Question?

I have been following this diet for only a week (1200 calories a day)but I have recently gotten to where I am only eating 400 calories during the day, leaving me with 800 for dinner. Does anyone know if this is okay? I have always thought that you had to divide it up more, which I have been doing. I eat six small meals a day, but this is leaving me with 800 to divide up between my two evening meals.

try adding protein of some sort to each of your meals. It will provide you with a more even disbursment of calories throughout the day and help maintain your appetite. You should try to divide your calories up as evenly as possible to help sustain cravings and stay on track.

See and that is probably where there is an issue. I am a vegetarian so I don't get a lot of protein. I drink milk and eat eggs, but I do not eat meat.

What about beans and lentils? It is best to even out your calories. Some have more luck if they eat more calories earlier in the day than later.

I do something similar. I have about 1000 calories during the day and save 600 to 800 for dinner. No ill effects that I can find so far.

The short answer is that it shouldn't cause any long term problems, but you might find yourself less hungry throughout the day if you even those calories out a bit.

try peanut butter and there are veggies and some fruits that are high in protein or even the vegetarian options of meat like morning star and boca, there are also cereals high in protein and bars.

Okay thanks everyone!

To the original question posted ~ I am also veg and have been for awhile now, tho much stricter than what you said you were. About restricting thru the day and then loading at night: you should eat the bulk of your calories earlier in the day and cut back as the day goes on. The goal being that you would have burned up the majority of what you've eaten. If you wait until late in the day, when you are about to go to bed, then you are waiting until your metabolism is at its slowest. Also, you could try not to eat anything after 6 or 7pm. Hope this helps, good luck!

It doesn't really matter when you eat your calories, in terms of the whole calories in versus calories out equation. There are definite metabolism benefits to making sure you get a steady influx of calories throughout the day, but as long as you're eating regularly during the day time hours, I doubt you'll experience ill effects.

Just look up the "Big Breakfast" diet. I'm not sure if its on here, but you certainly can Google it. It bases it's whole idea off starting the day with the bulk of your intake and then not so much as the day progresses. Of course, they want you to eat meat and I would never suggest that, maybe a nice tofu scramble. The danger that you put yourself in by waiting, is possibly overeating at the end of the day or just simply making bad choices because of your hunger speaking. I used to fall into that cycle more than I cared to... Then it leaves you with the feeling of failure, rather than success. I have a hard time myself trying to follow this, but I've known a lot of trainers who had success with it. Doesn't hurt to see if its what may work with your body.

Katana - Great job on the current wieght lose!

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080617/big-breakfast-diet-helps-shed-pounds

This is an article that details a study on the big breakfast diet and the benefits

That is a very interesting read. Thank you for posting it!

Attenuate: thanks for the kind words!

I understand the benefits of having a filling breakfast that includes protein and carbs, but I do have some problems with the conclusions of that study. Isn't it equally possible that the low-cal dieters regained and the BB dieters continued to lose because the BB plan included more carbohydrate-rich foods and because their intake was slightly higher overall? We all know that eating too little or depriving yourself too much can, for many people, backfire thanks to a negative effect on the metabolism, not to mention an increased tendency to binge when dietary restrictions are taken away.

It's a very interesting article, but I don't know if it's a good idea to jump to the conclusion that a 600+ calorie breakfast is the best way to eat just based on this study. Nobody here seems to be saying that, necessarily, but I feel the need to mention that there appear to be some flaws in the study's method. Of course, I'm basing my conclusion on an article summary, not on the study itself, so I might not have gotten the whole picture. Still, the test controls seem less than perfect. A much better test would have been to have the two groups eat the same foods and the same caloric content, but to break it into different portions throughout the day.

What can I say? I'm a natural skeptic.

It probably is better to spread our eating evenly & to around every 3hrs to control blood sugar. But I don't think it matters that much when we eat our calories as long as we are getting in less than we burn.

The body is very good at adapting to our eating patterns. I find that if I eat more in the morning for a few days then my body will adapt & I will wake up hungry, while if I eat more in the evenings for a few days again my body will adapt & I wont get hungry until the evening. Either way I still lose.

The most important thing I thing for weight loss is filling whole foods such as fruit & veg. Or if on a Ketogenic diet then low carb foods. Either way it's about controlling your blood sugar levels.

Katana:

I had the same reservations as you did about the study. Their seemed to be some inconsistencies in the study, judging from the article. It makes sense that they were not as hungry throughout the day, therefore helping to cut craving. However, as far as long-term maintenence goes, studies have shown, over and over, that a low-carb diet is not effective in maintaining weight loss. When it comes to keeping it off, you have to make a lifetime choice of healthy eating, and getting enough of each food group.

ebivr: Yeah, it really depends on what is best for you. As long as you're getting a good balance of healthy foods, I don't think your mealtimes and meal sizes are really all that important. Smaller, well-spaced meals work very well for me, but a big breakfast might work better for someone else. I don't necessarily think that the study is wrong per se, just that the controls and method were serious obstacles in drawing a clear, specific conclusion. There were far too many other factors involved that they did not account for (but at least they were open about them).

lmrainw: I agree completely. I don't generally approve of low-carb diets and never have. I am a little confused about one thing, though. The second half of your post sounded like you were cautioning me against low-carb diets, when my last post was championing diets with plenty of carbs...I think we're actually saying the same thing about the study AND about carbs, and one or the other of us is misunderstanding at least part of the other's post.

Anyway, doesn't matter much. I just wanted to clear of any confusion people might have had regarding my position on that study.

Another way to get more calories in your day since you're a vegetarian, is to maybe eat a handful of nuts here and there for a snack. Pretty much every nut is a high calorie although a good fat for you to diet. They're also very filling so I usually snack on a few about 30 minutes before dinner so I don't overeat!

katana_x: I'd say that the skepticism is well placed. However, I'm always thrilled when someone posts sources for information. There is a lot of myth about health, diet, and weight loss floating around, so something that can be held to the light of scrutiny is always a win in my book.

That said I'd like to try that diet, starting today. I have a hard cap on the number of calories (between 1600 and 1800). I will maintain that cap but switch the number of calories for breakfast from ~300 to ~600, reducing the number of snacks I eat throughout the day. I'll maintain that diet for a 10 day period and see what happens. If it doesn't change much I'll try it for a month. If there is more than a 2% weight gain (i.e. 5 lbs) I'll stop. I will not adjust my exercise frequency or duration at all.

My hypothesis here is that it won't change much in my weight loss pattern (losses followed by plateaus). This will demonstrate that calorie dispersion over a 24 hour period doesn't matter much.

It will be only a single data point, so not great for statistical analysis purposes. However, for inductive reasoning you can't beat it.

Excellent plan! Now *that's* the scientific spirit!

I'd be more willing to try something like this, personally, if I were actually capable of eating larger breakfasts. As of right now, I often have to work to get as much as 300 calories in the morning. I went from not eating breakfast at all for nearly 15 years to eating breakfast every day, and I'm simply not able to add more to my early-morning intake just yet. I've been surprised how fast my body has come to *expect* breakfast in the morning, though, so it's possible that I could gradually acclimate to a larger morning meal.

Anyway...I'm rambling a little. Keep me posted, wintersmith. I can't wait to hear about your results!

I'll be keeping a daily dairy on it, and in spite of my vaunted dislike of it, a daily weigh in as well.