1400 meal planning

[Loopylooni]

After months at 97kg with a sedentary job yet 15k steps a day, it's dawned on me that im just eating too many calories. Ive inputted my details into TDEE calc and it says I need to eat approx 1400 a day to lose weight. I'm currently googling what this looks like. Really want to lose some weight! Any good meal planning sites or should I just do smoothies!

Depending on how many calories you’re eating a day already that might be too much of a drop at once to be viable.

for the sake of your metabolism you need to eat small meals regularly.
depending on how hungry you tend to be or lightheaded if you haven't eaten enough (which could affect your work) you need to balance out your 1400 cal.
200 breakfast, 100 am snack, 200 lunch, 100 snack, 600 supper and 200 bedtime snack (or available to adjust your am meals so 250 breakfast 250 lunch with each snack being 150?

breakfasts are easy to measure out 120 cal of yogurt, 50 of fresh fruit, 30 of nuts or seeds for example (200 cal). another is toast boiled egg and tomatoes or cuc's, chia puddings made with almond milk and chia seeds again with fresh fruit and nuts.
lunch; if you've not had bread have an open faced sandwich (yogurt not mayo), rice paper wraps, or use a half bell pepper and stuff with sandwich filling, soups generally work out very well calorie wise.
supper all jamie oliver recipes have calorie and serving size details.

@Bechange997 I assume I'm eating around 2k a day because my weight hardly fluctuates at all. My day tends to be mornings with snacks from whatever seems left over ie the odd biscuit or crisps lying around. Definitely one to stop/easy to stop as im eating for no reason. Or 3 scrambled eggs with a big wedge of crusty bread. Again im going to stop the bread. Then I don't eat till dinner and then I'd have something like rice with 2 chicken pieces curry and a big blob of yoghurt. Or say today home made burrito with sour cream (again another big blob). It never felt too much because it was like OMAD when I skipped breakfast but clearly that alone must be 2K calories otherwise my weight would have moved.

@GildedRage is there an alternative like just fruits as my small meal only because I'm not a massive fan of yoghurt and berries and id probably put a ton of nuts on it. I'm quite lazy and could go food free then all out at dinner. I like eggs so happy eating those. I love Coop fresh bread but will stop all that.

If you cut up; apple, orange and grapefruit into tiny cubes about the size of a fat chick pea. It makes a nice fruit salad mix that keeps all week. French toast is simply bread soaked in a scrambled egg with cinnamon and milk.
I eat the food I enjoy but measure out my portions. Weigh my bread and cut it to size say 40 gms.

That’s a low number. How tall are you? I’d suggest moving towards that in increments rather than all at once.
Prioritise protein and fibre for each meal - I find it easier to be quite boring for breakfast so I have cottage cheese with tomatoes or Greek yoghurt with fruit. Always with a drizzle of something appropriate for flavour.
Lunch is usually a salad with fish or eggs.
Dinner is whatever we normally eat but just with lower portions.
Key for me is to not get too restrictive - I still eat what I would have eaten (mostly) just less. The mantra “I can eat anything I want but not everything I want” has been helpful - I’ve lost 27lb since January and it hasn’t felt too awful at any point.

I'm 5ft 6, currently 98kg, peri menopausal. I need to be in the 60s weightwise but I'm not losing anything.

Chat gpt is super helpful for meal planning to certain diets abs calorie requirements.

Hi OP,

I'm 5'7 with a starting weight of 82kg, I am now 65kg my cals were for the main part 1600 and now I am at 1800, still loosing but much slower as I don't want to loose muscle volume. I think 1400 is to low and not sustainable.

I was just coming on here to say the same thing.

You can put in the foods you like and dislike, ask it to increase protein & fibre and ask it to add flavour. Even if you don’t follow the whole plan, it will give you ideas for meals and also show the calories for each meal.

Yup I was coming on to say ChatGPT. It can also reel you exactly how much protein etc you need for your body (way higher than my calorie counting app tells me). Upping my protein has made a huge difference. I tend to have the same breakfast and lunch and ChatGPT gives me high protein, under 500 calories dinner ideas.

