Diet lunch and proper nutrition: healthy recipes for every day

A beautiful figure now worries many men and women, everyone wants to look slim and fit, and for this we will find out what to eat for lunch when losing weight. You can often hear that the most important meal of the day is breakfast - it sets the mood and provides nutrients for the whole morning, which, of course, is true, but you shouldn’t forget about lunch.

Lunch should be approached with full responsibility. Properly selected foods for lunch will not only relieve hunger, but will also help speed up the fat burning process.

What to eat for lunch to lose weight

To decide what to eat for lunch to lose weight, you need to remember that your meal must correspond to a certain number of calories. The required amount of calories is determined depending on the person's weight and activity. Most people lose weight by consuming between 1,000 and 1,600 calories per day. For example, 400 calorie meals and two 100 calorie snacks.

You can get 400 kcal for lunch with the following menu:

• salmon steak (150 kcal), 1 cup steamed broccoli (55 kcal), 0.5 cup boiled brown rice (105 kcal);
• chicken steak, leafy greens, carrots, 0.5 cups quinoa;
• 100 gr. tofu, Brussels sprouts, whole grain pasta.

Chicken steak with vegetables

Recommendations

The main mistakes most people make during lunch are talking with colleagues and rushing. The result is that food is not chewed, it is swallowed hastily, in large pieces that are difficult to digest. Need I say that in the end you will have to pay with heartburn and heaviness in the stomach, which will negatively affect the process of losing weight? So, if you want to have a healthy lunch, you need to not talk to anyone and take your time, and also follow a number of other tips from nutritionists.

1. The soup is best eaten warm, but not hot.
2. All sweets are strictly prohibited - they will be used to store fat, awaken hunger ahead of time and reduce performance.
3. Lunch breaks have to be taken in the middle of working hours. If a nearby cafe or government canteen cannot offer you complete dietary meals, you will have to bring them with you in containers from home.
4. You need to get up from the table slightly hungry, so make sure that the portions are small and the calorie content is low.
5. Drinks can be drunk only half an hour after eating.
6. You need to rest for about 20 minutes after lunch: just sit or take a walk.

A nice bonus for anyone losing weight: if you can’t imagine life without sweets, half an hour after lunch you can eat a slice of dark chocolate or 1 tsp. honey, but no more. This will improve your mood and increase your performance.

Wow! One of the most famous French kings, Louis XIV (nicknamed the Sun) ate all his lunch dishes exclusively with his hands. You will be surprised, but he was so successful in this that he did not spill a drop of soup.

Advice from nutritionists

Diet for weight loss for a week for women

For anyone trying to lose weight or lead a healthy lifestyle, nutritionists advise:

• take into account the correspondence of the energy value of food to human energy expenditure. This rule is usually ignored. Eating high-calorie foods (potatoes, sugar, flour products) results in the body receiving much more calories than it expends. As a result, the mass increases and leads to obesity;
• diversify your food list. The content of nutrients in products must correspond to the physiological needs of the body. Every day you should consume about 70 different substances that are very important for life, but not all are synthesized in the human body;
• choose the right diet, frequency and regularity of meals. It is necessary to take into account the need for nutrients and energy depending on the body and age.

Advice from experienced nutritionists

Developing sustainable healthy eating habits:

• minimize the consumption of unnatural food that has zero nutritional value and high calorie content (especially for adolescents);
• replace juices with fruits, avoid carbonated drinks;
• give up alcohol;
• if possible, replace tea and coffee with water;
• always have breakfast. Skipping breakfast causes the body to go into starvation mode and begin storing fat. This will also force you to increase your next meal;
• drink a lot of water, 8-9 glasses a day.

Important! It is better to buy vegetables and fruits at the market; you should not choose imported beautiful, shiny ones, since they are of no benefit.
Preferably fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables and fruits grown in nearby fields and gardens.

Healthy Lunch Principles

It is useful to drink a glass of water before eating. You need to drink water half an hour before your intended meal. As a result, it will be possible to start the digestive system and slightly reduce appetite.

For many people, lunch is based on eating soups and borscht. Such dishes are prepared in vegetable and meat broths. For one meal, only one dish containing meat is required, that is, if the preparation of soup or borscht was accompanied by the addition of meat, other food should not contain this component. Also, soups should not contain excess pasta and potatoes, since such products contribute to excess weight gain.

