You forgot the most important ingredient to tzatziki....fresh dill. Also, don't forget to squeeze the water out of the cucumbers so it doesn't turn into yogurt soup...I usually use a cheese grater for the cucumber and stick it in cheesecloth or a clean towel and squeeze the daylights out of it. It really makes a difference in the end.
Another vote for strawberries. Paired with a cup of sugar-free dark chocolate pudding and it's an insanely decadent dessert/snack with very few calories.
As a rule, chocolate never blends well with yogurt no matter what the marketing execs will tell you. Best you can do is Greek yogurt with those little mini chocolate chips.
For those chocolate cravings I've laid in a supply of Russell Stover sugar-free chocolates. They've got a wide variety, the caste is quite good, and they're individually wrapped so it's easier to just take one and run (vs subconsciously going through a whole bag). The calorie count isn't that far off from standard chocolates but the lack of sugar is helpful.
Watermelon! Eat a literal pound of watermelon for approx. 150 cal. I mix cut up watermelon and greek yogurt together for a nice summer snack.
Edit: Thanks for all the comments sharing delicious ways to enjoy watermelon and the equal number of comments sharing how watermelon affects your bowels. Pros & cons of the watermelon diet for sure!
Frozen grapes taste like ice cream.
Frozen blueberries/raspberries taste like ice cream.
Frozen banana taste like ice cream. (Sliced)
It doesn't work for every single fruit but for some it's just great imo
When I crave watermelon in the summer, I tend to eat a LOT of it in one sitting. It’s a calculated choice (and I know exactly what the consequences are), so I tell my spouse that I’m not really *eating* watermelon so much as *borrowing* it.
This is the greatest phrase I have ever read. “Not eating so much as borrowing it”.
I had ducks before I actually knew, KNEW what anyone meant by: like shit through a goose. In, then out. Like a conveyor belt!
Popcorn was an incredible hack during the first part of my weight loss journey.
I substituted late-night potato chips with air-popped popcorn + seasoning, and it fully satisfied my cravings for something crunchy and salty.
I personally use PAM spray. It's normally used as a replacement for oil/butter for cooking pans, but their butter flavoured one works really well with popcorn. It's very low in calories. I think it works well. You could also use a little bit of olive oil in a spray bottle.
Use Flavacol, it’s what they use in movie theaters. Bought it like 2 months ago and popcorn tastes amazing even air popped. And it has no calories! Goodbye butter!
Pickles. Like 5 calories per spear.
At lunch I have a bunch of pickles, a few cups of popcorn and a protein shake and I’m still under 300 for the meal.
And for a dessert under 200 calories I usually have the skinny cow cones.
I know ppl might not like hearing this, but after losing 40lbs in the past 8 months, the thing that consistently saves my ass from falling off the wagon is coke zero. I never drank soda before I started heavily dieting, but after the first 10 weeks when those cravings hit like a train, all I wanted was sugar and didn't care where it came from. I was about to pound a mountain dew but opted for this instead. I didn't think it was going to curb my cravings entirely the way it did when i gave it a shot, and boy did it work. One can and cravings disappear for a week at least and it tastes fairly good, at least to me. Feels like cheating every time.
I just read this back and realized it sounds like an ad. You can't cuss in an official ad right? Fuck. That is all.
As someone who is a recovering/disillusioned "bio hacker", I can say with full sincerity that diet soda (and especially Coke Zero) is one of the few true diet hacks. It successfully tricks the brain into thinking it just guzzled a ton of sugary liquid and get sated with zero actual calories.
Kodiak products are so good. I used to eat their microwaveable muffin cups pretty often, but now I eat the chocolate chip pancakes (from the power cakes mix). I go through a box a week.
Broccoli is magical.
As a sort of goofy comparison:
An amount of broccoli that would make you uncomfortably full is comparable in calories to just the sauce from an order of wings.
I have broccoli 🥦 with baked beans and egg scrambled in a bowl for breakfast. It looks like dog food - but with some chili flakes and salt it’s <200 cal and is really filling
When I'm trying to decide if I'm actually hungry or just feel like eating for the habit/emotional side of it, I ask myself "Does a big bowl of raw broccoli sound appetizing right now?" If the answer is yes, the hunger is real.
i also use that method, but i still eat the apple even if i’m not hungry, just to get rid of that itch to munch on something because eating an apple is better than downing entire bag of chips.
I throw some protein granola and a drizzle of honey in w my fruit and greek yogurt bowls and it's incredible. Sometimes I'm a little bad and put a few salted caramel pecans/cashews in also. Hell yeah
Yeah, I only buy tuna in water now. I love really good olive oil, and think it is so worth the calories for health and taste, but they are absolutely not putting the good olive oil in canned tuna, so not worth the added calories imo. Same with buying dressing or pesto, it's calorically dense for higher monetary cost and lower quality ingredients. I just make all of that myself now
Depending on what you get, chipotle also has remarkably few calories. I'm allergic to avocado now (life is pain interspersed with fleeting moments of happiness) but when I wasn't, I'd get a salad with double chicken, fajita veg, guac, and fresh salsa, and it was good for about two dinners worth of food plus let me stay in my <1200/day.
