I'd just like some feedback on 'saving calories' .. I know that I do it & Im sure others have done this as well .. Using small calorie portions for some meals to 'save' the bulk for a bigger meal.
Say you have 1200 calories, you eat 200 for breakfast & another 200 for lunch. Would it be healthy or wise to eat 800 calories for dinner? I have done this quite a bit, & I was just wanting some insight from you guys .
My body didn't respond well to that arrangement...first off, I was starving during the day, so it was harder to control myself at dinner (and was uncomfortable). Second, it negatively affected my energy levels, so I couldn't push as hard in workouts, meaning I burned fewer calories. Third, it made it harder to sleep when I ate so many calories late in the day, and lack of sleep was/is a binge trigger for me, plus sleep is important for weight loss in general.
My breakfast is still pretty small, but I keep lunch and dinner the same size (which I accomplish by generally eating dinner leftovers, in the same portion as I ate the night before, for lunch).
If it works for your body, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't work for all bodies, so the potential pitfalls are something to be aware of.
Yes, that's what I thought at first, like it seems like eating all those calories at once would make it harder to burn them all. I wonder if eating more calories for breakfast would be safer; like eating a big healthy breakfast. Seems like that would make me sleepy though, lol.
I guess experimenting with things would be the only way to know for sure ...Thank you for your input.
I tend to eat a larger breakfast and lunch and smaller dinner with small snacks throughout the day. That's what is working for me.
Experiment and journal faithfully - including how hungry you feel throughout the day. Try not only switching up how many calories you're eating at different times of the day, but whether you're eating protein/fat/carbs to get those calories. Protein will likely keep you fuller longer.
I eat a pretty small breakfast, a fruit as a snack, small lunch, then have a more calorie dense snack at the end of my work day (before the gym - always baby carrots and hummus), a moderate dinner, and then another calorie dense snack at night (usually one portion of nuts).
For some reason it's the latter half of the day that is more difficult for me in terms of hunger. I'm pretty much always like this and I do occasional bites of my daughter's foods, etc so there are usually a few more incidental calories.
I'm eating on an IF schedule. My eating window is 2 to 8pm. 2:00ish is usually around 500 calories. 5:30ish is usually a little smaller, maybe 300-400 calories. And then 7:30 is usually 500 or so calories. I love eating this way. I did not do well with the 5-6 smaller meals spaced throughout the day. I always felt hungry. I've always been a nighttime eater anyway so I'm much happier being able to eat more in the evenings.
I don't think there is anything unhealthy or unwise about having a 800 calorie dinner. Your body isn't going to hang on to more of the calories just because you ate them all at the same time.
This isn't exactly what you asked, but there's nothing physiologically "bad" about banking calories until a later meal. The whole "eat-6-meals-a-day-to-keep-metabolism-high" thing is a myth.
When I'm dieting, I like eating a couple of small meals and one bigger meal, rather than three slightly-less-small meals or six miniscule meals. One reason is that I can eat the bigger meal with my family or other non-dieters, and eating the same food they do, just in smaller portions.
I used to have the same problem as mandolinn with getting hungry and then overeating after work. For me, the key seems to be to eat really high protein "meals" at breakfast and lunch, as in 85% of calories or more from protein. So, for example, my breakfast today was egg whites with fresh salsa and coffee with milk. Lunch was chicken breast and fibrous veggies (cauliflower & celery are my favs). I'm not sure what we're having for dinner tonight, but it will have more calories than the other two meals and also more fat/carbs.
If I were to eat the same # of calories at breakfast and lunch, but 85% carbs instead of 85% protein, I'd dive headfirst into the fridge when I got home from work, and not reemerge until bedtime. Doesn't even matter if the carbs are from healthy sources like fruits or veggies or dry whole-wheat bread (um, yum?), or if the other 15% or whatever is from fat. Protein is the key to satiety. (Experimental research bears this out, incidentally, so it's not just me .)
