What would be the perfect 1500 calorie meal plan be?

There probably isn't one perfect meal plan out there but I just try to aim for enough protein and not too much sodium and try not to overdo it on sugar. This is an example of one day I ate around 1500 calories:

Breakfast
Nature Valley - Sweet & Salty Nut Granola Bar - Peanut 1.2oz (35g), 1 bar (35g) 170 20g 9g 4g 0mg 140mg 12g 2g
Aldi - Fit & Active Strawberry Banana Nonfat Yogurt, 1 Container (170g) 90 18g 0g 5g 5mg 85mg 13g 0g
"What About Second Breakfast?"
Lean Pocket - Spinach, Artichoke, Chicken, 1 piece 240 39g 5g 9g 10mg 600mg 3g 4g
Generic - Lean Pocket Garlic Chicken White Pizza, 1 piece 250 38g 4g 11g 25mg 580mg 9g 3g
Luncharoo
Arnold - Jewish Rye Bread-Seeded, 2 slice 160 30g 2g 4g 0mg 440mg 2g 2g
Beef - Roast Beef, 6 oz 180 0g 15g 36g 120mg 90mg 0g 0g
Cheese Original Slices - Velveeta, 1 slice (net carb=1) 40 3g 2g 3g 10mg 320mg 2g 0g
Din Din
Great Value - 1% Low Fat-chocolate Milk (9/18), 1 Cup (240mL) 150 24g 3g 8g 15mg 200mg 22g 0g
Quaker - Rice Cake - Buttered Popcorn, 1 cake (9g) 35 8g 0g 1g 0mg 45mg 0g 0g
365 Organic - Roasted Salted Sunflower Seeds, 1/4 cup (28g) 170 6g 14g 6g 0mg 115mg 1g 3g

TOTAL: 1,485 186g 54g 87g 185mg 2,615mg 64g 14g




Exercises Calories Minutes

Cardiovascular
Elliptical Trainer 312 33
Arc Trainer by Cybex, easy, resistance 25, 120 steps per minute 104 11
Stationary bike, general (bicycling, cycling, biking) 103 14

TOTALS: 519


And another day:

Foods Calories Carbs Fat Protein Cholest Sodium Sugars Fiber

Breakfast
Great Value (Walmart) - Vitamin D Milk, 0.4 cup 60 5g 3g 3g 14mg 48mg 4g 0g
Cheerios - Multi-Grain Cheerios Peanut Butter-Dry, 1 1/2 cup 220 46g 3g 4g 0mg 260mg 18g 4g
"What About Second Breakfast?"
(Aldi) Fit & Active Nonfat Yogurt - Boston Cream Pie, 1 containter (6 oz/170g) 100 19g 0g 6g 5mg 85mg 15g 0g
Aldi - L'oven Fresh - Classic White Bread, 2 slices 120 26g 1g 4g 0mg 260mg 2g 0g
Beef - Roast Beef, 4 oz 120 0g 10g 24g 80mg 60mg 0g 0g
Cheese Original Slices - Velveeta, 1 slice (net carb=1) 40 3g 2g 3g 10mg 320mg 2g 0g
Luncharoo
D'italiano - Italian Bread, 2 slice 130 22g 2g 5g 0mg 230mg 0g 0g
Aldi's - Kirkwood - Chicken Bites Chicken Breast Chunk Fritters, 3 oz (84 g) 220 22g 9g 12g 30mg 740mg 0g 0g
Din Din
Hot Pocket - Five Cheese Pizza, 1 pocket 350 37g 17g 11g 20mg 680mg 11g 2g
Flavorite - Dry Roasted Sunfower Kernals, 3 TBSP 160 7g 13g 5g 0mg 220mg 1g 3g

TOTAL: 1,520 187g 60g 77g 159mg 2,903mg 53g 9g



Exercises Calories Minutes

Cardiovascular
Elliptical Trainer 282 30
Arc Trainer by Cybex, easy, resistance 25, 120 steps per minute 704 75
Stationary bike, general (bicycling, cycling, biking) 219 30
Strength training (weight lifting, weight training) 78 25

TOTALS: 1,283cals 160mins

Some of my lower cal days include

Bfast:
Raisin bran w/ 1% milk/banana (approx 390)

Lunch:
Hard boiled egg
Grape tomatoes
Low fat yogurt
Apple
Social tea cookies (3)
(Approx 300)

Dinner
Chilli and rice with sour cream (approx 500)

That is about 1200 give or take, and you have 300 to play with for beverages or snacks. Exercise and you can eat more. Add a protein shake to this, and it will really up your intake there.

I don't snack between meals as I have Invisalign, so I try to keep full between meals.

Calories are calories. I would try to get the most food for the amount of calories.

