Find a snack to reach nutrient goals? Or call it a day?

I’ve stayed within my calorie goal for the day, though I fell short on my nutrient goals for protein, fiber and vitamin A. It’s currently 10pm. Do I find a snack to help me get closer to those nutrient goals for today? Or call it a learning experience and do better tomorrow? I’m not hungry so I don’t need a snack, but I know protein is important!

Answers

  • lesdarts180
    lesdarts180 Posts: 3,611 Member

    You don't need to meet your nutrient goals exactly every day - just try to make them average out over a few days or a week. You are learning how to eat well for the rest of your life and life is not exactly the same every day.

    If you are trying to lose weight (as most people on here are) then keeping calories under control is your most important goal.

    Best wishes for the future!

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,361 Member
    edited May 25

    Also keep in mind that the food database is crowdsourced (and food labels don't show necessarily show all the nutrients): many database entries area incomplete, especially for micronutrients like vitamins.

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,795 Member

    Wondering about Vitamin A at 10 pm is probably the better question to ask. 🤔

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,482 Community Helper

    You don't say how many calories are left (or is it no calories left?), or where you are in the process, or how low on those other things, which makes an answer a bit vague.

    Every day doesn't need to be perfect, as lesdarts said. Pretty close on average over a few days, the majority of time - that's fine, in general.

    Lietchi's caution about careful use of the food database, to avoid under-counting nutrients (because of incomplete/inaccurate entries in the crowd-sourced database) is also correct. You may have gotten more of those nutrients in reality than you logged.

    Protein is probably the biggest deal on that list.

    If you're way low on protein, IMO the big deal isn't necessarily snacking your way up to that today, but rather working on your routine eating habits so you're getting close to or above your protein goal most days without having to micromanage that. If it takes a few days to a couple of weeks to get there . . . well, undernutrition isn't instant, y'know? It'll be fine. If you're concerned, some people use protein shakes or bars as part of their daily routine while working things out on the food side. (Putting protein powder in other foods, besides just shakes, is another option.)

    Fiber up or down a little, no big deal, though fiber-rich foods are considered good for us by mainstream experts. Vitamin A in particular is under-counted on food labels and in the food database, plus is one of the fat-soluble vitamins which aren't typically flushed from the body quickly if you get a little extra, as is the case for water-soluble vitamins. Vitamin A deficiency is quite rare in the developed countries, besides.

    If your key goal is weight loss, the calories are the central, direct influence. Nutrition is important, not saying otherwise, but working your way to "pretty good on average" should be fine. This isn't like a magic spell where you have to get every syllable precisely right or bad things happen. 😉😆

    About the calories: You said you were within goal. You didn't say whether you'd fallen short of goal. Maybe this doesn't apply to you: It's generally a bad plan to seriously undercut calories day after day, so don't do that. Fast loss isn't better loss, it's a health risk.

    In general, I'd suggest thinking of this not as "perfecting my diet plan for weight loss" (assuming weight loss is your goal). I'd suggest thinking of this as finding relatively pleasant - at least tolerable and practical - routine new eating and activity habits you can stick with over a long enough period to lose the total amount of weight you want (at a sensibly moderate pace) . . . then continue happily to stay at a healthy weight long term. That's the real prize here.

    Best wishes!