When I’m dieting, I try to keep to 1200 calories per day. Now that I’m pretty much in maintenance stage, I still try to eat 1200 calories per day Monday through Friday and eat whatever I want on weekends. I find that splitting the 1200 calories up into four 300 calorie meals works best.
I’ve been doing this for a long time, but I tend to eat a lot of the the same foods over and over again. I’m bored with this and need some new ideas.
So, I’m hoping you guys can contribute to my list. Obviously, the more filling and satisfying the better.
I’m looking for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Dessert Ideas.
Thanks all.
Have you tried SparkPeople.com it is a free site that has trackers and meal planners. It will even compile a grocery list for you. I use it to track how much I eat and exercise. I do not bother with all the socializing part.
I followed a similar plan for 90 days this year and lost about 25 lbs. Congats on you success. I tried to eat 20 grams of protein for breakfast, and then at least 15 each for other meals. That approach led to a lot of the following foods:
Eggs
Reduced fat cheese (from Sargento). Swiss is the best calorie/protein choice.
Frozen vegetables. I’d skillet cook them.
Lots of low fat deli meat. This was my luxury item and secret weapon. Pastrami, ham, corned beef, Cajun turkey. Very convenient and satisfying and very low in calories. A piece of pastrami wrapped in lettuce was a perfect snack.
Hood’s Calorie Countdown dairy beverage. This is like milk with no fat or sugar. 35 calories in a cup, which makes it possible for cereal to be a lo-cal meal.
Plain Greek yogurt. You can add it to cereal to get your protein. You can sweeten it with stevia or Equal if you want.
1% fat cottage cheese. It’s similar to the Greek yogurt in having a very good calorie/protein ratio.
All the kale, lettuce and spinach you care for.
Mustards, salsas, soy sauce and coriander chutney were the go-to sauces and condiments.
There were a lot of salmon burgers and vegetables.
Those were the building blocks. I tried to get a little fat with every meal (often the low fat cheese). A vitamin pill seemed to help.
This may not be the list of tasty dishes you were looking for, but in my experience just getting the desired nutritional blocks used up most of my calorie allotment. With all the protein-dense foods, the fiber from the vegetables and kale became pretty important.
One satisfying dish: chopped spinach or kale, mixed with eggs and low-fat cheese and coriander chutney and fried into patties.