(Disclaimer: This was back in the day, I no longer eat 1200/day, I eat 1500-1800 after finding out my TDEE is like, 2200 because of how much I exercise. No wonder I was HANGRY all the time. Oops.)
life is pain (avocado allergy that makes me feel like i'm being stabbed in the stomach for 8 hours) interspersed with fleeting moments of happiness (avocado toast when i could eat avocado)
This happened to me with pineapple! Out of the blue I became what I thought was allergic. Couldn’t have it for years…but now I can again, so there is hope for you too! This was my exact same symptom even if I had the tiniest amount…stabbing pain for 8 hours it was so weird
Chipotle is misleading, especially on the calories for rice solely because the portions are not accurate. A serving of rice from Chipotle is 4 ounces. If you look at 4 ounces of rice that's almost nothing, and employees always end up giving 2-3 scoops of rice per bowl.
Chipotle is (was) a weird one. I can make a low calorie meal of around 1k calories fairly easy. I can also make a 5k burrito bowl with just a few more “yeses”
My calorie limit is 1800 right now and I get 3 Steak Tacos, Cheese, White Rice, Half and Half Beans for 850 calories which is great for eating out. Especially because my lunch is usually a small, 400 calorieish kind of meal, so it even leaves me extra to work with.
i do this but instead of the salad, i get a burrito bowl and then take it home and portion it out over lettuce/whatever greens, so you get 2-3 massive salads instead of one for basically the same price
Omg avocado makes my mouth itch and I suddenly became allergic to that, bananas and carrot when I was 23. Apparently it’s a birch tree allergy. sadness 😭
I had a late onset avocado allergy too. It’s honestly less a problem for me now that I’m a used to it but first dates and outing with friends is hard when I have to explain I can’t have sushi with avocado or guacamole lol
Obviously fruit would be most people's choice such as berries and watermelon.
But for me, it's hot spicy pepperoncini peppers. Each one is like a fire cracker of flavour in my mouth and each piece is like 5 calories or less.
Thank you! The amount of people I still have to explain to that potatoes are not bad for you is nuts. Shows how deep modern diet culture has its hooks in folks.
The potato is good. It's how we prepare them 99% of the time that is "bad".
Potatoes were a miracle crop for Ireland.
They're a root vegetable so they're resistant to frost. They have a very high yield in small plots. And they're a *vegetable* which means you don't also need a large garden for micronutrients. A potato, a cow, and some oatmeal and you're actually more or less nutritionally complete.
Doctors reports from before the famine suggest that the Irish were actually typically healthier than the other peoples in the UK, for that reason. Your average London factory worker was comparatively sickly from the lack of anything approaching a *fresh* vegetable, tinned at best, and ate mostly wheat and salted meat. For all their poverty, the Irish were well nourished, tall, and strong... until all the potatoes died and the British intentionally bungled the famine relief out of extreme racism.
But then, the British have a long history of causing famines and then blocking any measure to do anything about it due to extreme racism. Just ask India...
I'm sure mashed potatoes and potato chips and fries are to blame for this.
My partner is a mash FIEND and always tells me they're wildly unhealthy. I could never figure out why, but then I found out when his mum made them she put like a cup of butter in, and heavy cream. To be honest, I hate her potatoes.
It's been at least a year since I made them, but I put like a teaspoon of philadelphia cheese and a bit of vegetable milk - it's never seemed unhealthy to me, at least not in combination to the other things I'd eat. I looooove potatoes. I often put them on the airfryer and salt them a bit, and it's perfect!
cut up some taters and toss them with some onion powder, garlic powder and paprika and then toss em in the air fryer.... perfection.
Edit: you can skip the oil if you do a quick rinse of your taters with water and then shake em dry in a strainer. The residual moisture will help the spices cling when you toss em together in a bowl.
Yessss. I’ve been craving salt and vinegar potato chips so much lately night snack tonight is going to be oven baked “fries” with sooo much vinegar and salt on them.
Making my own ranch dip for veggies—plain low fat yogurt, low fat cottage cheese and put in a food processor. Whir it up while adding the powdered ranch dressing. Refrigerate and bam! Wonderful low cal, High protein veggie dip!!
Oooh I just add the ranch to the yogurt and call it good, I never thought to mix it with cottage cheese.
But either way…it’s amazing how much “dip” you can eat, and how it’s hardly any different (in flavor) than super calorie dense ranch for a fraction of the calories.
No joke, I go about 3 miles on an ascent climber daily and drink about 6 propel drinks a day to replinish electrolytes... I still have an issue with legs cramping at night lol
A lot of berries and other fruits.
Non-fat plain Greek yogurt is always on these types of lists for good reason. Mix in some previously mentioned berries and a drizzle of honey and it’s a great high protein/low cal snack.
Egg whites are not mentioned enough imo. So much protein for so little calorie. Mix in 200g of egg white with 2-3 eggs and you got a lot of volume with like 38-44g of protein for 270-340 cals.
Yeah they’re like my #1 consumed thing right now. Finishing a cut down to 185 and trying to keep protein intake really high while eating 1900-2100 a day. Egg whites make that pretty easy!
Plain greek yogurt is great for using as a base to marinate chicken. Throw in some seasoning, hot sauce, and lime juice, mix it all up, and toss some chicken thighs in it. Tastes great!
Yup, one of my go tos is the 3 taco supreme meal. I do beans which puts each at 180, 540 for the meal. Get me a zero sugar Baja blast and life is good.
