Amount Of Calories In Food Items

The calories you eat should be spaced out over the day. Traditionally people enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner, but if you're trying to lose weight you might find it beneficial to have five smaller meals. If you're a woman aiming to maintain your weight, shoot for 2,000 calories a day; men should aim for 2,500 calories. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories.

Breakfast

Have a filling breakfast with a variety of parts. A bowl of cornflakes with lowfat milk has 145 calories; add a banana for 85 more calories. Oatmeal is an excellent start to the day at 166 calories per serving; try some dried fruit sprinkled on top to boost your fruit intake for the day. Pancakes and maple syrup contain around 230 calories per serving of two pancakes.

Lunch

Keep your lunch nutritionally balanced yet delicious with a freshly made sandwich; a few slices of chicken between brown bread with some lettuce, tomato and onion comes in at around 250 calories. Salads and soups make tasty filling lunches when you're on the go, but avoid creamy dressings such as Caesar. And stay away from fast food: A large McDonald's Big Mac meal has 1,350 calories, and a large Burger King Whopper meal has 1,590.

Dinner

A 6-ounce steak and a baked potato and broccoli has 600 calories, and chicken fajitas have around 450. But again, fast food can be a bad calorie choice. A Domino's Deluxe meat pizza has 260 calories per medium slice, and six buffalo wings have about 430.

Snacks

If you're trying to keep your calorie intake low, opt for fruit and vegetables as a snack. A large pear contains 121 calories, honeydew melon has 90 a quarter slice, and apples have 85 each. At the other end of the scale, a Hershey's milk chocolate bar has 210 calories, Jelly Belly sweets have 100 calories per 25 beans, and a packet of Swedish fish has 300.

Losing Weight

To lose a pound a week, you need to eat 500 calories less a day, or create a 500-calorie deficit through some combination of diet and exercise. Knowing how many calories are in your favorite foods means you can tailor your diet to your health goals.