Need ideas for spreading 1,200 calories

The peanut butter sandwich i am eating now is 279 calories...
natures own sandwich thins- 100
smuckers sugar free jelly-10
naturally more PB-169

One thing that I did was edit my diary so that in addition to breakfast, lunch, dinner, I had mid-morning snack, afternoon snack, and late / after workout snack. This helped me really spread out my calories in a chronological order instead of clumping the snacks at the bottom. A "snack" should be under 200 calories - so, some rice cakes, or a special k bar, a piece of fruit, some yogurt, a cup of crackers, etc. I would advise trying to make your snacks more in the calorie zone of what a snack should consist of. Even oatmeal, which is super filling, can be only 110 calories - yay!! By doing this, you can snack more often, which means you won't be STARVING and therefore pig out at meal times - this is a plus! Feel free to friend me and look at my diary to look at what kind of snacks I eat throughout the day!

As for dinner, I try to stay around 500-600 calories. I'll have a side salad instead of bread, I'll try to eat veggies instead of french fries, that sort of thing! Working out will obviously help too, then you can eat back your exercise calories!

I try and put all my food in for the day in the morning so I know how much I have for snacks during the day. I do a menu every two weeks for dinner so that makes it easy for me to enter my food in the morning plus I think it helps me to stick to my food plan. You are welcome to look my food diary. I love the wheat sandwich thins and I usually only need about 1/2 tbsp on each side and a little of the sugar free jelly. It only makes it about 200 calories. I also found that Peter Pan makes a whipped peanut butter and 2 tbsp. is only 150 calories. I also eat the Kraft 100 calorie cheese packs for my snack.

if you're having days where you eat up to 3000 calories... i'd suggest not trying to go so low at 1200... maybe stick to 1500 or 1600... lose weight slowly but consistently. eat enough so that you aren't ravenous. what kinds of foods are you eating? are you drinking a lot of water, having a lot of seasonal fruits and veggies and beans and stuff that takes up a lot of space for less calories? yogurt? soups? jello? there are a lot of options. i still manage to have chocolate or something treat-like almost every day while not eating too too much.

sample day for me:

a bunch of scrambled egg whites, an apple and some plain old fashioned oatmeal for breakfast

vegetable soup and fruit and a small sandwich for lunch

fruit or vegetables for a snack, sometimes pretzels or a snickers marathon dark chocolate crunch bar

a wrap or veggie burger or beans/rice or veggie stir fry for dinner

a latte or something with a bit of chocolate for dessert/evening snack

usually I get around 1600-1700 a day, but I also run/do the equivalent on elliptical or bike or whatever for at least 3-4 miles a day minus a rest day here and there

My goal is 1,200 a day and I have stuck to it pretty well. If you wanted to look at my food diary just send me a friend request. Keep in mind in the food diary history when you exercise it raises your calorie goal so don't let that confuse you.

I try to stay away from breads and stick to meat, rice, veggies, salad. One of my favorite snacks is vanilla yogurt with fresh strawberries and some granola in it or a banana.

You could always eat celery with a light coating of peanut butter inside of it or some low fat cottage cheese.

Not sure if this will help you but I wish you luck

Hello,

I can relate to your story.
For snack options I may have a cup of low-fat yogurt with berries or
a handful of nuts- almonds, walnuts or
a cup of fresh fruit or
hummus and pita chips

For dinner I tend to choose baked/grilledchicken breast with sauted veggies or
baked/grilled fish with brown rice or sauted veggies or
veggies stir fry w/chicken or
hearty salad with grilled chicken or fish w/ lite or low fat dressing

I hope that helps you out. Good luck.

I took a quick glance at your diary to see what you were doing and you were right, dinner and snacks seem to be your downfall. dinner was hard to tell what you were doing since you utilize the quick add calories a lot. chocolate seems to be your main weakness in the snack area.

Snacking in and of itself is not bad. You just need to substitute some healthier, bulkier items and cut back on the chocolate. I am actually a grazer myself and eat lots of small things throughout the day and have a hard time getting all my calories in! I eat things like yogurt, cottage cheese, wasa crackers, popcorn (although I have to be careful there since I like it buttery!), fruit, carrot sticks throughout the day. This keeps me from feeling hungry and grabbing a less filling high calorie snack and then another. If you need your chocolate, don't deny yourself, just limit yourself to a piece or two a day or find some lower calorie alternatives. I really like the jello chocolate mousse temptations.

As far as dinner goes, I try and have lean meat or fish flavored with herbs, not sauces. For convenience, since I live alone, I end up nuking a lean cuisine meal about half the time too.

I think you need to plan ahead a little bit more. If you put your food in in the morning and then just modify it if it ends up changing throughout the day, you can think ahead and make better choices rather than waiting til you're hungry and giving in to the cravings.

Here's a few suggestions on switching out your heavy, creamy snack foods with a lighter healthier option. I found a really good chocolate peanut butter protein shake. It's ISO FLEX whey protien. 118 calories a scoop, 1g carbs and 27g protein. Blended with fat free milk and some ice and you have a choco peanutbutter milk shake that's under 200 calories and fat free. Id try laughing cow cheese wedges at 35 calories a wedge instead of the high fat and calorie cream cheese. If you're going to eat carbs try to sub them out for the whole grain or whole wheat slternative. and try to keep them at 1/2 c servings. If you cook wheat pasta and brown rice or whatever grain you choose in fat free chicken stock, it adds a ton of flavor without allt he fat and extra calories. Choose whole fruit and low starchy veggies with hummus or fat free yogurt for your snacks...

Friend me and take a look at my diary if you need some more options...this past weekend was my first cheat days in three weeks so try to look past them. Good luck!