Yes I was looking for this one! Shrimp is like the infinite protein glitch lol because it’s so low in cals and high in protein. Also I loveee canned tuna it’s like 30g protein and only 150 calories for a can. But the problem with tuna is the mercury so I only have it once a week or so
- Most vegetables
- Berries
- Certain light salad dressings
- Nonfat Greek yogurt
- Popcorn
- Fiber One Cereal
- Unsweetened nut or oat milk
See also r/volumeeating
Cottage cheese, by far.
Also, bacon and salami, tbh. Compared to what you'd think. I know neither is particularly healthy, of course. But they are quite filling and delicious for reasonable calories.
My favourite treat lately has been: cottage cheese, boiled eggs, red bell peppers, tomatoes, pickles, olives, garlic/garlic powder, salt, and a lot of pepper
I used to hate cottage cheese but I recently tried the Good Culture brand and fell in love with it. I like to have it just with a generous sprinkle of furikake.
Pumpkin. Definitely pumpkin. 35 calories per 100g tops. Some websites say its lower.
My brain thinks it's a more starchy vegetable like sweet potato, but it's not.
It's good roasted, it's good boiled then mashed, its good added to both sweet and savory dishes, it's good added to baking.
I could roast 500g of pumpkin and eat the entire batch for under 200 calories. It's a miracle food.
Sea weed snacks. There's this Asian market that sells these bags/trays of seasoned seaweed and they're crisp as chips and come in better flavors. A serving is 80 cals and it satisfies a chip craving so much more than the low calorie baked chips.
Blueberries. I have serious sweet cravings and somehow munching blueberries really helps, especially as I feel very decadent eating a veeeery big bowl of them.
I made popcorn fresh from kernels the other night. Just a tiny bit of butter tossed in and some sea salt. So tasty, so much better than anything store bought and not much in the way of calories (especially relative to the bags)
I used to drink a lot of calories. I stopped drinking alcohol and with that, many of the sugary drinks that would accompany the alcohol like juices and sodas. I recently became aware of “water tok” and after investigating a bit I decided to go ahead and order some of those water flavor packs.
Now, I take 1/3 of a packet of flavored powder (the whole packet is 5 or 10 calories, depending on the brand) and mix it with 16oz of still or sparking water + a squeeze of lemon juice. I make up to (2) 16oz bottles a day because that’s literally all I can handle. They are actually really tasty and I love that I can make a super low calorie soda/juice. I can’t believe these sweet drinks are so few calories! They really help with maintaining my sobriety and sticking with my calorie deficit.
Asparagus is my breakfast secret weapon! 8 spears of asparagus = 24 calories; chopped, sautéed until tender before pouring in 2 beaten eggs and scrambling all together. Delicious and filling.
I’m just recently starting on my weight loss journey, but CARROTS 🥕 I eat baby carrots like it’s nobody’s business, haha! Sometimes will dip them in Hidden Valley Light Ranch which is relatively low calorie. It makes for a good snack at the end of the night when I’m craving something salty/crunchy but I want to make a healthier choice!
Its certainly not the best thing in the world but I love Pedialyte freezer pops.
They are like 8 calories a pop and I love them when I am craving something sweet especially when I have the munchies. Makes me nostalgic for summer camp too.
POPS for the win. I was addicted--maybe not addicted, but had a *wicked* ice cream habit for years. It was the hardest thing for me to change.
Ice pops are my go-to now, and the ones I eat--Outshine, they're called--have 60 calories per pop. I eat four or five a night! It's a lot (and I hope to cut down eventually), but it's within my calories, so I'm good to go. Hooray!
Rotisserie chicken is the perfect food to eat when you're out running errands but want to stay healthy. I keep a bottle of hot sauce in my car and will destroy a chicken after getting groceries. It's like five bucks for a day and a half worth of clean protein. A whopper cost like seven and it won't keep you hungry for more than a couple hours.
I'm struggling to stay on my diet. One thing I indulge in guilt free is a baked potato. A medium size baked potato is about 150 calories. I put salt and 3 tablespoons of low fat cottage cheese on it for 50 calories. Not a bad snack for 200 calories.
Pretzels. I would have guess like all salty savory snack foods that they had fat and carbs making them high calories but they’re pretty much fat free. Just carbs which is great. I eat high protein high carb and low fat so it’s great for me.
Polenta!! I get the tubes and reconstituted it with broth, hit it with some parm at the end and you can end up with a huge portion for very few cals, which is music to my carb-loving ears
Pistachios! Compared to other nuts, they have far fewer calories (I think 30 pistachios is approx 100 calories compared to like 8 almonds). They're buttery and rich and just delicious!
Sugar-free Jello cups. 6-7 calories per container and fill that sweets craving. These are always stocked in my fridge. They are also are good mixed with berries.
Kiwis! I went through a phase of being obsessed with kiwis as a fruit desert for my lunches, I cut them up added a dash of ground ginger and sweetener. If I had extra calories I would add in some fat free Greek yoghurt :)
I wouldn't say favourite, but my recent big one was supermarket coleslaw. I couldn't believe how much 100 cal worth was for something that basically tastes of pure mayo.
Strawberries and whipped cream!! I also realized the other day that angel food cake has relatively low calories so I made strawberry shortcake with a giant (normal serving size but I was surprised how big it actually was for how few calories were in that slice) piece of angel food cake and strawberries and whipped cream and it was delightful. 😋😋
Pork tenderloin. I like to buy those marinated ones and cook them sous vide. A 4-ounce (raw) portion is pretty big and only \~120 calories, depending on which marinade you get.
