1300 Caliries a Day - what do you eat?

[Turmerictolly]

Looking for inspiration please. I started a 1300 calorie a day weight loss plan (nothing official) yesterday. I have several stones to lose for health reasons and looking for meal ideas. Yesterday I had;

B; cereal 30g with semi milk
L; Salad (lettuce, spring onion, beetroot, half an avocado, couple cherry tomatoes chopped) with 30g feta cheese and a teaspoon of salad cream
D; M n S chilli and ginger salmon had one and a half of two portions with spinach, mini corn on the cob and half a cup of broccoli.
Snack : two choc fingers (mini ones from a left over Easter egg).

I'd like to include more fruit but there doesn't seem to be the calorie allowance for it.

Have had Breakfast and lunch today with a salad and boiled egg.

Any other ideas that are quick and healthy? Not too keen on processed meats.

The title should say Calories!

Smaller portions of whatever I want to eat. I'm losing weight on 1500-1600 a day. I have porridge for breakfast, Greek yogurt and berry and cherry compote and honey for lunch, dinner i whatever I fancy, tonight will be pasta, last night was homemade soup and crusty rolls.

Have you worked out your tdee? 1300 is very low and I prefer to eat better food, make healthier choices and keep active rather than deprive myself. Nothing is banned. I eat a lot of carbs and I've upped my protein because I was hardly eating any before. I've lost 12kg since the autumn. Slow and steady.

I usually have a protein yoghurt for breakfast. Soup and bread for lunch. I love trying new soup recipes. Have leek, pea and watercress this week. And then Dinner is just a small portion of whatever I fancy. Tonight is pasta bake. Tomorrow is pizza. And I've got bolognaise wraps planned for Thursday. I'm aiming for 1340. I'm down 40lbs so far. Been on 1340 since mayish last year. Weight loss has slowed over winter as I have been feeing a bit hungrier but is picking up now the weather is warmer and I'm running more.
I'd add fruit to your breakfast or as a snack. I love avocado bit don't eat it much because of the calories.

Thank you for the ideas, you've both done brilliantly, I'm just hoping I can lose fairly steadily without giving up after week 2.

I like the idea of Greek yoghurt with fruit so will definitely try that. I'm ashamed to say I very rarely make soup as I only hand a cheap hand blender. However I do like it so will give it another go.

I was reading another thread about what amount of calories you need to reduce by and it said to work out your BMR then reduce by several hundred calories. Maybe I've read it wrongly? My BMR was about 1550 calories.

I think it depends on how tall you are, how much you have to lose and how active you are. I find that 1340 gives me a steady lb a week loss. But I'm short. If you're tall or very heavy you could eat a few more. My friend is losing on 1900 but only about 2lbs a month which is quite slow.

Try doing your tdee calculator instead OP then look at the "cutting" calories - it will deduct 500 cals from your tdee to give you a rough estimate of what you should be eating based on height, weight, activity level.

I couldn't fathom how to do bmr at all!

Im only eating 1000 cals atm to try and get the last stubborn half a stone off but when I was eating 1300 I had:

no breakfast!
lunch: Greek salad with low fat feta cheese or jacket potato with tuna or beans
or poached eggs on 2 slices weight watchers toast with roasted tomatoes/mushrooms (300-400) soup is a good option too.
dinner: anything really but cooked the SW way - which means low fat, lean meat, 1 cal spray, no oil or butter etc and also adding at least a third of a plate of veg.(600) minimal carbs. Look online for 100's of SW recipes.
i would then have enough left over for a 100 calories yoghurt (you could have a kit Kat or something for 100 cals if you fancy a bit of chocolate) and a 100 cal fruit salad (usually half a chopped apple, half a tin pineapple and a handful of raspberries/strawberries) also 100 cal on skimmed milk in my coffee.

I found skipping breakfast became really easy after a week or two - fasting causes your appetite to naturally diminish so you don't get h7ngry throughout the day and means you have enough calories for a proper lunch, dinner and a dessert as a treat - I works really well for me as if I eat breakfast it immediately kickstarts my appetite and I then can't stop thinking about food.

Also, have a glass of water with ice on the go constantly - it'll fill you up and keep you hydrated. People often confuse thirst for hunger.

Your BMR is the calories you burn just by existing, if your BMR is 1600ish I would eat to that number for a few weeks and see if the trend is going downwards. You want the defecit to be as small as possible because if you drastically reduce it leaves you with no further room to cut calories again without being hungry all day if/when fat loss begins to stall.

B: porridge made with mainly water and a bit of milk, fruit. L: small portion of curry or stir fry (no rice or noodles) or soup and half a thin bagel or baked beans or scrambled eggs on one slice of toast. S: Cucumber and cherry tomatoes or blueberries or satsuma. D: curry, stew, stir fry, chilli, bolognese (keeping an eye on amount of oil etc) but fill plate with mainly vegetables and have a smaller portion of the main and carb. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are all filling and low calorie. S: Options hot chocolate and something like a kit kat or chocolate mousse (both 100 calories) if I have any calories left. This can come in at around 1300-1400 if you are careful with portion sizes. I don't eat meat which generally makes it easier (e.g. lentil bolognese is lower calorie than beef) but does rule out some of the classic diet staples (chicken breast, lean ham etc). But 1300 calories is pretty miserable and if you have several stone to lose it seems unlikely you need to drop that low to lose, unless maybe you are menopausal/peri. Might it be better to aim for more and try to get into an eating pattern that you could sustain in the longer term?

