To ask for your 1600 cal a day meal plans

[christmasbiscuits23]

After much gluttony over Christmas and in fact all year if I'm honest, I am committed to losing weight in the new year and calorie counting is the best way for me.

I'm a terrible snacker so i know if I cut out all of my processed snacks (crisps, biscuits, crackers, cheese etc) that alone should make some difference. But 1600 cals does make it tough for me to come up with constant meal plans. When I've done it before my days have looked like this:

B: cereal bar and a coffee - 150 cals
L: sandwich or salad and crisps - up to 600 cals
D: usually something from Gousto at about 700-800 cals

Maybe a few coffees and a biscuit throughout the day.

Still not the most nutritious diet but within cals at least. Can anyone recommend any other meals or meal plans? Thank you.

When I did Noom last year I had:

6am: tea and toast (homemade sourdough, butter, marmalade)

8am: cold oats with pumpkin seeds, lots of chopped fruit. You can make it quite nice - Aldi has persimmons right now for some reason, and they’re lovely with this.

lunch: 200g of chicken, or a piece of salmon or tofu, a tablespoon of some kind of carb from last night- I try to keep a little portion of leftovers when I can - a whole heap of sajad leaves and some broccoli. The idea is to have the plate be HEAVING with food, but for most of it to be air and water!

dinner: whatever normal dinner is (like spaghetti bolognese - half mince half grated vegetables) and a smaller portion of the carb.

No treats in cafes. 😢

I have (I’m veggie):

Breakfast: Kvarg protein yoghurt and a banana

Lunch: bagel thin with cream cheese, packet of low cal crisps such as pop chips, Tupperware tub of chopped up veggies like cucumber, carrots, peppers, piece of fruit like apple, satsuma or grapes

Snack: light babybel and a protein bar

Tea: A calorie controlled portion of something I want, such as pasta with veggie sauce, veggie chilli and rice, veggie quesadillas, halloumi wraps, small pizza (450 calories one from M&S), usually with frozen mixed veg.

Snack: One small chocolate etc mini malteaser reindeer (60 calories)

I recommend reading Ultra Processed People and cutting out UPFs.

Typically something like:

Breakfast: either porridge made with 50/50 semi skimmed milk and water, chopped apple and a little brown sugar, or a protein yoghurt and a banana. Sometimes overnight oats with frozen berries and a little honey or maple syrup.

Lunch: cold chicken and salad, or chickem noodle or vegetable soup with a couple of wholemeal pitta, or if buying a sandwich one of the Tesco beautifully balanced range. An apple. Maybe a bag of baked crisps.

Snacks if I get hungry: hard boiled egg, protein yoghurt (if I didn't have one for breakfast!), or a piece of fruit.

Dinner: piece of chicken or fish, or a couple of sausages, with lots of boiled or steamed veg (think corn on the cob, carrots, broccoli or savoy cabbage). A few squares of chocolate.

That came in around 1600 and I could “buy” more calories by taking exercise - probably not a v healthy way of looking at it! 😜

You’d be surprised at how many calories are in fairly innocuous things. If you like sweet treats now, you can easily clear about 500 calories a day by eating everything the same as usual, just cutting the treats.

Oh - chocolate protein shakes with an extra teaspoon of cocoa powder (not hot chocolate powder!) make a nice snack that feels desserty but is relatively low calorie abs keeps your protein intake up.

Does a cereal bar in the morning fill you up or last till lunch?

It wouldn't for me, I'd be better having nothing, I can easily go till lunch without needing food but if I have something tiny and sweet in the morning it will set me off and I'll be starving by mid morning.

If you do need breakfast you'd be better with something savoury and with protein like a 2 egg omelette which would be able 120 calories for medium eggs, then you could add onion, mushrooms, sliced peppers and still come in under 150 calories.

