How to break up your daily calories

mrsvitz

Hey there everyone;

according to MFP I am aloud 1270 calories a day. Does anyone know how to break those up during the day that would be the healthiest?

Mokey41

According to what you told MFP you wanted to do it gave you a budget of 1270 calories. That may or may not be a good thing. Before you go off on that track figure out your BMR and TDEE. Pick a number over your BMR and under your TDEE.

Now that you did that there is no better time to eat any food. Decide what works for you for the day. My only suggestion is that most people find they want a snack at night so save back 100 calories or so to allow for a little something in the evening.

rduhlir

http://www.fitwatch.com/qkcalc/calories-per-meal.html

EvanKeel

Whatever way is going to be more sustainable for you to do while you're trying to lose weight.

kevin3344

According to what you told MFP you wanted to do it gave you a budget of 1270 calories. That may or may not be a good thing. Before you go off on that track figure out your BMR and TDEE. Pick a number over your BMR and under your TDEE.

Now that you did that there is no better time to eat any food. Decide what works for you for the day. My only suggestion is that most people find they want a snack at night so save back 100 calories or so to allow for a little something in the evening.

This. You'll very quickly find 1,270 is a hard number to hit unless you're exercising a *lot*. My sister-in-law tried 1,200 and eventually settled on 1,500. She still lost 17lbs in 3 months by eating right and walking. You'll see lots on MFP between the 1,500 to 1,700 range.

To answer your question though I usually save most of my calories for dinner...not really a breakfast guy and I don't want to fall asleep after lunch. I do, however, run after work in the summer and I'm hungry! Do what works for you. If you're a morning person, eat then. If you're a night owl, eat more in the evenings...it's really up to you how you want to divide it up.

ashleighlive

According to what you told MFP you wanted to do it gave you a budget of 1270 calories. That may or may not be a good thing. Before you go off on that track figure out your BMR and TDEE. Pick a number over your BMR and under your TDEE.

Now that you did that there is no better time to eat any food. Decide what works for you for the day. My only suggestion is that most people find they want a snack at night so save back 100 calories or so to allow for a little something in the evening.

Also agree!
I was on 1200 when I started here; I would do maintenance calories of 1700 of a weekend.
I now consume 1500 calories (my resting BMR) through the week and try to stay under my maintenance BMR (2200 + exercise performed) of a weekend.
Cycling up and down allows you to live, you can do it week on or week off, I choose the weekends so I don't feel like I am restricting, or missing out on a social life.
If you never feel like you're hungry or missing out on anything why would you cheat?
It will not take you longer to reach your goals, cycling up and down helps eliminate or assist weight plateaus!
It mixes things up and keeps your body guessing, and it may help you to stay on track!

The general recommendation is 3 big meals of 6 small meals.
I personally aim for 300 for B, L & D. That leaves me 600 for snacking, protein shakes, vitamins & coffee... Though I just started drinking black coffee to give me more nutritional cals.

Ultimately you have to find what works for you, and fits your lifestyle.
I wish you all the best with your journey!

auroranflash

If you really want to try to stick with 1270 for a while, just eat when you're hungriest. It's okay to skip meals, it won't affect your metabolism like so many people like to tell you. I usually don't eat until lunchtime around 1pm or 2pm because I like to be able to have an afternoon snack and a larger dinner. If I manage to fit in exercise, I eat some or all of those additional calories as well.

That being said, you may find 1270 is too low for you and you may in fact respond better by increasing your calories some. It may not be as large of a deficit, but you don't want your body to get too used to eating so little that any overage will be instantly stored. That's what happened with me. I would eat 1200-1300 during the week, but any overage on the weekend and I would gain anything I lost right back. I only really started to lose when I ate between 1400-1600 calories -- but when I started being active, I found 1800 calories was a much more sustainable number.

It all depends on how active you are. What works today may not work as time goes on. Take notes and tweak the plan as necessary. Resistance/body weight/strength training helps considerably to change your body composition. The more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate is -- your body needs the extra calories to maintain the muscle, so it evens the playing field a bit.

In fact, some of the most successful women I know here eat between 1800-2800 calories a day and have managed to completely remake their bodies ... without having to dedicate countless hours to the gym each week or give up all of their favourite foods. They just take a logical approach to diet and exercise and make it fit their lifestyle.

If you have time, read over LorinaLynn's blog... she is a prime example of someone who has managed to completely change her body while keeping things logical and sane.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn

She and many more inspirational people can be found in the Success Stories section of the forums. Take a look, get ideas, and run with it.

Best of luck.

mrsvitz

I have been eating 1270 calories since January 1st and have lost over 10lbs now!! It is working well for me. Thanks for all of the advice. I really do appreciate it!!