Limiting calories per meal

A co-worker of mine went to see a nutrionist and the nutrionist told her that she should not only limit her total caloric intake for the day, but that she should also limit it by meal. She told her that if you eat more than 600 calories in one sitting, that all of the calories above the 600 automatically start converting into fat.

I do agree with the whole philosophy of eating several small meals throughout the day to keep the metabolism going and I try to do that the majority of the time. However, if I have a special dinner out planned, I'll keep the meals during the day really small and may have an 800 to 1000 calorie meal for dinner while remaining within my total calorie count for the day. Am I sabotaging all of my efforts by doing this?

Wed. Feb 28, 5:52pm

I don't think so. But I think for a general rule if your stomach can handle a meal of 1000 calories and not be stuffed then you probably will overeat during the day cause a 200-300 calorie meal just wont cut it.

Now on your special occasions those are probably eat out meals which are higher calorie not necessarily high portion sizes to get that calorie amount.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 6:11 PM

Op here

Read your comment on the 1000 calorie meal....and before I started counting calories I never thought I would eat that much in one sitting either ...but calories can add up fast especially if you don't make healthy choices. Two of the choices for lunch at the cafeteria for my lunch where 800+. One was fried chicken and the other one bbq pork. Scary! Fortunately, I chose the salad bar.

And even if you make healthy choices at dinner, add a roll and a couple of glasses of wine, and dinner can easily be over 1000 calories without dessert.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 6:20 PM

How many calories (total or per meal) you should have is highly dependent on your activity level, of course. There was one (crazy, short) period of my life in which I was eating more than 5,000 calories a day and losing weight. Now this had to do with performing more than 12 hrs of physical work every day. But just to point out, there's no arbitrary, magical number of calories for all situations.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 6:24 PM

please-while i know it isn't healthy to eat more than 600 calories in one sitting, i do it all the time for dinner and i've lost 73 lbs (i now weigh a healthy 139 lbs!).

ultimately it's a simple calories in/calories out-get and stay active and make healthy choices as much as you can, and occasionally enjoy something naughty!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 7:55 PM

One big meal should not mess up your diet. In fact, many diets incorporate a regular "free meal" to surprise your body and help prevent cravings from getting out of control. However, if you weigh daily, you will very likely see a false, temporary gain in the morning. Just don't let it discourage you.

Now, a word of warning about Nutritionists - many (most? not sure) states don't regulate this job title, meaning any of us could legally hang out a shingle calling ourselves Nutritionists. The title for someone who has a relevant Bachelor's degree and has passed a national credentialing exam is Registered Dietitian. Having dealt with both, there is a world of difference between the two. That's not to say my RD won't bring up this rule-of-thumb one day or that the Nutritionist isn't good at what she does...just know that the source of your information may not be a reliable one.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 11:31 PM

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