What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?

At least not in the sense that most people think of them. "I'm on a diet" is what people say as they count calories or follow some set of rules that they think will let them shed their weight so they can then go back to eating "normally". Do you know why this won't work? Because eating "normally" should be eating healthily and prudently!

Be healthy, stay healthy!
Read more in my website.

All the best,
Maikel

Good for starters, but some of these things are not the most healthy if your picky like me, that milk should be skim and no butter at all! That is wasted calories and saturated fat! If you want good omega 3-6 fats, go for flax on the cereal instead. If you eat egg whites only you get only 20 calories, a fraction of a gram of fat, and almost all of the protein! Cereal too should say what kind, most 1 cup servings are close to 200 calories so I think that meal is an underestimate. Make sure you are getting the fibre and protein sources and not just sugar in cereal! Also when planning for the day 8-10 fruits and veggies should be 5+ veggies and max 3-4 fruits because they are higher in calories and sugar than veggies (which is why they taste better) so don't have 2 peices at every meal. I eat 6 200 calorie meals and one 400 calorie meal per day, so I get to eat constantly and am never hungry! I also plan every one of my meals a few days ahead of time and never leave the house without water and bagged veggies!

This is def the best site I've ever found so far for meal plans.

I'm trying to gain weight but can't really cook much except for a few simple things like chicken and pastas. And don't know how the whole calorie counting thing works.

I'm aiming for approx 3000 calories a day split over 9, 300 calorie meals so this link was perfect.

These meal pics are extremely useful. I got the jist of what's included in all the meals - just one suggestion (as I said I ain't no cook) so I don't know what fruit/veg you included in the salads - Could you include a list of ingredients for each day so I can make a shopping list.

Some of those seem a little off calorie count, for example the second meal with cerial. 1 banana is 100 calories, 1 cup of cerial should be over 110 and 1 cup of milk is 130-160 so i dont get how thats all together 300. No cerial I have ever seen had less then 110 per 3/4 CUP and milk that has less then 130. seems a little off for some

Essentially it all comes down to science. As Bubba said, you need to create a deficit of 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound a week. Your body really doesn't care if you do it buy eating less carbs or fat as far as weight loss is concerned. However, if you want to be healthy then you have to make healthy eating choices. You could eat only bagels every day and lose weight but you aren't doing yourself any favors. Remember, if you exercise and burn 500 calories then you can either lose weight a bit faster or treat yourself with a snack.
The 500 calorie rule applies to the amount of calories it would take to maintain your weight minus 500 calories/day. This is different for everyone so not everyone has to be on a diet of 1000 calories per day to lose weight.

Chris,
I have just recently embarked on my weight loss mission. What has helped me is setting low goals. My mile markers are 15 pounds every three months until I make my goal (you can probably set yours higher or wherever is healthy for you). Also, I write down weekly goals.

Consume real fats. We are all brainwashed to believe that fats (especially saturated fats) are bad for us. This is not the case. Problem is that it's the "fake fats" that are extremely bad for us (i.e. Smart Balance). I went all organic with my foods. I eat fats - all kinds of fats. But I watch my consumption of carbs. I don't eliminate them...I just eat around 25-30 grams of carbs at each meal; 7 grams carbs for each snack. And I make sure none of those carbs are man made carbs (i.e. cereals, breads, pasta). I stick with potatoes, brown rice, starchy veggies...you get the picture. And I use Stevia to sweetened my tea with. Most of you probably don't know what Stevia is. It's a natural sweetener which is plant derived. It's all natural, has no carbs and does not impact blood sugar. It's sold in health food stores and Whole Foods. Do some homework about the foods you eat. The chemicals that are in our foods are killing us. And processed foods are the biggest culprit. It took me over a year to switch over completely to organics. I'm so glad I did.

These look great and I will definitely try them out!
Some people do better with visuals. It's good to see exactly what the portions look like.

