If you had 500 calories left for the day what would you eat?

sugarfreesquirrel

Assuming you haven't had your evening meal and were really hungry

springlering62

Wait. Does the 500 include evening meal?

If so, I’d try to stay on budget. Maybe have a super light meal, like chopped grilled chicken, lettuce and tomato in a low carb wrap.

I keep a supply of 90-calorie Cadbury Curly Wurlys in the freezer.

Golly, this is hard. There’s no extraneous food in the house right now and a pre-log, so I seldom have that many left.

If I see early in the day that I’m going to be low and I’m on track for good protein level, I’ll go to one of the local bakeries and treat myself to an “everything” cookie or a bearclaw or pimento cheese/fig jam cheese toast from the American one, or a giant ginger molasses cookie from the French one. There’s also a bubble tea place that sells a killer homemade peanut butter cup. Lidl for giant soft Bavarian pretzels.

Everything is within an easy walk, “easy” these days being a mile or two round trip. I figure I gotta work a little extra for it to earn it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh heavens. Now I’m hungry.

Otherwise, it’s a couple servings of BL’s chips, if I really need the calories and particularly some fat. I had a giant barrel of hard pretzels but never again. Couldn’t stay out of them. I don’t even particularly like pretzels but right now I’m on a salt lick.

DFW_Tom

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

Assuming you haven't had your evening meal and were really hungry

If I made the mistake of allowing myself to get "really hungry" (which I try my best not to do) I'd eat whatever I had already planned for the rest of the day. I would not care about the calories because to get to the point of real hunger, my body is telling me it needs more energy than normal, probably because I burned more calories during the day via non-exercise activities than I normally do. Doesn't matter what I or anyone else would eat as long as it is healthy and satisfies our macro targets.

westrich20940

So you're saying - you have 500 calories left for dinner, what would I have?

I'd have a package of Foppen hot smoked salmon (280 cals) with 1/2 package of Veetee Rice & Tasty parcooked rice (220 cals).....probably add some soy sauce and hot sauce to the rice or just hot sauce and furikake. That's a quick - go-to 500 cal meal. It's got protein and carbs and fat. It's not got veggies which would be nice but if I really wanted veggies I'd have them with it. Honestly cucumbers would be good and fit since they have very little calories.

That's like, and extremely low effort meal though. Are you really just looking for ideas for 500 calories meals?

sugarfreesquirrel

westrich20940 wrote: »

So you're saying - you have 500 calories left for dinner, what would I have?

Are you really just looking for ideas for 500 calories meals?

Probably 1-4 meals, 1 snack, 1 dinner, dessert, 1 snack (I have to have my pills with food, and I have them 4 times daily, at breakfast, lunch, dinner and just before bed).

nsk1951

Depends ... what do I have in stock to prepare a meal with?
Usually I have eggs on hand. One large egg is 70 calories and 2 of them is a usual portion ... so 140 of that 500 could go towards two eggs. Then; what do I have that would pair well with eggs? Also, would it be filling or leave me hungry still? ... Look around

Lietchi

My meals are planned 99 % of the time. So I would just eat the dinner I had planned, perhaps adjusting the portion size if necessary (or going over my calorie goal potentially, the odd way over goal isn't dramatic)

I usually have more calories for dinner (and evening snack) so in case I need to do damage control and whatever dinner I had planned can wait till the next day, I would have soup with some bread or tinned peas (always some in stock in my pantry).

mtaratoot

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

Assuming you haven't had your evening meal and were really hungry

What did I already eat that day?
How far under or over had I been the last two or three days?

I'd for sure spend 250 calories on a carnitas soft taco. One taco and a 15 minute wait after I eat it usually leaves me feeling decently full. If I had been a fair bit under my goal the last few days, I would go over the 500 and not worry about it for a moment.

SafariGalNYC

My dinners are typically 500 ish cals.

I like salmon and veg for dinner. Dinners typically tend to be a protein and a vegetable. Sometimes berries for dessert.

Tonight having chicken breast tenderloin with green salad, micro greens with EVOO & balsamic vinegar.
496 calories.

mrmota70

700 calories 😂

sugarfreesquirrel

mrmota70 wrote: »

700 calories 😂

Good answer, sounds delicious

kshama2001

My partner gets annoyed when I try to talk to him first thing in the AM about dinner, but my philosophy is:


So I normally think about dinner days ahead of time, generally when the supermarket flyers arrive and I am planning shopping.

But if I found myself really hungry at dinner time with nothing prepped, I'd make a meal out of canned tuna fish, or eggs, or something from the freezer.

Tonight while he is grilling steak, I will make us green salads. This AM, I started defrosting the steak and made potato salad. Since I'll keep my portions of steak and potato salad moderate, this will probably come in around 500 calories. He'll have much larger portions plus bread and butter and will probably come in around 1000 calories, but no one is counting him.

My dinners generally are around 500 calories and consist of an animal protein, non starchy veggies, starch, and butter.

The discussion this AM arose when I reminded him that he was cooking tonight. But he said it was going to be too hot for that meal, and since we were actually having the convo in the AM, there was plenty of time to pivot to the steak and salads.

I have a friend who gets a lot of takeout because she doesn't start thinking about dinner until it is dinnertime and she is really hungry. Which could be a valid strategy, I suppose, but then she complains about the cost and the calories.

ReReNotMe

If you're wanting a sub 500 calorie meal my go to is a pizza toast. A slice of wholemeal or half and half bread (around 90 calories) homemade sauce with veggies (around 35 calories as there's no added sugars), low fat mozzarella (around 50 calories for 30g) and some veggies on top and you'll still have room for dessert. 45 secs in the microwave to melt the cheese and you're done

AnnPT77

You're not going to like this, but you asked what I'd eat:

Ezekiel tortilla (taco size), dill mustard, smoked tofu, Jarlsberg lite cheese, thin-sliced onions. Microwave until cheese melts. Add raw sauerkraut, fold over, cut in half for easy handling, eat. Around 360 calories, 29g protein.

Add an apple for less than 100 calories, or a big serving (maybe 180g?) of smashed Winter squash with white miso for similar calories (plus a little more protein); maybe a couple of prunes to get to the 500.