This post is going to discuss some of the best and simple meals under 200 calories. These meals are too good to have a healthy diet as well as lose weight by burning the calories easily with low-calorie lunch ideas under 200 calories or dinner recipes.
Also, try out other meal recipes from the blog such as healthy meal prep ideas, low carb high protein meals, detox water recipes to name a few as well as many other recipes related to losing fat.
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What is a calorie?
A calorie is a unit of energy that is measured with respect to the foods a person eats or drink in a day to day life.
Calories in food are necessary as they give us energy to perform our daily activities and these calories are available in all kinds of foods, fruits, meats, veggies etc…
In simple words, a calorie is the measurement of food as similar to the measurement of a quantity is done in gms, kilograms or as the liquid is measured in litres or ounces etc…
The food we eat consists of carbohydrates, fats and proteins mainly and energy is released by these macronutrients inside our body.
Therefore, the question is how much of calories are present in each of these macronutrients? The answer is one gram of carbs and proteins contain 4 calories each and fats contain 9 calories in each gram of fat.
Why do we need 200 calorie meals?
In the foods we eat, there are high-calorie foods and low-calorie foods and some of them produce high energy that has a high amount of calorie value. I
If we eat high-calorie foods, our body absorbs or burn some of those calories and the rest of them as stored as fats and cause weight gain issues.
If we do lots of physical activities eating more calories and burning them is a good idea but if we do not indulge in physical activities calories do not burn. At work, we may just sit at one place after having high-calorie foods and not letting them burn. This can lead to weight gain issues.
Therefore, we need foods that consist of fewer calories so that the body can burn them easily and not store them as fats. These kinds of low-calorie meals are often searched when one looks forward to losing some extra pounds.
Therefore, check out some of the recipes mentioned which I am compiling after researching from various resources.
Note: The recipes mentioned here can be exactly 200 calories or under 200 calories and are good for low-calorie meals to try. I will try to share low-calorie lunch ideas under 200 cal or dinner ideas under 200 calories below in general.
Check out some more weight loss recipes and drinks to help cut down fat namely cumin water, apple cider vinegar and lemons, apple cider vinegar and honey, coffee for weight loss, nighttime smoothie etc…
Benefits of low calorie foods
Low-Calorie foods and low-calorie diets help in weight loss to a large extent. They keep weight in control without gaining excess weight.
Low-calorie meals help in burning the calories easily and the reason is our body burns fewer calories than the number of calories we intake per day.
Therefore, low-calorie diets help in burning all the calories and not giving space to store the rest of the unburnt calories.
It also helps in keeping the sugar levels under control and also keeps us away from cholesterol issues and heart problems.
Check out the recipes below
All the recipes shared below are for 1 serving or 2 maximum.
1. Egg salad
A mix of boiled eggs and veggies is a good choice of low-calorie meal for lunch, snack or dinner.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cucumber
- 1 tomato
Directions:
- Boil two eggs and peel them. Cut the tomatoes into thin round slices as well as cut the cucumbers into round slices.
- Place the eggs, sliced tomatoes and sliced cucumbers on a plate.
- Serve the eggs and salad by seasoning with salt and pepper. This is a below 200 cal egg recipe.
2. Egg white Omelette
Another egg recipe that is spread like a pancake by mixing veggies to the egg whites makes it a good breakfast or a snack recipe for meals under 200 calories.
Ingredients
- ¼ onion, finely chopped
- ¼ tomato, rougly chopped
- ½ bell peppers(red, yellow, green), chopped
- 2 egg whites
- 3-4 spinach leaves, chopped
Directions:
- Take a mixing bowl, add the veggies into the bowl, add salt and pepper as per taste, add the egg whites, mix them well.
- Take a pan and heat it well, spray the cooking oil, pour the egg white mixture and spread well. cook each side well and serve hot. This is another below 200 cal egg recipe.
3. Strawberry Smoothie
A quick smoothie made using simple fruits and milk.
Ingredients
- 6-7 strawberries
- 1 banana, peeled
- 1 cup, whole milk
- low-calorie sugar
Directions:
- Blend all the ingredients for a few minutes and serve chilled. Add some ice if required.
- Can also substitute milk with greek yogurt to lessen the calories even more.
4. Baked chicken breast
A breast section of the chicken is totally lean and is a healthy way of having meals with a healthy salad of lettuce, tomatoes, steamed broccoli etc…
Ingredients
- 150 gms chicken breast
- salt and pepper seasoning
- 1 teaspoon, soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon, olive oil
Directions:
- Season the chicken breast with salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes at 180 F or grill the chicken until it cooks well.
- Serve the chicken grilled or baked for a lunch meal or dinner meal.
5. Yoghurt meal
- Take a cup of greek yoghurt, add 1 cup of chopped fruits such as strawberries and a banana to it, mix and have as a snack meal.
Check out some recipes below…
6. Baked potato
Baking a potato has good calories as it is rich in carbs and give fill the stomach without the need for additional dishes for snack or dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 large size potato
- salt and pepper seasoning
- shredded cheese ¼ cup
Directions
- Bake the potato in the oven at 400F for about half an hour and peel it.
