No good playing it safe before having a hearty meal (8)
I believe the answer is:
feasting
'having a hearty meal' is the definition.
(a feast is a large meal)
'no good playing it safe before' is the wordplay.
'no' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation).
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'playing' is an anagram indicator.
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'it'+'safe'='itsafe'
'itsafe' with letters rearranged gives 'feasti'.
'n'+'g'='ng'
'ng' after 'feasti' is 'FEASTING'.
(Other definitions for feasting that I've seen before include "Eating well" , "Eating and drinking lavishly" , "Eating a large meal" .)