We always hear that we need to eat 3 well-rounded meals per day; breakfast, lunch & dinner. But what our bodies and metabolisms tell us, is that we need to be eating 5 - 6 small meals per day, essentially making each meal a "snack." Also, be sure to be eating every 2 - 3 hours to keep your metabolism boosted throughout the day! Now I have my breakfast foods at breakfast time (within 45 minutes of waking up) and I have my dinner foods at dinner time (chicken, rice, vegetables), but I also eat less of them at one time and spread them out throughout the day. I've recently seen an article that states you should not eat more than 400 - 500 calories in one sitting. This makes sense if your eating 6 times per day!
My Calorie Intake (estimate) Breakdown
Breakfast: 194 calories + Green Tea
Snack: 202 calories
Lunch: 325 calories + Green Tea
Snack: 156 calories
Dinner: 358 calories + Green Tea
Dessert: 169 calories
Daily Calorie Intake = 1,404 calories
If you need help calculating what you should be eating, there are a lot of macro calculators out on the internet. The problem is they give different numbers. In fact, I got different numbers for TDEE, BMR, and Macros from almost every calculator. This makes it difficult to understand what exactly you are supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer or solution to this problem right now, except to use a few different calculators and find values that make sense based on all the given values. Here are a few calculators I used to find my current macros.
Keep in mind, that just because 2 calculators say the same thing, does not mean you should automatically use that count. It could simply mean they used the same formulas.
Now It's important to stick as close as possible to your calorie goals to see the results that you want, but it's also really important to eat when your body tells you it's hungry (when it needs more nutrients). It's also important to know when you are hungry and when you need water! If I'm between meals/snacks then I'll drink half of my Camelbak water bottle and eat up to 5 almonds. That will usually tell me if I'm actually hungry. On the other hand, don't stuff yourself sick. If you're not hungry but you have more calories for the day than you are supposed to consume, it's okay. If this happens repeatedly re-evaluate when you are eating throughout the day, maybe you are eating too little calories in the morning? It's also smart to recalculate your macros every once in a while. Your intake needs to change as your body and goals change.
I'll explain that last sentence. This is the cause for most people to give up on their weight goals. If you found the balance between calorie intake and calories burned, and you're losing weight, don't get discouraged when you stop losing weight. As you lose weight, You are shrinking your stomach and require fewer calories. What I learned is that for every 10 pounds I lost, I had to lower my calorie intake or increase the calories I burn by increasing my workout. But as time went on, and I had lost more than 20 pounds, I found that I didn't have the time to workout longer. A one-hour workout was all the time I could spare. I had to cut my calories further to reach my weight goal.
The trick is to reduce calories without reducing the volume of food. I didn't want to starve myself. That's when I had to change my food plan. I changed to Chicken breasts, vegetables, and fruit every day and only drank water. I ate 5 small meals a day, each about 250 to 300 calories. After a couple of years, I lost 60 pounds and reached my weight goal.
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If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans.
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