Dispersement of Calories

tnloser1970

I have a question that I am struggling with. My Fitness Pal is giving me 2,720 calories a day right now. How should I break these calories down? What I find happening is that I am eating throughout the day and then at the end of the day, I have 1700 to 1800 calories left over to eat before dinner.

I try to eat something every two hours meaning breakfast at 8 AM, snack at 10 AM, lunch at noon, snack at 2 PM, snack at 4 PM, dinner at 6 PM, and snack at 8 PM. I had even thought about dividing my calories 4 different ways giving me 680 calories each for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then snacks. But, I could not comprehend eating the 680 calories in snacks since it is usually yogurt or fruit.

So, how do others do it? Do you have a method?

SideSteel

I have a question that I am struggling with. My Fitness Pal is giving me 2,720 calories a day right now. How should I break these calories down? What I find happening is that I am eating throughout the day and then at the end of the day, I have 1700 to 1800 calories left over to eat before dinner.

I try to eat something every two hours meaning breakfast at 8 AM, snack at 10 AM, lunch at noon, snack at 2 PM, snack at 4 PM, dinner at 6 PM, and snack at 8 PM. I had even thought about dividing my calories 4 different ways giving me 680 calories each for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then snacks. But, I could not comprehend eating the 680 calories in snacks since it is usually yogurt or fruit.

So, how do others do it? Do you have a method?

I prefer to eat nothing during the AM, a big lunch, and then a gorge at night. Most of my ~3k calories are eaten at lunch and dinner and I usually snack at night.

smcolton

You may want to redo your profile. MFP gives me 1200 calories!

Sarauk2sf

You may want to redo your profile. MFP gives me 1200 calories!

He is a guy with 250+ pounds to lose. You are a female with less than 20 pounds to lose. His calorie target will be way more than yours.

OP: spread them however you like based on personal preference and whichever way will make adherence easier. I eat a medium sized lunch and a large dinner with just coffee in the morning.

Cranktastic

You may want to redo your profile. MFP gives me 1200 calories!

He is a guy with 250+ pounds to lose. You are a female with less than 20 pounds to lose. His calorie target will be way more than yours.

srsly...lolz

tnloser1970

Okay, I went ahead and done some research. I am putting this here because others may have the same question

Step 1
Use your body weight, age and activity level to determine an appropriate caloric intake before trying to break down your total calories into individual meals and snacks. If you desire to lose a few pounds, eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day. Ask a nutritionist or medical professional for personalized calorie recommendations.

Step 2
Write down your targeted caloric intake, and subtract 250 calories from the total for daily snacks. For example, if your targeted daily intake equals 2,250 calories, you should have 250 calories in snacks, and 2,000 calories for the rest of your meals.

Step 3
Divide the remaining total calories by 3 to determine the appropriate caloric intake for your breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. In the above example, divide 2,000 by 3 to arrive at about 666 calories per meal.

Step 4
Decide if you want to eat the same number of calories for each meal, or adjust the amounts to suit your lifestyle. Allow yourself 400 calories for breakfast, 600 calories for lunch and 1,000 calories for your evening meal, if you find eating one-third of your calories in the morning difficult.

Step 5
Allocate 125 of your snack calories to a morning snack, and 125 snack calories for an afternoon or evening snack. Healthy snacks under 125 calories include raisins, a few nuts, one slice of whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp. of hummus, low-calorie snack crackers, whole pieces of fruit and 1 cup of raw vegetables.

So, if I am allowed 2720 calories a day, I would take the 250 for snacks. That leaves 2470 for the meals. That leaves 823 calories per meal. Wowza! I am not sure I can do that!

I could use the other method above which is a 20%/30%/50% deal. That would be 494 for breakfast which is doable, 741 for lunch which may be difficult, and 1235 for dinner which could be difficult or easy depending on what I eat.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/507000-how-to-break-down-calories-per-meal/#ixzz2C6rXpbFi

katevarner

I eat more like what the research says, altho I eat medium in the AM, small at lunch, and huge at dinner. That's when I'm hungry. I used to skip breakfast, but I work out in the morning, so I have to fuel my body.

Divide it however you are comfortable. I personally couldn't eat that many snacks, but I often eat one during the day and one that is really a late dessert.

