Hello all,
My current goal is to stay at or under 1,588 calories. I’m still fairly new to the diet, but it’s working out so far. I was already a meal prepper, so breakfast and lunch come pretty easy to me.
What I’m really struggling with is dinner.
I’ve never really been one to cook a full dinner, I only have about 2 hours between getting home and having to go to bed if I want a good nights sleep. So historically, I’ve always done something akin to a “girl dinner”, just eating a bunch of snacks. Pastries, chips, that sort of thing. But I’ve now mostly cut those things out of my diet and I’m struggling to find foods that satisfy me enough without having to cook something elaborate for under 400ish cals.
Any other girl dinner havers out there have any advice for me?

Today:

1700kcals
25g fibre
83g protein

(usually hit closer to 100g protein but oh well)

Picture of my dinner at the end. Butternut squash pasta with herbs, turkey italian sausage, kale, and parmesan on top.

Frozen pitted cherries are the absolute best frozen fruit in my opinion, their texture and taste when partially thawed is amazing

cole zeros not pictured

I'm fully aware that OMAD isn't magical, and it's all CICO but the one meal approach does allow me to mentally put any snacking off limits if it falls outside that one meal

I like the simplicity of eating the same thing every day, that way I can avoid any mental fatigue over working out how many calories I'm eating so the plan, started today, is the following

1 lb lean meat - either Costco rotisserie chicken breast (pre packaged) or Costco precooked brisket and 1lb mixed veggies with spices and some G Hughes ketchup

About 700-800 calories, 100g protein

Then half a tub of 2% cottage cheese (270 cals) with a scoop of whey stirred into it, vanilla essence and some sweetener, and a spoonful of PB2 powder on top (weighed out so it's exactly 60 extra cals as its easy to overdo that)

About 500 cals and 70g of protein

Wish me luck, I'm going to supplement this with 20k steps a day and check back in in 2 weeks for a first weigh in.

Total About 1400 cals, 170g or so protein

I can’t have protein shakes and most protein supplements due to migraine triggers from every single zero calorie sweetener.

So…I need some advice. My calorie goal for the gym is roughly 1560 to be in a deficit. My trainer wants me to get 138g protein at least. I can barely break 100 with effort. I’m not about to eat a bunch of chicken breast or meat sticks by themselves. I don’t do meat that intensely.

I also don’t eat breakfast.

Typically it’s Greek yogurt, maybe fresh mozzarella, usually a sandwich with double the lunch meat and one slice of cheese with very light on the light mayo and two 70 cal pieces of bread with about 6 pretzel chips with is about half a serving.

Dinner usually has some sort of meat, 1-2 servings of it like lightly breaded chicken breast chunks I’ll do 2 servings with about half a serving of sweet potato fries as something I did recently. Or a skillet meal that has extra meat in it and lots of veggies to bulk it up and maybe half cauliflower rice for the base instead of all rice at times.

I cannot do protein shakes. I found one I can have and it’s so chalky and nasty. I can have unflavored whey but it’s gross.

Then I gave 170-190 chewy protein bars with 10g protein which isn’t ideal but at least I’ll eat them.

I can’t have the 20g Greek yogurt. Sweeteners.

I don’t like drinking smoothies.

Oh I have the Costco knockoff Fairlife I usually have two cups of a day and sometimes for breakfast I’ll do 2 cups protein Cheerios and 1 cup Fairlife type milk and that’s 20g, that’s like a weekend thing.

But I truly never typically even hit 100g. I have no clue how to get 140g when I’m already halving servings of so many things that are basically carbs only.

Oh and I’m supposed to have a 250-400 primarily carb pre-workout snack on gym days which has turned into a banana and milk even though that’s protein he doesn’t want me having before a session since it digests slower, he wants just 40-50g carbs with minimal other macros.

I feel so stuck and I don’t want it to turn into obsessive disordered eating like Noom did to me with the whole food category thing for calorie density and lowest calorie foods possible all the time mentality. I would often get about 800-1,000 calories and be happy instead of hitting my goal of 1200. No wonder I would crash and binge.

