What to eat for dinner if you're eating right?

Why you need to have dinner

The statement that it is necessary to have dinner strictly before 18:00 in the evening has long lost its relevance. This only applies to people who are early risers, who wake up early and go to bed no later than 21.00. Others can adhere to this principle - have dinner 3-4 hours before going to bed. Thus, if you are used to falling asleep at 12 o'clock at night, you can safely have a meal at 8 or even 9 pm. In the allotted 3 hours before bedtime, food will have time to be digested, and extra pounds on the waist and hips will not make themselves felt.

French nutritionists have proven that skipping dinner when the gap between meals is 12 hours or more is harmful to health. This approach will not help you lose weight, much less maintain activity and good health. For proper functioning, the body needs glucose, which is wasted at a rate of 6 g per hour. If the body does not receive food for a long time, it begins to use up internal reserves. You shouldn’t flatter yourself with hopes that fat deposits will be the first to “go to work.” First, proteins found in muscles, bones and blood will begin to be used. And only then carbohydrates and fats will be consumed.

Therefore, fasting will primarily affect the state of the musculoskeletal system. Bones will become brittle, teeth will deteriorate, and muscles will be unable to withstand physical activity. This is especially true for those who like to do fitness after work. Training leads to increased energy consumption, so evening fasting will only contribute to exhaustion of the body.

What else is a good dinner good for:

• serves as an excellent antidepressant, calms the nerves and promotes sound sleep;
• helps to avoid hypovitaminosis and mineral deficiency;
• strengthens the immune system and serves as a prevention of gastrointestinal diseases.

But the most important thing is that in the evening you can not rush anywhere, but eat food slowly, chewing thoroughly. Many people know that thorough chewing promotes rapid satiety, which means hunger can be satisfied faster and with less food.

Important! The break between daily meals should be about 4 hours. The optimal interval between the evening and morning meals is 10 hours.

Option two. Requires blanks

Preparations are not canned food. These are pre-cooked or baked poultry, meat, and fish. These are already cooked vegetables (beets, for example), cereals and beans. Make the most of your kitchen gadgets – steamer, multicooker. Let them do the work while you're busy at work - even if you're working from home.

Salad. Maximum benefit at minimum cost

An old saying says that a real woman can make three things out of nothing - a scandal, a hairstyle and a salad. Let's put the first two aside and learn how to assemble a salad from what we have. For example, iceberg lettuce, chicken breast and a sauce of yogurt and mustard grains, sprinkled with low-fat cheese - it’s practically a Caesar without the croutons. A mixture of lettuce leaves can be the basis for at least three very different but tasty options:

• a mixture of lettuce leaves, diced beets and crumbled cheese or feta cheese; you can sprinkle with pine nuts;
• mixed lettuce, green lentils, feta, cherry tomatoes;
• a mixture of lettuce leaves, red or white beans, sliced ​​chicken breast, a sauce of yogurt, lemon juice, chopped parsley and garlic.

Flatbread with filling. Always helps out

This is a favorite option for teenage children, which is a great way to hide less-than-favorite vegetables and herbs. We take thin pita bread or Mexican tortilla. Pita will do too. We make the filling from ready-made chopped poultry or meat, tomatoes, sweet peppers, herbs, and add a little grated cheese. Wrap it in a flatbread, heat it in a dry frying pan or heat it in the microwave.

Soup. Nourishing, tasty and healthy

If there are blanks, then there are more options. For example, thick bean soup. Prepared according to the lentil soup recipe. Just take already cooked beans. You can combine red and white beans and add a couple of dried prunes for some piquancy.

I have already talked about two options for fish soup in the article “Strategic Reserves” (link).

Hot dish. Family classic

If you have ready-made cereals (rice, buckwheat, bulgur), then we use it as a side dish for steak, meat, poultry, and fish. We assemble dinner according to the “plate model”: fill half with chopped fresh vegetables, a quarter with a side dish, and a quarter with steak.

As you can see, everything is not so complicated. A little imagination, training in planning skills, and delegation of authority to kitchen appliances will provide healthy and tasty dinners for the whole family. There is another level - these are homemade semi-faricates, which can be successfully stored in the freezer for up to an hour. I will definitely tell you about them later. Follow the publications “Food and Figure”.

What should dinner be like?

A proper dinner for weight loss and good health should be based on two principles - moderation and easy digestibility of dishes. According to nutritionists, the evening meal should account for no more than 20-25% of the daily calorie intake. You can focus on the average serving size or the average energy value of dishes. The evening portion size intended for a man should be approximately 350 g; women should reduce it by 100 g.

It is better to leave fatty meat or fatty fish for lunch, but you should not dine on fermented milk products alone. Proteins play a leading role in the evening meal - they are easily digested and do not cause heaviness in the stomach. The amino acids that make up protein serve as basic building materials for all tissues and have a beneficial effect on the condition of muscles, bones, skin, hair and teeth.

