The invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging method in which gradient echo signals (E1, E2, E3) are repeatedly acquired for a plurality of phase encoding values. In order to reduce the RF load whereto a patient to be examined is exposed, the flip angles of RF excitation pulses (HF1, HF2, HF3, HF4) of the pulse sequence are varied in dependence on the phase encoding value. For optimization of the image contrast it is advantageous when the flip angle is maximum for minimum absolute phase encoding values and minimum for maximum absolute phase encoding values.