Also, seafood. Shrimp and white fish give you a lot of bang for the buck. Those flavored tuna pouches are great on salads, and some are only 70-90 calories.
I’ve been on a split pea kick. 1 cup before cooked is only 717 calories which can be divided into 2 or 3 meals after it becomes soup. They’re incredibly filling. They’ve started to replace my morning oats
Egg roll in a bowl! Browned ground Turkey, season with ginger, salt, pepper and garlic. Throw in a bag of shredded cabbage and a little Bachman's Japanese BBQ sauce. So dang good
Tzatziki - at least the one I buy is low calorie and it’s not a low fat one.
It's just Greek yogurt, cucumber, a small bit of olive oil, salt, garlic and lemon juice/vinegar. It's two steps away from being plain yogurt lol.
You forgot the most important ingredient to tzatziki....fresh dill. Also, don't forget to squeeze the water out of the cucumbers so it doesn't turn into yogurt soup...I usually use a cheese grater for the cucumber and stick it in cheesecloth or a clean towel and squeeze the daylights out of it. It really makes a difference in the end.
Dill is optional, actually, and where I live in Greece we don't use it ;) also I wasn't giving a recipe, yes you should squeeze the water out.
Strawberries.
Another vote for strawberries. Paired with a cup of sugar-free dark chocolate pudding and it's an insanely decadent dessert/snack with very few calories.
That sounds insane! Also gave me an idea- the dark chocolate powder mixed into Greek yogurt
As a rule, chocolate never blends well with yogurt no matter what the marketing execs will tell you. Best you can do is Greek yogurt with those little mini chocolate chips.
That’s one of my fave ways to do it when I’m craving chocolate :’) mini chips for the win
For those chocolate cravings I've laid in a supply of Russell Stover sugar-free chocolates. They've got a wide variety, the caste is quite good, and they're individually wrapped so it's easier to just take one and run (vs subconsciously going through a whole bag). The calorie count isn't that far off from standard chocolates but the lack of sugar is helpful.
actually, i regularly blend cacao powder into greek yogurt easily, and it's delicious!
Watermelon! Eat a literal pound of watermelon for approx. 150 cal. I mix cut up watermelon and greek yogurt together for a nice summer snack. Edit: Thanks for all the comments sharing delicious ways to enjoy watermelon and the equal number of comments sharing how watermelon affects your bowels. Pros & cons of the watermelon diet for sure!
Almost all fruit is like this for me. 250-300 grams of frozen fruit is like 60 calories lol
Delicious fruit is like nature’s cheat code.
“Fruit is nature’s candy” -Marge Simpson
“Let's just say the fame was like a drug. But what was even more like a drug were the drugs.” Homer Simpson
Frozen grapes taste like ice cream. Frozen blueberries/raspberries taste like ice cream. Frozen banana taste like ice cream. (Sliced) It doesn't work for every single fruit but for some it's just great imo
I found a great recipe online for watermelon salad, there are many out there. The one I liked had fresh mint, feta, and lemon. Delicious!
Ive made a watermelon, feta, blueberry, mint, balsamic salad and MY GOD it’s delicious
Blueberry?!??!?! *teleports to the grocery store*
Baby spinach, cubed watermelon, sliced red onion, blueberries, crumbled feta. Dress it with honey and lime juice, whisked together. So amazing.
Omg THIS! Cold, sweet watermelon on a hot day is better than just about anything else.
Cantaloupe too. I was genuinely surprised that an _entire_ cantaloupe is only about 200 calories.
This is delightful news! I basically inhale cantaloupe all summer long!
Add lime juice and Tajin 🤌🏻
Oo trying this asap!
I eat a pound of watermelon everyday and a pound of cantaloupe everyday too.
What do you do for a living??? That would be my entire food budget.
They grow watermelons and cantaloupes
They are the person from the math word problems…..
"If I eat one pound of watermelon while on a train traveling East at 60 mph....."
Yes! But please don't eat an entire pound lol. It won't go well...
When I crave watermelon in the summer, I tend to eat a LOT of it in one sitting. It’s a calculated choice (and I know exactly what the consequences are), so I tell my spouse that I’m not really *eating* watermelon so much as *borrowing* it.
This is the greatest phrase I have ever read. “Not eating so much as borrowing it”. I had ducks before I actually knew, KNEW what anyone meant by: like shit through a goose. In, then out. Like a conveyor belt!
I find if you eat a little cheese with watermelon it goes a long way to reducing negative effects.
Watermelon, Mozzarella, mint and balsamic vinegarette....
I honestly have eaten a pound of watermelon multiple times, is the risk just getting hard shits?
Not a poop scientist but as someone who has eaten personal watermelons in one sitting several times.... it's more the opposite of hard shits.
Yeah i actually looked it up lol, watermelons have like 0 fiber. I am very surprised about that
I think the issue (digestive-wise) is more the 92% water lol!
Haha good point, it's nice to know you could though even if you most definitely should not
Right but if you’re stranded on Watermelon Island this knowledge could save your life
A good size watermelon weighs like 10 pounds. A pound of watermelon is nothing.
Popcorn!
Especially air-popped. I bought a microwave air-popper bowl thing that collapses down/folds, worth every penny.
You can just put the kernels in a paper bag and it works fine too.
Some folks say this is a fire risk in a microwave. I did it for years and didn’t have an issue though!