SideSteel

Okay, I went ahead and done some research. I am putting this here because others may have the same question

Step 1
Use your body weight, age and activity level to determine an appropriate caloric intake before trying to break down your total calories into individual meals and snacks. If you desire to lose a few pounds, eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day. Ask a nutritionist or medical professional for personalized calorie recommendations.

Step 2
Write down your targeted caloric intake, and subtract 250 calories from the total for daily snacks. For example, if your targeted daily intake equals 2,250 calories, you should have 250 calories in snacks, and 2,000 calories for the rest of your meals.

Step 3
Divide the remaining total calories by 3 to determine the appropriate caloric intake for your breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. In the above example, divide 2,000 by 3 to arrive at about 666 calories per meal.

Step 4
Decide if you want to eat the same number of calories for each meal, or adjust the amounts to suit your lifestyle. Allow yourself 400 calories for breakfast, 600 calories for lunch and 1,000 calories for your evening meal, if you find eating one-third of your calories in the morning difficult.

Step 5
Allocate 125 of your snack calories to a morning snack, and 125 snack calories for an afternoon or evening snack. Healthy snacks under 125 calories include raisins, a few nuts, one slice of whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp. of hummus, low-calorie snack crackers, whole pieces of fruit and 1 cup of raw vegetables.

So, if I am allowed 2720 calories a day, I would take the 250 for snacks. That leaves 2470 for the meals. That leaves 823 calories per meal. Wowza! I am not sure I can do that!

I could use the other method above which is a 20%/30%/50% deal. That would be 494 for breakfast which is doable, 741 for lunch which may be difficult, and 1235 for dinner which could be difficult or easy depending on what I eat.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/507000-how-to-break-down-calories-per-meal/#ixzz2C6rXpbFi

Keep in mind that you don't really need to have a set partitioning of calories. You also don't need to eat 3 meals with snacks in between. This all falls under personal preference. I would recommend finding what gives you the most enjoyment and fits into your personal life/preferences.

Sarauk2sf

Okay, I went ahead and done some research. I am putting this here because others may have the same question

Step 1
Use your body weight, age and activity level to determine an appropriate caloric intake before trying to break down your total calories into individual meals and snacks. If you desire to lose a few pounds, eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day. Ask a nutritionist or medical professional for personalized calorie recommendations.

Step 2
Write down your targeted caloric intake, and subtract 250 calories from the total for daily snacks. For example, if your targeted daily intake equals 2,250 calories, you should have 250 calories in snacks, and 2,000 calories for the rest of your meals.

Step 3
Divide the remaining total calories by 3 to determine the appropriate caloric intake for your breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. In the above example, divide 2,000 by 3 to arrive at about 666 calories per meal.

Step 4
Decide if you want to eat the same number of calories for each meal, or adjust the amounts to suit your lifestyle. Allow yourself 400 calories for breakfast, 600 calories for lunch and 1,000 calories for your evening meal, if you find eating one-third of your calories in the morning difficult.

Step 5
Allocate 125 of your snack calories to a morning snack, and 125 snack calories for an afternoon or evening snack. Healthy snacks under 125 calories include raisins, a few nuts, one slice of whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp. of hummus, low-calorie snack crackers, whole pieces of fruit and 1 cup of raw vegetables.

So, if I am allowed 2720 calories a day, I would take the 250 for snacks. That leaves 2470 for the meals. That leaves 823 calories per meal. Wowza! I am not sure I can do that!

I could use the other method above which is a 20%/30%/50% deal. That would be 494 for breakfast which is doable, 741 for lunch which may be difficult, and 1235 for dinner which could be difficult or easy depending on what I eat.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/507000-how-to-break-down-calories-per-meal/#ixzz2C6rXpbFi

There is absolutely no reason to go through this convoluted process.

Step 1: Eat when you want in a way that will allow adherence.

Done!

myofibril

It's a personal preference gig. Do what you feel comfortable with.

I generally end up with around 20% morning, 30% midday and 50% evening but that is not set in stone. Some days I won't have breakfast and have more later on, some days I may have a big lunch and have very little in the evening.

It's not worth worrying about.

kennethmgreen

Devil's Food Cake for every meal?

FemininGuns

I try to divide my cals in 5-6 small meals, I starve with small snacks. Also, if I'm hungrier than normal - I'll eat, doesn't matter to me what time of day or night it is! Everyone's different you just hav to experiment what works for you!