Snacks, What percentage of diet?

llbrixon

What percentage of a diet should be allowed for snacks?

What are your views?

vingogly

Somewhere between 0% and 100%.

I really don't believe it matters as long as you stay within your calories; some people like three squares as they used to say back in the old days, others like to snack all day.

llbrixon

Yea... I know calories in, calories out, but I am trying to achieve a healthy balance. Zero percentage is not for me, but then 50% of my calories for the day is too much.

I was just wondering what most folks eat as their snack aamountn an average each day.

happyauntie2015

I base my snacking on if I'm hungry. I try to stay at 200 calories or less for a snack. If I'm hungry I will go grab my already prepped snacks. Some days I will have 2 snacks a day some none yet others seems like all I do is snack but keep it within my calories

llbrixon

Today I had 25% of my calories were snacks. I think maybe 20% would be good to try to achieve. What do you do?

JeromeBarry1

I have 115 calories of snack in every day in the form of 40 g of prunes and a fiber gummy supplement. When my breakfast, lunch, and dinner leave some calories remaining on my daily plan, I'll choose something in the house to complete my calories and I'll call it a snack. Anything that falls between breakfast and dinner is logged as lunch.

avskk

Whatever you're hungry for and fits in your calorie goal. There's no such thing as "too many" snacks, only too many calories for your body's needs. You could have nothing but snacks and still achieve a healthy balance; you could also never snack and have a healthy balance.

I have days where snacks are 40-60% of my total intake and days where they're less than 10%. Both types of day include good nutrition, balance, and an appropriate caloric load for my needs. As a bonus, I always feel good because I'm eating when I'm hungry instead of miserably waiting for an "appropriate" time or meal!

llbrixon

My math is way off...I just recalculated. Today I ate 34% of my calories were snacks. Yesterday was 43%.

My maintenance calories are 1600, but some days I do not eat that much. So, I take the snack calories I ate and use the total calories I ate for the day to figure out the percentage.

Your views or suggestions?

I am wondering what the rest of my percentages are for last week on an average. I have some figuring to do...

Lounmoun

I don't think the percentage matters so much unless by snacks you mean foods with very low nutrition.
I generally have 100-300 calories for snacks. Snacks for me might be things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese.

nowine4me

I do 1/4 of my 1600 calories a day in snacks. Some ideas: apple & cottage cheese, yogurt & almonds, pear & string cheese, blueberries & oatmeal, popcorn & dried cranberries, red peppers & hummus. Love snacks!

llbrixon

Snacks for me would be basically high sugar content type foods with no nnutritional value.
I would also count in my salty snacks too.

Last week's average was 37% of snack foods were eaten from the calories I ate for each day.

Maybe if I can strive for a percentage less than the week before in snack foods, I might be able to cut down my snack eating.

So, this week I will try to eat no more than 36% of my snack foods.

VeganRaptor

I calculated mine for today as 35% calories from snacks
As long as you feel good with your amount of snacking, it should be fine! Make your diet work for you

SideSteel

I think a good general rule for most people would be to keep a bank of discretionary calories, somewhere between 10 and 20% of total calorie intake to be spent on anything, with the idea that the remaining 80-90% of your diet comes from nutritionally dense foods and that you're actually meeting those nutrient needs through that portion of your diet.

Packerjohn

SideSteel wrote: »

I think a good general rule for most people would be to keep a bank of discretionary calories, somewhere between 10 and 20% of total calorie intake to be spent on anything, with the idea that the remaining 80-90% of your diet comes from nutritionally dense foods and that you're actually meeting those nutrient needs through that portion of your diet.

Agree. Especially someone like the OP who is eating 1200-1500 calories a day. 35% from nutritually less dense foods makes it pretty likely she is missing some nutrition.

lulalacroix

My snacking is typically about 1/3 but I also usually only eat 2 meals a day.

kommodevaran

It depends. Some people are more sensitive to nutritional deficiencies and need to optimize their diet. Others can eat a more "whatever" diet. When losing weight, you'll be eating less, but still have the same nutritional needs. Some people will miss "junk", others are indifferent. Sometimes it's even hard to determine what counts as "junk".

If you really want percentages, I'd say up to 20% junk in maintenance, up to 10% when dieting.

Packerjohn

Just to clarify, "snacking" is fine if it just means spreading x% of your calories around during the day at times other than regular meals. But make sure 80-90% of the total daily calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods. The lower the daily calories, the closer to 90% of calories from nutritionally dense foods one should be.

The 80-90% (rounded) is coming from the USDA:

For most people, no more than about 5 to 15 percent of calories from solid fats and added sugars can be reasonably accommodated in the USDA Food Patterns, which are designed to
meet nutrient needs within calorie limits.


https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/dietary_guidelines_for_americans/PolicyDoc.pdf

Machka9

vingogly wrote: »

Somewhere between 0% and 100%.