A cereal bar isn't a great breakfast I know. But usually mornings are chaotic and I don't have time to cook anything so it's a grab and go breakfast. I really wish I liked porridge or oats as that would be far more filling but I don't enjoy them at all. I sometimes have omelette or scrambled eggs at the weekend. More often a bacon sandwich though

Veggie soup for lunch is always filling and then a bit of protein afterwards. Eg a couple of crackers with a small chunk of cheese.

If you are time poor in a morning, a yoghurt would be better than a cereal bar.

Breakfast:

two egg mushroom omelette 200 kcals

lunch:

the much ridiculed MN huge salad: big bowl of leaves plus cucumber/radish/tomatoes/ asparagus/peppers plus protein either chicken or prawns and maybe a bit of cheese

or

soup with two crackers and cream cheese

400kcals

dinner

steak with roasted broccoli/kale or a red onion salad

500kcals

1100 is about my maximum if I want to lose, so no snacks, no pasta/bread.

Do you need to have breakfast? If you cut out the cereal bar and make the coffee black then you could do a bit of intermittent fasting which will help too even if you use up the 150kcal saved later on

1600 calories is easy if you cook from scratch and check your portion sizes, especially the quantities of starchy carbs & meat.

Can easily do things like:

• a simple chicken or turkey curry with rice & lots of veg
• prawns stir fry plus veg with noodles. Avoid supermarket sauce sachets which are sugary and use things like soy sauce, garlic, chilli for flavour.
• omelettes with bacon, mushrooms, peppers etc. Some cheese is ok but actually recalibrate your quantities, weigh a piece & check the calories, if you put loads on its too much. A hard cheese like parmesan has a lot of flavour for a small quantity.
• venison or lean beef steak with salad, veg or bean mash (cook beans in stock with onion & garlic, mash with some horseradish).

Most of it is portion control. We eat too large a portion of most things. All food is good food if you eat a sensible portion. Air fryers are great for getting things crispier with less oil/fat

Often what adds calories is buying ready made sauces and foods as they have a lot of fat and sugar added that you can easily cook without at home.

Get rid of the crisps at lunchtime, totally unecessary. Check your sandwich fillings - don't overload with mayo etc as this adds calories. Tuna on brown bread toast is good. Soups with a slice of bread or toast are lovely in winter.

I don’t know exact calorie counts for each meal but when I’m on a 1500 calorie plan I have things like this:

BREAKFAST OPTIONS

greek yoghurt with a teaspoon of honey, cup of fresh berries, 2 tablespoons of oats, cup of coffee

two boiled eggs with a slice of toast, cup of coffee

LUNCH OPTIONS

Grilled halloumi salad (150g light halloumi with salad leaves and whatever chopped veg you like with a low calorie dressing of choice or simple vinaigrette, but measure any oil used carefully as it’s very calorie dense)

bagel thin with light Philly and sliced tomato and cucumber

veg soup (any veg you like) with a slice of bread for dipping

DINNER

fake chicken Caesar salad - half a bag of ‘be good to yourself’ Caesar salad with 2 Vegetarian Butcher chicken burgers. If you’re not veggie obvs you can use a real grilled chicken breast

dhal with rice

cannellini beans cooked with onion and tinned tomatoes with a little single cream stirred in at the end, served with new potatoes and peas

for snacks I eat a lot of fruit for the fibre and bulk but I have a big sweet tooth so I buy things like freddos and those tiny kinder bars so that if I want a chocolate hit I can have it without it being too many calories. I think a freddo bar is 105 calories so it’s usually possible for me to fit it in to my allowance. I also stick to berries mainly for fruit because they’re so low in calorie so you can eat loads.

This. You're making it harder for yourself with the cereal bar and crisps.

I'm planning:

Breakfast of under 250 cals - 2 slices of thin wholemeal (Warburtons 55 cals a slice) with marmite, a very small glass of fresh fruit juice or a satsuma
or
Skyr with berries
or a boiled egg and wholemeal soldiers, coffee
or a bagel thin with marmite

Lunch about 400 cals - homemade veggie soup, a banana
or scrambled egg with tomatoes, bagel thin or wholemeal toast, apple or pear
or a small baked potato with sugar free beans and salad
or reduced fat cheddar cheese on toast with grilled spring onions and tomatoes, salad
or sardines in tomato on toast, piece of fruit
or chicken noodle soup, home made, piece of fruit

Dinner about 800 cals- grilled or baked fish or meat with lots of veg, no carbs.
Or small portion brown rice with veggie curry or medium portion of pasta with veggie sauce - dry roast peppers and pomodoro etc.

