500-Calorie Foods

Maintaining your desired body weight requires moderating calorie intake. The average person in good health requires around 2,000 calories a day. If you want to lose a pound over a week, reduce your calorie intake by 3,500 calories, or about 500 calories a day for that week. Eat balanced meals including whole grains, lean protein and vegetables with low levels of fat. Add exercise to maximize weight loss and health.

Soups

Soups make excellent low calorie meals because they are hearty and filling. Tasty soups you can prepare with 500 calories or less include fish soup, vegetable soup, Hawaiian ginger chicken stew and low fat beef vegetable stew. To reduce calorie content, cook with low fat vegetable broth, lean meats and a minimum amount of oil. Add plenty of fresh vegetables to add fiber and make the meal more filling.

Salads

Salads are quick to make and easy to prepare with 500 calories or less.Try chopped Greek salad, grapefruit chicken satay salad, vegetable quinoa salad, Thai beef salad or grilled tofu with greens. Control your salad portions and cut down on salad dressings and oil. Dip your fork into a side of salad dressing before taking a bite to add flavor without drowning in calories. Add small amounts of cheese, chips or bread crumbs for flavor.

Vegetarian

Eat vegetarian meals to cut back on fatty meats while maximizing flavor from healthy vegetable oils. Vegetarian meals are easy to make with 500 calories or less include smokey corn and black bean pizza, skillet gnocchi with chard and black beans, broccoli and goat cheese souffle, southwestern tofu scramble, barbeque portabello quesadillas, Chinese braised mushrooms and tofu and Provencal-style edamame saute.

Fish

Eating moderate amounts of fish provides plenty of protein and healthy omega-3 oil. Enjoy making fish dishes such as tuna steak, steamed fish with garlic sauce, cashew salmon with apricot couscous, salmon with pepita-lime butter and honey-soy broiled salmon. Add brown rice, beans or a side salad to bring each of these dishes to 500 calories.

Posted in: Food and Drink