The idea of a low-calorie diet is to reduce the number of calories consumed to a minimum for a week (maximum three to four) and force the body to expend stored fat.
It is convenient that you can vary the diet based on preferences and opportunities, as well as choose a daily calorie based on your goals and individual characteristics.
General principles of nutrition
The menu of a low-calorie diet for a week is based on certain principles:
• compared with the usual diet, calorie needs to be reduced by at least 25%, and it is especially important to limit the amount of fat (you can eat no more than 80 grams per day);
• completely exclude “fast” carbohydrates (sugar, white bread, sweet soda, confectionery);
• give up alcohol;
• reduce the number of spices that stimulate appetite, and salt;
• make the basis of the diet protein foods and vegetables, rich in vitamins and fiber.
A low-calorie diet does not have strict guidelines on which foods should be included in a weekly meal plan. The main thing is to track the calorie content of foods and give preference to those that give both satiety and volume at the same or slightly different calorie content.
Allowed and Prohibited Products
What foods and dishes can be used in the low-calorie diet menu for a week:
• vegetables and vegetable soups, including low-calorie lean cabbage soup, okroshka, borscht, beetroot soup;
• friable cereals from gray cereals in the water or chowder in the water with the addition of buckwheat, eggs, pearl barley, and corn;
• low-fat dairy products - as independent dishes and dressings for vegetables and soups;
• boiled eggs cooked in the form of an omelet without frying in oil;
• low-fat meat of a dietary grade (rabbit meat, veal, beef);
• bird - turkey, chicken (preferably without skin);
• fish - cod, pollock, pink salmon, zander, salmon, flounder, etc .;
• any seafood, including seaweed, shrimp, squid, scallops;
• stewed mushrooms and in soup;
• nuts;
• berries;
• fruits.
From fruits and berries you can choose those that contain less sugar and calories. Allowed apples, peaches, pears, quinces, blackberries, cherries, cranberries, oranges, kiwi, persimmons. You should not eat only very sweet fruits, for example, melons, grapes. You can cook yourself fresh juice, keeping the pulp in it.
Concerning dried fruit, then you can replace them with fresh fruits, but in minimal quantities, in the first half of the day and subject to the obligatory calculation of calories.
In a day you can eat up to 100 grams of bread, but not white, but rye, bran or whole grain. It has many useful substances, despite the high calorie content. In addition, a small amount of oil can be added to food, taking into account the allowed daily intake of fats. But butter is not allowed.
What you have to completely abandon:
• from fried foods, even if foods are allowed;
• baking from any dough;
• pasta;
• beans, peas, beans, potatoes, carrots;
• milk porridge;
• first courses in fatty broths;
• sausages, smoked meat and fish;
• salty foods, including dried fish;
• canned marinades;
• fatty dairy products (cream, fermented baked milk, cheese);
• foods with a high glycemic index (white rice, oatmeal, semolina, wheat groats);
• lard and fatty meat;
• jam and jam, chocolate and cake.
If it’s hard to do without sweets, then instead of sweets you can eat dried fruits, but only as an exception. Instead of sugar, you can add a natural sweetener to tea, for example, stevia, but not often.
Important points of a low-calorie diet
To make the diet more effective, then during the weight loss cycle you need to switch to fractional nutrition and Observe additional recommendations:
• you need to eat not three times a day, but five or even six;
• Serving size should be small - approximately half of the usual portion;
• the weight of food that fits on your plate should not be more than 300, maximum 350 grams;
• during the day in order to reduce the burden on the kidneys, you need to drink as much clean water as possible. Well, if you manage to drink 2 liters, the minimum norm is 1.5 liters;
• you do not need to starve after six in the evening, but you can’t eat too much before bedtime. The ideal option is a hearty dinner at seven in the evening or light two hours before bedtime.
Since the diet includes a variety of foods, then additional intake of vitamins is optional. However, if you drink them in a course, then stop during the diet is not necessary.
If to a low-calorie diet connect daily exercise, then the process of losing weight will go even more intensively. It’s not necessary to run to the gym every day; homework, yoga, long walks, swimming, etc. are enough.
Low-calorie diet menu for the week
Depending on the state of health, age, features of the daily routine, working conditions, you can choose one of three menu options. They differ in the number of calories and are conditionally divided into the main (1500-1800 kcal); moderate (from 1100 to 1200 kcal) and hard (up to 800 kcal).
This is the most balanced dietary variant for BJU, which is tolerated quite easily due to normal calorie content. At 1800 and even at 1500 calories, you can not only hold out, but also live well. In any case, there will not be exactly hungry faints, and the ability to make a diet in accordance with your preferences provides a good mood.
