I often hear from people who are preparing to start the Nutrisystem diet but are a bit confused about the best way to space and schedule their meals. I recently heard someone ask, in part, “When are you supposed to eat on Nutrisystem? Is there a set time? How do you space your meals? Can you have your dessert and snack whenever you want?” I will address these questions in the next article.
They are quite forgiving and open about meal times. You are free to do what works best for you. With that said, I can and will tell you the most common way to get all your meals and snacks in a typical day. Because, if you think about it, you really do have five meals (or at least five eating opportunities) that you need to fit into your day. You get: Nutrisystem breakfast (with sides;) lunch (with sides;) dinner (with sides;) plus a dessert and an afternoon snack. So if you break this down, what you really have is three full meals, three sides, an appetizer, and a dessert. Now eight chances.
Since the garnishes are so small, most people find it easier to just add them to the meals they are currently eating. For example, it’s easy to add a little milk or fruit to your Nutrisystem breakfast cereal. It is convenient to add carrot or celery sticks to your diet sausage for lunch. And you can opt for a small salad for your turkey dinner. You can also add your snack and dessert with your lunch or dinner if you find that you are not hungry between your three meals.
So a sample schedule would be something like: an 8:00 breakfast with cereal and milk; at 12:30 lunch of diet hot dogs and carrot sticks including their snack of Nutrisystem butter-flavored popcorn; and a 6:30 dinner of glazed turkey with salad and a Nutrisystem ice cream sandwich for dessert.
This would probably be the easiest way to do it if you weren’t hungry between meals. However, if you like to eat more regularly than three times a day, then there is nothing wrong with spacing out meals more and eating less but more frequently. For example, you can skip adding snack and dessert and have your popcorn (or any other snack you choose) mid-morning around 10:30. You might have the ice cream sandwich dessert for a snack around 4:30. Or you could even save your garnishes for another time if you wanted to eat more often. You really have the opportunity to eat more or less often depending on what is comfortable for you.
But, no matter when you choose to eat for your meals, snacks, desserts, and sides, you’ll consume the same amounts of calories, carbohydrates, and protein. There are really no hard and fast rules about this. Often you just have to play around with what works best for you and this can vary from day to day. For example, one day you may have more time to sit down to a larger meal with sides, desserts, and snacks, and on other days, you may be eating while you run. Any scenario is possible and perfectly acceptable with little planning.
As long as you eat all of your meals and sides, as well as your snack and dessert, timing doesn’t really matter that much. You can go ahead and eat at the times you want based on your hunger level, schedule, and preference.