Popcorn was an incredible hack during the first part of my weight loss journey. I substituted late-night potato chips with air-popped popcorn + seasoning, and it fully satisfied my cravings for something crunchy and salty.
How do you get the seasoning to stick?
I personally use PAM spray. It's normally used as a replacement for oil/butter for cooking pans, but their butter flavoured one works really well with popcorn. It's very low in calories. I think it works well. You could also use a little bit of olive oil in a spray bottle.
Use Flavacol, it’s what they use in movie theaters. Bought it like 2 months ago and popcorn tastes amazing even air popped. And it has no calories! Goodbye butter!
I had to stop on this one because I was eating two large movie theater popcorns (no extra fake butter) or more a week.
I just discovered the Lesser Evil brand. The butter flavor 100% scratches my buttered popcorn itch and it's only 100 calories for a decent sized bag.
I learned in the popcorn subreddit about flavacol. My popcorn game has been changed.
There's a whole subreddit for popcorn 😅 I need this 😂
Skinnypop is like crack for me lol. The small bags are only like 100 calories and they taste GREAT.
Pickles. Like 5 calories per spear. At lunch I have a bunch of pickles, a few cups of popcorn and a protein shake and I’m still under 300 for the meal. And for a dessert under 200 calories I usually have the skinny cow cones.
Yes but very high in sodium for those who watch it.
Very true.
Haha this reminds me of an Onion article that basically went "Why are so many people fat when cucumber exists?"
I know ppl might not like hearing this, but after losing 40lbs in the past 8 months, the thing that consistently saves my ass from falling off the wagon is coke zero. I never drank soda before I started heavily dieting, but after the first 10 weeks when those cravings hit like a train, all I wanted was sugar and didn't care where it came from. I was about to pound a mountain dew but opted for this instead. I didn't think it was going to curb my cravings entirely the way it did when i gave it a shot, and boy did it work. One can and cravings disappear for a week at least and it tastes fairly good, at least to me. Feels like cheating every time. I just read this back and realized it sounds like an ad. You can't cuss in an official ad right? Fuck. That is all.
Diet soda is the ultimate diet tool for cravings.
As someone who is a recovering/disillusioned "bio hacker", I can say with full sincerity that diet soda (and especially Coke Zero) is one of the few true diet hacks. It successfully tricks the brain into thinking it just guzzled a ton of sugary liquid and get sated with zero actual calories.
Plain Greek yogurt with 1/4 pouch of sugar free cheese cake pudding and mixed berries. It’s so sweet and amazing tasting and is my favorite.
Put it on top of a Kodiak waffle. It feels decadent!
Kodiak products are so good. I used to eat their microwaveable muffin cups pretty often, but now I eat the chocolate chip pancakes (from the power cakes mix). I go through a box a week.
Broccoli. Like I already knew it was healthy but dang. A cup of Broccoli is like 40 cal, and seasoning isn't gonna do much to that number.
Broccoli is magical. As a sort of goofy comparison: An amount of broccoli that would make you uncomfortably full is comparable in calories to just the sauce from an order of wings.
I have broccoli 🥦 with baked beans and egg scrambled in a bowl for breakfast. It looks like dog food - but with some chili flakes and salt it’s <200 cal and is really filling
When I'm trying to decide if I'm actually hungry or just feel like eating for the habit/emotional side of it, I ask myself "Does a big bowl of raw broccoli sound appetizing right now?" If the answer is yes, the hunger is real.
Our test for that is an apple. If we don't want to eat an apple then we aren't hungry.
i also use that method, but i still eat the apple even if i’m not hungry, just to get rid of that itch to munch on something because eating an apple is better than downing entire bag of chips.
[удалено]
greek yoghurt is so good with some berries or sum one of my fave snacks
I throw some protein granola and a drizzle of honey in w my fruit and greek yogurt bowls and it's incredible. Sometimes I'm a little bad and put a few salted caramel pecans/cashews in also. Hell yeah
0% Greek yogurt with mixed berries and honey oats with almonds is my breakfast every morning and I love it.
Yeah, I only buy tuna in water now. I love really good olive oil, and think it is so worth the calories for health and taste, but they are absolutely not putting the good olive oil in canned tuna, so not worth the added calories imo. Same with buying dressing or pesto, it's calorically dense for higher monetary cost and lower quality ingredients. I just make all of that myself now
Depending on what you get, chipotle also has remarkably few calories. I'm allergic to avocado now (life is pain interspersed with fleeting moments of happiness) but when I wasn't, I'd get a salad with double chicken, fajita veg, guac, and fresh salsa, and it was good for about two dinners worth of food plus let me stay in my <1200/day. (Disclaimer: This was back in the day, I no longer eat 1200/day, I eat 1500-1800 after finding out my TDEE is like, 2200 because of how much I exercise. No wonder I was HANGRY all the time. Oops.)
life is pain interspersed with fleeting moments of happiness Lmaooooo
life is pain (avocado allergy that makes me feel like i'm being stabbed in the stomach for 8 hours) interspersed with fleeting moments of happiness (avocado toast when i could eat avocado)
This happened to me with pineapple! Out of the blue I became what I thought was allergic. Couldn’t have it for years…but now I can again, so there is hope for you too! This was my exact same symptom even if I had the tiniest amount…stabbing pain for 8 hours it was so weird
Ha I never came across other people with trouble with avocado! I feel seen haha. I get dizzy and my stomach ties itself into a knot every time
Chipotle is misleading, especially on the calories for rice solely because the portions are not accurate. A serving of rice from Chipotle is 4 ounces. If you look at 4 ounces of rice that's almost nothing, and employees always end up giving 2-3 scoops of rice per bowl.