I think the 300 calorie breakfast is good. I would add some healthy snacks in between breakfast and lunch and one in between lunch and dinner to keep the metabolism going!!

I started a new health diet this past New Year's that works out to be about 1500-1800 calories a day. It has meals that are all within the 300 to 500 calorie range, with very little processed foods and no coffee. Not drinking coffee in the mornings was really tough for me to give up. But I quickly realized that what my body craves is calories in the morning, and can go without a jolt of caffeine. My mother always told me to eat breakfast, but with coffee in hand I was stubborn to listen. Now I eat breadfast as soon as I get up and I can't believe how good I feel. No more coffee gut.

I start my day off, every other morning, with a fruit or vegetable smoothie. Smoothies are low cal and really simple. Just throw a bunch of your favorite fruits or veggies in a blender, add some skim milk, unsweetened orange juice, and/or fat-free yogurt and blend together. I have experimented with all kinds of combinations of fruits and some vegetables and haven't been disappointed yet.

Try this protein packed smoothie (290 cals per serving):

1 cup low-fat natural yogurt
1 cup skim milk
1 banana
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. honey
1 package (300g) plain soft tofu
2 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. This makes enough for two people; half the recipe for one.

Any sub sandwich at jimmy johns is like 800-1000 calories..

Yikes!

Vey helpful article!

I will paste it into the forum at hot big people dating club________ PlusMeet.com , so many big/large friends there will happy to read it.

Vey helpful article!

I will paste it into the forum at hot big people dating club________ PlusMeet.com , so many big/large friends there will be happy to read it.

What a tiny portions! This is what I call fat free, sugar free, taste free and pleasure free food.

Excellent examples!!

yeah i like it :-D

Eating this little would make me suffer from malnutrition... o.o

The visual representations are so helpful. It's so hard these days to know exactly what one portion of something looks like. I had no idea that people actually ate so far over their caloric range in the States. I calculated that I should only be eating about 1500-1700 a day (I'm little). People are eating double that??

I have been limiting myself to 1000 calories per day which alows me 200 calories for drinks.
I swim twice a week and have been losing 8lb per week.
You can eat a lot more than you think it just looks less because the portions when eating out are getting bigger.

I agree that processed foods are very easy to over eat. If people just shopped for less processed foods, just those in general help with calorie and portion control.

i want to make an eating diary via a blog. where do you suggest i go to do this. e

Good post. How many calories that are in foods is often hard to tell. I use an online weight loss program and calorie counter that works out how many calories are in the foods i eat. I find this works well.

I think what people would be surprised is even though they are 300 calories, they can be very filling when you look at the fibre in the foods.

I read interestingly.
I will read from now on.
Please link to this if you like.

very nice article.

looks delicious, the food are right and the portion for me is OK. I agree about the process foods. they food some additives to make it taste good so people tend to over eat.

People would be excited to eat real butter, real dressing and egg yolks. It's better not to make people feel as if this is a sacrifice, and to not eat so many processed foods!

Great advice on calorie restriction but here is another way to burn 1,000 calories a day without even noticing you are exercising. Use a treadmill desk. I have been doing this and walking at 1 mph and it works great. Check out the TrekDesk at their website and you can see one in action to get the idea. It works and if I fudge a little on my diet (freudian slip) it takes care of it for me.

The funny thing about diets and weightloss plans are their are so many and all do not work for everyone. The thing that you have to do is to keep trying different plans until you find the one that gets you the results you are looking for.

The most important thing is to keep on trying and you will find it.

If you check out enough diet sites you will find certain things that run through all of them and these generally are the things that you use to create your diet foundation.

I kept on searching until I found one that would allow me to eat whatever I wanted and still get in shape. I also shared this with some other people who thank me daily.

Keep trying and don't stop!

