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Lots of people are wanting to lose weight to get healthy, decrease health risks, or create other amazing goals for themselves.
Unfortunately, there is no ‘magic pill’ for weight loss. The best magic pill is to stop overeating, this is the main reason why most of us gain weight.
We eat more than our maintenance calories which causes us to GAIN weight. This is a sad reality once you step on the scale only to see a certain number you wish you didn’t see.
Don’t worry! There’s hope! With an easy meal plan that is already planned out for you, you can be on the right track without cutting out your favorite foods. Of course, if you have a big appetite like me, you will need to include volume foods to your diet to help you feel full.
RELATED: 20 Low-Calorie Foods to Keep You Full on a Diet
You might be hungry at first, but your body will adjust after only a week of the cut down on calories. The foods you choose will ultimately help you adhere to the diet or not.
This meal plan will be perfect for you to be able to cut down on 500 calories! Cutting down on 500 calories a week from a maintenance calorie, will give you a 1 POUND weight loss a week. This means, if you need to lose 10 pounds, it will take 10 weeks or about 2 months.
—-If you want to kickstart some weight loss, crave healthy foods, banish bloating, and get used to eating at a deficit, check out the 7 Day Reset Cleanse by Christina Carlyle! (affilliate link!) It is what I have used to lose 7lbs of water weight and crave healthy food! It is the best!—-
However, I recommend starting with a small goal like just 1 pound a week instead of saying “ I want to lose 10 lbs”. This can make you discouraged when you don’t hit that number after a week. And weighing yourself 1-2 times a week. I really like this scale because it uses electrodes to measure body fat percentage (not usually that accurate though!). If you don’t want to weigh yourself, that is okay too, but try to stick to your calorie count by using Fitness Pal. This is my all-time favorite meal tracking app.
RELATED: How to Meal Prep: a guide to healthy eating for your goals
FIRST: Check out what your proper macros are by putting in your health information. This will determine whether 1500 calories is to much or not enough (aka your macros!). Here is the calculator site: Macro Calculator.
Check this calculator to see how many calories you are burning: TDEE Calculator
I measure out all my food on this Food Scale from Amazon! This is going to give you the MOST accurate calorie counts. 🙂
Option 1: For those who like to have 3 ‘big’ meals, and no snacking in between.
Breakfast: 500 calories
This breakfast is only 388 calories. You can add some more calories in this by including some granola, or some PBFIT powdered peanut butter on the toast. Adding regular peanut butter will add about 200 calories as well. Food Scale I use.
- 67g blueberries
- 2.9 oz strawberries
- 1 cutie orange
- 60g greek nonfat greek yogurt, + 1 drop of Vanilla Cream Stevia
- 44g Banana
- 68g Watermelon
- 1oz sunflower seeds
- 1tbs Hempseeds
- 10g Tahini or other nut butter
- Ezekial Raisin Bread
- 2 Dates
RELATED: 5 Tips for Creating Your Meal Plan
Lunch: 500 Calories
This Vegan wrap here is full of veggies, fiber, flavor, and protein. This wrap alone is only 237 calories. Include a side of fruit and some roasted Oil-free potatoes and you have 500 calories.
Wrap:
- 1 whole wheat low carb tortilla- I like these from Costco
- 15g Shredded Carrots
- 15g Shredded cabbage
- 25g Avocado (1/4 of an avocado)
- 30g Bell peppers
- 1.5oz High Protein Tofu (baked!)
- .5 cup of spinach (20g)
- Seasoning! Add whatever you like! I really like salt, onion powder, coconut aminos, nutritional yeast.
Sides:
- Cucumbers (50g), 2tbs hummus
- Roasted Potatoes with seasoning, oil-free ( 100g or 4 mini potatoes)
- 1 cup of watermelon
Dinner: 300 calories + 200 calorie dessert option
So if you don’t eat fish or meat, you can swap out the salmon for a black bean burger or another high protein equivalent. I love salmon because it gives a great omega 3 DHA and EPA boost which are both needed for great brain function and clear skin.