A wide variety of vegetables will be a good “companion” for proteins. They combine perfectly not only in organoleptic, but also in chemical properties. It should be taken into account that the volume of vegetables should be twice as much as protein.

If you cannot withstand a long three-hour period before going to bed, a healthy dinner can be divided into two meals - first eat the main course, and after a couple of hours drink a glass of fermented baked milk or kefir.

Eating dinner in front of the TV or computer monitor is a bad habit. Watching movies and shows distracts you from eating, and as a result, you risk overeating, food will take longer to digest, and it will be more difficult to fall asleep. Scientists have found out an interesting fact - they claim that slow lyrical music will be an excellent accompaniment for an evening meal. But when listening to rhythmic dance tunes, people tend to consume more food.

Important! The energy value of dinner should not exceed 400 kilocalories. Those who want to lose weight should reduce this figure to 300 kcal.

Authorized Products

When preparing dinner, you should focus on healthy foods and dishes that help calm the nervous system and help you go to sleep peacefully.

Proper nutritional dishes suitable for evening meals are:

• boiled lean meat (rabbit, turkey, chicken, beef are suitable);
• eggs;
• kefir, curdled milk, white yogurt, cottage cheese;
• lean fish (cod, flounder, tuna, trout, pink salmon, perch);
• seafood (shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels);
• fresh vegetables;
• berries and unsweetened fruits;
• greenery;
• porridge;
• vegetable oils;
• warm milk (only separately from any other products).

Worth knowing! In the absence of contraindications, a dinner based on the rules of proper nutrition can be seasoned with spices and herbs. Have a beneficial effect on metabolic processes and stimulate weight loss: ginger, garlic, mustard, horseradish, cardamom.

In the evening, it is preferable to consume large amounts of proteins, as they are responsible for renewing old cells and creating new ones without turning into fat. Protein foods take a long time to digest, providing a long-lasting feeling of fullness and allowing you to reduce the calorie content of your dinner.

Often, changing your diet is not associated with the goal of losing weight, but, on the contrary, with the need to gain weight; you can read more about this in the article “How to quickly gain weight for a girl at home.”

Red meat takes a very long time to digest due to its high content of connective tissue, so it is recommended to eat quickly digestible animal products for dinner: eggs, white meat, fish and seafood.

What to eat for dinner

The evening meal should include foods that contain a good portion of vitamins, as well as substances that promote rapid recovery after a hard day of work. It is worth including in a healthy diet dishes that provide restful sleep, and also take part in the synthesis of hormones and new cells. This simple reminder will help you decide what to eat for dinner.

• Seafood. Shrimp, squid, mussels and octopus cover the body's needs for vitamins A, E, B, iodine, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and selenium. Seafood contains more protein than meat, and it is digested much easier and faster. The easiest way to consume it is to prepare a seafood cocktail.
• Turkey meat. Dietary meat contains a minimum of fat and cholesterol, which makes the product ideal for weight loss. The digestibility of turkey protein is 95%, which is significantly higher than that of rabbit and chicken meat. Turkey meat dishes can quickly fill you up, which means you won’t be able to eat a lot of them even if you’re very hungry.
• Chicken breast. White chicken meat is much healthier than the dark meat typical of chicken legs. Breast contains less fat, cholesterol and difficult-to-digest compounds that cause a heaviness in the stomach. But there are enough vitamins in white chicken to maintain a healthy metabolism. Vitamins B9, B12, PP, A and H are considered especially valuable among them.
• Low-fat fish. Low fat content is found in pike perch, pike, cod, flounder and pollock. These varieties are digested and absorbed in literally a couple of hours, so fish for dinner would be a smart decision. Along with fish dishes, the body will receive a large amount of iodine, fluorine, copper and zinc.
• Leafy vegetables. The group includes iceberg lettuce, lettuce, watercress, parsley, arugula, kreid, dill, basil and chard. Leafy vegetables are a source of B vitamins. These organic compounds help convert consumed carbohydrates into glucose, which is essential for the functioning of all internal organs. Despite the low calorie content of greens, you can easily satisfy your hunger with a minimal portion.
• Natural yogurt. The delicacy is rich not only in vital protein, but also in calcium, which strengthens bone tissue. Another value of yogurt is its beneficial probiotic bacteria. They destroy pathogenic microflora of the digestive tract and increase immunity. An important nuance: only natural products provide benefits, without additives, flavors or preservatives.
• Kefir. The product is considered a classic of healthy eating and is most often included in the evening diet. The drink normalizes metabolic processes, supplies the body with vitamins and minerals, has restorative properties and helps satisfy evening hunger.
• Nuts and seeds. They are used not as a main dish, but as a seasoning. Almonds, sesame seeds, pine and walnuts, cashews and flaxseeds go well with vegetable salads and meat dishes. Nuts contain large amounts of amino acids and vegetable oils that are beneficial to health.
• Eggs. The benefits of chicken eggs are due to the presence of beneficial amino acids and vitamins - B, C, D, E. 14% - exactly the daily requirement of protein can be obtained by eating just one egg for dinner. It is better to boil eggs soft-boiled or prepare a steam omelet - in this form the product is best absorbed.

