I'm a planner. I work best when I have something "concrete" to go by and tend to be a stickler about following rules ... even if they're only my own. I keep meaning to be more diligent in planning my meals and was hoping y'all could give me some input as to how often you eat and how many of your calories go into any given meal/snack/whatever.

Thoughts?

I'm a planner too and it has served me very well thus far. Planning has been a big, huge, gigantic key to my weight loss success thus far.

The breakdown, of course depends on your calorie level.

My breakdown looks something like this:

Breakfast - about 200 calories
Snack - about 100
Lunch - about 300 - 400
Snack - about 100
Dinner - about 400 - 500
Snack - about 100

Sometimes, my snacks are a little smaller and more frequent. Like I'll fit in 2 snacks at 50 calories each, as opposed to the one snack at 100 calories. It depends on my schedule for the day, as my work times vary. Sometimes they'll be higher and again, more frequent if my lunches and dinners are on the lower end.

I make sure those calories are good, satiating ones, by the way. I need to get the most out of them.

I nearly always plan but I don't stick to the same every day.

Today breakfast was 300 calories (yesterday it was 160 both today and yesterday I had/will l have about 1400 calories)
snack - 50 calories
lunch 550 calories
evening meal and remaining snacks will be about 460 calories - i will either have fruit for snack or have it with my evening meal
then hot chocolate before bed for 40 calories

Some days I just eat 3 meals with higher calories, some days 3 smaller meals and 2 or even 3 snacks. Depends on if I have time to snack etc. I always have hot chocolate before bed though

Tomorrow I will eat at my parents' house and they will give us a large meal (1000 calories sometimes, sometimes more). I don't want to discuss my weight with them so will work around that as usual and will have 200 calories for breakfast and 550 max for lunch and no snacks, so that will be 800 calories at home in total including hot chocolate, and hopefully I won't go over 1800 for the day and will have that as a higher calorie day.

I have figured out that I need to have about 900 calories between breakfast, lunch and snack so that I'm not ravenous when I get home from work. My total for the day is about 1600-1700

I tend to eat the same things, or variations of those things, so it's easy to plan:

breakfast:
cereal & milk
or
whole wheat english muffin w/ avocado
or
ww english muffin with eggs

lunch:
some kind of grain
some kind of protein
some kind of veggie

snack:
cheese
or
dried bing cherries

dinner, around 700 calories:
a beer or glass of wine
fish or chicken or beef w/ grain & veggie
fajitas (shrimp, veggies, salsa, whole wheat wrap)
homemade pizza

I track on Sparkpeople.

I am constantly writing out reminders of when and how much to eat. I track on livestrong (dailyplate). Some background: In February I got the Flat Belly Diet book, which has a few basic rules. You are supposed to eat 400 calories 4 times a day, with no more than 4 hours between meals. Each meal is supposed to have a monuunsaturated fatty acid, like avacado, dark chocolate, or almonds. I have altered this to fit my daily life a little more, but I try to incorporate the principles when I can. I still try to stick to 1600 calories, but I eat smaller snacks rather than having 4 meals. So an ideal day looks like this:

Breakfast (6:30): 400 calories--coffee with milk and splenda, 100 Cal English Muffin with 2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter, 1/2 banana

Snack (10:00): 150 calories--handful of almonds

Lunch (12:00): 250 calories--Lean Cuisine and Coke Zero

Snack (2:30): 200 calories--meal replacement bar

Dinner (6:00): 400 calories--varies--I usually just try to watch my portions and then enter on Daily Plate Later

Snack (8:30): 200 calories--Dark chocolate (if I'm good)

Breakfast 9am 2-300 calories
Snack 11am 1-200 calories
Lunch 1pm 2-300 calories
Snack 3pm 1-200 calories
Dinner 6pm 2-300 calories
Snack any time between 7-9pm 1-200 calories

I try to get to 1500 calories a day, but most days it is a struggle to just get 1200! I feel like I stuff my face all day long and am not hungry most of the time, so it is REALLY hard for me to get up to 1500.

Breakfast - 350 -400 kcal
Snack -100-150 kcal(fruit)
Lunch - 400 kcal
Snack - 100-150 kcal (fruit)
Dinner - 300 kcal

Thanks for all the input! I have a BodyBugg so use their system to track and figure out how many calories to consume/burn (currently I'm set at a consume goal of 1800 and burn goal of 2450). They have sample meal plans on the site but I really don't even look at them (too many supplements and just plain odd choices!). I work 3rd shift and tonight will probably be super-slow so I hope to sit down for a while and see if I can come up with a game plan

I'm a planner too.

My day usually looked like:

Breakfast - about 150 calories
Snack - about 150
Lunch - about 300
Snack - about 150
Dinner - about 300
Snack - about 250 (usually includes a glass of dry red wine) and a high protein snack