-hour gaps exactly as they were.

Then write the five times somewhere you will see them: a phone alarm, a note, the top of the shopping list. The times are the part this page can hand you in one second. Keeping them for a whole week is the part that takes a plan.

What this schedule does not do

It does not tell you what to eat, how much, or how many calories you need. It splits the day into times, and that is all it claims to do. BeCute is built by software engineers: there is no nutritionist on staff and no medical review board, and BeCute is not medical advice.

Questions about the 5 meals a day schedule

What are the five meal times if I wake up at 6:00 AM?

6:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM. That is the wake-up time plus 3 hours, four times over. Put a different time into the field at the top of the page and all five times move with it.

Does this 5 meals a day schedule work for a night shift?

Yes, because the page does arithmetic and nothing else. Enter the hour you actually get up, whatever hour that is. Meals that land after midnight are marked next day, so a 2:00 PM wake-up gives 2:00 PM, 5:00 PM, 8:00 PM, 11:00 PM, 2:00 AM next day.

Do I need an email or an account to get the schedule?

No. This 5 meals a day schedule needs no email and no account: the five times are on the page before you type anything, there is nothing to unlock and the calculator saves nothing. The email field further down belongs to the BeCute app, which is not yet on the App Store or Google Play, and leaving it empty costs you none of the schedule.

What is the difference between this and a 5 meals a day meal plan?

A meal plan names the food. This page names the times and stops there: it will not tell you what goes in the five slots or how much of it. The article linked at the bottom of this page is the one that walks through a full day of food.

Why are the meals 3 hours apart?

Because 5 meals at a 3-hour step is what this page counts, and that step puts the last meal 12 hours after you get up. It is a spacing, not a rule of eating: the number comes from the arithmetic on this page and from nowhere else.

Can I move one of the five meal times?

Yes. Nothing here is enforced and nothing is saved between visits. If one time is impossible on a given day, move it or skip it and the other four stay where they are. To move the whole day at once, change the wake-up time instead and every meal shifts by the same amount.

Does this page say anything about calories or weight?

No. It counts hours from the time you enter and prints five clock times. Calories, portions and goals are outside what this page claims to do, which is also why it never asks you for a weight, a height or an age.

Want the reasoning behind eating five times a day rather than three? Read the 5 meals a day diet plan article.

The schedule above is free and finished. The app that would fill those 5 slots for you is not yet on the App Store or Google Play: join the early access list.

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