However, nutritional restrictions are not recommended for more than three weeks. This is fraught with a violation of metabolic processes that will make losing weight impossible.
Monday
• Breakfast: a portion of cereal from gray cereal on the water, unsweetened fruit, green or herbal tea.
• Second breakfast: a jar of natural yogurt (without sugar, dyes, cereals, fruit slices).
• Lunch: vegetable soup, baked fish or steam.
• Afternoon snack: fruit puree or a glass of freshly squeezed vegetable juice.
• Dinner: vegetable slices with sour cream or with the addition of vegetable oil, a piece of fish, green tea or mineral water without gas.
Tuesday
• Breakfast: hard-boiled or soft-boiled egg, whole-grain or rye bread, green tea.
• Second breakfast: fruit (one serving).
• Lunch: cereal soup with vegetable broth, steam chicken chop or steamed breast.
• Snack: protein omelet with tomato and fresh herbs or a cup of low-fat cottage cheese.
• Dinner: baked fish, salad or vinaigrette seasoned with lemon juice.
Wednesday
• Breakfast: porridge from gray cereal on water, tea with lemon.
• Second breakfast: kefir or low-fat cottage cheese, a slice of allowed bread.
• Lunch: diet borsch on the water, steamed meat in whole or in the form of meatballs, garnished with fresh green vegetable, such as Beijing cabbage, cucumber, tomato;
• Snack: a serving of fruit.
• Dinner: baked or steamed fish, grilled vegetables, green tea.
Thursday
• Breakfast: egg, grapefruit, tea or broth of wild rose.
• Second breakfast: curd or yogurt without sugar and additives.
• Lunch: vegetable broth, boiled chicken with vegetables (fresh or steam).
• Snack: a serving of berries or fruit.
• Dinner: a fermented milk product to your taste, stewed vegetables.
Friday
• Breakfast: porridge on the water, fruit or juice from it (no more than half a cup, can be diluted with water).
• Second breakfast: a serving of fruit or 2-3 dried fruit.
• Lunch: fresh cabbage salad with onions, boiled veal, tea.
• Snack: fruits or berries.
• Dinner: low fat cottage cheese with vegetables or fruit.
Saturday
• Breakfast: egg omelet with skim milk, a slice of bread, tea.
• Second breakfast: apple or other fruit.
• Lunch: lean cabbage soup, chicken breast cutlet under sour cream.
• Snack: 6-7 nuts.
• Dinner: stewed beef with mushrooms and onions, a salad of fresh cucumber, Chinese cabbage and onions, tea.
Sunday
• Breakfast: porridge on the water with the addition of dried fruits, broth of wild rose.
• Second breakfast: low-fat yogurt with 2-3 nuts.
• Lunch: a serving of fish soup, a steam cutlet of their white fish.
• Snack: one fruit.
• Dinner: fish under sour cream or lemon juice, grilled vegetables.
Moderate Diet Menu
It practically does not differ from the main diet menu, however, it involves holding fasting days three times in one week. Fasting days can be varied as follows:
• three times a day eat 300 grams of apples, cucumbers or watermelon (do not combine different types of fruits and vegetables in one meal);
• eat small portions of vegetable salad from permitted foods three times a day, seasoned with linseed, sunflower or olive oil. At the same time, you can eat a jar of natural low-fat yogurt;
• six times a day to drink a glass of low-fat kefir;
• eat a portion of cottage cheese five times a day (no more than 120 grams);
• eat a piece of boiled meat five times a day (not more than 100 grams in weight);
• drink for up to one and a half liters of freshly squeezed juice, a rosehip broth or herbal preparations.
You can adhere to a moderate diet for health until 3-4 weeks. Calorie counting is required. You can vary the diet on ordinary non-fasting days as you wish, without exceeding the allowed calorie content.
This diet option has a huge advantage: it allows literally a week to return an extended stomach to a physiological norm. Well-being will not suffer, lightness and vigor will appear, skin condition will improve.
During the first stage of such a diet, the weight will drop rapidly (some young ladies manage to get rid of 3-4 kg), and this is very stimulating.
Tough low-calorie diet menu
As such, a low-calorie diet menu for a week with a calorie restriction of up to 800 kcal does not exist.
Products can be selected from the list by calorie content and distributed as desired throughout the day. It is better to cook food for a couple in order to preserve the maximum amount of vitamins. Be sure to drink a vitamin-mineral complex.
However, before deciding on such a diet, it is important to assess the state of your health. In any case, it is impossible to adhere to such a diet for more than ten days: the metabolism will slow down, and this problem will have to be solved for a long time.
Hard limit can be applied in case of emergency. It only makes sense when the initial excess weight is small.
