What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?

Wow!..Great Post... Visually enticing! Puts proper food portions into perspective

oh it looks yummy but i eat 1 slice of bread, a slice of cheese and yakult for my breakfast. i dont even know how many calories i ate per meal.

Dude, I could NEVER get full eating this little food. I'd be starving all day. Good luck to everybody who has to stick with this kind of stuff!

I'm not sure what people are talking about 300 Calorie meals being bad (of course, I didn't go to the site)... it's healthier to eat 6 small meals than 3 big ones.
1800 Calories seems reasonable to me.

Very nice!

And theyŕe things that fill you up too, and aren´t just micro portions

Debbie said:
The breakfasts are okay. But the meal with the baked potato (#3) was unappetizing to me. There are hardly any meat dishes; I really don't see this as more than a breakfast and occasional lunch/dinner kind of thing. Only 300 calories at every meal will leave you hungry unless you eat a lot of snacks. But that's a personal preference. I couldn't see [...]

It won't make you hungry if you eat those 300 calorie meals 6 times a day. Thats 1800 calories, you'll get to eat all throughout the day, its better for your digestion and metabolism, and 1800 calories is likely a pretty decent amount of caloric restriction which will facilitate weight loss.

You might be interested in a video I did with Nina Simonds:

Pyramid on a Plate #1: Healthy Chinese Food Exposed

http://spicesoflife.com/2007/04/23/dinner-on-a-plate-1-healthy-chinese-food-exposed/

Nina Simonds and Dr. Eric Rimm visit a Chinese restaurant and reveal how you can order a delicious and healthy meal.

Nina and Eric describe how to order menu items that are steamed with sauce on the side, brown rice instead of white, and explain how you can order items that are not on the menu.

thank you for your share, I'll try it.

I've found an online diet and exercise log that has made a HUGE difference in my weight and keeps me focused on watching the caloric content of my food. it's http://www.allure.com/makeover/myhome. guys, don't get turned off cuz it's a woman's magazine. it's fabulous.

i put in everything i eat recording the calories and it asks me (each time) when i at it, where i ate it, how i was feeling when i ate it. all this adds up to a pattern that helps one know our eating habits. i tend to eat when tired or anxious. knowing that has helped me curb eating during those times. go to the website and see how cool it is. i've already lost 8 pounds just because i'm being careful about the calorie content of everything i eat.

and i'm not starving myself. i have a goal of 1200 calories per day for 6 weeks and yesterday i had a half of an organic 88% cocoa chocolate bar and a beer amongst my meals and i still reached my goal for the day. of course, my dinner was a juicy shrimp cocktail, so it's just how you put together your calories for the day. there's no feeling of being deprived at all.

but portions rule. i was used to eating huge portions and eating when i wasn't hungry. this has changed since i started logging everything onto this website.

You could eat a lot more food if you didnt put butter and oil on everything. Also maybe people could eat more real vegetables instead of potatos.

If diet always looked so good, I'd be perfectly happy with a diet life :)

I would probably sell like low-fat hot cakes.

Passion for Health said:
It can be a great idea if you hate the idea of counting calories to come up with a load of healthy "300 calorie options" based around your normal regime.[...]

Good god, I'm hungry all over against for breakfast. I'm not sure if this statement is appropriate for a diet blog though. :P

Awesome visualization of 300 calorie meals! That's all I eat at a single sitting usually, so I know what it usually looks like, but it's nice to be able to see it spelled out again! I linked to you on my website, and I'm going to start reading your blog now (found via digg)

You say '4 saltine crackers' but your picture shows five! I have lost faith in the connection between the calorie count and the provided pictures.

Not sure about the pats of "low fat butter" on the green beans. If you're trying to lose weight, you need to get out of the habit of putting butter (real or fake) on your veggies.

What the Blood klath !

All i hear is a gun shot !

Bubba said:
f meals that are in the 300-400 Calorie range. The visual representation gives[...]

Yo, Bubba. Nobody said you only had to eat three of these a day. That would only be 900 calories, which isn't enough for most people. Eat five or six of these (or supplement with healthy snacks) and you're still going to lose weight with even a small amount of exercise.

RedPanda said:
Not sure about the pats of "low fat butter" on the green beans. If you're trying to lose weight, you need to get out of the habit of putting butter (real or fake) on your veggies.[...]

I personally lose more weight when I'm having a bit more fat, around 30-35% of cals instead of 20%, so I see nothing wrong with using a bit of fat on vegetables.

RedPanda said:
Not sure about the pats of "low fat butter" on the green beans. If you're trying to lose weight, you need to get out of the habit of putting butter (real or fake) on your veggies.[...]

Not according to my experience.

Ryan said:
RedPanda said: Not sure about the pats of "low fat butter" on the green beans. If you're trying to lose weight, you need to get out of the habit of putting butter (real or fake) on your veggies.[...] Not according to my experience.[...]

Or mine =)

What a great post... Really, this is one of the best ways to really "see" what you can get for the calories. I thing this is something that really needs to be adopted by dieting books! Thanks, as always, love the blog!

http://www.themorbidme.com

Regina W said:
Or mine =)
[...]

Plus, I wouldn't pass up the nutrient quality of butter from properly raised cows. Might even say it does more good than the vegetables.

4 Whoppers= 3000 cal.
6 Lrg. French Fries= 6700 cal.
72 oz. Coke= 1000 cal.
1 quart ice cream= 1900 cal.
1 diet coke= -12400 cal.
Total calories: 200

Sounds like a plan to me!

Substituting center-cut bacon for the turkey bacon in the scrambled eggs plate only adds 15 calories, and it's actually lower in cholesterol. Plus, it's real bacon (albeit smaller and leaner strips thereof), not pressed, formed, and processed garbage.

