Calories per meal...

Devondumpling72

Hi all, I have just upgraded to premium, I have only been active on here this week (had an account for years) I am finding I am struggling to eat all of my calories (1552) not including exercise calories. Has anyone actually set calorie goals per meal and if you have would you mind sharing what they are?
Once I am used to eating a certain amount at meal times I can then focus on the macro side of things.

apullum

Often when people are struggling to eat all their calories, the first thing to check is logging consistency. They may be eating more than they think they are. Are you using a food scale to weigh and log all of your food?

How you spread out your calories over the day is a matter of personal preference. Some people here eat a lot of snacks; some people eat one meal a day. You also don’t have to eat the same number of calories at the same time every day. How you choose to split up your calories just comes down to your schedule and how you like to eat. It has no bearing on your weight.

cmriverside

Yeah, it's all personal preference.

I eat half my calories about three hours after I get up and the other half about three hours before bed.

emmies_123

apullum wrote: »

Often when people are struggling to eat all their calories, the first thing to check is logging consistency. They may be eating more than they think they are. Are you using a food scale to weigh and log all of your food?

How you spread out your calories over the day is a matter of personal preference. Some people here eat a lot of snacks; some people eat one meal a day. You also don’t have to eat the same number of calories at the same time every day. How you choose to split up your calories just comes down to your schedule and how you like to eat. It has no bearing on your weight.

Yes, this exactly! When I first started on MFP I posted an extremely similar question to yours. Then I started really looking at what I was logging. I hadn't counted my condiments at dinner. I didn't measure the parm cheese on my pasta at lunch. Those little things really added up. Once I consistently measured and logged ALL my meal intake I found I was actually a lot closer to my MFP goals than I had previously thought.

Devondumpling72

I'm a bit of a nightmare at the moment, absolutely everything is weighed and measured then logged before I eat it. This is something I do in the early days but as time goes on I start to get a bit lazy. For the moment though 100% logging

TavistockToad

Devondumpling72 wrote: »

I'm a bit of a nightmare at the moment, absolutely everything is weighed and measured then logged before I eat it. This is something I do in the early days but as time goes on I start to get a bit lazy. For the moment though 100% logging

Have you cut out everything that's high in fat, making it hard to hit your goal?

Add in olive oil, avocado, peanut butter and the odd doughnut and you'll be fine.

apullum

TavistockToad wrote: »

Devondumpling72 wrote: »

I'm a bit of a nightmare at the moment, absolutely everything is weighed and measured then logged before I eat it. This is something I do in the early days but as time goes on I start to get a bit lazy. For the moment though 100% logging

Have you cut out everything that's high in fat, making it hard to hit your goal?

Add in olive oil, avocado, peanut butter and the odd doughnut and you'll be fine.

If you feel full but aren't eating enough, oil is an especially easy way to add calories without feeling stuffed. However, my preferred answer is chocolate.

TavistockToad

apullum wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

Devondumpling72 wrote: »

I'm a bit of a nightmare at the moment, absolutely everything is weighed and measured then logged before I eat it. This is something I do in the early days but as time goes on I start to get a bit lazy. For the moment though 100% logging

Have you cut out everything that's high in fat, making it hard to hit your goal?

Add in olive oil, avocado, peanut butter and the odd doughnut and you'll be fine.

If you feel full but aren't eating enough, oil is an especially easy way to add calories without feeling stuffed. However, my preferred answer is chocolate.

Doughnut/chocolate/whatever yummy thing you think you can't eat on a diet :bigsmile:

Devondumpling72

apullum wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

Devondumpling72 wrote: »

I'm a bit of a nightmare at the moment, absolutely everything is weighed and measured then logged before I eat it. This is something I do in the early days but as time goes on I start to get a bit lazy. For the moment though 100% logging

Have you cut out everything that's high in fat, making it hard to hit your goal?

Add in olive oil, avocado, peanut butter and the odd doughnut and you'll be fine.

If you feel full but aren't eating enough, oil is an especially easy way to add calories without feeling stuffed. However, my preferred answer is chocolate.

Chocolate works!

HeyJudii

Fat will definitely up those calories. Mayonnaise, olive oil, butter. Avocados, nuts. Cream in your coffee (if you are a coffee drinker.) Yum.
And chocolate.

Cbean08

Plan it out. So if you know that you are 500 or 400 or 250 or whatever calories short, then find a way to add that back into your normal day. For example, if you are 500 calories short - add 1 cup of milk to breakfast (150 cals), a granola bar to lunch (150 calories), a banana in the middle of the day (100 calories), and some extra meat to dinner. Just an example, but then you know how much to add to each meal and you can use variety to swap things around.

VUA21

My calories per meal are all over the place. Today they ranged from 150 to 900 per meal.

I also save about 200-300 calories for an evening snack.