How Many Meals A Day

[sspyker843]

I have been very active over the last 2 months and I only eat one meal a day - In the evening I eat a chicken breast, 3 cups of Broccoli. I dont feel as if I am ever hungry.. this amounts to about 1200 calories a day.. Yet I am not losing weight.. Any Ideas? 

[Esya]

What do you have for the rest of the day? Just 0 calories drinks? Or are you having drinks with calories and not counting them? How close to your goal are you?

It might be less a question of how many meals a day and more a question of how many calories a day. You could be having more calories in than you realise if you have drinks that contain calories. Otherwise you might be having so few calories (below your BMR) that your body adapted its metabolism. That is hard to say without knowing your gender, height and weight etc. You can find calories calculators online. I have one bookmarked on my pc at home that I can link later.

[MagsOnTheBeach · Accepted solution]

I have 5 meals a day and consume about 1600 calories a day.  It ranges from 1300 - 1800.  I love the feeling of having fuel in my system and eating well.  For me I don't do well on diets long term, so this is just the way I eat to lose weight.

Are you sure you are adding calories correctly?  A chicken breast is about 400 with skin and broccoli per cup is about 60 calories.

[WendyB]

I also eat 5 times a day

Breakfast

Snack

Lunch

Snack

Dinner

I also wonder if you are counting your calories correctly. That one meal is not 1200 calories

[sspyker843]

Esya, 

Thank you for your reply.. I dont drink anything other than water. I have not had soft drinks in forever. 

Im about 6 months away from my goal. I started using my fitness pal instead of the Fitbit tracker and seem to be having better success. I am starting the day with a protein shake and then eating a balanced dinner. Have lost some more weight. I have also cut out salt. I drink almost a gallon of water a day so that could be some of it. 

[sspyker843]

Wendy, 

I am just not that hungry, I am eating breakfast now - Protein Shake and then a nice dinner. I did change my calorie counter to MFP. That is working better for me. Thank you for your response. I dont think I was adding up my calories correctly. 

[sspyker843]

Mags - What is the DASH diet? I changed calorie counter and that worked. 

[MagsOnTheBeach]

It's the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension plan.  It's the top plan in pretty much every country.  My BP was 130/85 - not alarming but that is considered pre-hypertension now.  So I figured it was on the upper end because weight wise I was on the upper end. My blood sugar was also on the high end.

It's a great plan that doesn't villainize any foods - I have bread (Ezekiel low sodium), pasta (I always measure and cook exact servings - no seconds or leftovers), fruit, - all the taboo foods of a lot of plans.  I exercise portion control and eat good foods (no premade foods, bars, shakes, powders, etc).  I am nearing a 60lb loss and I started Jan 10th of this year.  So not super fast, but it has been pretty steady.  Now that I am closer to my goal, I average about a pound a week and I am totally okay with it.  I miss the 7-3lb weeks though! 😄

There are different versions of DASH - some for people who don't need to lose weight, they just need to get BP under control.  I used the book I linked below - it is specifically for weight loss.  I modified it after the first 2 weeks and switched to whole fat yogurt and milk. I use plain unflavored.  I rarely use any sugar and no artificial sweeteners.  During the first 2 weeks I did use the diet jello, it helped me when I felt like binging, but no after (I don't like it).   

http://dashdiet.org/dashdiet_weightloss.asp