Over the past decade, weight loss experts have believed in the effectiveness of calorie counting. Not only does this help keep you fit, but even lower-calorie foods have easier digestibility. Calorie counting provides a balance of beneficial trace elements and substances.
What are the specifics of low-calorie nutrition?
The food culture in our country is tight. It is enough to recall the Russian proverb “Everything is useful, that it got into your mouth”, which reflects our realities in the best possible way. Living by this principle, the population of our country suffers from numerous diseases caused by malfunctions in the body. External problems, such as brittle nails, the appearance of acne, deterioration in the quality of hair and skin are also caused by problems with nutrition and lack of substances necessary for the human body.
In order to control the daily intake of substances and calories, low-calorie dishes were invented. There are several fundamental principles. They are listed below:
- The basis of all low-calorie dishes are plant foods rich in fiber.
- Preference should be given to lean meats. These include chicken, rabbit, turkey, beef.
- Without fail, seafood and fish should be present in the diet. They are very suitable for low-calorie dishes, while saturating the body with useful trace elements and vitamins.
- Milk and its derivatives should not be neglected either. The only condition is that milk should not have a large percentage of fat content.
- Low-calorie slimming meals reduce the daily amount of carbohydrates and fats.
- To eat on this system, you need to calculate calorie content. But you should not take the bill as a heavy duty, in fact it is a very interesting process.
Why is calorie counting necessary?
The amount of calories consumed depends on physical activity, age, gender, and even weight. If you use much less calorie than necessary, then serious health problems will begin, hormonal levels, external defects will appear. Weight lost with an extremely low calorie level is returned, but not one, but in the company of diseases.
If you constantly exceed the daily calorie figure, then this will lead to problems with weight and, again, with health. To prevent these troubles, you must adhere strictly to your norm.
How to calculate correctly?
You can calculate calorie content on your own or resort to the help of a weight loss specialist.
It must be remembered that calories are consumed not only during some actions or physical activity. Calories are also needed to maintain life in the human body. For this reason, it is impossible to fall below the calorie level to maintain life.
It is important to know that each person has their own consumption rate, but there are rules that allow you to judge the average value:
- Daily calories for men are greater than for women. This is because the former spend more energy.
- The older a person, the less calories he needs, regardless of gender.
- For people engaged in physical labor, the daily calorie intake will be higher than for those who have mental work.
- Children's calorie also depends on the age of the child.
- Nursing mothers, pregnant women, and those whose work involves physical activity consume about the same amount of calories.
Sample table of average values of the required number of calories:
Activities | Daily calorie intake |
Athletes and men with regular physical work | More than 4,500 |
Male students | 3 300 |
Women engaged in manual labor or professional sports | 3,500-4,000 |
Pregnant women | 3,200 |
Nursing mothers | 3,500 |
Female students | 2 800 |
How to calculate the calorie content of ready meals?
There are several ways. The first is to find ready-made low-calorie slimming dishes with already calculated energy value.
The second is to count everything by yourself. For this, there are a lot of devices - from a traditional notebook and pen, to programs on a smartphone to calculate the calorie content of dishes.
What devices exist for calculating energy value?
- Online calculator. Just enter the product names and get the result.
- Self-calculation of energy value tables.
- On packaged products is information about the composition, calories and other necessary data.
- Download the application on a smartphone. A personal calorie counter is always with you and available even without going online.
How to determine the calorie content of a dish?
The information that ordinary food cannot be dietary is absolutely not justified. You can cook low-calorie meals from simple foods. For counting, you only need a kitchen scale.
To understand what we are talking about, we will write an algorithm of actions using the example of a vegetable salad:
- Write out the name of all products.
- Measure the weight of each ingredient separately.
- Determine the energy value of each product.
- Calculate what calorie content of the product is in that weight.
- Summarize everything.
- Record the final energy value of the dish.
Low-calorie nutrition principles
Breakfast is a simple low-calorie meal. A vivid example is porridge. They meet the requirement of complex carbohydrate food in the morning and saturate the body for a long time. In order not to be bored from day to day to eat empty porridge, you can add fruits, berries and nuts to it.
The second breakfast or the first snack is best to start with fruit or cottage cheese with additives.
For lunch, you need to eat fiber, protein and carbohydrates. It can be a piece of meat with porridge and a vegetable salad.
