Wonder what 300 calories looks like? 300 calories look drastically different when you're eating in instead of dining out. Choosing healthier, more nutritious foods--at home and away--means you can eat much more food and still lose weight. Check out these 18 meal comparisons to see for yourself, then forward this post to your friends! Breakfast: 300-Calorie Meals & Portions Here are three morning meals that each weigh in at 300 calories. Healthy and quick homemade meals (left column) pack whole grains, fresh fruit, and protein--a filling combination that will keep you fuller longer. You could only eat a fraction of the comparable restaurant meals (right column) for the same number of calories. Get more healthy breakfast ideas here.    Lunch: 350-Calorie Meals & Portions These midday meals contain 350 calories each--the perfect amount to keep you going without wrecking your diet. Packing one of the homemade lunches on the left doesn't take long, and look at all those low- cal and filling veggies you'll get! Notice how seemingly healthy options like the restaurant foods on the right can be very misleading! Those 350-calorie portions are pretty small. Pack a healthier lunch with these tips.    Dinner: 400-Calorie Meals & Portions Many people consume a larger meal at night, so we picked 400-calorie dinners here. By combining whole grains with lean protein and vegetables, these homemade dinners (left column) are a snap to prepare--and they'll keep the late-night munchies at bay! In contrast, the high-fat and high-calorie meals on the right don't offer much in the way of nutrition or volume. Get thousands of healthy dinner ideas at SparkRecipes.com!    The bottom line is that you can eat more and lose weight when you know how to pick the right foods and the right portions. Use the images and portions above as a guide to create your own healthy, diet-friendly and nutritious meals every day! Are you surprised by how much (or little) you can eat for the calories, depending on which foods you choose? Which meal was most shocking to you?  You will earn 5 SparkPoints
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Comments
For example, instead of comparing a Starbucks blueberry muffin to a processed bagel, how about comparing their oatmeal with all the toppings to a homemade version, or one of their breakfast sandwiches or wraps to a homemade version. Report
I think I would be out of energy if I only ate 1050 calories in a day, even if I only ate broccoli (which would be 35 cups of broccoli, but not a lot of calories to provide energy). Report
That pizza looks (in my eyes) not as something that should even be called a pizza, I don't know what it should be named but pizza's are supposed to be thin, with a sprinkling of cheese and as an appetizer, not as a meal in itself... Report
But there are many ways to improve the "healthy" versions. No need for special diet stuff. A big slice of dense multigrain bread won't be more of a calorie hit than two "light bread" slices unless the latter is all cellulose (as they sound...). 3 tbsp of "nonfat cream cheese" (isn't that a contradiction in terms?!?) is a lot of spread. Just half an ounce of real cream cheese can cover a huge real bagel (both halves) so it would seem luxurious on a dinky low calorie one (Kraft cream cheese is 35 calories per half ounce). Also veggie burgers and veggie sausage usually have grain in them, so I often don't feel the need for a bun (leaves room for more food) and just eat bread by itself when the mood strikes. Or often it tastes even better with just one slice, as an open-face sandwich- the taste of the filling doesn't get overwhelmed that way. Without the bread or bun, you can have two veggie burgers or patties. Any sandwich filling can be eaten alone with a pile of more veggies unless you're really craving the bread (real bread, though). If I eat frozen prepared food, I just divide the package into reasonable portions for me (often putting half away for another time). For instance, Morningstar Farms now has a couple of tasty 380 cal "pizzas" based on beans and whole wheat (without allergenic egg white) that can be the basis for two meals if I divide in two. Any frozen pizza or pizzaria pizza can also be cut into whatever portions you like and the slices frozen - the sliver of pizza shown on the right here is a very unusual amount of calories for its size, the vast majority of pizzas don't work that way. Report
The foods from restaurants seem to be the fattiest thing you can find on the menu rather than something comparable to what they are showing for the cook at home.
The pictures are also completely different. The at home food is prepped for a camera. The restaurant food is just plopped on a plate.
Finally, several of the at home options are Lean Cusine! The sodium alone in those should be disclosed, and they taste like cardboard.
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Very effective to see the difference on a plate! Report