- Be careful as it can burn the hands. Let the potato cool down before peeling. Mash the potato, season it with salt and pepper and add some grated cheese all over. This is a perfect meal for meals under 200 calories.
7. Shrimp salad
A salad with a mix of shrimp and veggies makes it a healthy low-calorie meal for lunch.
Ingredients
- 200 gms prawns
- ½ medium bell peppers each (yellow and red), julienned
- 25 gms baby green beans, blanched after chopping off the head and tail.
- 50 gms lettuce, leaves taken off
- 3-4 cheery tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon lemon extract
- ¼ onions, sliced
Directions:
- Take a pan, spray olive oil and saute the prawns well. Remove the prawns after sauteing. Add the onions, tomatoes, julienned bell peppers, saute slightly.
- Add the sauteed shrimp, saute few seconds.
- Take a bowl or a plate, place the lettuce leaves, spread the shrimp and veggie mixture, add lemon extract all over and serve hot with blanched green beans.
- Can divide into two servings as each serving remains under 200 calories.
7. Healthy Vegetable chow mein
A meal with a mix of noodles and veggies is a complete low-calorie meal for lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
- 250 gms noodles (boiled or straight to wok noodles)
- ½ red bell pepper, julienned
- ½ yellow bell pepper, julienned
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- ¼ onion, sliced
- 1 large carrot, peel and slice
- a tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- a tablespoon of rice vinegar
Directions
- Take a pan, add olive and head it, add the minced garlic and saute a few seconds, add broccoli, bell peppers, onions, carrots and saute for a minute.
- Add the ready to eat noodles, add the sauces that are soy sauce, vinegar, oyster sauce, mix and fry everything for at least 2 minutes.
- Serve hot with lemon wedges.
8. Vegetable Soup
A soup with vegetables makes it a healthy recipe and under 200 calories.
Ingredients
- 1 carrot, chopped
- ½ cup green beans
- ¼ cup corn
- ¼ cup broccoli
- ½ potato, peeled and diced
- ⅓ onion, chopped
- 1 celery, cut into pieces
- ¼ cup shredded cabbage
- ¼ cup green peas
- salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder
- 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
- 3 cups water
Directions
- Take a wok or a sauce pan, add all the veggies and pour water.
- Let the veggies boil well in water.
- Add seasoning such as salt and water.
- Also, add cilantro leaves and spring onions for garnishing.
- Serve hot in a bowl.
9. Fruit Salad
Chop favourite foods such as strawberries, oranges, mangoes, kiwi, apples, bananas into small pieces.
Serve them in a bowl with favourite seasonings such as pepper or any favourite dressing and serve as a healthy snack replacement under 200 calories.
10. Other simple low calorie meal ideas
- Check for chocolates with low calories written on it and have them as snacks.
- Try to make healthy egg recipes such as omelettes, muffins etc and also, use lean meats to make meals with fewer calories.
- Shrimp is good source of low calorie meal prep.
- Fruits and veggies too have fewer calories and make use of them to make meals.
- Other under 200 calorie foods are roastes chickpeas, healthy soups, salads, brown rice, black beans, quinoa, stews, healthy wraps, healthy smoothies all make good meal ideas.
- While making meals using abouve foods just try to divide the meals into 2 or 3 servings and this reduces the calorie value per serving.
11. Egg White Scramble
Using plain egg whites from the egg makes a good breakfast recipe. A quick 2-minute breakfast to eat as a bread sandwich or spread it on whole-wheat bread.
The recipe just requires pouring the egg white mixture into a pan, cooking well with some seasoning and scrambling well. Best when served with a toast or salad. Check out the recipe for scrambled egg whites on my blog.
Recipe
meals under 200 calories for lunch and dinner
Quick low-calorie meals for a healthy diet.
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Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 100 gms shrimp/prawns
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup brown rice
- ¼ onion, sliced
- ¼ broccoli, baked or steamed
- 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
Instructions
-
Cook brown rice separately by adding 1.5 cups of water and pinch of salt to 1 cup of brown rice.
-
In a separate pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and heat it.
-
add onions and saute few seconds.
-
Add the prawns and saute them until they cook well.
-
Add salt, paprika, tomato paste, mix and saute well.
-
Add cooked brown rice to the prawns mixture.
-
Mix the meal with broccoli or have broccoli separately.
-
Add sriracha sauce and serve hot for lunch or dinner.
Notes
- Replacing brown rice with quinoa too is a good meal replacement idea.
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
meals under 200 calories for lunch and dinner
Amount Per Serving
Calories 197
Calories from Fat 27
% Daily Value*
Fat 3g5%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 2g
Sodium 237mg10%
Potassium 219mg6%
Carbohydrates 38g13%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 152IU3%
Vitamin C 7mg8%
Calcium 19mg2%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Faq’s
Foods such as egg whites, lean meats such as shrimp, salmon, chicken breast, fruits such as apples, broccoli and a small portion of quinoa or brown rice, salads of vegetables or fruits give fewer calories.
Sweet potatoes, fruits such as apples watermelon, or any fruit, seeds, chickpeas, beans, lean meats etc… all have fewer calories.
Source: Yummy Indian Kitchen – Indian and International Recipes
