1300 Calorie Low-Fat Diet

To lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. A 1,300-calorie diet is a low-calorie diet that can help most adults lose weight. Fat is a concentrated source of calories and limiting your intake on a low-calorie diet can help you save calories, while allowing you to include more nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods in your meal plan.

Diet Guidelines

When following a calorie-controlled, low-fat diet, you need to know what foods to choose to help you stay within your calorie limits and still meet your nutrient needs. The Exchange Diet is a low-fat diet guide originally designed for people with diabetes, but it can help anyone make healthy food choices on a low-fat diet. The exchange diet divides foods into basic food groups including starches, fruits, milk, meat, vegetables and fats. On your diet plan, you can eat a certain number of servings of food from each of the food groups. A serving of food in each group contains about the same amount of calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates, allowing you to "exchange" items within each group when meal planning. A 1,300-calorie low-fat diet would include two milk exchanges, four vegetable exchanges, three fruit exchanges, five starch exchanges, five meat exchanges and three fat exchanges.

Choosing Low-Fat Foods

Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat as long as they are consumed without added sauces or fat. When selecting starches, read food labels and look for items with less than 3 g of fat per serving. Meat choices should be lean such as skinless white-meat poultry, beef eye of round, pork tenderloin, fish, egg whites and low-fat cheese. Milk choices should be low-fat, with less than 3 g of fat per serving, or fat-free.

Breakfast

A sample breakfast meal on your low-calorie, low-fat diet may include one slice of toasted whole wheat bread with 1 1/2 tsp. of peanut butter, a 6 oz. container of nonfat, sugar-free yogurt and a small banana. This breakfast contains 285 calories and 5 g of fat.

Lunch

For lunch, try a turkey sandwich made with 2 oz. of 95 percent fat-free deli turkey meat on two slices of whole-grain rye bread with lettuce, tomato and mustard, 2 cups of mixed greens with 1 tbsp. of low-fat salad dressing and 1/2 cup of unsweetened canned fruit. This meal contains 395 calories and 11 g of fat. Low-energy-dense vegetables add bulk to your meal, helping to fill you up and control your appetite.

Dinner

For dinner, try 3 oz. of broiled haddock with 2/3 cup of cooked brown rice, 1 cup of green beans sauteed in 1 tsp. of olive oil and 1 1/4 cups of fresh strawberries with 1 tbsp. of fat-free whipped topping. This meal contains 450 calories and 14 g of fat.

Snack

Making snacks a part of your diet plan can help you control hunger. A healthy snack idea for your low-calorie, low-fat diet may include 17 small grapes with 1 cup of nonfat milk for 160 calories and 0 g of fat.