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Original poster

Help me plan a 1600 calorie a day meal plan

32 replies

badwife29 · 19/01/2025 09:49

I really need to lose weight. Tried all the diets with some success but it always goes back on eventually. Calorie counting suits me and my deficit is 1600 a day but I'm still struggling to stick to that. A current day for me looks like this:

I'm never really hungry in the morning so I'll have a coffee and cereal bar mid morning for about 150 calories.

Lunch is almost always a sandwich, salad or wrap. Have a peice of fruit and a bag of crisps (usually the lower calorie ones like skips or lentil chips). Followed by a coffee and a sweet treat - biscuit or Kit Kat etc. This usually averages around 700 calories.

Evening meal varies but is usually something from Gousto. I try to go for the lower calorie meals but Dh does the cooking and I don't always know how much extra oil/butter etc he's putting in so it's harder to track this. I would say most evening meals average around 800 calories.

Finish the day with a cup of tea.

By this logic I'm not far off target but I'm just not losing weight. I never really feel full and often have a mad binging session when I get home from work which is obviously pushing me way over 1600. I really need some meal plans/tips on sticking to this and actually feeling full too.

OP posts:
Pickingmyselfup · 19/01/2025 11:55

Breakfast-2 large eggs, 2 slices of prosciutto ham, 50g avacado on one slice of sourdough.

2 coffees.

Lunch-tuna wrap with salad made with half a tin of tuna and a mix of light and full fat mayo

Snack-beef jerky

Dinner -70g pasta with homemade bolognese with 20g cheese.

You can tweak measurements and as the above is only 1450ish you can add an extra snack or something in too.

kalokagathos · 19/01/2025 13:49

Not far off target but lots of empty, addictive nutrition full of UPFs. Ditch. Too many carbs, which will spike your glucose and with sedantry lifestyle are not the right fuel at all. Add more protein and fibre to breakfast- for example, scrambled eggs with tofu and white beans. By the looks of it, you are not hungry in the morning because you eat a heavy dinner and your body is trying to digest it while you sleep, which it shouldn't have to do, it should have time to rest and repair and not digest a heavy meal on top. If you go leaner in the evening, you will wake up hungry in the morning. The scale has to shift. The age old saying goes eat a breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and sapper like a pauper (do not snack, go for nuts, you absolutely must). On reflection, I am yet to meet a middle aged person with sedentary lifestyle who manages to look lean and eat heavy dinner in the evening. From my own recent experience, I got to my target weight, I've struggled to do in my 30s, since September. I followed Zoe programme (had to ditch homemade rye sourdough bread, which I thought was good for me, but glucose monitor showed it was spiking my sugar levels crazy - and I only had a slice a day. Imagine the story if it had been a white shop bought bread or a wrap...). Life changing knowledge for me in a short period of time, relatively small tweaks and I have not been hungry just ate more protein, fibre and complex carbs (lentils, beans). Enjoying a flat tummy now. Bliss! Follow their YouTube channel, it's fab )includes diet to follow during (peri)menopause too. I_

VyeBrator · 19/01/2025 14:47

Chillilounger · 19/01/2025 11:41

Starting the day with a cereal bar is not the way to go. They are full of sugar and you will spike then crash and feel even hungrier. Keep to a 200 cal breakfast so porridge or toast ( no butter) with scrambled egg, or beans on toast etc a 200-250 cal lunch so soup or a sandwich with no butter and just the one slice of bread for lunch or a salad with some protein for lunch and a balanced 500 cal dinner then you can have a few cups of tea or coffee and one or two pieces of fruit for a snack. Use my fitness pal to keep track.

The OP doesn't need breakfast because she's not hungry for it.

I haven't eaten breakfast since primary school for exactly the same reason.

AquaPeer · 19/01/2025 14:51

Chillilounger · 19/01/2025 11:41

Starting the day with a cereal bar is not the way to go. They are full of sugar and you will spike then crash and feel even hungrier. Keep to a 200 cal breakfast so porridge or toast ( no butter) with scrambled egg, or beans on toast etc a 200-250 cal lunch so soup or a sandwich with no butter and just the one slice of bread for lunch or a salad with some protein for lunch and a balanced 500 cal dinner then you can have a few cups of tea or coffee and one or two pieces of fruit for a snack. Use my fitness pal to keep track.

you have just listed a 950 calorie day

OP you’re never going to get good advice on MN

Weepixie · 19/01/2025 14:55

Only weightless jabs or long term actual starvation will stop you feeling hungry

Hunger is real on weight loss jabs and that’s when you practice to deal with hunger for when you’re no longer taking the jabs.

dizzydizzydizzy · 19/01/2025 15:24

Agix · 19/01/2025 10:00

You'll still be hungry if you're eating in a deficit. It's impossible to be in a deficit and not be hungry. The whole point of weight loss is you have to deprive your body of calories it needs to run on. It's going to send out hunger signals before relenting and using fat stores.

You just need to aceept being hungry and ignore it, but you can lessen the impact by eating whole foods rather than processed foods. I.e, no chocolate and crisps (they lentil ones are just as bad as regular). Opt for whole food bars or fruit or veg for snacks. Cereal bars in particular will leave you starving. Processed protein bars marginally better, much better if they're wholefood raw ones.

Only weightless jabs or long term actual starvation will stop you feeling hungry.

If you have the money, I totally vote getting a full meal delivery service. I have anorexia and have a meal delivery service not for weight loss, but to make eating easier (I don't have to worry about choosing food, think overly about what I'm putting in a meal etc). I don't want to be an advert for th brand I have, but the service I use is all whole foods and nutritionally balanced, and calorie counted. Do a Google. Just so much easier to eat healthy whole foods without having to think about it.

Edited

You don't need to be hungry. I have lost 2 stone since October without being hungry.

I have added lots of pulses, nuts and seeds to my diet and reduced bread, potatoes and pasta. A typical day would be:

Breakfast : chia seed pudding (kefir and chia seeds soaked overnight) with added walnuts, seeds and berries. Coffee and with a little dark chocolate

Lunch: chicken stew with various veg and pulses. Dessert: pear and Greek yogurt with cinnamon and honey

Dinner: Lentil soup with grated cheese and half a slice of seedy bread. Fruit.

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 19/01/2025 21:40

@dizzydizzydizzy 's plan above looks very sensible, healthy and nice food. You could pack up the chia pudding breakfast choice and eat mid morning instead of the cereal bar.

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