At lunch, it is permissible to eat fat-free cottage cheese no more than 150 grams.
The last meal should consist primarily of protein. For example, baked fish with a vegetable side dish. It is noteworthy that dinner should be no less than a couple of hours before going to bed.
Soups
Simple low-calorie dishes are mainly represented by soups. But still, even for soups, there are certain nuances:
- it is better to add salads
- use only the freshest products;
- no need to delay the preparation - only during fast processing do the products retain their beneficial properties;
- You can not add seasonings with a chemical composition and ready-made soups from packages.
To reduce calorie, you need to cook on the second broth.
Soups as low-calorie slimming dishes made from simple ingredients
For example, a great option is a vegetable soup with rice. Its energy value is 25 calories per serving.
Ingredients:
- Secondary meat broth - 2.5 liters.
- White cabbage - 100 grams.
- Bell peppers - 100 g.
- Ripe tomatoes - 100 g.
- Onions - 100 g.
- Round grain steamed rice - 40 g.
- Carrot - 75 grams.
- 15 percent sour cream - 40 grams.
- Tomato paste - 50 grams.
- Salt, pepper - optional.
- Greens - optional.
Cooking:
Three carrots on a grater, cut the onions and potatoes into small cubes, chop the tomatoes with medium cubes. We boil the meat broth, introduce potatoes after boiling and round-grain rice. We make frying from carrots, onions and tomato paste.
Chop pepper and cabbage into thin strips and pour into soup. After 5 minutes add frying, salt, ground pepper and herbs. Let it boil again and turn off the fire.
The next recipe for a low-calorie slimming dish is chicken soup with vegetables. The energy value of the dish is 90 calories per serving.
Ingredients:
- Skinless chicken breast - 200 grams.
- Carrot - 1 medium-sized piece.
- Potato - 2 pieces.
- Sweet bell pepper - 1 piece.
- Vermicelli - 50 grams.
- Onion - 1 head.
- Salt, seasonings - optional.
- Greens - optional.
Cooking:
Pre-cooked chicken breast is cut into medium pieces. The water in the pan is collected purified, not more than a liter and allowed to boil. After boiling, potatoes, bell peppers, carrots and onions should be introduced. We boil for 10 minutes, after this time we pour in vermicelli and chopped chicken breast. Salt, pepper and sprinkle with herbs.
Also a great low-calorie recipe is cucumber soup.
Ingredients:
- Fresh cucumbers - 200 grams.
- Fat-free unsweetened yogurt or kefir - 1 faceted glass.
- Chives are a bunch of medium thickness.
- Ice cubes - 4 pieces.
- Salt, ground pepper - optional.
Cooking:
Peel the cucumbers and cut them coarsely. Ice cubes, large pieces of cucumbers, kefir or yogurt are placed in a blender bowl. Stir until puree, pepper and salt. Chives are finely chopped, the remaining part of the cucumbers is also chopped. Pureed mass is poured into a plate, sprinkled with green onions and chopped cucumber.
Second courses
Recipes for low-calorie slimming dishes with side dishes are presented in large quantities. Consider some of them, such as chicken casserole.
It refers to low-calorie slimming meals with calories - about 100 calories per 100 grams.
Ingredients:
- Chicken Breast - 500 g.
- Hard cheese - 50 g.
- Onions - 1 head.
- Carrot is one middle.
- Bell peppers - 1 piece.
- Sunflower oil - 2 tablespoons.
- Natural yogurt - 1 faceted glass.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
- Ground pepper, salt - optional.
Cooking:
In a slow cooker, the bottom is lined with vegetables and seasoned with spices. Pieces of chicken are laid out on top of the vegetable layer. Beat the egg and mix it with yogurt. This mixture is watered on everything in the multicooker bowl. Sprinkle with grated hard cheese on top. The function “Baking” is perfect for casserole, and half an hour will be enough. To cook in the oven, set the temperature to 180 degrees and hold the dish until a brownish cheese crust forms.
Braised fish is also a great option.
Fish is a low-fat diet for weight loss. With the indication of calorie content, you can calculate how much food is permissible to eat.
The energy value of the dish is from 100 to 150 calories per 100 grams, depending on the type of fish.
Ingredients:
- Onions - 2 large heads.
- Ripe tomatoes - 2 large pieces.