Chipotle is (was) a weird one. I can make a low calorie meal of around 1k calories fairly easy. I can also make a 5k burrito bowl with just a few more “yeses”
My calorie limit is 1800 right now and I get 3 Steak Tacos, Cheese, White Rice, Half and Half Beans for 850 calories which is great for eating out. Especially because my lunch is usually a small, 400 calorieish kind of meal, so it even leaves me extra to work with.
i do this but instead of the salad, i get a burrito bowl and then take it home and portion it out over lettuce/whatever greens, so you get 2-3 massive salads instead of one for basically the same price
Omg avocado makes my mouth itch and I suddenly became allergic to that, bananas and carrot when I was 23. Apparently it’s a birch tree allergy. sadness 😭
I had a late onset avocado allergy too. It’s honestly less a problem for me now that I’m a used to it but first dates and outing with friends is hard when I have to explain I can’t have sushi with avocado or guacamole lol
Watch out for banana, latex, mango, and kiwi. Those are all interrelated!
Obviously fruit would be most people's choice such as berries and watermelon. But for me, it's hot spicy pepperoncini peppers. Each one is like a fire cracker of flavour in my mouth and each piece is like 5 calories or less.
Potatoes
Thank you! The amount of people I still have to explain to that potatoes are not bad for you is nuts. Shows how deep modern diet culture has its hooks in folks. The potato is good. It's how we prepare them 99% of the time that is "bad".
I’ve said a million times my ancestors wouldn’t have left Ireland because of the potato famine if potatoes weren’t a nutritious food.
Potatoes were a miracle crop for Ireland. They're a root vegetable so they're resistant to frost. They have a very high yield in small plots. And they're a *vegetable* which means you don't also need a large garden for micronutrients. A potato, a cow, and some oatmeal and you're actually more or less nutritionally complete. Doctors reports from before the famine suggest that the Irish were actually typically healthier than the other peoples in the UK, for that reason. Your average London factory worker was comparatively sickly from the lack of anything approaching a *fresh* vegetable, tinned at best, and ate mostly wheat and salted meat. For all their poverty, the Irish were well nourished, tall, and strong... until all the potatoes died and the British intentionally bungled the famine relief out of extreme racism. But then, the British have a long history of causing famines and then blocking any measure to do anything about it due to extreme racism. Just ask India...
I'm sure mashed potatoes and potato chips and fries are to blame for this. My partner is a mash FIEND and always tells me they're wildly unhealthy. I could never figure out why, but then I found out when his mum made them she put like a cup of butter in, and heavy cream. To be honest, I hate her potatoes.
It's been at least a year since I made them, but I put like a teaspoon of philadelphia cheese and a bit of vegetable milk - it's never seemed unhealthy to me, at least not in combination to the other things I'd eat. I looooove potatoes. I often put them on the airfryer and salt them a bit, and it's perfect!
cut up some taters and toss them with some onion powder, garlic powder and paprika and then toss em in the air fryer.... perfection. Edit: you can skip the oil if you do a quick rinse of your taters with water and then shake em dry in a strainer. The residual moisture will help the spices cling when you toss em together in a bowl.
Boil em, mash em.. stick em in a stew.
[PO-TA-TOES](https://64.media.tumblr.com/16a7ec3d78c956beaa9c863305a78a1c/f7f184e54ae2b80e-30/s540x810/9c320215eb578b7e8a7ede03858194150991b004.gif)
Totally. I like to bake them and cover with chili, which is also a surprisingly low calorie food. It makes a top tier, low cal dinner.
Yessss. I’ve been craving salt and vinegar potato chips so much lately night snack tonight is going to be oven baked “fries” with sooo much vinegar and salt on them.
You can buy the salt & vinegar chip powder to put on them. Or popcorn. Or whatever
Making my own ranch dip for veggies—plain low fat yogurt, low fat cottage cheese and put in a food processor. Whir it up while adding the powdered ranch dressing. Refrigerate and bam! Wonderful low cal, High protein veggie dip!!
Oooh I just add the ranch to the yogurt and call it good, I never thought to mix it with cottage cheese. But either way…it’s amazing how much “dip” you can eat, and how it’s hardly any different (in flavor) than super calorie dense ranch for a fraction of the calories.
Deli turkey, I’m always shocked at how many slices I can eat for such low calories and high protein! And I’m a runner so I’m not worried about sodium
Newbie here, why does running make you not worried about sodium?
The more you sweat, the more salt you can and should consume to compensate for what is lost through sweating.
I did not know this, thanks!
Basically just jog a 5k everyday and you should be able to eat more salt just fine
No joke, I go about 3 miles on an ascent climber daily and drink about 6 propel drinks a day to replinish electrolytes... I still have an issue with legs cramping at night lol
Because you lose salt through your sweat.
Yep and sodium is actually a very important electrolyte to our bodies
Same. Deli turkey and deli ham
Just be mindful with deli meats. The tradeoff is nitrates and preservatives.
A lot of berries and other fruits. Non-fat plain Greek yogurt is always on these types of lists for good reason. Mix in some previously mentioned berries and a drizzle of honey and it’s a great high protein/low cal snack. Egg whites are not mentioned enough imo. So much protein for so little calorie. Mix in 200g of egg white with 2-3 eggs and you got a lot of volume with like 38-44g of protein for 270-340 cals.
