Counting calories

pkdarlin

Hi I'm new here so I can say what work for me. I eat small meals ( about 6 ) only because I'm type 2 diabetic and that keeps my blood sugar normal. If I eat to many carbs in one meal then my blood sugar goes crazy. I would think that even for someone that is not diabetic eating a lot of carbs in one meal would not be healthy.

pkdarlin

I said I was new here but I have been here a long time but just started back eating healthy.

TavistockToad

Agree, eat when you want, it makes no difference to your weight loss.

This!

figure out what works for you, 1 big meal or 72 tiny meals, it makes no difference!

Matt_Wild

Ideally, you would want to spread them out evenly throughout the day (or technically whenever you are awake). If you must go with one or the other, however, then a heavier breakfast is better than a heavier dinner, simply because you have the rest of the day to burn it off rather than eating a huge meal then sleeping. Eating roughly equal amounts during the day keeps your metabolism up and at its optimum level. Keep in mind though, that time should be allotted no matter what you decide to do. Your body will need time to adjust. For example, if you are used to eating heavily at night with hardly anything for breakfast and you change to a heavy breakfast, your body will initially be surprised by getting food when it typically feels as if it's in "storage mode". So that heavy breakfast will be held on to for a while until your body realizes that it will be a frequent change and can metabolize it rather than storing it.

Actually, for weight loss purposes, it really doesn't matter what time of day you eat, or how big your meals are. It's how many calories you are consuming and burning that matters.

For the average joe, absolutely right.

bpotts44

Myfitnesspal states that I should not under eat for my calorie counting. My question is: does it matter what time of the day I eat as long as I meet my calorie intake? Would it be ok to eat all my calories later on during the night? Or should I try to eat most of my calories in the morning?

If you are exercising it could matter. When I exercise in the afternoon I skip breakfast and eat a large lunch. When I exercise in the morning I eat a smaller 400-500 calorie breakfast and lunch and then good dinner. Unless you are trying to get really ripped, it doesn't matter though.

bpotts44

Your metabolism doesn't bounce up and down during the day based on when or what you eat.

I've seen this stated frequently and with conviction here.

It makes me wonder, at what point does intake have an impact on metabolism? Once every twelve hours? Twenty four? Could I eat 14,000 calories each Sunday and be good for the week? Once annually?

www.leangains.com I takes 2-3 days.

quirkytizzy

It's taken me about a month to figure out how to time my eating habits, and honestly, I'm still working on it. I eat small breakfasts and snacks in the morning (usually totaling between 250-300), between noon and 3 I eat a sizeable lunch around 500, and dinner is usually 500-600. On days where I exercise, dinner winds up being much bigger. I do it that way because I'm usually peckish in the morning and starving at night.

DanaDark's advice at eating when you are hungry (the trick is learning how to recognize hunger) is a really good way to help keep yourself happier during weight loss.

tigersword

Ideally, you would want to spread them out evenly throughout the day (or technically whenever you are awake). If you must go with one or the other, however, then a heavier breakfast is better than a heavier dinner, simply because you have the rest of the day to burn it off rather than eating a huge meal then sleeping. Eating roughly equal amounts during the day keeps your metabolism up and at its optimum level. Keep in mind though, that time should be allotted no matter what you decide to do. Your body will need time to adjust. For example, if you are used to eating heavily at night with hardly anything for breakfast and you change to a heavy breakfast, your body will initially be surprised by getting food when it typically feels as if it's in "storage mode". So that heavy breakfast will be held on to for a while until your body realizes that it will be a frequent change and can metabolize it rather than storing it.

There is absolutely zero truth to this. Your metabolism runs at a constant rate, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You still burn off all the food you eat at night, while you are sleeping. There's no such thing as "storage mode," as your body is constantly storing and burning fat every second of every day. If calories burned exceeds calories consumed, there is a net loss of fat stored, regardless of when the food was eaten. Eating does boost metabolism (the Thermic Effect of Food, or TEF,) but it's based on total calories consumed, not when they are eaten. TEF is 10%. If you eat 3 500 calorie meals, TEF is 50x3 or 150 calories. If you eat 5 300 calorie meals, TEF is 5x30 or 150 calories. It's exactly the same.

Oh, and while technically TEF is considered a metabolism boost, it's also already factored into BMR and TDEE calculations, so it's not like you actually burn extra calories, you'd just burn less if you didn't eat at all (it takes about 72-96 hours for your metabolism to down regulate during prolonged fasting.)