Skipping meals to stay under calorie goal?

beautybreakdownNJM

I've had breakfast, lunch & a snack...After logging i realised i had practically used all my calories for the day. I'm considering skipping dinner to stay under my calorie goal.

Does anyone do this?

Half of me feels like i should eat but half of me knows i'll feel disappointed after and that's putting me off eating. I was really naughty this weekend with my diet so i really wanted to stick to it this week.

myfitnessnmhoy

Well, your best bet is really to find a way to fit in some exercise and EARN that supper!

What is your deficit set at (deficit = 500 calories for every pound per week you said you wanted to lose)?

If you're REALLY hungry, eat something this evening, even if you go over your goal (just make sure you don't undo your deficit).

The best way to fight hunger long-term is to check your macronutrients (fat, carbs, proteins) and make sure you are eating them in a reasonable balance. I used to eat healthy food, but too many carbs and not enough protein. I'm hungry a lot less often once I raised my protein intake and lowered my carbohydrate intake by a bit.

verptwerp

Get some exercise & log it, then MFP will add those earned exercise calories & you can enjoy your dinner ..... otherwise, have a huge salad with veggies ...... that's low in calories ...... no need to skip a meal :drinker:

steph1278

I wouldn't recommend skipping dinner. Have a nice big salad with lots of veggies and some protein. Take a walk or do an exercise video to burn some extra. Or just eat what you were originally planning for dinner and move on. One day won't make or break you. Your diary is private so I can't offer any specific advice or insight, but you have to remember that this should be a lifestyle, not just a diet. And who wants to live their life being afraid to eat? Good luck!

HMVOL7409

I could never skip a meal, it would leave me starving and wanting to binge later or overeat at the next meal.

MumMumOfMany

agree with above, get some exercise in and tada, calories earned!x

Im_NotPerfect

Hell no! I could NEVER skip a meal intentionally. It would only make me hungrier! I would try to earn some extra calories or just call it an off day. To me, getting into shape isn't about starving yourself. It's about a lifestyle change, where in life...not everything goes to plan!

secretlobster

If you overate for breakfast, lunch and a snack, then skipping dinner won't cause you to "go into starvation mode" or waste away during the night

But I totally agree with getting some exercise in and earning your dinner back...

recoiljpr

I could never skip a meal, it would leave me starving and wanting to binge later or overeat at the next meal.

THIS! Eat a healthy dinner and take the over calories hit. Then, revisit either your daily allotted calories or revisit what you are eating. It's possible your goal calories are too low (I can't see your diary so I don't know) or you are possibly not eating the best of foods for your breakfast/lunch/snack.

Skipping meals so we can eat a bad snack, etc on a normal basis is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle change IMO. Conversely, setting unreasonable daily calorie limits as well will just end up causing one to fail at their lifestyle change as well.

brittmar25

I would never skip a meal. If you can't find the time to exercise and get back some of those calories, make sure you make better meal choices tomorrow.

Drink a lot of water with your meals. If you find yourself getting hungry when you don't think you should be, drink 8oz of water and wait 10 minutes. I read somewhere that a lot of times hunger is just thirst in disguise.

Good luck!

sleonardbranson

Skipping dinner isn't a great idea, you should try and fit in some kind of activity. That way you have extra calories for dinner, if you are finding that you don't have enough towards the end of the day.

callikia

Either do as recommended above, or make up for it tomorrow. Sometimes I have bad days. I don't skip meals. Instead I try to limit my calorie intake just slightly the next day or for a few days to "make up for it"...for me it works. My body doesn't run on the 24-hour clock so I worry about daily averages at week's end.

secretlobster

I forgot to add - What you eat, or don't eat, on one day of your life makes absolutely no difference in terms of how quickly you will meet your goals.

If this is a trend for you, then you should think about making adjustments. But it doesn't matter if, just today, you eat dinner or not.

pinthin87

I am guilty of skipping dinner sometimes. Only because I wasn't hungry after a hard workout though. I say if you are hungry at dinner time then eat. If not and you can make it until breakfast tomorrow then don't.

foyain

i can relate to what you were feeling. i was also naughty this weekend and started back on track yesterday. i think we have to treat ourselves at least once or twice a month but not going crazy over your calorie limit. the goal is for me anyway to not eat more than i am suppose to since i never really looked at serving size and now that i am and writing it down it has helped. and when you see how man calories yu have left it makes you think about should i eat that or do i really want to loose some weight and look good. try not to skip a meal because you may end up over eating and then yo will feel real bad. if you are running low on calories say you have 100 calories left for dinner, add something like 200 calories more by eating one of those microwave healthy meals that are not over 300 calories just that time and start over on your schedule the next day but dont make it a habit. stay on your target calorie count for the day. i also try working out 2-3 times a week maybe 30min on the tredmill, that gives me some extra calories to add so i can have a healthy snack. just keep doing what you know is good for you. good luck.

caraiselite

exercise, then eat.

if you're not hungry, don't bother though. only eat when you're hungry.

chris1816

Contrary to most of what is being said here, you might actually find intermittant fasting to be appealing.

I eat at a caloric deficit along with weight training and cardio and stopped eating breakfast a while ago. I train on an empty stomach. Meal frequency, patterns etc really do not matter. It just doesn't.

One element that I find appealing about IF is that it takes a lot of stressing over how many calories I have left by the time I have dinner out of the picture and I am less overall focused on food. Basically I do a 16/8 fast...from 9:00pm until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon the next day I don't eat anything. Then around that time is when I have my "breakfast", which usually being a couple hours after a workout is a feast. My dinner later on is also pretty hardy and I usually have something right at 9:00 to fill me up before bed.

It's fun and satisfying having that large meal to fill you up, I recommend checking out www.leangains.com, there are also plenty of folks who do IF here and love it. From a "*kitten* that works" standpoint this may work well for you.

alexveksler

I had to skip meals 3 times since I started my diet in Aug, 2011. But not because I didn't earn the deficit of the calories. Because I got stuck in annoying plateau and weight would not move. I simply fast for a day with plenty of liquids. There is a benefit in fasting. Some don't agree, do some research.

In your case, if you don't have any calories left at the end of the day, follow most everyone's advice here - earn them by exercise. Good luck.