No argue that smart eating is about Quantity and Quality of foods eaten; but for most of us it isn't that simple; since knowing what to put in your meals while maintaining your caloric limit can be tricky sometimes. Here we’ll show a hint on how you can arrange 1800 calories in a day to reach your fitness goals.
Now keep in mind that this is only a sample menu; meaning your daily calories may differ from 1800 kcal to cover you needs, and you also might not like every single food in this menu, that’s why we’ll show you how you can replace those with other food options that you prefer.
If you wanted to know your daily caloric needs, use actual metabolism calculator.
1800 kcal sample menu
In this Example we chose to distribute these 1800 kcal on macro-nutrients as follows:
- 50% carbohydrates
- 25% protein
- 25% fats
Of course you can manipulate this distribution to better meet your preference and fitness goals, but keep them within USDA recommendations for healthy macro nutrients intake which is 45-65% carbohydrates, 10-30% protein and 20-35 % fats.
Here it is…
Breakfast
- Skimmed milk (1 cup 240ml), 100 kcal
- Oatmeal (1/2 cup), 80 kcal
- Banana (1 small to medium), 60 kcal
Snack 1
- Toast bread (1 slice), 80 kcal
- Peanut butter (1 table spoon), 100 kcal
Lunch
- Rice, brown if possible (1 cup=about 10 table spoons), 240 kcal
- Cooked not-starchy vegetables, i.e. doesn’t including potatoes, corn or peas (1 cup), 50 kcal
- Chicken breast, skinless (90 g chicken piece), 105 kcal
Snack 2
- Raisins (2 table spoons), 60 kcal
- Soy nuts (45 g), 260 kcal
Dinner
- Brown pita bread (1/2 small loaf), 80 kcal
- White cheese (2 pieces, each piece 30 g), 150 kcal
- Tomato and cucumber salad without oil (1 cup), 25 kcal
- Yogurt, skimmed or low fat (2/3 cup 240 ml), 150 kcal
Snack 3
- Cocked chickpeas with cumin and dash of salt (1cup), 110 kcal
Ok, now how can you replace some of these foods, but keep the same total consumed calories?
The answer lies in YOU getting familiar with exchange lists. In those; foods are categorized according to their nutrient content, which enables you from substituting foods that you don’t want with others that have almost the same nutrient profile from the same food list in this link.
For example: oatmeal belongs to the starch list, so you can substitute it with another food on that same list, like ¾ cup cornflakes or slice of toast bread, and so on.
You can also get customized dynamic nutrition and workout plan from TransformMe service.