It is not necessary to eat traditional soups for lunch; you can do without them. It is enough to eat boiled meat or fish with a vegetable salad, without bread, without porridge. In addition to minerals and vitamins, vegetables contain fiber, which, if consumed sufficiently, normalizes stomach function.

The daily meal does not include desserts, compotes, or teas. Sweet dishes do not go well with the food a person eats during lunch, and compote and tea disrupt the digestion process.

It is important to adhere to the principles on which proper nutrition is based. The essence of these principles is to consume the optimal amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats in separate meals, and include vegetables in the diet.

Do not forget that lunch should be measured. Allow about 30 minutes for the main meal, which helps avoid overeating. They have lunch at a time so that the feeling of fullness is maintained until dinner and the desire to eat something high in calories does not arise.

Which products to choose

Proper nutrition for lunch

For proper nutrition, the best options are:

• fruits. Fruits with low sugar content (oranges, pineapples, apples, lemons, peaches, grapefruits, cranberries) should replace sweets;
• vegetables. You should get carbohydrates from vegetables. They contain vitamins, fiber and other nutrients. These can be tomatoes, any cabbage, celery, bell peppers, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, etc.;
• legumes This food is rich in carbohydrates, fiber and iron (peas, lentils, chickpeas, beans, soy). 1/2 cup of peas or lentils provides approximately 7-8 grams. fiber;
• whole grain products have a lot of fiber (barley, buckwheat, oats, rye, rice, wheat, millet). It is recommended to eat at every lunch meal;
• nuts and dried fruits. By eating nuts and dried fruits, you can suppress hunger and replenish your supply of vitamins and nutrients.

Whole grain products

Important! You should avoid pork, potatoes, yeast products (various baked goods) and those made with malt (beer).

Healthy lunch for weight loss: recipes

When you have already figured out what is best to eat for lunch when losing weight, study several examples of tasty and healthy recipes that can be used for a diet menu and proper nutrition. If you have the opportunity to dine at home, you can pay attention to the following dish options.

Fish in a pot

Meat and fish cooked in pots is a simple method to make dietary food both tasty and nutritious. Cut the fish, place the pieces in a pot and cover with several layers of vegetables, for example, it could be onions, carrots, zucchini and cauliflower. Sprinkle each layer with any seasoning without salt. After this, pour low-fat kefir into the pot so that it does not reach 1-1.5 cm from the edge. You need to bake the dish for an hour at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Cheese soup

Many people love creamy puree soups, but when losing weight they are forced to deny themselves them. But this is not at all necessary, because you can prepare dietary versions of soups. Take any vegetables and stew them in a small amount of oil. Chop the low-fat processed cheese and add it to the vegetable broth, heat until the cheese is completely dissolved. Then place the vegetables in the container.

This soup will ideally complement a light salad of fresh or boiled vegetables.

Lazy dumplings

Stir in a pack of low-fat cottage cheese, one egg, a couple of tablespoons of whole wheat flour and a pinch of salt. Form balls from the resulting mixture. Boil it in boiling water. You can serve these dumplings with kefir or natural yogurt. Boiled or stewed vegetables can be an addition.

Cauliflower Casserole

You need to boil 200 grams of cauliflower (this is about half a medium-sized head of cabbage) in slightly salted water. Mix two raw egg whites, a couple of tablespoons of semolina and seasoning to taste. Place the vegetable in a mold and cover with the egg mixture. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

These recipes can be used both at home and at work. To save time, you can prepare healthy lunches on the weekend and freeze them, and then heat them up and eat them at work.

But what about those who do not have the opportunity to heat up food or put it in the refrigerator at work or school? Initially, you can pay attention to tasty and healthy salads . You can pay attention to the following combinations for them:

• Pieces of boiled chicken fillet, lettuce, grapes, a small amount of walnuts.
• Boiled beets, shrimp, cucumber and carrots.
• Boiled breast, egg white, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, a little grated Parmesan.
• Boiled lentils, grainy cottage cheese, cucumber and tomato.
• Canned tuna, green beans, egg whites, red pepper.

These salads will not lose their freshness, even if you do not store them in the refrigerator until lunch. As a dressing, you can use soy sauce, lemon juice, natural yogurt or low-fat sour cream, vinegar, and ground pepper. To keep the dish fresh, it is better to season it immediately before eating.

