Daily meals

Options
When i say i eat 1,400 calories a day i often hear i should eat more but sometimes 1,400 - 1,500 of food can be a lot sometimes. What meals do you guys have on a day of 2,000 calorie diet ?

Replies

  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
    Options
    The only meal for me that isn't the same one or two things is dinner. Breakfast and lunch for the most part are super predictable.
    Breakfast :
    always have Coffee with cream
    Occasionally I will skip breakfast completely but if I do eat, an Egg omelette, with a slice of rye bread is my go to.
    About once or twice a week, I will have a slice or two of rye toast with PB and Honey

    Lunch: one or two of the following
    Protein Shake
    Protein Bar
    Tuna or Chicken salad snack pack (pre-packaged comes with crackers and the small can of salad)
    Salad (kale lettuce, with nuts, some shredded cheese, fried egg, ham)
    Left-overs

    My goal is to get back from work and have 1000 calories still available to me. I tend to struggle with late night snacking and by eating two small sensible, but filling meals I almost always can eat a decent supper and still have room for some treats or another micro meal late at night.


  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,416 Member
    Options
    I eat everything in two meals. Each meal is typically around 50-60g protein, but lunch is lighter at 600-800 calories (I'm usually working with 2100-2300 calories per day). So my lunch is usually leaner proteins like lowfat cottage cheese, lean ham, chicken and fewer carbs. I like making broccoli chicken salad in bulk on the weekends as that is a great grab-and-go lunch segment - usually accompanied by something else like a greek yogurt or lentil soup. Dinner is typically 1100-1400 calories and heavier in carbs and often times I make up any calorie gaps created by lean meats by having a heavier dessert. So if I have sloppy joes or something that are higher calorie due to lots of fats, I go with a leaner dessert like a fiber one 70 calorie brownie or something, and if I had a chicken stir fry and have 400 calories left to fill in, I' have a piece of pie or something.

    My meals look largely the same between 1400 calories and 2100 calories, but the portion sizes are weighted differently on the carbs and the default desserts in my house change from 60 calorie fudge bars to 300 calorie brownies. ;-)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,154 Member
    Options
    I eat 2000-2200 on exercise days. If you're struggling, consider adding calorie dense foods like nuts, avocados, full-fat dairy (if you eat dairy) especially cheese, seeds, more oil or butter in cooking or on veggies/salads, etc. . . . or, once all the good nutritional boxes have been checked but you still have calories, some less nutrient-dense treat food. (No extra credit for excess broccoli ;) ).

    Pre workout breakfast:
    - Ezekiel pita or a tortilla-sized cracker thingie
    - Crunchy peanut butter
    - Kefir
    - Hot skim milk with vanilla (don't like to drink coffee before workouts, this is my self-fake-out ;) )

    Lunch:
    - Oatmeal with mixed berries, Greek yogurt, walnuts, hemp seed, milled flax seed, blackstrap molasses, cinnamon
    - Coffee with hot skimmed milk ( x 2)
    - Iced matcha with citrus wedge

    Dinner highly variable, so a couple of recent examples, here's #1
    - Split pea soup with zucchini, nutritional yeast, parmesan cheese, garlic
    - Mixed green salad with cucumber, tomatoes, onions, dressed with sesame oil and ume plum vinegar

    Dinner #2
    - Tofu noodles crisped in macadamia oil, topped with black beans, chile paste, rice vinegar
    - Sauteed beet greens
    - Fresh figs
    - Cocoa-dusted almonds

    Recent snacks (not all on the same day ;) - depends on calories available):
    - Cheese and crackers
    - Smoked gouda and garlic potato chips
    - Yasso Greek yogurt bar
    - Mashed winter squash with white miso
    - Whole grapefruit
    - Craft beer (IPA)
    - Dark chocolate
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    Options
    If you’re really full on 1400-1500 calories, then focusing on fat is a good place to add calories without volume. Some butter, full-fat salad dressings, cooking oil, full fat dairy products, an ounce of cheese, 2 TB of peanut butter are all very little (or no) additional food volume, but can add several hundred calories.

    Personally, 2k calories is a lot for me (as the number of calories I can eat and still lose-I can easily eat 3-4K calories without blinking an eye). So on the rare occasions that I’m able to eat that much, I typically tend to include “treats” that I enjoy but don’t find filling enough to be able to eat regularly on lower calorie days.

    So my 2k days looks a lot like my 1400 calorie days. Just slightly larger portions (and/or higher calorie meats like steak or pork shoulder) and some ice cream or cookies or a donut or something.