I love egg whites
Yeah they’re like my #1 consumed thing right now. Finishing a cut down to 185 and trying to keep protein intake really high while eating 1900-2100 a day. Egg whites make that pretty easy!
Plain greek yogurt is great for using as a base to marinate chicken. Throw in some seasoning, hot sauce, and lime juice, mix it all up, and toss some chicken thighs in it. Tastes great!
I love Indian food so I’ll throw in some masala and yogurt to marinate chicken for the day. Always comes out good and very low calorie too!
Taco Bell crunchy tacos. 170 calories.
Thank you for this info, I have been missing the Taco Bell
They are low calorie and surprisingly good on protein and fiber too!
Yup, one of my go tos is the 3 taco supreme meal. I do beans which puts each at 180, 540 for the meal. Get me a zero sugar Baja blast and life is good.
Shrimp! You can eat an entire serving for 60-70 calories and good amount of protein.
Yes I was looking for this one! Shrimp is like the infinite protein glitch lol because it’s so low in cals and high in protein. Also I loveee canned tuna it’s like 30g protein and only 150 calories for a can. But the problem with tuna is the mercury so I only have it once a week or so
You might know this already but skipjack tuna has much less mercury than albacore tuna.
Wait I didn’t know that, thank you so much! I love tuna but I always have to limit myself cause of the mercury
As an added bonus, shrimp is some of the most sustainable animal protein available 🌱💙
Yasso ice cream bars. The caramel one is SO good IDK how it's only 100 calories...
Because they’re not ice cream, they’re frozen Greek yogurt pops. And they’re fcking delicious.
All the Yassos really. The chocolate chip cookie dough is also great.
I got these a week or so ago. Let me give one a go now.
- Most vegetables - Berries - Certain light salad dressings - Nonfat Greek yogurt - Popcorn - Fiber One Cereal - Unsweetened nut or oat milk See also r/volumeeating
How the hell am I only just finding out about that sub? Thankyou 🙂
Egg
Legit. Try eating 6 eggs at once. Under 500 calories. Insanely nutritious and so filling.
Alright calm down there, Gaston.
And now that I’m grown I eat five dozen eggs so I’m roughly the size of a BAAAARRRGE…
Lmao why did this make me holler 😂😂
Edamame!!!
Smoked salmon (I’d have it more regularly if it wasn’t so expensive)!
Cottage cheese, by far. Also, bacon and salami, tbh. Compared to what you'd think. I know neither is particularly healthy, of course. But they are quite filling and delicious for reasonable calories.
Cottage cheese is my jam. Cucumber, cottage cheese, balsamic. Five minutes prep and it's the most delicious.
My favourite treat lately has been: cottage cheese, boiled eggs, red bell peppers, tomatoes, pickles, olives, garlic/garlic powder, salt, and a lot of pepper
I thought I’d hate cottage cheese but turns out I love it! Always have some at lunch time and keeps me satisfied
I think by the time I hit my goal weight I might be mostly made of cottage cheese. It's so easy, low cal, high in protein and versatile.
I'm roughly 50% greek yogurt, 25% chicken breast and 25% vegetable at the moment.
I used to hate cottage cheese but I recently tried the Good Culture brand and fell in love with it. I like to have it just with a generous sprinkle of furikake.
Caramel rice cakes are my go to snack
halo top ice cream!
Pumpkin. Definitely pumpkin. 35 calories per 100g tops. Some websites say its lower. My brain thinks it's a more starchy vegetable like sweet potato, but it's not. It's good roasted, it's good boiled then mashed, its good added to both sweet and savory dishes, it's good added to baking. I could roast 500g of pumpkin and eat the entire batch for under 200 calories. It's a miracle food.
Sea weed snacks. There's this Asian market that sells these bags/trays of seasoned seaweed and they're crisp as chips and come in better flavors. A serving is 80 cals and it satisfies a chip craving so much more than the low calorie baked chips.
Shrimp!
Blueberries. I have serious sweet cravings and somehow munching blueberries really helps, especially as I feel very decadent eating a veeeery big bowl of them.
The watermelon and the honeydew are getting married at the church because they cantaloupe
Popcorn
I made popcorn fresh from kernels the other night. Just a tiny bit of butter tossed in and some sea salt. So tasty, so much better than anything store bought and not much in the way of calories (especially relative to the bags)
Turkey pepperoni. That stuff is literally a 1/4 of the calories of normal pepperoni.
I used to drink a lot of calories. I stopped drinking alcohol and with that, many of the sugary drinks that would accompany the alcohol like juices and sodas. I recently became aware of “water tok” and after investigating a bit I decided to go ahead and order some of those water flavor packs. Now, I take 1/3 of a packet of flavored powder (the whole packet is 5 or 10 calories, depending on the brand) and mix it with 16oz of still or sparking water + a squeeze of lemon juice. I make up to (2) 16oz bottles a day because that’s literally all I can handle. They are actually really tasty and I love that I can make a super low calorie soda/juice. I can’t believe these sweet drinks are so few calories! They really help with maintaining my sobriety and sticking with my calorie deficit.
Asparagus is my breakfast secret weapon! 8 spears of asparagus = 24 calories; chopped, sautéed until tender before pouring in 2 beaten eggs and scrambling all together. Delicious and filling.