That leaves about 100-150 cals spare for endless cups of tea throughout the day!

I prefer lower fat with small amounts of whole grains as higher fat keto-style can make me feel ill.

I'm trying to avoid processed snacks - even low calorie ones like lentil crisps or chickpea puffs. They may only be 80 cals a packet but they trigger cravings for me, so I am trying to focus on fresh foods.

I would really recommend some kind of protein for breakfast. A protein shake even, would be better than a cereal bar if you need convenience. Or yoghurt, or boiled egg done the night before.

It's really helped me tbh. I WFH so I eat pancakes a fair bit, but it's really helped me stave off the need for a snack until lunchtime.

It sounds like you want things that are super easy and portable for breakfast and lunch right?

here’s a couple of ideas - some still use processed food but it’s all easy
Breakfast (or could be lunch)

• egg muffins (you just basically whisk them with veggie and bake in the oven - you can then take them out and eat on the go heater in microwave - maybe with some baked beans
• omelette wrap - cook like an omelette and fill with what you fancy - maybe heck chicken sausages even (they’re only 30 cals
• Bagel thin with bacon medallion

lunch

• hot smoked salmon with some salad (literally just open and pour on a plate)
• Buy a tin of mixed bean salad (the one in vinaigrette) and throw some leaves in and maybe some cheese
• make up a pasta salad with prawns/mozzarella, salad stuff and throw in some sundried tomato’s in oil

or the other thing would be to buy an extra portion on your Gousto order and take that as leftovers - just stick to the meals under about 500 calories

With your username this has really made me
giggle

Op I second reading ultra processed people. Youre eating crap and it won't be filling. If you need a grab and go option in the morning make your own cereal bars at least. Nigella lawsons 'breakfast bars'. You can add 100g protein powder to the recipe to up the protein too. They're not perfect as made with condensed milk but they are much better than the crap you'll get in Tesco.

Or what about boiled eggs? They're pretty easy. Grab out the fridge.

Or you could skip breakfast and have a decent early lunch.

For me I have for breakfast either eggs or greek yogurt with berries and almond butter (takes minutes), or porridge with fruit and a spoon of greek yogurt for protein.

Lunch is usually a salad with a tin of fish or whatever protein I have around - steak, chicken. Lentils, nuts, seeds.

Dinner is standard protein plus veg/salad.

Just eat natural whole foods. It does not take any longer than cooking processed stuff if you keep it simple

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I hadn't even thought!

Its difficult for the first couple weeks adjusting to a deficit but once you're passed that, its a lot easier.

Breakfast is usually porridge with semi skimmed milk, some fruit and drizzle of honey. Or a veggie omelette with sprinkle of cheese.

Lunch is a tuna sandwich or a chicken salad wrap, yogurt and some fruit.

Dinner is usually meat/fish with some veggies and a carb source (small portion of rice, boiled potatoes etc). Think the same portion as half a pack of the microwave rice.

Snacks are low fat cereal bars, protein yogurts, mini bars such as Freddo, instant hot chocolate etc. I usually limit to 2 snacks per day.

Lots of fluids - if you get a hunger pang between meals, have a glass of water and wait 20 minutes before eating.

The above plan can be anywhere between 1,500-1,800 kcal per day depending on how hungry I am that partocular day but my max limit is 1,800 for a deficit.

A few ideas that I use for grab and go breakfast:
-buy little pots and portion out Greek yog for the week add berries or honey
-mini fritattas make ahead in muffin cases
-Boil loads of eggs and keep in the fridge to grab
-pouches of high protein yoghurt