How do you share out your calories

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LilBailey
LilBailey Posts: 10
in Food and Nutrition
Someone asked me at work today and I had no idea I had never thought of it. She suggested 300 x 3 meals and 100 x 3 snacks. As an average to aim for. What do other people do?

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  • maremare312
    maremare312 Posts: 1,143 Member
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    It depends on how busy my day is, if I have the time and energy for 6 small meals/snacks I shoot for 200-300 cals each (to equal about 1500 for the day). If I think I'm just going to do 3 meals and maybe 1 snack at night I do 350-400 cal meals + 200ish cal snack (I like my evening crunchy snack). Interesting topic! It is good to think about, if you do a 600 cal breakfast and lunch and then realize you don't have much left for dinner and snack it's kind of a shocker!
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    so the ole 1200 cal nonsense again.

    listen..everyones body is different..there is no set lower level of calories that every person NEEDS or MUST eat blah blah..

    there are tons of different opinions on subjects like this..saying you need to eat a lot to 'maintain your metabolism'..your metabolism goes no matter what..it NEVER stops..if that happened you'd be dead.

    anyways...i suggest you calculate your own EER and reduce from there..no more than 500 cals a day less. i personally dont do more than 200-300 because I want to preserve my muscle mass. i dont really monitor how many cals i eat at any particular time..thats just too much and can discourage people.

    personally i just eat what i eat and make sure i stay under my calories for the day. i eat when i feel hungry. like right now i'm having chips and salsa. for dinner i had a calzone, breakfast i had a bagel, fruit and greek yogurt, and last nights lunch (i work third shift) i had progresso veg soup.


    all those little eat this amount at this time is just one of those tips and tricks that is recommended on little or no scientific backing..just because some celebrity fitness trainer said to do it...
  • LilBailey
    LilBailey Posts: 10
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    The 1200 Cal is becasuse that is my recomened before excersize. Since I sit in an office all day and sometimes don't have the time to do any formal exersize Iike to stick to it. I often find myself at the end of the day with cals left after being hungry duiring the day, so I waste them on crap instead of on good wholesome foods.

    If you dont pay attention to how many you eat at each meal how do you know you stay under each day?
  • maremare312
    maremare312 Posts: 1,143 Member
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    I'm not sure if I read the question the same way you meant it. I was answering on how I spread the calories out during the day based on how many calories I need to eat total. Obviously a guy who eats 2500 cals a day is going to eat more cals at each meal and snack. But....the above answer is how I spread my 1550-ish calories out during the day.

    PS, that is the amount MFP and my nutritionist have set for me. 1200 cals for me is definitely a bit miserable, but that's because of my size and height, some people are shorter and have less to lose and maybe they are set at 1200. I'm 5'7"
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    The 1200 Cal is becasuse that is my recomened before excersize. Since I sit in an office all day and sometimes don't have the time to do any formal exersize Iike to stick to it. I often find myself at the end of the day with cals left after being hungry duiring the day, so I waste them on crap instead of on good wholesome foods.

    If you dont pay attention to how many you eat at each meal how do you know you stay under each day?

    I plan my meals, or at least allocate a rough amount of calories for each meal, that way I know that I will finish the day a little under or over my calorie goal - which is fine by me.

    My day usually works out something like: 300- 400 for breakfast. 100 snack, 4- 500 for lunch, 300 or so afternoon snack, 5- 600 ish for dinner.
    As you can see I eat a whole lot more than 1200 - I couldn't survive on that, and I'm maintaining now (though when I was losing I still ate a minimum of 1400 net cals a day, 1200 would kill me). When I exercise I eat more, usually that means I add extras to lunch or dinner like boiled egg, avocado, cheese etc. Or I have a treat for a snack.

    This pattern of 4 or so meals/snacks a day seems to work well for me - but you really have to experiment to see what makes you feel good. The timing itself won't affect your weight loss, but finding a pattern of eating that works for you, will have an impact.
  • LilBailey
    LilBailey Posts: 10
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    I'm 5'8 and have about 10 or so to lose. I guess that is why mine is low but I dont struggle with it that much so long as I'm not eating junk.

    I need to eat more fruit and veg so I need to add them in somewhere. Making my breaky a bigger cal portion and adding fruit to it could be the way to go.
  • akiramezu
    akiramezu Posts: 278
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    i eat whatever i want, when i want o___O? why complicate things?
  • Meggles63
    Meggles63 Posts: 916 Member
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    anyways...i suggest you calculate your own EER and reduce from there..no more than 500 cals a day less. i personally dont do more than 200-300 because I want to preserve my muscle mass. i dont really monitor how many cals i eat at any particular time..thats just too much and can discourage people.

    personally i just eat what i eat and make sure i stay under my calories for the day. i eat when i feel hungry. like right now i'm having chips and salsa. for dinner i had a calzone, breakfast i had a bagel, fruit and greek yogurt, and last nights lunch (i work third shift) i had progresso veg soup.
    ^^^Truth. Don't make it harder than it has to be. Log what you eat, and stay under or at your calories for the day.
  • littlemissshowoff
    littlemissshowoff Posts: 20
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    I generally have quite a low calorie breakfast (about 250), low-medium lunch (250-400) and have a big(-ish) dinner (~700). That's just what suits me - I dont' like eating in the morning.
  • maremare312
    maremare312 Posts: 1,143 Member
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    i eat whatever i want, when i want o___O? why complicate things?

    That's how I got fat!
  • LilBailey
    LilBailey Posts: 10
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    i eat whatever i want, when i want o___O? why complicate things?

    That's how I got fat!

    Exactly. I am still learning what a lot of things are cal wise. Somethings suprise me after I eat them and put them in I go wow bugger that rules out what I was going to have for tea.
  • robot_potato
    robot_potato Posts: 1,535 Member
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    My meals vary between 250-500 depending on what I feel like, the rest is snacks.
  • petreebird
    petreebird Posts: 344 Member
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    I generally eat between noon or 1 pm and 9 or 10 pm. During that time whatever, whenever. Usually dinner is the biggest meal for me tho.
  • DomesticPirate
    DomesticPirate Posts: 4 Member
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    I spent a couple weeks logging my food on this site, then I went through and figured out how much on average I needed. As of right now my nutrition plan is 300 calories each for breakfast, post-workout snack, lunch, snack, and dessert, which allows me between 500-700 calories for dinner, depending on my workout for the day. I don't feel deprived since I am literally eating all day long, and I get to enjoy dinner with my family without making them feel like they're dieting or needing to make myself a special, separate meal.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    I'm a snacker, I know this, so I allow for that.

    On a typical day I eat about 350-400 for breakfast, 300-350 for lunch and then 300-450 for dinner. Then I have 300-500 for snacks/dessert each day. Those ranges are dictated by what workout I have that day, lower ends for lighter days and higher ends for heavy days.

    Then Sundays are my long run days, and I'm still trying to get myself really figured out with timing and calorie allotment. But I've been doing around 600 or so for breakfast, 500 for lunch, 500 for dinner and then 600 for snacks/dessert.

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