Bfast- PB2, Banana, Chocolate Smoothie - 270 calories
Hard Boiled Egg-70
Morning Snack-Light Yogurt-90
Lunch-Homemade Vegetable Soup (4 Cup portion)-165
Afternoon Snacks-Popcorn-100
Apple-65
Banana-105
Dinner- Swai Filet (8 ounces)-140
Brown Rice-170
Broccoli-40

This is only 1215 so it still leaves 285 calories to play around with wherever you would want. If you get hungier in the mornings then add something there or if you want dessert etc.

no offense, but if I ate like you all, I'd be in the poor house, oh wait, I AM in the poor house.
Seriously though, I couldn't afford to eat like that. I have a very tight budget.

Here's my typical day:
Breakfast: coffee w/ AS and 2tbsp full fat cream, 80 calories
Lunch: shredded chicken w/ salsa, 1 cup cottage cheese, beans, frozen veggies, stir fried in olive oil, water, 700 calories
Dinner: PB&J sandwich with 4tbsp PB (I know, I love PB), 1 tbsp jelly, 2pc whole wheat bread, small bag of chips, water, about 750 calories (I'm not great at measuring PB)

total is around 1500, give or take a little, due to the PB illiteracy!! LOL!

note: I also try to eat food that are in the house anyways with 6 people!! Peanut butter, chicken, coffee, etc.

Mine is in no way 'perfect', but you can look at my diary if you like. Go back at least one week - I recently increased from 1450 to 1600 cals.

I love that when i posted my diet i had so many critics, but, when i ask for the perfect diet only a few replies.

Oh the natural human response....

What you're asking from us is what dietitians do...and they don't do it for free. If you want someone to do the legwork for you, you better be willing to pay us for it.

...You may PM me for my PayPal email. :laugh:

I love that when i posted my diet i had so many critics, but, when i ask for the perfect diet only a few replies.

Oh the natural human response....

What you're asking from us is what dietitians do...and they don't do it for free. If you want someone to do the legwork for you, you better be willing to pay us for it.

...You may PM me for my PayPal email. :laugh:

Posting what you eat in a day on a website for people who are counting calories is not OK because looking at it is a dietitian's job? HA! People do that all the time, it's how we interact on here! That's preposterous!

Only thing OP... Grow a thicker skin, because if you ask what people think here, they tell you. They're not always right, but they tell you. I saw what you posted earlier, and some (a lot) of the advice you got was good. Your menu could use some attention. So if you ask, be OK with hearing some constructive feedback. Ignore the a******s.

I love that when i posted my diet i had so many critics, but, when i ask for the perfect diet only a few replies.

Oh the natural human response....

What you're asking from us is what dietitians do...and they don't do it for free. If you want someone to do the legwork for you, you better be willing to pay us for it.

...You may PM me for my PayPal email. :laugh:

What do you think these message boards are for? Does it not say "general diet and weight loss help?" People come here for help or they wouldn't be asking for advice, would they? This is a free website if you haven't noticed. FREE means no money paid, or did you not know that?

My diary is open. Go take a look. (Ignore this weekend - I was away)
Goal is 1590.

My diary is always open and unless I exercise I LOT I eat less than 1,500. Some days I'm low on the protein, which I could easily fix by boiling up some eggs or something I guess. It's been a bit wacko this weekend because of Valentine's day / my friend's birthday so if you want a proper look you should probably go back to the middle of last week :laugh:

Also I don't eat lunch. I work from home and have a large plate of fruit for breakfast which I pick at slowly throughout the day (I'm not a morning eater really). Most of my calories are consumed between 10/11am and 6-7pm. Not a conscious choice, I'm just not hungry early in the morning or late in the evening.

Typically
Breakfast:
30g dates
30g dried figs OR 50g drained tinned figs
50g grapes
1/4 tin drained peach slices
1/4 drained pear halves
2 of the 3 following: 1/2 a passionfruit, 1/2 a largeish pomegranate, 1/2 a largeish persimmon
125g or thereabouts natural low-fat greek yogurt (I prefer the taste)
150ml fruit juice

Which comes in at somewhere around the 400-500 mark

No lunch usually, but I MAY sometimes have a little (40g) bread and tzatziki or goat's cheese (60g) (around 200cal) if I feel like it that day.

Dinner:
I have a few things I cycle through
Mediterranean avocado and black bean salad (around 300cal a serve) or couscous with vegetables (around 200cal a serve) with a salmon fillet (230ish) or 200g chicken breast (about the same)
A lovely greek lamb and potato one-dish thing which also contains a fair amount of veggies and comes in at 600.
Grilled avocado stuffed with salad (around 550 or so)
Stuffed peppers, batata harra (lebanese spicy potato) etc etc you get the point a lot of veg happens at dinner normally with a side order of some meat or fish.
So dinner is around 500-600. I might have some bread with it and bump it up another 100.