Hey thats a great article. I have understood what you have a posted.Learnt a lot from it.For past two years, i am in complete diet.Feeling better now.But if i would have seen your article one year before itself,i would be satisfied in one year.Anyway i will follow now onwards.you have made my dieting easier.Thanks a lot

"Be diet,Be fit"

Great pictures. I would love something like this on my website. Did you take all the pictures by yourself?

The calories listed for the cereal meal (second meal, 300 calories) are still not accurate. On the linked site you say a banana snack is 105 calories. 8 oz of 2% milk is 122 calories. What type of cereal has less than 73 calories for 1 cup of cereal? My box of Special-K says 110 calories for 1 cup (1.1 ounces / 31 grams). Plus milk, plus banana = 337 calories, 12% more than the 300 calories listed. (Assuming coffee is 0 calories.) Apparently this originally said 2 cups cereal and you edited it to 1 cup - but the math is still wrong. Did you mean 1/2 cup cereal and 1 cup milk? That is... odd. Others have noted that this looks like Raisin Bran - 190 calories per cup, 95 per 1/2 cup. So even if it's just 1/2 cup we have 95 calories for the cereal, 122 for the milk, 105 for the banana = 322.

An easy way to cut calories is to use less milk. I find that 1/2 cup of milk is plenty for 1-2 ounces of breakfast cereal. Also, obviously, non-fat milk saves calories over 2% milk as well. But that's not going to help all that much if you start with 190 calories of Raisin Bran (1 cup).

yes..
this is a healthy tasteless food

WOw, fabulous! Thanks for this. I am on a low calorie diet and this helps a bunch!

Is this KiloCalories or just calories?

There are some good ideas on there. I love the idea of putting some fruit or veg in every meal. You get to eat more and feel full on less cals.
It's really scary to think that most Americans eat that much every day. That's almost twice as much as most people actually NEED.
:-O

This post is awesome! It inspired me to create a new blog, which is not quite ready yet, for myself and others to post 300-400 calorie meals. I hope some of you with great ideas will contribute pictures and meal details when it is ready. I'll post the url with details when it's ready for contributions, and thank you to the author for the inspirational idea - I will definitely give a link back here when the site is up.

These meals look great and the best part of all is knowing that you are eating healthy!! It is good for you both mentally and physically =)

My favourite set is Chicken and Rice. And i found 1 diet way with Negative Calories Diet,the negative calories food is PLUM , watermelon , apple , apricot , carrot , cumcumber , onion ....i read this in a magazine,i cant list down all here,but one day i will post it on my www.kenkodietplums.com/weight_loss_diet_articles.html . for those who is interest,can just drop me an email,i will inform you all when it's ready.^^

Suki Tan
www.kenkodietplums.com

A diet consisting of too much protein is actually detrimental to those seeking to lose weight.

Excessive protein eats away at muscle and bone mass, causing BAD weight loss. This is called catabolism. The heart is weakened, and the dieter is at risk of fatigue and dizzy spells.

Excessive stress is put on the liver and kidneys to process an excess of protein-- these are the organs you want to be metabolizing fat! Excessive consumption of protein or alcohol lowers the body's ability to metabolize fat in the long term. (I.E., can lead to a slower base metabolism.)

Most of the nutrients our bodies need come from CARBS -- grains and vegetables! A difficult truth for many folks, I know.

Bacon, steaks, and vanilla ice cream are NOT weight loss foods. Sorry.

Whatever happened to a balanced, sensible, limited calorie diet for weight loss? You know, the one reccomended by doctors?

Dr. Atkins died of congestive heart failure in 2003. Survival of the fittest!

Try this fruity Kebab.

A skewer of Kebab in a healthy way
Ingredients:

4 pieces of jackfruit
4 sugar plums
1 starfruit
1 red apple
1 green apple
Lemon juice

Method of preparation:

Cutting fruit in bite size
Squeeze lemon juice onto apples
Thread the fruit pieces onto statay sticks or skewers
Serve with ice cream or low fat yoghurt

http://thehappyhealth.com/updates/?p=8