Okay, I actually got excited when I saw your post because I went through the same thing, over and over again and hope I can help!
My caloric intake goal used to be about 1000-1200 calories, as I know it's dangerous to go under 1,000. However I always ended up eating from 800-900.
A typical meal plan for me would have been
Breakfast- Oatmeal, with water and sliced fruit. (never really over 200 calories)
Snack - Fruit (apples, grapes) (varies, but usually not over 100 calories)
Lunch - Turkey sandwich on wheat bread with mustard and lettuce ( never over 250 calories)
Some more fruit or carrot sticks (roughly 50 calories)
Mid day snack- More fruit or raw veggies (50 calories)
Dinner- Chicken breast and some veggies (200-300 calories)
You can see that by taking even the highest possible I still rarely reached 1,000 calories.. so what happened when I was starving? I'd binge. Give up for a few weeks, eat whatever I wanted, way too much of it and then start over again.
After months and months of research and educating myself about nutrition my meal plan looks more like this..
Breakfast - Oatmeal with walnuts or ground flax seed, banana, glass of skim milk
Or low calorie-high fiber cereal (notably Kashi go-lean) with fruit and milk.
Morning snack- Fruit and almonds, apple and string cheese, wholegrain crackers with 1/2 serving of natural peanut butter.. etc.
Lunch - For example today I had a salad I made (usually it'd be lettuce, tomatoes and some lemon juice to top it off....... yay... *sarcasm*) but today I had spinach leaves, a small amount of sunflower seeds, some nonfat feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, and a small amount of raisins.. with a small amount of balsamic vinegar, which definitely adds calories, the key is the excess to which you lean.. you don't want to top a salad with ranch and croutons(sp) (most of which have transfats anyway, ew) but rather a lot of healthier high calorie items in limited amounts.. as many people have said.... I had this salad with a serving of Progresso Lentil soup, high in protein, decent fiber and low in calories in fat ( I think it may have been a 99% fat free version ) I usually don't get much sodium from other places so as long as I don't have soup twice in a day i'm fine
Afternoon snack- Similar to above mid morning snack..
Dinner- There are tons of possibilities! Whole wheat pasta with lowfat spaghetti sauce, tons of veggies, salad and a piece of whole wheat bread... marinate your chicken breast in olive oil before cooking it.. making it more moist and calorieful (of good calories of course!). I also used to ban all foods that are not considered "healthy" in my mind.. My boyfriend brought me fish tacos, fish on two corn tortillas with bel lpepper and cheese the fish didn't appear fried, so it was only really the cheese I was worried about. I ate one last night with a can of cambells select harvest soup, after I drained most of the broth out. I would never be able to do that! I'd either eat 3 or non. Now I go by that 80(healthy)-20(junk) ratio. I don't feel deprived anymore!
As long as you don't constantly think about calories, exercise and stay busy with other things.. the weight will come off. The more you think about it, the more deprived and starved you feel. Don't feel deprived if you feel "hungry" because the truth is you probably ARE eating less than you used to.. however if it's excessive just try incorporating more of those foods:
Nuts: especially Almonds and walnuts. Olive oil. Natural Peanut Butter or Almond butter, individual servings of cheese, dried fruit, avocado as many have mentioned, hummus... You just need to learn to balance these with low calorie foods. Not too little, not too much and soon you wont even have to think about if you're eating the correct amount of calories. If you feel hungry drink a cup of green tea with no sugar (I have 3 glasses a day, one between each meal) or have a low calorie snack such as a pickle or two, or some fruit.
Good luck, I hope this helps!
Eating enough calories
