How do you plan your meals for calories alowed?

Selah37

I have never counted calories before so I am not sure exactly how to go about this. I can have 1440 calories a day and I just pretty much eat healthy all day and I realized today that I have come out everyday with lower calories than I am suppose to eat. I didn't realize this could cause "starvation mode". Do you plan your entire days meals ahead of time? It seems easier to me to log what I eat and see how many calories I have to go for the day but I come out with too little. Thanks!!

tkillion810

I have about 2000 calories a day. I try to have at least 1000 of them consumed after eating lunch. The remaining 1000 are split up as 250-300 for an afternoon snack and the rest for dinner. I eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Each of my snacks are about 250-300 calories. I absolutely plan my meals out. I sit down every Sunday and plan the next weeks menu and figure out my grocery list from there. Once you have done this for a few weeks, it's pretty quick and easy. You can then just make small adjustments for different foods that you want to replace what you've had the last few weeks. Hope this helps. Good luck!

melsinct

I plan the night before. We are a two person household, both working full time outside the home. The night before, we decide on dinner so we can defrost anything we need to. At that point, I start logging the next day into MFP, starting with dinner (my biggest meal of the day). I generally pack my lunch the night before, so I log that. When I get up the next day, I eat breakfast and log it, then see what I am left with for snacks. This method is heavy on the planning but assures me I am always right around my calorie target daily.

jessicawrites

I've started planning my meals for the day the way I usually would, but logging everything I plan to eat right away in the morning. From there, I add or take away some snacks (usually take away...) to bring myself within my goal range of 1200-1500. Seeing it all in front of me helps me schedule how to space my meals, as well, because on class nights I won't get to have dinner until 8:30, so I need a snack at 6:30 to get me through class.

Microfiber_wechange

Do you plan your entire days meals ahead of time?

I've just inputted my dinner to enable me check the calories even though I haven't yet eaten :laugh: If I hadn't logged it, I would have gone over because I was planning on eating something else.

tlinval

I always plan my meals/snacks the day before or that morning. When I get to work I log everything for the entire day (I don't have a computer at home so I do it at work). I then know where I'm sitting for calories, and how much exercise I REALLY need to do. :laugh: It all keeps me on track and I find myself NOT thinking about food all day long because it's all planned out for me, no further thought is required.