And a few more recipes :

Cottage cheese casserole

Mix a pack of low-fat cottage cheese, one egg, a couple of tablespoons of oatmeal and a tablespoon of milk. Line the pan with parchment. Place the fruits and fill them with cottage cheese. Bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.

Vegetable pancakes

You can make healthy pancakes from grated carrots, beets or zucchini. To give them shape, use egg and semolina. Fry in a dry frying pan or bake in the oven. Another great source of protein for lunch is canned beans, which you can take with you to work.

Lavash rolls

Thin sheets of pita bread should be stuffed with a mixture of low-fat cottage cheese, lettuce, chopped celery, tomatoes and herbs. Make rolls. You can vary the filling, for example, use canned tuna or boiled chicken.

There are many options for delicious and healthy diet lunches that can be used on a healthy diet. Find out the daily menu for proper nutrition here. You can safely experiment with dishes, their contents and combinations, creating for yourself the most suitable diet for weight loss. Recipes for dietary cottage cheese casseroles can be found in a separate article.

Recipes for every day from the pros

Almost everyone can cook familiar dishes. But there are recipes that are not quite ordinary, but are prepared quickly. They can be included in the menu for variety.

Jamie Oliver, young British super chef, author of 10 bestselling cookery books

Jamie believes that it takes 15-30 minutes to prepare a delicious lunch. Here are examples of satisfying, interesting and low-calorie dishes.

Ricotta and lemon pancakes:

1. Ricotta or low-fat paste-like cottage cheese – 400 g.
2. Lemon – 1 pc.
3. Grated or ground nutmeg – ¼ tsp.
4. Egg – 1 pc.
5. Flour – 1 tbsp. l.
6. Grated hard cheese – 40 g.
7. Olive oil – 50 g.
8. Salt and pepper - to taste.

Mash the ricotta or cottage cheese with a fork, add lemon zest, egg and flour. Nutmeg and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Fry small pancakes in hot oil until golden brown. Serve them with tomato sauce, lecho or tomatoes in their own juice.

Crispy Mint Zucchini Salad:

1. Zucchini or zucchini – 400 g.
2. Mint – 1 bunch.
3. Red pepper – ¾ tsp.
4. Salt – 1 pinch.
5. Olive oil – 1 tbsp. l.
6. Lemon – 1 pc.

Grate the zucchini on a coarse grater. Finely chop the mint. Place them in a cup, add salt and pepper, season with oil and lemon juice, mix well. The crispy salad is ready.

Ilya Lazerson, Russian chef, host of radio and television programs, author of cookbooks

Rassolnik:

1. Beef meat on the bone.
2. Chicken giblets.
3. Onions, carrots, celery.
4. Potato.
5. Salted cucumbers.
6. Pearl barley.
7. Vegetable oil.
8. Lemon.

Pour water over the beef, add onions, carrots, and celery. Separately cook chicken giblets and pearl barley. Once the beef is cooked, remove it from the broth. Throw diced potatoes into it. Finely chop the pickled cucumbers or grate them on a coarse grater. Simmer in a frying pan with chopped onions and grated carrots.

Cut the finished giblets into slices and add to the soup, then add pearl barley and salt. After the potatoes are ready, add the frying. Acidify the pickle with lemon juice to taste. Add a bay leaf and a few black peppercorns. Boil a little. Lunch is ready.

Why do you need food during the day?

Whether or not to dine is a personal matter. But eating during the day is:

1. The body receives the necessary substances for energy production.
2. Reduce the risk of overeating at dinner.
3. Stable metabolic rate.
4. Feeling good.
5. Slender body.
6. Getting the necessary vitamins and amino acids for the day. Insulin levels are normalized.

The body perceives long breaks between meals as a hunger strike, so it intensively begins to store fat from any food. Even if it's a leaf of lettuce.

Be sure to look: Options for a healthy dinner What is a healthy breakfast Rules and recipes for the menu with proper nutrition Rules for compiling and a sample menu for the week as part of proper nutrition

Why is he so important?

Lunch for the human body, like breakfast, is an important part of the diet, because accelerated metabolism occurs from noon to three o’clock.

At this time, it is possible and necessary to eat more high-calorie dishes, but they are definitely healthy for the human body. There are principles of proper nutrition at lunch.