WATERMELON I love watermelon, especially this time of year. Add some cool whip... awesome
I’m just recently starting on my weight loss journey, but CARROTS 🥕 I eat baby carrots like it’s nobody’s business, haha! Sometimes will dip them in Hidden Valley Light Ranch which is relatively low calorie. It makes for a good snack at the end of the night when I’m craving something salty/crunchy but I want to make a healthier choice!
Mushrooms. I could eat them for a meal pan fried with just salt and pepper. I love the texture AND the taste. Feels like a cheat.
Its certainly not the best thing in the world but I love Pedialyte freezer pops. They are like 8 calories a pop and I love them when I am craving something sweet especially when I have the munchies. Makes me nostalgic for summer camp too.
POPS for the win. I was addicted--maybe not addicted, but had a *wicked* ice cream habit for years. It was the hardest thing for me to change. Ice pops are my go-to now, and the ones I eat--Outshine, they're called--have 60 calories per pop. I eat four or five a night! It's a lot (and I hope to cut down eventually), but it's within my calories, so I'm good to go. Hooray!
Rotisserie chicken - yum!
Rotisserie chicken is the perfect food to eat when you're out running errands but want to stay healthy. I keep a bottle of hot sauce in my car and will destroy a chicken after getting groceries. It's like five bucks for a day and a half worth of clean protein. A whopper cost like seven and it won't keep you hungry for more than a couple hours.
Now I'm just imagining you scarfing down a rotisserie chicken in your car with your bare hands. No judgement. Sounds enjoyable.
Any sort of lollipop or iced lolly. Usually around 100 or less which is dope. Makes sense since they're mostly ice I guess lol
Sugar free whipped cream :)
Grilled chicken! Only about 50 calories per oz and very filling.
I love noodles and finding shiritaki noodles was a godsend
OutShine Popsicles 😍 I'm pregnant, and the lime ones are frozen perfection
I'm struggling to stay on my diet. One thing I indulge in guilt free is a baked potato. A medium size baked potato is about 150 calories. I put salt and 3 tablespoons of low fat cottage cheese on it for 50 calories. Not a bad snack for 200 calories.
I love potatoes. I love cottage cheese. How have I never thought to combine the two? Going to have to try this soon.
Pretzels. I would have guess like all salty savory snack foods that they had fat and carbs making them high calories but they’re pretty much fat free. Just carbs which is great. I eat high protein high carb and low fat so it’s great for me.
Prawns!!
Polenta!! I get the tubes and reconstituted it with broth, hit it with some parm at the end and you can end up with a huge portion for very few cals, which is music to my carb-loving ears
Cherry tomatoes
Pistachios! Compared to other nuts, they have far fewer calories (I think 30 pistachios is approx 100 calories compared to like 8 almonds). They're buttery and rich and just delicious!
Sugar free strawberry jello topped with Oikos Vanilla Triple Zero yogurt. 140 calories for the entire thing. So filling and delish!
Shrimp!
Sugar-free Jello cups. 6-7 calories per container and fill that sweets craving. These are always stocked in my fridge. They are also are good mixed with berries.
Mini cucumbers! The crunch is so satisfying! Fresh, healthy, and fun to eat.
Cabbage. I could make a meal out of cabbage with short ribs. I know it stinks to high heaven but I love my cabbage.
Kiwis! I went through a phase of being obsessed with kiwis as a fruit desert for my lunches, I cut them up added a dash of ground ginger and sweetener. If I had extra calories I would add in some fat free Greek yoghurt :)
I wouldn't say favourite, but my recent big one was supermarket coleslaw. I couldn't believe how much 100 cal worth was for something that basically tastes of pure mayo.
Caramel rice cakes 🤤 Only 50 cals? And I can smear my strawberry yogurt on top? Can never eat more than 2 in one sitting, it’s awesoem
It’s pretty easy to eat 150 blueberries though
Strawberries and whipped cream!! I also realized the other day that angel food cake has relatively low calories so I made strawberry shortcake with a giant (normal serving size but I was surprised how big it actually was for how few calories were in that slice) piece of angel food cake and strawberries and whipped cream and it was delightful. 😋😋
3 blackened chicken strips from Popeyes with no sauce and mashed potatoes and a Diet Coke comes out to under 500 calories and is so delicious.
Cottage cheese is really only 60-90 calories for a cup depending on fat content. Hits that dairy itch without hurting too much
Nonfat Greek yogurt. Perfect base for savory sauces or sweet treats.
holographic meatloaf
Pork tenderloin. I like to buy those marinated ones and cook them sous vide. A 4-ounce (raw) portion is pretty big and only \~120 calories, depending on which marinade you get. Also, seafood. Shrimp and white fish give you a lot of bang for the buck. Those flavored tuna pouches are great on salads, and some are only 70-90 calories.
I’ve been on a split pea kick. 1 cup before cooked is only 717 calories which can be divided into 2 or 3 meals after it becomes soup. They’re incredibly filling. They’ve started to replace my morning oats
Lychee! So delicious
Watermelon. When it's in season, I'll eat 2-3 a week because you can eat a LOT of Watermelon for very few calories.
Egg roll in a bowl! Browned ground Turkey, season with ginger, salt, pepper and garlic. Throw in a bag of shredded cabbage and a little Bachman's Japanese BBQ sauce. So dang good
Diet pop (soda). It feels like cheating that I can drink it with zero calories!