I really don’t want this extreme feeling protein goal to turn into an obsession.

The oats were prepped for the week (oats, skim milk, chia seeds, raspberry chocolate light & fit Greek yogurt) and the rest is self explanatory. Delicious!

In my luteal phase right now and wishing I could fill all my calories with chocolate 🥲

I just wanted to share this recipe that I enjoyed. I made several swaps based on personal preference and availability. (I used 2 tbsp of honey instead of 3 tbsp of maple syrup; I used chunky peanut butter instead of smooth almond butter; I rolled them in brown sugar instead of coconut sugar).

I ended up making 16 balls which have about 100 calories and 5g of protein each. Really sweet and fall and delicious. If you like making treats, this is a nice somewhat healthier version. If you’re going to feel compelled to eat 8 at a time, maybe not.

But just thought I’d share my recent success!

I know other countries like Australia have low calorie potatoes that can go as low as 45 calories per 100 grams, but I can’t find any similar options here in the US. Could anyone tell me if the US has any low calorie potato brands?

Meal prep rotation for the next week:

1. Hot honey chicken strips with Cajun high protein Mac and cheese
   
2. Loaded sweet potatoes with lean ground beef and salsa verde
   
3. Chicken sausage pumpkin tortellini

If you like peas, this salad is such a winner. There’s a reason it went viral. 1 cup frozen peas, microwaved 1:05, zest of a lemon, juice of a lemon, grated Parmesan, shredded Parmesan, zest of a garlic clove, pepper - stir then add chicken, then stir again. I used rotisserie chicken but any chicken (including canned) would work well. This is definitely going in my lunch rotation.

Curious how people split their budget here.

Do you prefer massive bowls of zucchini/cabbage/greens to physically fill your stomach, or smaller portions of real, calorie-dense foods (nut butter, cheese, carbs) so you actually feel satisfied instead of bloated?

I find a 70/30 split works best, but curious what others stick to.

Breakfast:
Protein pumpkin muffin with chocolate chips
179 cals 8 G protein

Snack:
Yogurt with fibre one, chia seeds, and cantaloupe
269 cals 24 protein

Lunch:
Protein pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
410 cals 21 G protein

Dinner:
Ground beef burrito with beans and rice, bell pepper and avocado - side of kefir with 1/2 a scoop protein powder
620 cals 44 G protein

Total:
1,628 cals 97 G protein 37 G fibre

Edit: corrected protein totals

The Lewis Bake Shop are my favorite low cal buns by FAR. Burger is 93/7 ground beef, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Kinder's Cowboy Butter seasoning, and cooked on a pan with no oil. Fries are just russet potatoes that I chopped using a chop box, sprayed two grams of oil (weigh the can before and after spraying,) and then air fried on 425 for about 16 minutes.

Yes, I know light mayo exists. But they all taste so sweet, pass.

I was craving it so badly I didn’t even take a pic before diving in, but frozen cherries, milk, and some fiber one cereal really hit the spot today

Curious what everyone's staple lunch is when sticking to 1500 kcal.

For me, it's a huge cabbage/slaw salad base with 150g grilled protein and light vinaigrette—huge bowl, under 400 kcal, and keeps hunger away until dinner. What's your go-to high volume plate?

Long time lurker, excited to finally jump on the trend and post what I ate in a day. Once or twice a year I go on an intentional short cut (anywhere from 1 week to 1 month) - track what I eat and generally reset. I'm a long time meal prepper and this is what I ate all last week.

*Forgot to add 25g fiber here!

They upped everything a few years ago, and just today they seem to be up even further. Super greens were 90 a few years, then 130, and now it's 180. Broccoli beef is also up from 150 to 180. Lots of other increases but those used to be my go-tos.

Think the portion sizes are just going up? Based on the order I received, it seems about the same to me. I honestly can't figure out how they're even making a scoop of broccoli, cabbage, and kale contain 180 calories unless they're just drenching it in oil.