How do you get enough calories when eating healthy?

I eat full fat foods mostly. small breakfast 160 cals or so. My lunch is usually a giant chicken sandwich with mayo and cheese. about 600 or so cals. Dinner for me is whatever. we make a weekly menu so i can count calories and the kids now whats coming. But that always has a salad involved and 350 calories of peanut butter on toast for me. I usually get about 350 extra calories a day and eat about half of them to come in at 2000 or so calories a day. My diary is open if youd like to look.

Food prep, and if you aren't getting your full calories...give Shakeology a try. I always manage to eat enough, but when I started out I did the Shake-o thing, and it helped me tremendously.

What's wrong with vending machine food? If your diet is balanced and you're typically eating nutrient dense foods, it won't hurt to eat things not so nutritionally dense. Here's a good read

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Your fats are really low. Is there a medical reason for that? A lot of dieters automatically associate low fat with healthy, but it's the opposite. Our body needs fats. They regulate our hormones, help out with cell regrowth and vitamin absorption. Add back in some of those healthy fats. Olive oil, cheese, dairy, avocado, nuts & nut butters. You can increase each meal by just a few hundred calories without adding a lot of extra food to your stomach.

Whole grain cereal, bread, pasta. Ribeyes. Nuts. Peanut butter. Ice cream. Cheese. Eggs. Just because something is high in calories, doesn't make it "unhealthy". Vending machine emergency foods aren't bad as long as this isn't the source of the majority of your nutrition.

ETA: Just checked out your diary image. Green beans and 4.8oz of chicken is all you had for dinner? Are you satisfied and full after only that? I realize that not all people like to eat the HUGE amounts of food in one sitting like I do, but that just seems like way too little food. Perhaps you are inside your own head too much about good food vs. bad food, unhealthy vs. healthy? Just try to get more calorie dense foods in your day as much as you can.

What about making your portions smaller but eating more meals throughout the day? Some say try having six meals a day- not too small but something enough to satisfy you. Include hefty amounts of vegetables and protein and be sure to drink a lot of water!

Well...you are eating a fiber bar for lunch. Eat real food! Plain green beans sound so sad, cook them in butter or oil. Snack on some nuts. Done.

1. For the vast majority of people, according to the majority of the research, meal timing doesn't matter. If it's easier for you to eat one gigantic meal a day, there's nothing wrong with that.

2. It looks like you're deciding that certain foods are 'good' and certain foods are 'bad,' based on the "eat healthy" intro and the sample diet you've linked. Provided your foods give you adequate macros (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids), and you're meeting your micronutrient goals - either through the foods themselves, a supplement, or a combination thereof - there aren't 'bad foods' except those that are bad for you *personally* due to an allergy or other specific medical issue. Don't treat lipids as the enemy unless your doctor tells you to, for example.

3. TL; DR - Eat more food and hit your macronutrient goals.

This. 100% this.

^^ Agree

The second photo shows that your daily goal is 1200 calories, and as a man, you will likely need far more than that to sustain workouts and/or existing. You don't have to cut back as far as you think, and stop trying to think about "eating healthy". As others have said, you don't need to eat 3 meals a day if you don't want to, and you don't have to eat diet foods.

Also, you protein and fat levels look a little low.

I second reading this link:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

1. For the vast majority of people, according to the majority of the research, meal timing doesn't matter. If it's easier for you to eat one gigantic meal a day, there's nothing wrong with that.

2. It looks like you're deciding that certain foods are 'good' and certain foods are 'bad,' based on the "eat healthy" intro and the sample diet you've linked. Provided your foods give you adequate macros (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids), and you're meeting your micronutrient goals - either through the foods themselves, a supplement, or a combination thereof - there aren't 'bad foods' except those that are bad for you *personally* due to an allergy or other specific medical issue. Don't treat lipids as the enemy unless your doctor tells you to, for example.

3. TL; DR - Eat more food and hit your macronutrient goals.

What's wrong with vending machine food? If your diet is balanced and you're typically eating nutrient dense foods, it won't hurt to eat things not so nutritionally dense. Here's a good read

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

All the above. And for the second quoted item, wanted to add this quote to emphasize it:

"Once our nutrient needs are met, we don’t get extra credit for eating more nutritious food!' - Eric Helms

Hello,
Up until a few weeks ago I had one large meal every day, and most of the time it was eating out or pasta made at home. I also often had one random snack out of the vending machine at work for something to hold me off. Clearly unhealthy. So I started trying to eat healthier a couple of weeks ago (and also started going to the gym every day).

However, my issue is that I cannot figure out how to eat healthy and get enough calories at the same time. I eat enough food to make me full and I am no where even remotely near my 2k calories.

For example: http://imgur.com/RVgAbhC

I am new to this whole 'eating more than one meal a day' thing, and just need some help balancing what I eat. I've lost about 10lbs in the last two weeks and I'm not sure if that's healthy or not. Anyhow, thanks for any assistance!

Brandon

If you prefer to eat one big meal per day there's really no problem as meal timing has been shown to make little difference in the long run. There's also nothing wrong with a vending machine snack provided your nutritional needs are met with the rest of your diet.

If your old routine suited your lifestyle, perhaps it could be just a matter of making a few small changes to it. For example, continue with your large daily meal but make sure you track the calories in it and try to have a variety of different meals, not the same thing each night. Have smaller snacks throughout the day which may include yogurt or fruit or nuts etc., but not all vending machine junk type food. The important thing is to keep in a calorie deficit and hit your macronutrients and micronutrients. If you don't eat a wide variety of foods, a multivitamin may help with meeting your micronutrients.

The Sexypants thread on MFP is brilliant IMO and I don't think you could go wrong having a read and seeing how you can apply it to your lifestyle and preferences.

I'm on my iPad and it's difficult to link. I'll get back with a link if someone doesn't beat me to it.