If a person experiences increased physical activity, he will not be satisfied with one protein in the evening. Combining proteins with a small portion of carbohydrate foods will help normalize your energy balance. Healthy carbohydrates are found in buckwheat porridge and oatmeal, as well as pasta made from durum wheat.

What about sweets?

Very often in the evening there is a craving for sweets - this phenomenon is observed with a deficiency of carbohydrates and irregular nutrition. Warm tea with a spoon of sugar or flower honey, the same natural yogurt with the addition of berries, fruits or homemade jam will help to “stop” a sweet attack.

What to eat for dinner from sweets:

• dates are the sweetest of dried fruits, since they consist of 70% fructose and sucrose, they satisfy hunger well and supply cells with amino acids;
• dried apricots – dried apricots have an increased concentration of sugar, vitamins and minerals;
• raisins - not only provide the body with glucose, but are also useful for overloading the nervous system;
• marshmallows and marshmallows - high in pectin, useful for digestive disorders;
• marmalade - it is best to choose a product based on healthy seaweed extract (agar-agar).

You need to eat these sweets in minimal quantities - literally a few berries or one or two lozenges.

Video

Important! The bulk of carbohydrates in the form of cereals, flour products and potatoes should come at breakfast and lunch. Dinner should consist mainly of protein foods.

What foods are best not to eat for dinner?

In the afternoon, the activity of the digestive system decreases, the pancreas, liver and gallbladder work more slowly than during the day. Therefore, in the evening it is advisable to give up heavy, fatty, high-calorie foods. You also need to completely eliminate carbohydrates, especially simple ones. However, it’s also better to avoid complex ones, especially if you want to lose weight. Eating slow carbohydrates for dinner should only be an exception.

To make dinner truly healthy, exclude from it:

• Floury and sweet.
  Such foods quickly increase blood sugar levels, which also drop rapidly, provoking another attack of hunger. In addition, simple carbohydrates are primarily stored as fat.
• Red meat.
  Contains a large amount of tyrosine, which increases adrenaline levels. A sharp jump in adrenaline, in turn, can lead to problems with sleep. Therefore, it is recommended to eat red meat in the first half of the day.
• Rice, potatoes, pasta.
  It contains a lot of starch and simple carbohydrates. This means that the body will not receive the necessary amino acids, but you risk gaining extra pounds.
• Nuts.
  They contain about 600 kilocalories per hundred grams. This is approximately half the daily diet of those losing weight. But even if you are not on a diet, you should still avoid nuts for dinner - they are too fatty and difficult to digest.
• Sweet fruits:
  bananas, grapes, peaches, apricots. They contain fructose, which can also cause a spike in blood sugar.
• Vegetables with a high sugar content:
  beets, carrots, tomatoes. They also raise blood sugar levels, which is not very desirable in the afternoon.
• Beverages.
  Not only drinks with a lot of sugar in their composition (soda, store-bought juices, etc.), but also seemingly harmless coffee, cocoa and cow's milk are considered harmful.
• Legumes.
  It should be excluded for those who have difficulty digesting them. If peas, beans or chickpeas consistently make you feel bloated, it's best not to eat them at night - the quality of your sleep will noticeably suffer.

What foods should you avoid?

Heavy, rich food with a lot of oil and fatty sauces is definitely not suitable for dinner. Packaged instant products, fast food and flour products will be harmful to both well-being and slimness.

When compiling an evening diet for an adult or a child, you can focus on two conditional lists - black and gray. The black list includes foods prohibited for the evening meal. The gray category includes dishes whose consumption should be postponed to an earlier time so that they have time to be absorbed.

Black list:

• all types of sausages - boiled, smoked, raw smoked, dried;
• baked goods with and without cream - donuts, cakes, buns, pastries, pies, waffles;
• carbonated drinks;
• chips and other snacks;
• white bread with yeast from refined flour;
• side dishes of cereals and potatoes;
• dumplings and dumplings;
• sandwiches;
• high-calorie fruits - bananas and grapes;
• whole milk;
• chocolate and chocolate candies;
• coffee and strong tea.

Gray List:

• meat dishes;
• fish dishes;
• legumes prepared by boiling or stewing;
• dried fruits and low-calorie fruits;
• sweet crackers, bread, unleavened cookies.

