What Is the 1300 Calorie Meal Plan?

The aim of 1300 calorie meal plan obviously is to help a person lose weight. The body needs a certain amount of calories just to exist, even if that existence does not involve moving.

The average person of average weight who has a moderately active day needs in the region of about 1800 to 2000 calories per day just to maintain the body weight that they have.

1300-Calorie-Meal-Plan

Take a look at this calorie calculator if you want to know how many calories you need to consume in a day to simply maintain the body weight you have, based on your height, weight and age, as well as your daily activities.

So what the 1300 calorie meal plan does is, it cuts out that significant 500 or so calories from the typical daily requirement, and this makes it easier for person to shed pounds.

Cutting out 500 calories could be as simple as not having the gooey chocolate cake at the end of a meal or substituting a big Mac and fries with a salad for a meal.

The aim of such a restricted calorie plan is to offer the individual meals that are low in calorie but high in nutrition so that a person gets all the requisite nutrition while at the same time losing weight. The rule of thumb with such as diet is to cover half your plate with fresh produce, and leafy greens, watching portion sizes of fats, carbs and proteins.

It is recommended that a 1300 cal meal plan should have three meals and a couple of snacks sandwiched between the major meals. A sample recommended 1300 calorie meal plan for the day could be something like this –

  • Breakfast can be about 300 calories, with a bagel, I tablespoon or about 15 grams of low fat cream cheese and one cup of fresh orange juice.
  • Mid morning snack could consist of about 200 calories with a 6 oz serving of low fat yoghurt and a cup of strawberries.
  • Lunch should be about 350 calories and could consist of a 2 oz hamburger which is 95% lean meat (grilled or boiled), I bun, a tbsp of ketchup, half a sliced tomato, half a green pepper and a cup ofskim milk.
  • If you plan to have a late afternoon snack as part of your 1300 cal meal plan, you could cut something out of dinner (about 450 calories) and have this earlier to sustain you till dinner time.
  • Dinner can be a cup of cooked pasta with 1 tsp olive oil and 2 oz of boiled shrimp, a mixed green salad, 1 tsp fat free dressing and half a cup of cooked green beans along with a slice of Italian bread.

While following a 1300 calorie meal plan it is important not to restrict calories very severely – going below 1200 calories for women and lower than 1800 calories for men is not recommended. TheAmerican College of Sports Medicine warns against such very low-calorie diets or fasting.