Calorie counting and portion control are an essential part to any diet. Unfortunately, trying to work out how much fat, proteins, carbs and sugars to eat in one sitting can get pretty complicated. This infographic from C&J Nutrition breaks down the perfect dinner equation to help you lose weight.
Diet equation image from Shutterstock
According to C&J Nutrition’s registered dietitians, you should be aiming for a total energy count of 450 calories (1800kJ) at dinnertime if you’re trying to lose weight. Around 50 per cent of your dinner calories should be devoted to carbs. Proteins should make up about 20 to 25 percent of the total energy count with 15 to 30 per cent made up of healthy fats. The remainder should include fibre and some sugars.
For a full breakdown of the dinner equation, check out the infographic below:
C&J Nutrition also provides advice on the timing of your meal:
“Ideally you should eat dinner about two to three hours after your 3:30 p.m. afternoon snack. If you plan to exercise after work, fuel up with a later-afternoon snack around 4:30 p.m. Then you can exercise at 5:30 p.m. for an hour and eat dinner by 7-7:30 p.m. Don’t worry about eating dinner too late: as long as you don’t exceed your daily calories, what time you eat won’t impact your weight.”
For tips on how to turn the formula into actual meals, head to POPSUGAR Health & Fitness — they have a few example recipes ranging from Panko-Crusted Fish Over Kale to a Grilled Chicken Burrito Bowl.
[Via POPSUGAR]
Comments
10 responses to “The Perfect Dinner Equation For Weight Loss [Infographic]”
I was actually told by a personal trainer to completely remove carbs from the dinner meal and it’s been working quite well for me. I do hate that there’s so much contradicting information going around.
Does that include veggies? Or just the typical ‘pasta/rice/bread carbs’?
Well the goal is to diminish the amount as much as possible. Is basically impossible to completely avoid them if you want a nutritive meal. So yeah, avoiding carb-rich stuff as the ones you mention and the most carbiest vegetables such as potatoes, rice and corn.
Yes, because the high rate of obesity in Asian nations is due to the large amount of rice they eat.
No reason to get snappy, I never said rice was bad. It’s not about the food you eat but the amounts and the times of day you do.
You did say carbohydrates shouldn’t be eaten. But as I mentioned, eating carbs isn’t what makes you fat. You did correctly point out that amount is important though, so nicely done there.
Re-read my sentence carefully, “completely remove carbs from the dinner meal“. It’s not saying carbs are bad in general or at all. Just that it’s better if you don’t consume them in the last meal of the day.
Uh, you’re aware that Asian people also eat rice at dinner time, right?
Yep. Again. There’s nothing inherently bad with rice or carbs. Do you realise that the suggestion appears with regards to /weight loss/? If you do not need to lose weight, you don’t need extra measures.
It’s like you are reading only bits of my really short post and try to de-contextualise them as much as possible in order to keep coming back with unnecessary retorts. It’s not like I’m telling you to do it yourself or anything. As I said, it’s working for me and for others, so if you don’t think it will work out for you (without even trying), please feel free to disregard the advice, instead of trying to contest something I have empirical evidence for.
“It’s like you are reading only bits of my really short post and try to de-contextualise them as much as possible in order to keep coming back with unnecessary retorts.”
That’s actually exactly what I’m doing!
But really, weight loss isn’t such a complicated subject. Energy in + energy un-burned = energy stored as fat. Put less energy into your body than your body uses by eating less and/or minimizing high energy foods (fats, sugars, meats, anything super tasty basically). Or use up more energy than you’ve put into your body through exercise. Or both.
I’ve been rapidly losing weight after moving to Japan simply because I now eat a lot of rice-based meals and only rarely eat fast food.