How do you break down your meals?

kimgravel
kimgravel Posts: 32
in Food and Nutrition
Do you allot a certain % of your daily calories per meal? Do you wing it during the day and adjust your dinner accordingly? I just worked out my averages over the last little while and it works out to:

Breakfast: 15%
Mid morning snack: 7.5%
Lunch: 30%
Dinner:36.5%
Evening: 11%

I know everyone is different, but I'd just like to get a good idea of what works for other people. Thanks!

Replies

  • Halcyon3608
    Halcyon3608 Posts: 28 Member
    I allow myself 1500 calories per day, broken down as follows:

    Breakfast: 350 (23.3%)
    Lunch: 350 (23.3%)
    Dinner: 600 (40%)
    Snacks: 200 (13.3%)

    However, every day ends up being a little different. My breakfast today was only 240 calories, my lunch will be 460, I brought cupcakes to work for St. Patrick's day so my snack will go up to 240, I'm walking home to the tune of 250, and dinner will be whatever's left.
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,089 Member
    For me its more or less this:

    Lunch 600-800
    Snacks 400-200
    Dinner 600

    total 1600
    more on weekends,
    post workout counted separetly
  • Floridaboiler
    Floridaboiler Posts: 51 Member
    I honestly just wing it, I eat pretty much the same thing every breakfast, my lunches are similar and then dinner varies. I just work hard to control the snacking so I can hit my daily goal.
  • LordBezoar
    LordBezoar Posts: 625 Member
    I honestly just wing it, I eat pretty much the same thing every breakfast, my lunches are similar and then dinner varies. I just work hard to control the snacking so I can hit my daily goal.

    This pretty much sums up my methodology as well.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    I am not the calculating type. I try to keep my main meal calories low because I like to eat all day long.
  • _GlaDOS_
    _GlaDOS_ Posts: 1,520 Member
    No. I just eat.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    I wing it. But I get a little twitchy if, after lunch, I don't have about 1000 calories to use for dinner and an evening snack.
  • bigd65
    bigd65 Posts: 171 Member
    I also wing it but I add about 350 cals a day first thing in the morning for exercise, even though i workout in the evening. So if I go over 350 cals doing the exercise its a bonus. I take all my calories for that day and divide it by 7 meals last one being at 7:30 p.m. and just make sure by the end of the day I am under all my totals. Most of the time I am over on protein by about 100 grams and over on fiber by about 25 grams but everything else I stay under and i never have a chance to get hungry, sometimes it hard to eat all the calories but I lose weight and have to workout because I already have put my exercise cals in the mix
  • Snapplejac
    Snapplejac Posts: 65 Member
    Quite a big breakfast, good sized lunch, less for dinner.
  • jewol
    jewol Posts: 74 Member
    My average daily calorie total is 1,625. That breaks down as follows:

    Breakfast - 24% (about 400 calories)
    Mid-morning snack - 10% (about 155 cals)
    Lunch - 23% (about 385 cals)
    Mid-afternoon snack - 9% (about 125 cals)
    Dinner - 34% (about 560 cals)
  • Aureilie
    Aureilie Posts: 213 Member
    I eat pretty much the same things for breakfast and lunch every day so it usually ends up breaking down to:

    Breakfast: 12%
    Lunch: 29%
    Dinner: 40%
    Snacks: 19%

    The snacks percentage floats around a bit, I don't always use it all or sometimes I'll have a bigger meal and less snacks but that's a roughly accurate breakdown.
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
    Totally wing it. I quite often have the same breakfast and similar lunch while dinner varies but, like yesterday, I was meeting a friend for lunch at a sandwich shop with huge yummy sammies so I ate a smaller breakfast and smaller dinner and really enjoyed a pig-out lunch. As long as the calories fit the goals and the macros are close enough, it's all good.

Categories