It is necessary to select a menu in advance so that the food is healthy and healthy:

1. It is forbidden to skip lunch, because prolonged fasting after breakfast can provoke overeating in the evening. There should not be a gap of more than 4 hours from breakfast to lunch.
2. Lunch should be the main thing, not breakfast. Lunch should contain everything: proteins, fats and carbohydrates and make up 40% of the daily diet.
3. Rare meals lead to disruption of metabolic processes, it is better to eat more often, but little by little.
4. Long breaks in eating signal the body about the need to store fat in reserve.
5. If you attend training, energy expenditure increases and the body requires replenishment in the form of tasty and healthy food.

We must not forget that fried foods are a taboo when eating properly, especially if you want to lose weight. Food must be boiled, baked or steamed.

General recommendations: when and how to eat

If you sweep everything off the table for lunch, nothing good will happen. You immediately begin to feel drowsy, concentration and attention decrease, and the desire to do anything disappears. You need to have lunch properly to stay full and alert.

General recommendations:

1. Eat at the same hours. The best time for lunch is 12:00-15:00. During this period, the digestive system works well, so even relatively dense food is easier and faster to digest.
2. Make wise choices when dining out. In catering establishments, the menu almost always includes fresh vegetable salads and soups. You can eat up to 300 g of them. For the second course, it is better to choose fish or meat, but only 100 g. If the menu only includes business lunches, then you can order the first and second courses in half portions or refuse a side dish.
3. Reduce the calorie content of the first course. The soup should not be such that the spoon stands up. If you add a minimum of fat, potatoes and pasta, the taste of the dish will not change much, but the calorie content will be significantly reduced. It is better to cook with lean meat and lean fish. It is better to give preference to pureed soups with vegetables or with cereals, such as quinoa, pearl barley, and lentils.
4. Drink liquid before meals. Lunch should start with a glass of water, about 20 minutes before. This will fill your stomach and reduce the amount of food you eat. A large portion of fresh vegetable salad has the same effect.
5. Protein food for second. An excellent option is meat and fish, but not fried, but baked, steamed or stewed. It is better to use stewed vegetables and cereals as a side dish.

The calorie content of lunch should be 35-40% of the daily value. You need to eat slowly, chewing your food thoroughly. Eating dessert for lunch or drinking sugary drinks with food is not recommended. It's better to leave them for afternoon tea.

Lunches with a drinking diet

A drinking diet helps you get rid of 2-3 kg in 3-4 days without harm to your health. Its essence is in the consumption of liquid foods. Puree smoothies are easier to digest and reduce the load on the gastrointestinal tract. The type of food is healthy. The diet includes five meals a day, including lunch.

The choice of dishes is varied:

• pureed vegetable soups and borscht;
• poultry and fish broths;
• mono- and polycomponent vegetable purees;
• milk soups;
• vegetable, berry, fruit smoothies;
• jelly, compotes.

Recipes for liquid lunches with proper nutrition:

1. Tomato soup. Tomatoes are passed through a meat grinder. Onions and bell peppers are chopped, fried, and added to the tomatoes. Pour into a saucepan and add water at a ratio of 1:1. After boiling, add finely chopped potatoes to the vegetables. The finished soup is blended and salted to taste.
2. Milk-berry smoothie. Beat raspberries, currants, strawberries in a blender. Add yogurt, half tsp. honey, stir.

Eating lunch is part of a healthy diet. The daily meal should provide the body with enough nutrients, but not overload it.

Most frequently asked questions about products

For lunch, you can eat rolls and sushi (except fried ones) without getting carried away with them, since they contain white rice, which is not recommended for consumption by the system; jellied meat (removing fat); kebab (marinated in a small amount of vinegar, or even better in kefir or pomegranate juice); canned fish only in its own juice.

All permitted cereals cannot be cooked in milk, because sweet or unsweetened cereals cooked in milk can contribute to weight gain. If you have normal digestion, allow yourself this breakfast. If you don’t take my word for it, consult a nutritionist or test it for yourself, only then, don’t ask the questions “Why am I not losing weight?” You can boil the cereal in water, then add milk.

The optimal fat content of dairy products is 5–6%. But if, for example, you stuff a breast with 9% cottage cheese, then this is also not scary, since the quantity is small.

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