How do you split your calories over the day?

ccrdragon

Breakfast is black coffee and some days (if I ate too early the night before) a light snack.
Lunch is usually about 40% of my calories.
Dinner is the other 60%.

This works for me, since if I eat breakfast, I find I am hungrier though out the rest of the day. I have also found that if I eat dinner too early (before 5:30ish), I get hungry before bed, so I aim to have dinner after 6 when possible.

RelCanonical

My makeup is 10% morning-ish (not really breakfast, as I won't eat if I'm not hungry), 20% lunch, 10% snack, 50% dinner, then 10% "nightcap" before I go to bed.

NovusDies

thelastnightingale wrote: »

Just curious. We all know the saying 'breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper', but what works for you in practice?

I've found my habits have totally changed over the two months I've been on this journey so far. I wouldn't say I breakfast like a king (or a queen!), but I do now always have breakfast, and it represents up to 33% of my calories for the day. It wasn't a conscious decision, but after gradually tweaking with my mealtimes/calories, I find it helps me manage my appetite and energy over the day better than when I used to only have black coffee and not eat anything.

I've also stopped saving calories for snacks and instead just added those calories to my three main meals.

I definitely split my calories over the day very differently to when I was just gaining weight. Back then, it was the opposite to the saying - I skipped breakfast, had lunch like a prince, and dinner like a king. The bulk of my calories definitely went on dinner, and I guess probably because I was so hungry by that point, I made some really bad choices.

So, what do you do?

My personal saying is "Easy is king." How I have split my calories has changed a lot over the last 2 years of weight loss and activity increase. I have never cared how I did it only that it would be easy to sustain.

gewel321

My meals are different during the weekday vs the weekend. During the week I eat 45 calories for breakfast and 200-320 calories for lunch. I have a snack around 3 and then a decent sized dinner with another snack before bed. I work in a hospital so I am running around all day so I don't think about being hungry but when I am at home I get bored and want to eat constantly. I have found that eating a bigger dinner helps that. The weekends are a bit different. I eat eggs for breakfast most mornings but it is a late breakfast so it normally holds me over until snack and dinner. I struggle on the weekends because the boredom sets in especially since we aren't allowed to go anywhere or do anything!

amusedmonkey

I don't have a standard split. I adapt my calories day to day. If I know my main meal will be large, I make the other two smaller. If I'm going out, I skip a meal. If I feel like having a higher calorie snack, I cut calories out of the meal I feel least hungry for. If I'm not hungry in the morning, I don't eat...etc. Generally, lunch is my largest meal and it takes up about 40% of my calories, but even that is negotiable.

RockingWithLJ

300-400 calorie meals 5-6 times a day

breefoshee

I eat 1400-1600 a day during the week and 2500 on Saturday and Sunday.

During the week, I try to have my meals equal about 400 each and my snacks about 200. I do try to push breakfast and lunch off til later in the day so I don't feel famished for dinner. Sometimes I skip breakfast and eat allll the dinner.

veganbettie

I only drink coffee for breakfast, smallish lunch, and high cal dinner, dinner time is when i want to pig out the most so that's when i save my cals, i can pretty much last the whole day without eating too much or feeling super hungry, i just love a big dinner.