- Sunflower oil - 3 tablespoons.
- Lemon juice - 3 tablespoons.
- Sea fish - 1 kilogram.
- Spices for fish.
- Salt, pepper - optional.
Cooking:
Pour 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil into a pan with a thick bottom and spread the onion sliced in circles in a very dense layer. Top with onions covered with circles of tomatoes and all this is crushed by a lid. The cover must not be lifted for five minutes. After the lapse of time add slices of pre-marinated fish (at least half an hour) and stew for 15 minutes. A vegetable salad is suitable for garnish.
Mackerel baked in foil is perfect as an easy, but very tasty product.
This is a low-calorie slimming dish. It can’t boast of calories, which is valuable. Energy value - 130 calories per 100 grams.
Ingredients:
- Mackerel - 1 fish.
- Natural yogurt or sour cream 15% - 2 tablespoons.
- Orange is one fruit.
- Garlic - a pair of cloves.
- Spices - optional.
- Ground pepper, salt - optional.
Cooking:
Prepare the fish - remove the entrails, fins, head and tail. Make deep side cuts of 5 centimeters. Juice is pressed from the orange and the zest is rubbed. In yogurt add chopped garlic, orange zest and juice, ground pepper. In this sauce, roll the fish, put it on the foil and pour the leftovers. Pack tightly so that nothing leaks out. At 180 degrees, the fish cooks no more than 20 minutes. The best side dish is Korean carrots, Beijing cabbage or leaf lettuce.
Sweet Diet
In the first place - cottage cheese casserole. This is a low-calorie dish with calories not more than 95 per 100 grams.
Ingredients:
- Fat-free cottage cheese - 200 g.
- Wheat bran - 1 tbsp. a spoon.
- Natural yogurt - 1 tbsp. a spoon.
- An apple is one.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
- Cinnamon, vanilla - optional.
Cooking:
All the ingredients are mixed (apple tart on a grater) until smooth. Spread out in a mold and bake at 200 degrees for at least 45 minutes.
Chocolate cheesecake is a light and healthy dessert.
Ingredients:
- Gelatin - 15 g.
- Linden honey - 2 tablespoons.
- Cocoa powder - 2 tablespoons.
- Fat-free cottage cheese - 400 g.
- One percent milk - 100 ml.
Cooking:
Gelatin is dissolved in water, left to swell. Milk is poured into the pan, swollen gelatin is added and heated until the latter is dissolved. Leave to cool. The cottage cheese is broken with a blender or mixer, a little gelatin mass is introduced. Cocoa powder and vanilla are immediately added. Add honey. The resulting cream is poured into a detachable mold and put into the refrigerator. As it hardens, sprinkle with fresh berries and serve with a portion of ice cream and strong coffee.
Low-calorie cottage cheese cookies will also not add excess weight.
Ingredients:
- Fat-free cottage cheese - 200 g.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
- Hercules flakes - 1 tablespoon.
- Olive oil - 1.5 tablespoons.
Cooking:
Hercules flakes are poured with boiling water so that they do not float, leave no more than 5 minutes. Over time, drain the water, add the remaining products. All are thoroughly mixed and laid out on parchment, which is pre-lubricated with oil. Oven at 120 degrees for an hour.
Fat Burning Cocktails
Fat burning cocktails also belong to low-calorie dishes with calories no higher than a hundred per 100 grams of the product. Here are some examples:
- In a low-fat kefir add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of chopped ginger, a pinch of hot pepper, grated into powder.
- In a blender, beat 2 slices of lemon, kiwi and a handful of mint.
- A handful of mint leaves and parsley branches in an amount of 7 pieces are beaten with a blender with the addition of purified water.
- One stalk of celery, fresh cucumber, ginger root (about 2 centimeters), 50 g of zucchini, a quarter of lemon and a large sweet apple are crushed, a couple of ice cubes are added.
- Cinnamon stick, a teaspoon of honey and apple cider vinegar are mixed, diluted with cold water.
- Natural yogurt - half a cup, half grapefruit, 4 slices of pineapple (canned or fresh), raw pumpkin seeds - 30 grams.
As you can see, a lot of dishes from low-calorie products for weight loss can be safely prepared. If you show imagination and perseverance, then a low-calorie diet will not seem like a punishment, but it will be an exciting adventure that will give a long-term result.