Thanks, P H A T, for raising the question. My biggest motivation (during 2009 when I lost my biggest block of weight) was my metabolism. I wanted it to run like a "Machine". I really thought about it a lot. I thought about the ups and downs from satisfied to hunger or even deprivation. I walked a lot to keep up the "Machine".
I think of evenly paced meals and activity as my own best strategy. I'm losing again to get back to my last low weight and blow past to my ultimate goal. I have less "Machine" mentality but keep pretty much on either 300, 800, 350 plan or 300, 400, 300, 350. I sometimes want to hold off on a meal, for some reason, because I'm thinking "it's so bloomin' small that it'll be over too quickly". However, I've done best when eating basically the same calories (300-350 cals on average) every four hours.
I have favorite meals that I play around with so it's not completely fixed but pretty much that's it. I'm mostly a routine kind of person. So, I eat pretty regularly, walk throughout the whole day, and workout four times a week--like clock work. Course, 3fc really shows that there's a range of what works best for different types.
Thanks to kaw for some great info. I didn't know that about metabolism. Glad I've been less rabid about it. (Still eat pretty re'gler anyway, though ;-)
Last edited by iaradajnos; 04-05-2011 at 02:18 PM.
It's a good question, and I agree that the best way to figure out what works for you is time and careful monitoring (experimentation).
For myself, I eat a lower cal (but protein/fat dense) breakfast, tiny morning snack (some raw veggies), a smaller lunch, a medium afternoon snack after working out, and then my biggest meal is dinner, including a sweet if I have one planned.
Sounds confusing, huh? In numbers, it looks like this:
B - 250-350
S - 50
L - 250-350
S - 150-120
D - 450-650 (higher range is if I have a planned high cal day)
I like making dinner so big because I never snack after dinner, and it keeps me from being hungry at all before bed time. I also like eating all that food.
This is a very interesting question. Have you decided anything from the response?
I was limiting myself to 3 meas a day and banking most of it until dinner. Mainly because late night eating is my weakness so I thought if a filled up a lot at night I wouldn't binge at night.
Recently my trainer and I were trying to make adjustments to my diet to help me through a plateau. Now I am trying to spread my calories out more throughout the day. The first week I did this I had a sudden whoosh of weight loss... but I am not sure if i was the new plan or if it was just time to lose some weight... so I am still tryin to figure out. The one thing that I have found that he told me is that I am truley not hungry at night even though I am eating about 250 calories less. I am kind of happ with this change... just not sure yet if it make s a difference.
Just wanted to add - I tried the whole "5-6 mini-meals" thing and absolutely hated it. I like feeling hungry (not shaky/ravenous hunger, but genuine hunger) and I like feeling full. Eating throughout the day made me never really hungry and never really full and left me constantly wanting to snack. My $.02.
Also, maybe another chick will chime in, but I really feel like it doesn't matter when or how much you eat at specific times, as far as metabolism goes. Even if someone could show me proof that mini-meals would help me lose faster, I'd still rather eat in a way that makes me happy, even if it takes a bit longer to get to goal. No sense making myself miserable on the journey.
This is a very interesting question. Have you decided anything from the response?
I was limiting myself to 3 meas a day and banking most of it until dinner. Mainly because late night eating is my weakness so I thought if a filled up a lot at night I wouldn't binge at night.
Recently my trainer and I were trying to make adjustments to my diet to help me through a plateau. Now I am trying to spread my calories out more throughout the day. The first week I did this I had a sudden whoosh of weight loss... but I am not sure if i was the new plan or if it was just time to lose some weight... so I am still tryin to figure out. The one thing that I have found that he told me is that I am truley not hungry at night even though I am eating about 250 calories less. I am kind of happ with this change... just not sure yet if it make s a difference.
Yeah I think I'll stick with my 350-400 calories per meal & save about 150-300 calories for snack every day .. There will be times when I eat more calories in one setting ;; like if I know Im gonna have a big steak dinner one day; then I'll eat lightly in the day time anyway to keep from feeling stuffed..
Calorie Portions .. a Question!
