Low Calorie Lunch Ideas

Try these three nutritious, low calorie lunch ideas that contain approximately 400 calories each.

I was tweeting with a friend of mine last night as I lay on my bed and soothed my sun-kissed skin with aloe gel. She has been trying to lose weight, but finds that she gets very bored of the same diet foods that she eats over and over. Like many people, she has fallen into the diet doldrums. Variety is after all the spice of life, and when you are dieting it is even more important to keep things interesting otherwise you will quickly lose interest as I have blogged about in my post “Diet Boredom Leads to Diet Failure“. I sent my friend a number of low calorie lunch ideas that I use and also encouraged her to read my blog post about “Low Calorie Breakfast Ideas“. I’m also know working on a list of low calorie dinner ideas and hope to have those for a post tomorrow.

Dieting can be rough, especially if you have to eat away from home while at work. You can either take your chances with finding a fast food meal that fits into your diet, or you can bring something from home that stays within your diet and still tastes good. How many calories you want to take in each day depends on your diet plan, but staying around a 400 calorie lunch time is a great idea. That, along with a 200 calorie breakfast, gives you room for a good dinner and a few small snacks as well.

Try to balance your lunches with what you had in your breakfast. At least one of these meals should have a source of protein to keep you full, and some good carbohydrates to give you the energy you need to get through the afternoon. Remember to also include at least one source of calcium in both, or at least one of these meals. This nutritious, low calorie lunch, along with a small afternoon snack, should carry you through to dinner with very little hunger to contend with.

Here are three low calorie lunch ideas near 400 calories to get you started:

One cup of soup (keep serving size approx 100 calories), 1 cup carrot and celery sticks, 1 cup of skim milk or unsweetened juice. If you have calories left, try a cheese stick. When choosing your soup, low sodium is best, as well as a broth instead of a cream. Celery and carrot sticks can be bought already cut and washed for convenience. For the cheese, try sticks of low fat mozzarella.

1 and a half cups of salad (including lettuce, tomato slice, 2 tablespoons low fat dressing, onion, pepper, and/or hard boiled egg. Also, include 1 cup of cottage cheese, and a low calorie drink of your choice. You can adjust the serving sizes to bring your calorie count to or near 400 calories. Remember to watch your salad dressing and skip the croûtons.

Two slices of whole wheat bread with mustard (or other low calorie spread), slice of baked turkey or chicken breast, and a slice of low fat cheese. Add to this a piece of fresh fruit, and the low calorie drink of your choice, preferably skim milk. If you add the calories for this lunch and find you have a few extra with which to work, you can add a slice of tomato to your sandwich, or some low fat mayo if that is what you prefer.

As you can see from these three low calorie lunch ideas, there is an unlimited number of foods that you can combine together to make a delicious and low-cal, noon-time meal. These meals will help to keep you full until dinner, perhaps with only one small snack in between, and give you energy for work and exercise. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water with your meals and in between as this will improve your metabolism and decrease hunger.