Post your go to dieting foods- high volume low calorie!

[RyanHarrison]

Share your recipes for low calorie meals & ideas when dieting with recipes if possible?

[MagsOnTheBeach]

Clear soups with low salt broth - just empty your fridge into a pot!  I start with onions, garlic, celery and carrots and brown them first and then add the broth and veggies.  I serve with lemon wedges and jalapenos.

Chili - I use this recipe and half a serrano https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017247-black-bean-chorizo-stew  I often add an additional can of beans as well.

I love this recipe and add thin slices to salads: https://cleanfoodcrush.com/clean-eating-grilled-lime-chicken-tacos/  Chicken breasts tend to be oversized so one feeds 2 people easily.  

[emili]

moving your post to the eat well section, it will get more attention there.

[StephRus]

Massive amounts of fresh, mostly green vegetables (Broccoli, kale, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, onions)  .  Fresh, home-cooked meats (chicken, pork, fish, or beef).  Whole-fat organic dairy (plain yogurt, cottage cheese, small amounts of milk).  Nuts, seeds, and berries.  Avoid processed pseudo-foods.  

[DonnaR57]

I just posted a couple of recipes in someone else's (similar) thread on this forum. One was for Succulent Steak and the other was for a Stir Fry. I also posted my go-to snacks.

I will add a bit of hint that helped me to lose 35 lbs this past year:  instead of thinking "I'm on a diet", I changed the outlook to one of "I'm establishing a new way of eating."  The problem with diets is that once you lose the weight you wanted to lose, you often go back (within a year) to eating the same way you ate before "the diet". You end up gaining all the weight back.  I know this to be true, as I can't tell you how many times I've "gone on a diet", lost 10 or 18 or 25 or 30 lbs, and then within a year, I gain it back. 

The other thing that helps: log everything that goes through your lips if it has calories. That means about everything except water.  (But FitBit takes care of that, too, as there's a place to log your water.) Do that even after you've lost the weight.  Weigh yourself once or twice a week, and keep that up after you've made your goal too.  It keeps you answering to yourself.

Another thing that helped me (but isn't for everyone): I keep a spreadsheet, every day. The FitBit logs help me out here, a LOT.  Put anything on the spreadsheet that will help -- weight, blood pressure (if yours is high), blood glucose (if that applies to you), calories - calories from fat - carbs, protein, steps per day, exercise per day, number of floors climbed -- well, you get my drift.  This makes me realize how much progress I was making (while losing), things I was eating that made my BP or BG go too high, exercise (or lack thereof).  From there I could set new goals, such as my "10000 steps, 60 days in a row" that I am working towards right now. 

Donna 

[GotGoals]

Disclaimer – Monitoring sodium is not a priority for me

Lunch - BirdsEye Steamfresh Frozen Seasoned Vegetables.  Good flavor, with high volume and low calories (typically under 200 calories for the whole pkg).  I’ll also have a package of Starkist flavored tuna for protein (80 Calories a package) and/or Dannon Light and Fit yogurt (80 Calories).  Favorite BirdsEye…Ranch Broccoli, Buffalo Cauliflower. Sriracha green beans.  The BirdsEye Superfood blends are good too, but a little higher in calories.

Dinner - I food prep and cook on the weekends to have ready to go meals throughout the week.  During nice weather I cook about everything on an outdoor grill.  I marinade various proteins (because plain chicken is yuck) chicken, lean cuts of pork and steak, lean burgers.  Sometimes I make my own marinades but I'll often buy marinades such as Lawry's herb and garlic.  I use a meat tenderizing mallet on chicken and steak prior to marinating which makes a world of difference in texture and flavor.  I use foil packets for vegetables such as diced butternut squash, cabbage wedges, squash, zucchini, etc. If you don’t grill, all of this can be roasted in the oven.    

Fooducate gives this a C but one of my favorite meals is Johnsonville Chipotle Chicken Sausage cooked on the grill served with butternut squash.  One chicken sausage is 150 calories.

I'm looking for more ideas to mix things up myself.