Divvying up my calories.

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Shellbug75
Shellbug75 Posts: 74 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all. I am staying under my daily calories, but I have a question. Does it matter that I use the majority of my calories for dinner? I am doing a little over 1200 calories a day, but sometimes my dinner accounts for half of that.

Should I try to even out my caloires more or maybe just exercise after dinner instead of after lunch? I'm so clueless :flowerforyou:

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  • TheBigFish711
    TheBigFish711 Posts: 98
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    For me, I am at about 1600 calories, and I spread them pretty evenly. If you have one meal that's noticeably large than the others, I would suggest maybe having that for lunch. It would probably make you less hungry at dinnertime anyhow. But as long as dinner isn't very late, it probably does not make much of a difference!

    Keep up the awesome work!! =)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Not really. When you eat should be based on:

    1) personal preference
    2) adherence
    3) quality of sleep
    4) energy levels during your workouts

    .
  • BlackKat75
    BlackKat75 Posts: 210 Member
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    Find out what works for you that keeps you at your daily calorie goal. Some people swear by lots of smaller meals throughout the day. I tried that and I just felt hungry all the time. Some people swear by a big lunch - that makes me sleepy for the afternoon. What works for me is a biggish breakfast, small lunch, and big dinner. It's all a function of calories in / calories out, it doesn't matter when you eat those calories other than the fact that timing may affect your feelings of hunger, so may make it harder for you to stick to your plan.
  • spinnybecky
    spinnybecky Posts: 28
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    I was trying 25/50/25 % of calories for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner, with no snacks for awhile, and I found it very good for my overall energy levels. At nearly 1800 cal/day that meant that I got to eat 900 calories for lunch, which was actually kind of challenging! But it meant that I had absolutely no inclination to snack during the afternoon (a usual problem area for me) and it wasn't hard to eat a lighter dinner (450 calories). I've kind of slipped out of that habit...I do like to have snacks with the kids sometimes or a larger dinner with the family in the evening, but I might try to get back to it. I say, just experiment and see what works for you! I've thought maybe 30/40/30 would be a little bit more reasonable.

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