I am supossed to eat about 1400 calories a day. After dinner I usuallyrealize I have only ate about 1000 to 1100. Should I eat something to hit my calories for the day even if it is around 7:30-8? I feel like everhing I eat a night will hinder my weight loss. I know I should adjust what I eat during the day and have a light dinner, but if I did not do this on some days what would you guys suggest? Thanks.

People argue with this, but I eat what I planned. These are my reasons:

I know my hunger-sense is poor. That's how I got to 300 lbs in the first place. It's easier for me to just follow the plan, not second guess it either way.

If I don't eat my calories, even though I am not hungry NOW, I'll likely be hungrier tomorrow, so then I have another irregular day. I hate breaking routine and having to think about things/make choices. Easier to stick to the plan.

I tend to think that if I CAN do something, I SHOULD do it. So if I eat under my calories for a day or two, that becomes my new "goal" and then I am hungry all the time and tempted and I can't figure out why sticking to plan is suddenly so hard (well, duh, I'm eating less. But I forget that my new normal is new). Then I give up entirely because I am clearly a weak pathetic idiot who can't control herself.

For these reasons I have found it's better to eat what I planned. Others have different neurosis, and may have different advice.

*For ME*, I usually eat the majority of my calories for the day after 6pm. Every "diet" I had ever been on always told me I shouldn't eat more at night...and every "diet" I ever did I failed at because I was an evening eating kind of gal. SOOO, this time I decided to Heck with the "rules". If I was more hungry at night than I'll eat more at night. So I did...and here I am, at goal for longer than I've EVER been "thin" in my life and still eating the majority of my calories in the evening. Do what works for YOU.

If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. Hang in there and have a snack if you are hungry in the evening.

That phrase made me grin; what a perfect way to put things!

I'm another eat-what-I-planned type, and for much the same reasons. I have a bad habit of mentally patting myself on the back when I'm under my 1500-calorie mark and feeling gross when I exceed it. It's something I struggle very hard not to do because I don't like giving what I eat that kind of emotional weight.

Part of not granting food emotional weight is eating what I set out to eat, no more and no less, the majority of the time. I mean, if you're feeling ill or are super-tired, then yeah, missing your last snack and shorting yourself a few calories won't hurt--but if you're refraining just because it's well past dark, go ahead and eat. There's no persuasive evidence that night-time eating adds more weight than any other kind (although you may notice a little extra on the scale the next morning; hey, even if it's just sitting in your guts and hasn't turned into fat, it still weighs something).

Lori, thank you so very much for posting your experience. I get all bent out of shape b/c I too am a late day eater, I seem to consume the most calories during dinner because this is when I am the most hungry for the day.

I am now going to put this idiotic spazzing out thinking to rest and go with what eating schedule fits me most.

I have been trained by my weight loss app to be glad when under calories. This is because under is green, over is red. red=bad, anything green must = good! I'm not sure if its a bad thing, cause I'm usually not too hungry and I don't plan my day by cals, I just log them when I eat and fit stuff in. when I'm under because it subtracts exercise, that's ok, but lately I've been under my recommended 1200 in total intake, not adjusted for exercise and I wonder if less is good for loss or bad.

I like to look at my cal. goal as a range. Right now it is 1550 so I am happy as long as I am within a few hundred cal.s either way. So in a way I calorie cycle, I just do not plan the cycle strictly.

At the end of any given period of time CCing, if I average my cal.s they usually are right at 1550.

Some research has shown that eating under 1200 may slow your metabolism and subsequent progress! I'd keep my calories over that...and even higher at the 1400 cal. goal if you workout!

Oh and I agree...It doesn't matter what time you eat...that's a myth. It's calories in vs. calories out that counts...not the time of day. I eat all the way up to bed time, about every 2-3 hrs...and I've been losing steadily!

Thanks for all the feedback. I feel alot better knowing that if I don't eat all of them I can still loose weight. I was worried about my body thinking it needed to slow down my metabolism due to it not having the suggested calories.