Calorie pacing

pdelozier76 · January 2020

How doe this look?

500 165 500 165 500.

And if I earn some more calories that’s tracked on my watch I can a little treat after dinner.

Three meals and two snacks, seems reasonable?

Lobsterboxtops · January 2020

That looks like a good place to start. Listen to your body though and be willing to tweak. It doesn’t matter as much when you eat your calories as long as you are staying within goal. I eat 1/2 of my daily calories for breakfast most days and eat light the rest of the day. That is what works for me, others will eat light in the morning, and have a bigger meal in the evening.

So pick something and be willing to change it up if you find it doesn’t work for you.

RelCanonical · January 2020

Lobsterboxtops wrote: »

That looks like a good place to start. Listen to your body though and be willing to tweak. It doesn’t matter as much when you eat your calories as long as you are staying within goal. I eat 1/2 of my daily calories for breakfast most days and eat light the rest of the day. That is what works for me, others will eat light in the morning, and have a bigger meal in the evening.

So pick something and be willing to change it up if you find it doesn’t work for you.

This is basically what I was going to say except that I eat half my calories at night and light the rest of the day lol. Just shows that you can have success no matter what time a day you eat - a calorie deficit is what's most important. Finding what works for your appetite levels and schedule will help you find success.

apullum · January 2020

There is no universally ideal way to split up calories throughout the day. As long as you’re hitting your calorie goal, you feel satisfied, and you have no medical issues requiring you to eat on a different schedule, then it’s a good plan for you.

NovusDies · January 2020

Unless you are a serious athlete or you have a medical condition how you divide up your calories really comes back to what works best for you. It would be much harder on me to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day but that is me.

When you first start you should not marry yourself to a particular way of eating. You should start with an idea of what seems right and then just try it and see how it works. Keep changing it as needed until you can get through the day in a calorie deficit (the most important part) without it feeling like a nonstop struggle.

liftingbro · January 2020

There are no metabolic advantages worth worrying about by timing meals. So just pick what works for you. Some people find frequent meals keep them from feeling hungry, others don't. Some people choose to eat all their calories in one meal, nothing wrong with that either.

AnnPT77 · January 2020

FWIW, while I was losing, and in 4+ years of maintenance since, my food timing has varied all over the map, on a day to day basis. This was not months at a time of "try this, try that" with different formal schedules, but rather just paying attention to what was going to work best for me on a particular day in terms of convenience, appetite, special events, workout needs, etc. (From memory, I think my extremes were 2 meals/no snacks and pretty close to all-day grazing, IIRC . . . but there was everything in between those extremes, too.)

I've logged intake and exercise most days through that whole time period. I've never observed the slightest impact of my eating schedule on body fat gain/loss.

Sure, eating a big meal right before bed makes the next morning's weigh-in higher (water weight and food in transit, not body fat). And different schedules certainly affected things like appetite/cravings, and maybe energy or sleep - all of which is very personal and individual.

Your schedule will be fine. Any schedule that keeps you full, energetic, well-nourished and happy will be fine.

Calorie pacing

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