Then after dinner I have a little sweet. I make my own baklava so I might have a piece or two of that (88cal per piece), or some homemade turkish delight. Recently I made chocolate houmous so I've been having that with a few more dates. Anyway about 200cal for post-dinner sweet

Apart from my fruit juice in the morning, I only really drink water and green tea. I get a graze box once a week so on 4 days there's a little punnet of something as well.

So really breakfast 400 + dinner 500 + sweet 200 + (maybe) extra snack 200 = 1300 :drinker:

Thing is though, I've never been a big eater *volume* wise. I have quite a small appetite and always have - I just ate a lot of really calorie dense junk before.

The most success I ever had losing weight (lost 60lbs) was following the plan in the Mayo Clinic's Healthy Weight for Everybody (now The Mayo Clinic Diet). I think it is very balanced and healthy and it goes along with what the dietitians I have met with recommend. They have 1400 and 1600 calorie goals so I will lay out what they recommend for both (lower number 1400, higher number 1600):

Vegetable servings: 4-5+ (the allow unlimited veggies)
Fruit servings: 4-5+ (unlimited fruit too, but be careful there)
Carbohydrate servings: 5-6
Protein/Dairy servings: 4-5
Fat servings: 3

Serving examples =
1 c broccoli or 2 c leafy greens= 1 veg
1/2 c sliced fruit or a small/med. piece of fruit= 1 fruit
1/2 c pasta or dried cereal or 1/2 bagel or 1 slice whole wheat bread or 1/2 medium baked potato= 1 carb
3 oz meat/fish or 2 ounces hard cheese= 1 dairy/protein
1.5 teaspoon peanut butter or 1 teaspoon oil or butter= 1 fat

I am pretty happy with their goals, though now that I have gluten issues, I would maybe trade some carb servings for fat or protein. Here is a link to get more servings and personal info from Mayo Clinic (for free): http://www.mayoclinic.org/weight-loss/itt-20084941

But, you have to eat what works in your life and budget, so don't let people give you crap! I am a fan of real food vs. processed food, but a lot of folks have a lot of luck with diet/light/sugar-free, etc. Do what works for you or you won't stick to it!

Oh the message boards... Ha.

Bumping for ideas.

The perfect 1500 calorie meal plan is one that you can stick to!

For balance, I readjusted my macro percentages and focus on those (40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat is a popular ratio). I just try to make sure I'm getting enough protein, fat, and fiber. I eat around 1700 calories a day. My diary is open, and you're welcome to have a look!

Ok, so I just started tracking my food. I'm trying hard not to buy prepackaged stuff except for the things I would normally buy because I really want to make it work with what I normally have in the house. This is one of my close to 1500 days. It all depends on how hungry I am in the morning, if I'm not too hungry I'll have a Thomas bagel thin with Philly Cream Cheese 2x protein and some fruit or a protein bar. I also found if I'm trying to lose weight, if I put my higher calorie items in the system early in the day (or the night before), it makes it easier for me to make choices that will fit in to my plan. I also drink my 8 cups of water (sometimes more). Many days, I have my sangria - all is right in the universe then! Good luck!


Breakfast Calories
Quaker Oats - 100% Natural Whole Grains Old Fashioned, 1/2 Cup (40g) 150
Sun-Maid - California Golden Raisins (15 oz. Box), 1/8 cup (40g) 65
Walnuts--diamond Shelled Walnuts - Walnut Pieces, 1/8 Cup 100
Coffeemate - Hazelnut Fat Free Creamer 2 tbsp 50
Coffee - Brewed from grounds, 1.38 cup (8 fl oz) 3
Total 368
Lunch
Kraft Natural Shredded Cheese 2% Milk Mexican Style Four Cheese, 1/4c 80
Publix Greenwise - Salsa, Medium, 2 tbs. 10
El Monterey - El Monterey Bean & Cheese Burritos, 1 burrito 230
Total 320
Dinner
Publix - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast 6 oz 165
Roasted Zucchini, 1 1/2 serving 134
Roasted Potatoes, 1 2/3 serving 276
Total 575
Snacks
Nature Valley - Soft Baked Oatmeal Square Peanut Butter, 1 bar 160
Coffee with FF Hazelnut Cream 52
Total 212

Totals 1475

My diet is in no way perfect, I usually go over on carbs and under on protein (my protein goal on here is higher than it needs to be though, for my weight the recommended minimum of 0.8g/1lb lean mass equals 74g daily).
But I do have my goal set at 1450 and am usually pretty close.
My diary is open if you want a look.