I really don't believe it matters as long as you stay within your calories; some people like three squares as they used to say back in the old days, others like to snack all day.

Absolutely!

Machka9

For me ...

Lunch = approx. 300 cal
Dinner = approx. 400 cal
Snacks = approx. 800 cal

Give or take. Whatever works.

Of course, that raises a question. What are snacks???

Hope228

Machka9 wrote: »

For me ...

Lunch = approx. 300 cal
Dinner = approx. 400 cal
Snacks = approx. 800 cal

Give or take. Whatever works.

Of course, that raises a question. What are snacks???

I'm pretty much the same. Sometimes on the weekend I am at the gym at lunch so I snack a bit more..

llbrixon

Snacks for me would be candy, donuts, cakes, salty dry snacks, icecream, popcycles, cheetos, popcorn, granola, alcohol drinks high in calories.....any type foods that would be dense in sugar and calories.

If I had to name some good snacks they would be celery, and carrots. Nuts and seeds in moderation. Diet sodas (need to start limiting sodas to 1 or 2 a day).

Your views or more suggestions for healthy snacks.

Machka9

Hope228 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

For me ...

Lunch = approx. 300 cal
Dinner = approx. 400 cal
Snacks = approx. 800 cal

Give or take. Whatever works.

Of course, that raises a question. What are snacks???

I'm pretty much the same. Sometimes on the weekend I am at the gym at lunch so I snack a bit more..

Yep ... and I cycle on the weekends, so there's always an extra snack or two mid-ride!

avskk

I suggest you take a look at how you're defining snacks. There's a whole world of options between "hardcore junk" and "celery." There are tons of threads listing healthy snacks in the forums -- start by deciding what you consider a worthwhile snack (high in protein? high in good fats? low in sodium? crispy? chewy? fewer than X calories?) and then browse those threads for suggestions that match your goals.

Machka9

avskk wrote: »

I suggest you take a look at how you're defining snacks. There's a whole world of options between "hardcore junk" and "celery."

Exactly!



One of my snacks today was a banana. Later I had some yogurt for a snack. There was also cottage cheese with cucumber slices. I snack a lot ... but there's nothing wrong with the food.

crzycatlady1

I typically don't eat in the morning, have my biggest meal sometime between 11am-noon, have an afternoon snack and then light supper at around 5 or 6. Snacks are typically some sort of chips or pretzels and dip combo, instant flavored oats, cheese and crackers etc. I don't eat the snack ever day though, just depends if I'm in the mood to eat something in the afternoon.

llbrixon

Don't get me wrong.... I could eat snack foods the rest of my life. I love snack foods.

I am attempting to change my life style of eating and need to be aware that my snack foods are ok as long as I am eating a decent amount of healthy foods.

My food log is open. I am not counting my beer at night as junk food, it is low in calories and I can stop at one. If I drank more than one beer, then it would be considered as snacking for me.

I am beginning to think I am setting my own rules to what I am considering junk type snack foods. I will still eat the junk foods because I love them, but I need guidance on a calorie or percentage average for the week.

My maintenance calories are 1600. I am female, 5' 6" and 62 years old. I set my goal range for 155--160 pounds. The only exercise I do is walking and I have slacked off doing that for 2 weeks already. I average eating 1300--1400 daily or less. On one or two days, I can eat up to 2000 calories, of course some of this is lots of snacks or eating out.

I set my goal for 155 - 160 because, I did not want to have to exercise to have to keep the weigbt off. I love my snack foods and I am not willing to give them up to be at a lower weight.

I am considering changing my weight range a little lower... maybe.... 153 - 157 pounds.

Also, as for weight... I do not want fall between sizes in clothes. My rules....

llbrixon

Thank you for all your responses.

llbrixon

Keep your responses coming. I need a list of healthy type of snack foods.

Packerjohn

llbrixon wrote: »

Snacks for me would be candy, donuts, cakes, salty dry snacks, icecream, popcycles, cheetos, popcorn, granola, alcohol drinks high in calories.....any type foods that would be dense in sugar and calories.

If I had to name some good snacks they would be celery, and carrots. Nuts and seeds in moderation. Diet sodas (need to start limiting sodas to 1 or 2 a day).

Your views or more suggestions for healthy snacks.

If this is what you are calling snacks, 10-20% of your total calories. The beer would be included in this total also.

Best of luck.

Need2Exerc1se

My view is that it matters only on a personal preference level. It's all food and it's your overall intake that matters both nutritionally and for weight control.

llbrixon

I am missing some nutrition each day. My macros are not met or average well during the week. I am missing lots of vitamins each day.

I eat to many Carbs each day and not enough protein and fats each day. Some days my fats will go over.

I am fine tuning my eating life style, but I am not willing to exercise myself my butt off to keep at a lower weight. And, I want to be able to eat out and eat some of the foods I love....like pizza, tacoes, and icecream, and salty snack foods. I am sure there are a lot more foods I could list.