Strawberry Protein Ice cream is my go too! You can use vanilla protein powder and a bit of water with 1 cup of strawberries. Here are the ingredients:
- 1 cup frozen strawberries (I love these from target! they are so sweet and fresh)
- 5-6oz of Preimeir caramel protein shake
- whole batch is only 130 calories (it is soooo filling!)
Option 2: For those who like smaller meals with 1 snack in between meals. 3 meals, with 3 snacks.
Breakfast: 300 Calories
This is about 1 cup of yogurt, granola, blueberries, 1 Ezekial Bread with avocado and tomato. This might be about 500 calories. To make this smaller in calories, get rid of the granola, add more blueberries, and swap out the avocado for hummus or do 25g of avocado!
Snack: 200 Calories
POPCORN. Its so low in calories and you can eat a lot of it! it is great for weight loss and that salty craving you may get. you can eat 4-5 cups of popcorn for about 200 calories. Its great because of the FIBER.
My FAVORITES: Good & Gather Salted Popcorn $2.49 OR Good & Gather White Cheddar Popcorn $2.49 OR Smart Pop Microwave Popcorn (6 pack), 30$
Lunch: 300 calories
GIANT salads are a great way to help you adhere to your diet because of all the fiber and fresh flavors. In this salad, I load it up with tons of spinach, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini, tomato, tofu, and a low-calorie delicious dressing! Just because your dieting, doesn’t mean it has to taste bad or bland! SEASON. YOUR. FOOD! It will make it more enjoyable 🙂
Snack: 200 calories
I used 1/2 banana, brown rice cake, and some PBfit peanut butter for this snack. add about 1.5 cups of watermelon for about 200 calories (may be under).
Dinner: 300 Calories
This is a personal pizza for about 400 ish calories to 300 calories depending on what you put on top! This is made with a lavish bread that has only 140 calories. it makes it a flatbread style.
- Lavash Flatbread (full sheet is 100 calories, 50 cals for 1/2, you can find these in stores too)
- organic tomato pizza sauce or pesto (2tbs- 1/4 cup depending on how much sauce you want, check labels.)
- VEGGIES! here I added spinach, mushroom, tomato, bell pepper and pineapple sometimes too.
- Little dollops of vegan cheese, or low-fat mozzarella cheese! (check serving size and use a scale to measure this out first!)
Snack or (dessert): 200 calories
This is a protein chickpea Blondie brownie thing! Be careful about serving size for this kind of dessert. I like to make desserts as I go instead of bulk ones like this because they don’t fill me up or satisfy me as much! Similar recipe: Peanut Butter Chickpea Blondies
Because of this approach of counting calories, you don’t have to restrict or cut out anything! you can still include deserts and treats. Compromising however, and making healthier recipes for brownies, cookies, ice cream, will allow you to eat more of it.
If you look at an actual brownie nutrition label or cookies, it is very high in calories for a tiny amount! No fun. This is why I love having my own foods that are low in calories so I can have more of it 🙂
How does this meal plan work?
It works by putting you at a calorie deficit but using fiber filling meals, includes carbs for energy, fats for flavor, and PROTEIN to satiate you! The most important part of these meals are the fruits and veggies. They will help you FEEL FULL even on a lower number of calories. Processed foods are filled with empty dense calories only to make you hungry later in the day.
It might not seem like a lot of calories, but some of the pictures I include are all 300 ish calories. I sometimes eat only 1300 calories but feel like I have eaten 1,000 calories! However, I track my foods, so I know exactly what I am eating.
Try your best to adhere to something. The best results will happen to those who stay consistent and continue to work hard.
In the past, I have been on fad diets, and very restrictive diets and they never worked. I even hated counting calories! But I recently have been enjoying it and it has really helped me A LOT with addressing my overeating through the week.
I have lost 4 lbs so far the past couple of weeks just by tracking my food and exercising daily.
Give this a shot and don’t give up! Join my Facebook page and message me if you have any questions or need some encouragement 😊
Try the 7 Day Reset Cleanse to get right on track and lose water weight quickly 🙂 (Affiliate link!)
XOXO,
DACIA
” Let all that you do be done with love.”
1 Corinthians 16:14
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