A useful addition to this display would be the use of sparklines to indicate how much each element contributed to the overall calorie count, e.g.
2 scrambled eggs.......||||||||||||
Lettuce, half cup...........|||
Whole-wheat bread.....|||||||
Low-fat dressing..........||||||
-------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: 345 calories....|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

This site is a great visual resource, and I hope this comment is in the spirit of making information clearer at a glance.

I like the portions I saw on this site. I just recently started to get "fine again" and I think I'm doing pretty good. I've lost 4 lbs in 8 days and I'm not starving myself. I eat all the time, just a LOT of veggies and low carbs and no carbs after 3pm. (protein and veggies) I'm going to check out Bubba's suggestion "Tabata Intervals", they look awesome for girls or guys. I never heard of them until now. Chris Taylor...I'm sure somewhere around 2000-2200 calories will help you lose weight. Any Basal Metabolic Rate calculator online will work to find that out. You said veggies are expensive. I go to Sams or Costco bulk stores and buy big bags of frozen veggies and eat 5 servings a day. They are cheaper than buying fresh veggies all the time and they have hardly any sodium compared to canned vegs. Also if you need more protein or a small snack, I buy a container of whey protein and mix it with water for a quick edge off my hunger. It's easy to carry with you if your on the run, like I am with my busy life. I have been craving steak and cheese lately with all the fish and chicken I've been eating. I think the whey will help with that craving. Take care!

Personally, rather than eat that lowfat butter crap, I'd just leave out the butter completely. Especially with scrambled eggs - I just leave the toast dry and put the eggs on it. Or, if you want to eat artificial processed 'butter', spray margarine adds a little flavor with almost no fat or calories.

It would be nice if there were places that you could buy simple meals like these. Although, most of these could be made pretty quickly, so it wouldn't be that hard to incorporate into daily life.

To all who are spazzing out about this post and then translating it into too few calories per day, please reread the post. Where does it say that this is ALL you should eat per day? You SHOULD be having healthy snacks between meals. So three meals at about 900 calories plus a few snacks puts you in perfect range. Don't make the post say something it doesn't. Geez.

yes, way too fatty. please visit http://www.serioushacker.com

Liora said:
To all who are spazzing out about this post and then translating it into too few calories per day, please reread the post. Where does it say that this is ALL you should eat per day? You SHOULD be having healthy snacks between meals. So three meals at about 900 calories plus a few snacks puts you in perfect range. Don't make the post say something i[...]

thank you for this. a select few people were putting their own strange spin on this post.

Thanks Kate, but I still don't get the need to specify 8oz or 12 oz water. Even if I drink 1 liter of water with my meal, the water doesn't add any calories. Or does it? Am I missing something about water?

Ryan said:
Plus, I wouldn't pass up the nutrient quality of butter from properly raised cows. Might even say it does more good than the vegetables.[...]

Plus evidence finds that nutrients from vegetables are better absorbed when fat/oil is part of the mix!

Regina W said:
Plus evidence finds that nutrients from vegetables are better absorbed when fat/oil is part of the mix![...]

Pretty much everything is absorbed better with fat. That's why I mix my protein powder in heavy cream.

LOLOL! 2 pieces of bacon! lololol! Maybe that makes sense for 105lb girls, but 6'2" 205lb athletes need a little bit more.

lol! Insanity.

Some of you need to learn how to read or just get your head out of the sand...You are not supposed to only eat three meals a day..You are supposed to eat like 5+ meals a day...300-400 calories each and you will not be weighing 400 lbs or however many of you weigh. Jesus. How can you move around when you weigh 400 lbs?

Soup - 350 Calories
1 bowl of soup
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water
4 saltine crackers

The picture has 5 saltine crackers, not 4. Sorry, it just bugs me :)

The one thing I don't like about this particular blog is that it doesn't explain how to use this information - where the benefit comes in.

If you are eating a 300-400 calorie meal, multiply that by the average american 3-meal a day, plus maybe a snack - you are looking at 300x3 = 900 at a minimum, and 400x3=1200 as a maximum caloric intake for a day. This is not much. The article mentions that the average american eats 3800 calories daily - this maximum is less than 1/3 of that - or probably about 1/3 of that if you throw in a snack.

The average women - which has less muscle mass than a man, and therefore requires less calories, should intake between 1400-1600 calories a day - depending on weight, and activity - as well as weight loss goals, etc. The average man should be eating between 1600-1800 calories, again depending on a few factors. But certainly, no less than 1200 calories for a woman, and no less than 1400 for a man.

However, a 300 calorie lifestyle is still a good change to make - you just have to add an extra meal or two in there. This is ideal anyway, because by eating 4-5 meals daily, our metabolism doesn't sink, and then spike, because meals are closer together. This is an ideal match for the way our metabolism works - because if we feel "starved" at any time, because our body has used up the 300 calories that we ate 4 hours ago (which any average person will do), it goes into "starvation mode", which means that it will want to build up its fat stores in order to accomodate itself in the future. Your metabolism will also drop, so that the next time you eat less calories are required for basic bodily functions, and more of it can be used to build those fat stores. The result? Unhealthy weight loss, resulting from fat gain, and muscle loss.

In order to accomodate, eat every 3 hours or so, at approximately 300-400 calories. The result? Anywhere from 1200 (300x4) to 2000 (400x5) calories daily - depending on your weight loss goals, activity, and body type. There won't be any spikes or drops in the metabolism - and your body will effectively use all of your calories with healthy weight gain, or healthy weight loss.

Hahahahah. Oh man. That's hilarious. As an athlete I have to tell you that this wouldn't even make a snack before breakfast. Maybe these "meals" are fine for an elderly cripple convelescing somewhere, but really -- what human being can survive on two strawberries and an english muffin?!