I'm curious how other people are breaking up their calories. My typical plan tends to work, but I like hearing what other people are doing that works for them. Here's how it USUALLY goes. (as we all know, it doesn't always work.
Breakfast: 400 calories including about 11-15g. fiber and 25g. protein.
Lunch: 350 calories
Snack: 250 calories
Dinner: 350 calories
Snack: 200 calories
That leaves around 50 for incidentals, like the cream in my coffee, the calories in the Emergencee fizzy vit.C packet I have in the morning, etc. Some days my afternoon snack is closer to 300, so I end up around 1650 and that's fine. I need that snack or by the time I get home I'll go on a full out binge. I try for no more than 3 hours between breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.
Anyway, just interested in how you all break it down.
I eat 8-9 times/day...so mine looks like this:
b - 219 cals
s - 139 cals.
s- 120 cals.
l - 350 cals.
s - 120 cals.
s- 80 cals.
s - 70 cals.
d - 350-400 cals.
s - 45-80 cals.
I tend to "backload" my calories as I like to have a more substantial dinner. I try to stay between 1400-1600 most days (I seem to average around 1550 overall).
Breakfast: 200
AM Snack: 100
Lunch: 350
afternoon snack: 100
after work snack: 75-100
Dinner: 550-650
evening snack: 100
If I have a lighter dinner I may add an extra snack in the evenings (i.e., popcorn for a movie night.)
I am unusual because I prefer to just eat three meals. No snacking (except for the freedom for a 100-200 treat if I'm craving something, but that usually is right after lunch or dinner).
8am (breakfast) - 350-400 cal
Noon (lunch) - 250-300 cal
7pm (dinner) - 600-800 cal
Some days Im just over 1400 cal and others in the 1700s. I try to focus more on weekly averages. I try not to go too low though.
I am unusual because I prefer to just eat three meals. No snacking (except for the freedom for a 100-200 treat if I'm craving something, but that usually is right after lunch or dinner).
8am (breakfast) - 350-400 cal
Noon (lunch) - 250-300 cal
7pm (dinner) - 600-800 cal
Some days Im just over 1400 cal and others in the 1700s. I try to focus more on weekly averages. I try not to go too low though.
This sounds a lot like me, actually. I'd started off eating six little meals, but they kind of got rolled up into the more traditional three plus what I guess Taco Bell would call "fourthmeal."
For me at 1500 calories, this is typical:
Breakfast (10:00) -- 250-400 calories
Lunch (around 3:00) -- 300-400 calories
Dinner (around 7-8:00) -- 400-600 calories
Fourthmeal (around midnight) -- whatever's left over that adds up to 1500 or fewer calories.
Those times are very approximate; I work at home and apparently hail from a planet with 29-hour days, so my sleep cycle kind of drifts around on the clock. The spacing of meals is generally pretty similar, though. I'm getting good at listening to when I'm actually hungry instead of when I just want to nosh.
Breakfast - 300 (some days more depending on what I'm having)
Snack - 200
Lunch -- 500
Snack -- 100
Dinner -- 400
If I work out, I'll have another snack after dinner. I tend to like lighter dinners, heavier lunches or breakfasts. I usually eat dinner before I work out and the workouts take away any hunger I might have afterwards.
I am unusual because I prefer to just eat three meals. No snacking (except for the freedom for a 100-200 treat if I'm craving something, but that usually is right after lunch or dinner).
8am (breakfast) - 350-400 cal
Noon (lunch) - 250-300 cal
7pm (dinner) - 600-800 cal
Some days Im just over 1400 cal and others in the 1700s. I try to focus more on weekly averages. I try not to go too low though.
I used to just do 3 meals but find I like to do the afternoon snack to give me a boost for my workout. So I should probably really refer to it as a pre-work out snack but I do have it on my days off. Granted, it's always an orange so I don't think it's hurting me on my day off.
I would definitely say though that I have 3 meals with 2 snacks not 5-6 small meals. That I can't do. I need my big 3.
Manders,
I doubt the orange on your day off would do you any harm!
Like you, I couldn't do the grazing thing. As long as I get plenty of protein when I do eat, I'm really not hungry with long time periods between eating.
I haven't ever tried the 6 small meals a day, but I think for me that might backfire because I'd constantly be thinking about food. Id either be eating, digesting, or getting ready to eat again, all day long!
That obviously works well for lots of folks but for me personally it would not be a good fit.
I do 6 meals a day. I eat ever 2 hours. I don't get hungry So I don't need the big meals. I find that eating before I get hungry stops the over eating dead in it's tracks. My first meal is at 11am and last 9 or 9:30pm before bed. I also now sleep through the night with out getting up and raiding.
Those times are very approximate; I work at home and apparently hail from a planet with 29-hour days, so my sleep cycle kind of drifts around on the clock. . . ..
Too funny! I have a different schedule on the weekends - breakfast is my favorite meal (and there's no time for anything but yogurt and juice on workdays), so I sleep in, eat breakfast later and it could be as much as 800 cal, and then either one meal much later in the day for the other 800 or two more 400 cal meals at say 2pm and 7pm.
I'm trying now to follow the basic outline of the Flat Belly Diet, but with my own modifications. (Like, the only animal I eat is salmon and I have celiac so can't do gluten.)
So the last two days my days looked like this:
Breakfast: 400
three and a half hours later, Lunch: 400
three hours later, Snack: 200
three hours later, Dinner: 400
1 hour later, 'desert': 200
I put that in quotes because it was plain NF yogurt with strawberries and a little bit of dark chocolate, but SO GOOD.
I know it's not vastly different than my previously listed calories, but there's a main difference: The FBD wants you to have a monounsaturated fatty acid with each meal, so nuts, seeds, olive oil, salmon, dark chocolate and avocado are examples. I did find that by adding roughly 100 calories of MUFA to each main meal and having my snacks consist of 100 cals MUFA and 100 other cals, I was way less hungry in between meals that usual, and MUCH more full at the end.
So yesterday I had for breakfast a smoothie and oatmeal that had almond butter in it, lunch was home made polenta with veggies and just under a Tbs. of olive oil, snack was an apple with 100 calories almonds, dinner was rice, black beans, veggies, spinach, peanut sauce and sesame oil (SO GOOD), and desert was as explained above.
I'm going to stick to this model for a week or two and see how it makes me feel, but the first two days have been a really great success in terms of hunger moderation. No clue how that will work to prevent emotional eating, but we'll see.
Yay for 1600. I aim for about 400-450 per meal, then feel free to snack smartly (and write it down of course). The 400-450 meals have really helped me get my portions under control. Like, uh, I don't need to eat an entire pizza to feel full. I'm loving it so far.
For those eating 1600/day