600 is too much to drop at once, that’s a crash diet. I’d go for 1800, then 1700, 1500…slow and steady.

you don’t have to cut the bread out entirely. What about wholemeal bread? Keeps you fuller longer.

I am also 5’7” and have been eating 1400 cals a day for 6 months. Have gone from 84kg to 64kg in that time.

A typical day for me might be sourdough toast with a small amount of butter and two fried eggs for breakfast, tin of soup (120 ish cals) for lunch, normal family dinner (spag bol, curry and rice, roast dinner etc), though I limit the carb element at dinner and have more of the protein and veg. There’s normally some calories left for a snack, but I check on a tracking app to be sure.

I like aiming for 1400 per day, even though that is probably a bit low. It means it doesn’t matter so much when I have a “relaxed” day and eat a whole pizza and a bottle of wine! Back on the 1400 aim the next day and the weight keeps coming off.

Aiming for 1400 and meeting that most days has led to 1-2lbs loss each week for 6 months. I have gone from a big size 16 to a size 10. I am now trying to figure out what calories to eat to maintain at 64kg ish, but am scared to increase the calories in case I shoot back up in size!

A couple of easy hacks:

Protein - lean protein at every meal: Greek 0% yoghurt; chicken breast; tuna; turkey breast mince; egg whites. For my sweet tooth, I eat

Cut out all white carbs: bread, rice, potatoes
Substitute with broccoli, green beans, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes.

For sweetness: berries and dates

You can eat a LOT of vegetables for very few calories. But cook them by steaming, not frying! I use an air fryer.

I eat between 1400-1500 calories a day with a sedentary job but a very active exercise regime, and an average of 15k steps a day. I eat a lot of vegetables and rarely feel hungry.

I am perimenopausal, 5' 7" and 77kg, aiming for nearer to 68kg. I have a calorie limit of 1400 per day and like @HappyAsASandboy I don't find it tricky at all. I'm never hungry. I've lost over 5kg in just under 2 months, haven't cut anything out completely, but do focus on protein, good fats and lots of veg/salad. No, or very minimal, alcohol. Lots of energy and sleeping well. Lift weights, yoga and walking (but not every day, if I'm honest!)

I eat eggs every day (always keep hardboiled eggs in the fridge for a snack too), tuna, chicken, fresh anchovies, cottage cheese, kimchi or sauerkraut, lots of salad, cucumber, tomatoes, etc. I tend not to eat breakfast (which does help to keep the cals down tbh), then I have a light lunch of around 400 cals (protein and salad mainly), lots of water, then a 'proper dinner' often followed by Greek yoghurt, cinnamon, linseed and berries. Tonight's dinner is chicken, spinach and lentil curry. I still eat bread, chocolate, pizza, potatoes etc but just not every day and in much smaller amounts.

It works for me. It has been a bit of a shock to find out just how few calories I actually need. I was definitely eating (and drinking) far, far too much and a lot of it was crap. I feel so much better now.

Chat GPT is good for suggesting meals or meal plans.
You can tell it the type of things you like or what you already have in the house.

I’m keeping it basic with a 200calorie breakfast of Greek yoghurt and nuts and 2 400 calorie meals which are mainly dahl based. I’m basically batch cooking and freezing portions and microwaving, When I’m not working I sometimes have beans on toast or 2 boiled eggs with toast (I make the bread with 1/4 walnut flour for extra protein - I freeze in slices of approx 200 calories so it’s easy) or some oily fish with salad. I’ve got some protein shakes for when I’m too busy to eat at 25O calories each but the brand I’ve got has artificial sweetener in so I tend to use a bit less but add some milk instead of water and a spoon of instant coffee. My 400 calorie meals have plenty of veg and pulses and I have a couple of bits of fruit a day plus some milk in coffee and a glass of kefir. I’m not having rice, pasta or sugar at all but I am having the walnut bread and an occasional chapatti. Im not a massive fan of cold food and I cba making new stuff all the time so it’s working out well for me but may be a bit boring to other people. I want to lose 14kg and I’ve lost 7kg so far in 2 months. I’m only just 5 foot so need fewer calories than most.