Too Few Calories
 

OK... Here is my problem...

The last couple of nights, I've gotten home & eaten dinner & then input my food into dailyplate. I then saw that I had almost 500 calories remaining in my 1,342 (weird number) budget. So I was running around my house trying to find something small, I was still full from dinner, but high in calories to help fill that almost 500 calorie void in my day. What do you guys eat that is relatively small but high in calories, but still fairly healthy, if you have calories you have to fill for that day? Any opinions would be good. I've been finding myself in this situation a lot lately and I don't want to keep having such low cal counts for days... Thanks! :hug:

I put my planned food items into TDP in to morning so if I'm going to be short I can plan things during the day to supplement. I have snack baggies of Kashi Go Lean for that purpose in my desk drawer, actually.

Are you eating any snacks during the day or just sticking to your meals??

I know that when I eat my snacks during the day that my calories are pretty much used up after dinner and I have a 100-150 cal snack!
:)

Maybe adding another snack or another portion of veggies might help not have so many calories left over at the end of the day??

First, I'd work on avoiding it more in the first place. 842 calories at the end of the day is so very low.

Me, I'd have something like toast with avocado on it. Some dark chocolate. Peanut butter by the spoon. A piece of cheese. Good fats are the only way you'll get in 500 calories (or a good part of it) when you're not hungry but not wanting to have empty calories (like sugar and white bread).

Planning ahead will help you fill that void...if you input your food early in the day, you'll know ahead of time that you have a lot of extra calories, and can then eat another snack earlier in the day or add some healthy fat in cooking.

Basically, you want to eat something fairly calorie-dense...lots of calories for the volume. Peanutbutter on wheat toast would be good, or some nuts, with all of their healthy fats.

Easiest, though, would be to avoid the situation altogether by inputting your meals ahead of time.

I usually eat 2 pieces of Arnold Double Omega bread (110 per slice) and 2 tbsp of Smart Balance peanut butter (200 cals). About 400ish calories and keeps you full. Not to mention, it's yummy!

Hm, spoonfull of pb or cheese? OK.. No I tend not to snack during the day, like yesterday this was my day:
Breakfast: 1 piece of wheat toast w/ pb
Lunch: smart ones weight watchers meal/chicken & mashed
snack: 1 serving of low fat tortilla chips
Dinner: 6" subway grilled chicken sub/white bread/lettuce/low fat honey mustard dressing

That was what I ate yesterday....

iI'm not really seeing enough veggies/fruit here. You could raise your calories by adding veggies and fruit quite easily.

Add a piece of fruit to this - an apple or an orange or even slice a banana over the pb and toast.

Add some kind of veggie or small salad here - baby spinach, tomatoes, etc.

Add an avocado (maybe some homemade guacamole) or some hummus here.

Switch to whole grain bread or oatmeal bread for the white. And lettuce is the most empty of all veggie calories. It's about as good as eating celery. :) Add baby spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, lots and lots of veggies. Pile on the veggies.

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WALNUTS!!! :)

They have so many good things for you and pack quite a few calories in even a small handful.

I am a veggie-phobic.. The extent of my veggie intake is limited to lettuce, corn & potatoe. i've tried other veggies, cooked all sorts of different way & I just can't do it... I supplement the fact that I don't eat veggies by taking a daily vitamin. :-)

You could eat a Cliff Protein Bar and a glass of milk -- 270 calories and 20 grams of protein in the bar and, depending on the milk, between 100 and 200 a glass. Really tasty and plenty of extra calories.

I've noticed that for a person who tries to eat "whole foods" as much as possible, I've been talking about protein bars a lot these days...

You could keep a little dark chocolate in the freezer (so you won't eat it fast). It's full of antioxidants.

That gets you a few vitamins & minerals. But plants have hundreds of antioxidants and other phytonutrients.

Julie is right, taking a vitamin supplement helps a little bit, but our bodies need a lot more than pills can give us. In fact, there's a great deal of evidence that we don't use vitamins from pills the same way we use vitamins from food. Basically, supplements generally don't do very much, and they lack the many phytonutrients that you only find in fruits and vegetables.

It isn't easy learning to like vegetables if you're a veggie-phobe (like I was) but it's worth it... your life is worth it. I found that it was really a matter of finding ways to prepare them that made them tastier to me. For example, I refuse to eat canned or boiled asparagus, but roasted with olive oil and garlic is delicious. Also, I never liked kale until I tried making baked kale chips, which taste surprisingly like real chips from a bag. Sweet potato fries and baked delicata squash strips are two more examples of delicious veggies. Don't let your phobia get in the way of you finding amazing veggie dishes!