Yesterday I finished the day on 1340 and ate -
Porridge (sachet made with water) and a banana
Chicken breast, broccoli, baby corn with some Nando’s sauce
Sausage gochijang pasta

Snacks were 2 light babybels, cucumber sticks and a packet of lentil crisps.

If I hadn’t been to the office I probably would have swapped the porridge for a bagel and two boiled eggs and then had a lower calorie dinner. It shouldn’t be too difficult if you make some easy swaps like 1 cal spray instead of oil, low fat meat, cheese and butter. I use the blue dairy free Flora spread and was surprised to find it only had a third of the calories that DP’s non dairy free one did.

Really I should be on about 1200 to lose anything as I’m short and don’t have much to lose but I burn 3-400 calories doing gym classes 5 days a week just to give myself a bit extra to play with.

Good advice, thank you. Think I'll shake up breakfast a bit by adding porridge and fruit on and make the exchange to spray oil for most cooking. My danger times are the evenings when I need to prepare food quickly after work and weekends, eating out and wine. I am short, 5'3 just about and weigh 14kg so I thought 1300-1400 would be about right. I'm also menopausal. I don't want to be thin, just in the normal BMI category which would be around 10 and a half to 11 stone I think.

Had the usual cereal for breakfast and salad lunch. May have a jacket spud with tuna mayo and salad tonight but don't like them without butter.
Or maybe lemon sole with veg.

On the days I go into the office and don’t get home until 8, dinner is always pre made the night before so there’s no temptation to eat something quick and rubbish.
Then on the days I work from home, I make dinner at lunchtime so as soon as I get in from the gym I can eat.
Lunches are also all prepared on a Sunday. It does mean I eat a lot of the same thing but it makes the week so much easier and I can also prepopulate MFP in advance and see where I can add snacks etc.

Unfortunately the weekends are also my weakness so my only advice there is to stick to dry white wine, Prosecco or clear spirits with low calorie mixers and stay away from the cocktails!

I don't count calories but use MFP to track protein and have been surprised at how low in calories some of my meals are.

I often make shakes for breakfast with greek yoghurt, banana, chia seeds and water. If I'm hungry I'll have a slice of toast with avocado.

Poached eggs on top of a slice of seeded bread, topped with kimchi and lots of greens is ~ 300cal but it is a decent lunch. Or homemade lentil soup topped with pumpkin seeds and a slice of seeded bread.

Dinner is based on pulses, tofu, eggs etc with veg and a carb.

Snack on babybel. If I want a chocolate fix I have 200ml of Alpro protein shake. 10g protein so must be better than a chocolate bar.

I’m just starting too OP. I’m going to try and replicate the diet I had when I had gestational diabetes. Reduce carbs, swap all carbs for wholemeal options and reduce the portion. Wholemeal/seeded bread, wholemeal rice, swap potatoes for sweet potatoes.

For a treat in the evening I like some peaches/pears and small amount of low fat Elmlea cream.

breakfast might be one slice wholemeal toast with poached egg whites or oats.

for lunch today I had a butternut squash and chickpea burger (no bun though) with salad and small bit of sweet chilli sauce.

tea tonight will be a baked sweet potato with my home made coleslaw made with extra low fat mayo.

I’ll have a mid afternoon snack of an apple or low fat crackers with low fat cheese.

I ate 1300 calories yesterday. I had

Tea. Tiny bit of geek yogurt as was running out. Mixed berries. Bagel thin. Peanut butter.

Salad - tomato celery spring onion beetroot cucumber olives tin of tuna. Dressing made of lemon juice tahini garlic. Salad seed topper.

Dinner - roast celeriac with dates and watercress and some turnip. Lots of garlic. Olive oil. Chicken breast.

Milky home made mocha.

Today came in at 1372 and I had..

Breakfast
Smoked salmon, poached egg, avocado on half a slice of small brown toast
Coffee x2

Lunch
Homemade broccoli and cheddar soup
Chicken tikka slices
Chicken fridge raiders (1 small pack)
Lancashire cheese

Snack
Cottage cheese and salsa on 2 ryvitas
Pecan nuts

Dinner
Chicken breast with mashed swede, cauliflower, cheese and french mustard.

I could have shaved 70 calories off by having one less egg at breakfast.

If I want to shift a few pounds I eat the following:

Breakfast - 2 X crumpets, scaping of butter and marmite.

Lunch - Large vegetable samosa or veggie sausage roll or spring rolls with cucumber

Dinner -Massive salad (Rocket, broccoli, onion, avacado etc) with fry light potato wedges and eggs/tuna/prawns whatever I fancy.

Snacks - fruit, crisps under 100 cal, chocolate under 100 calories and an ice lolly.

Today I came in at 1221 with 10 portions of veg:

Breakfast was a portion of vegetable frittata (I bake a big dish every few days so it's ready to eat from the fridge) and baked beans.

Lunch steamed asparagus and mange tout followed by a protein bagel thin with philli, ham and salad.

Dinner baked potato, tuna and sweetcorn mixed with lemon and creme fraiche and a big salad. Followed by a mini ice cream.

No snacks as plenty of protein keeps me full between meals but 5 cups of decaf tea with skimmed milk throughout the day and plenty of water.

I think I’m going to switch back to summer salads for lunches from next week. I made a lovely one last year which had a dressing made by blending up avocado, 0 fat yoghurt, lime juice and coriander. And then just mixed with lettuce, chicken breast and whatever other salad bits I had in the fridge. It tasted much more decadent and calorific than it was.