What is "Boy Dinner?" Definition, Examples, & Differences to "Girl Dinner"

• “Boy Dinner” is any quick and easy meal a guy makes for dinner. It’s usually a piece of protein, like chicken breast or ground beef, without any sides.
• The term “Boy Dinner” was coined by TikTok user @bryaninheelee in July 2023, as a funny response to the viral “Girl Dinner” trend.
• “Boy Dinner” is all about consuming the requisite amount of calories, while “Girl Dinner” focuses on the ambiance of the meal. Girl dinners also include more variety in foods.

What is “Boy Dinner?”

”Boy Dinner” is any low-effort meal a guy prepares for dinner. It’s typically unhealthy or protein-packed, but it’s always easy to toss together. Think frozen pizza, a protein bar, or an entire steak with no sides—in other words, anything that lacks significant variety. Other popular boy dinners include: instant ramen, scrambled eggs, a bowl of ground beef, a whole chicken breast, and a random mishmash of snacks (like potato chips paired with beef jerky, washed down with a Baja Blast).

Origin & Spread

The term “Boy Dinner” was coined on TikTok in July 2023. On July 2, 2023, TikTok user @bryaninheelee uploaded his hilarious response to the “Girl Dinner” trend. In the video, Bryan says “Boy Dinner” is what you imagine a single guy has in his grocery basket—frozen pizza, deli meats, potato chips…and no vegetables. His TikTok went viral in just 12 days, gaining roughly 1.7 million views and 230,000+ likes. Over the next few weeks, TikTok users began posting their own videos about “Boy Dinner” vs “Girl Dinner,” and the trend quickly moved to X, too.

The trend became even more popular after users uploaded parody videos. On July 11, 2023, TikTok user @arkaneskye posted a video of his “Boy Dinner,” with a song he made about the trend playing in the background. The video features Skye panning over his messy bedroom, before lifting his comforter to reveal a half-eaten box of pizza. He gained about 2.2 million views and 382,000 likes in just 10 days. After his video went viral, “Boy Dinner” evolved from showcasing a lazy meal to showing off how lazy and messy guys could be. Many users began posting videos of where they were eating their boy dinners—over the kitchen sink, in front of the TV, or on top of a pile of laundry.

“Boy Dinner” vs “Girl Dinner”

“Boy Dinner” is a basic meal, while “Girl Dinner” is an eating experience. According to TikTok, “Boy Dinner” is all about getting the requisite amount of calories in one meal, using as little time and effort as possible. “Girl Dinner,” on the other hand, also involves preparing a low-effort dinner, but most girls take the time to make it look cute and presentable. Both are grab-and-go meals, but “Girl Dinner” pays extra attention to the ambiance. For instance, a typical “Boy Dinner” might be chicken breast eaten off a fork, while “Girl Dinner” might look like instant mac and cheese served in a wine glass.

“Girl Dinner” usually offers more variety than “Boy Dinner.” For most girls, “Girl Dinner” is an assortment of different snacks and leftovers, sort of like having a bunch of mini meals in one sitting. “Boy Dinner” is usually a single piece of protein without any sides, and according to TikTok users, there’s no variety in flavor or texture. This makes “Boy Dinner” more boring than “Girl Dinner,” and boy dinners are generally not as balanced either. On “Girl Dinner” vs “Boy Dinner” TikTok videos, there’s also a running joke on how many guys seem to be “allergic to leftovers”—they’d rather grab a granola bar than heat something up in the microwave.