Keeping track of calories can only help your weight-loss efforts, but calculating them sometimes becomes an inconvenience. Having an array of go-to meals with set calorie amounts that you can easily plug into your daily menus can streamline your diet plan, especially if you're too busy to cook every meal from scratch. On a 1,200-calorie daily plan, three 400-calorie meals cover your total calorie intake. Exchange plans can help coordinate your menus.
Breakfast
A 400-calorie breakfast leaves you plenty of room for a substantial meal as long as you eschew calorie-dense breakfasts like doughnuts and syrup-drenched pancakes that taste more like dessert than breakfast. Egg dishes form the foundation for a number of low-calorie breakfast options, especially if you prepare them from egg whites instead of whole eggs. An omelet with one whole egg and two egg whites has under 100 calories if you prepare it without oil. Add spinach, asparagus or roasted peppers to the dish and you'll boost the meal's nutritional value with fiber and vitamins without adding appreciably to calories. A slice of cheese on the omelet adds 100 calories, but also contributes calcium and protein. Pair the omelet with a bowl of high-fiber cereal topped with fruit and skim milk for an additional 200 calories to make a hearty 400-calorie breakfast.
Another possibility is a homemade variation on a fast food favorite. Top a whole-wheat English muffin with an egg, a slice of cheese, lean ham and a slice of tomato for 325 calories; serve fruit on the side to bring the meal to 400 healthy calories.
Lunch
If you take your lunch to work or school, you'll need something portable. Sandwiches are a lunch mainstay because they travel well, but the typical sandwich contains hundreds of extra calories in the form of oily spreads and oversized bread. Swap thick slices of white bread for pita bread, thin 100-calorie sandwich rounds or tortilla-like wraps. Fill your sandwich with vegetables; lettuce and tomato are a good start, but branching out to bell peppers, artichoke hearts, asparagus spears or mushrooms adds variety to your lunch. Stick to lean meats and poultry, choosing low-sodium deli options when you can. Switch to mustard, vinaigrette dressing or hummus in place of calorie-laden mayonnaise.
Instead of blanketing a sandwich with a thick layer of mild cheese, select a sharper variety and use less of it. Grating cheese lets you distribute it more evenly over the sandwich so you use less. A 100-calorie wrap stuffed with lean chicken, spinach, red onions and avocado slices totals about 250 calories depending on how large you make it. That leaves 150 calories to spend on a bowl of vegetable soup to round out your lunch.
Dinner
You may be used to a heavier dinner, but 400 calories still gives you plenty of leeway with the evening meal. Low-fat proteins such as skinless poultry, white fish, pork or lean beef provide between 150 and 200 calories per 4-ounce serving. A medium baked potato or sweet potato has about 150 to 160 calories depending on its size. Fill the remainder of your plate with non-starchy vegetables that you've steamed or cooked in stock to keep fat content low and you'll fit within the 400-calorie guidelines you've set for your meal.
Snacks
Depending on your schedule and calorie budget, you might also incorporate snacks throughout the day. Think of them in 100-calorie portions and you'll easily be able to swap them out to get a varied diet while meeting your calorie needs. A handful of nuts, a large piece of fruit, half a cantaloupe or a stick of string cheese all contain about 100 calories. If you prefer heartier snacks, choose a couple of 200-calorie options to equal your 400-calorie portion. Possibilities include a serving of flavored non-fat yogurt topped with granola or vegetable sticks dipped in 3 tablespoons of protein-rich hummus.
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