Important! Fats cannot be completely eliminated from the diet. They are necessary for the production of hormones, cell division and the absorption of vitamins. Among the fats consumed, a quarter should come from animal lipids, the rest from vegetable oils.

Plant-based foods for dinner

Plant-based foods are believed to be rich in vitamins. Vegetables and fruits combine many beneficial substances for the body. Most of these products do not contain protein, but new vegetarians can easily tolerate this deficiency.

There are various plant crops that are saturated with protein elements , and due to them, a person feels great and his body functions calmly.

When switching completely to plant foods that contain a minimal amount of protein, you should think about all the nuances. The evening menu should be balanced. The diet includes all products that contain all the important structures for the full functioning of the body.

Plant-based foods that contain sufficient amounts of protein:

1. Vegetables – leafy (cabbage and spinach), petiole type (celery), roots (potatoes, carrots, turnips), bud type (broccoli and cauliflower), seeds (beans, beans and peas);
2. Nuts;
3. Fruits – sweet taste (bananas and grapes), semi-sour taste (raspberry, peach, apricot, apple), sour filling (lemons, pineapple, strawberries, cranberries);
4. Cereals – wheat, rice, barley.

A plant-based product must be included in your diet. It is recommended to create an evening dinner menu correctly so as to include all the products little by little, but with the correct presentation.

What to cook for dinner: healthy recipes

The list of foods allowed for dinner is quite extensive. It’s quite possible to create delicious and varied dinner options from them that will satisfy the body’s needs for healthy compounds.

Fish julienne

Products for 5 servings:

• lean fish (fillet) – 300 g;
• onions – 2 pieces;
• wheat flour - 2 large spoons;
• cream 10% fat – ⅔ cup;
• Parmesan cheese – 150 g;
• olive oil – 1 spoon:
• salt and pepper to taste.

How to cook:

1. Rinse the fish fillet, remove excess water with a paper towel, cut into small pieces.
2. Peel the onion, chop and fry in olive oil. It should become transparent and soft.
3. Add fish pieces to the onion, mix well and fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Sprinkle the fried mixture with flour through a strainer to avoid lumps.
5. Pour in the cream in a thin stream, mixing well with the flour until smooth.
6. Season with salt and pepper, place in julienne molds and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
7. Place in a preheated oven (180°C), bake for 10 minutes.

Light fish julienne goes well with any vegetable salad seasoned with vegetable oil.

Salad with vegetables and seafood

List of ingredients for 4 servings:

• sea ​​cocktail – 500 g;
• lettuce - 1 large bunch;
• medium-sized tomatoes - 6 pieces;
• olive oil – 3 tbsp. spoons;
• half a lemon;
• salt and seasonings at your discretion.

Preparation:

1. Boil 2 liters of water and place the sea cocktail into the boiling liquid.
2. 5-7 minutes after boiling, remove the pan from the heat, drain the seafood through a colander and rinse with clean cold water.
3. Roughly chop the tomatoes and tear the lettuce leaves with your hands.
4. Place all prepared products in a salad bowl.
5. Make the dressing - mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt and seasonings.
6. Pour the dressing over the salad, mix and serve.

Lemon juice in the dressing can be replaced with balsamic vinegar; if desired, you can marinate boiled seafood in it.

Chicken breast with bell pepper

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast on the bone or 2 pieces of fillet;
• 2 bell peppers, red or yellow;
• soy sauce and yogurt - 1 table each. spoon;
• 1 teaspoon each a spoonful of mustard and red paprika;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• salt and pepper.

Step-by-step preparation:

1. Remove skin from chicken breast and wash under running water. If fillet is used, simply wash it.
2. Make several shallow cuts across the surface of the meat piece, add salt and pepper, trying to process the cuts as well.
3. Wash the pepper, cut lengthwise, remove the partitions with seeds, cut into strips.
4. Place a piece of bell pepper in each cut of the breast. A combination of peppers of several colors looks beautiful - green, red and yellow.
5. Prepare a sauce from yogurt, chopped garlic, mustard, soy dressing and red paprika.
6. Gently coat the prepared breast with the sauce, trying to maintain the original configuration of the dish.
7. Line an oven tray with foil paper, place the chicken there and wrap the edges of the foil.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes (depending on the weight of the meat).
9. Open the foil and bake for another 5-7 minutes on the grill until the top is browned.

The dish turns out very bright and appetizing, suitable not only for everyday, but also for a festive dinner.

Turkey with cheese

List of products for 4 servings:

• a piece of turkey fillet weighing 250-300 g;
• tomatoes - 2 pieces;
• hard cheese – 150-200 g;
• a mixture of Provencal herbs;
• butter – 30 g.

Preparation:

1. Wash the meat, cut into flat wide strips, as for chops.
2. Rub each piece with salt and herbs de Provence.
3. Treat the baking container with butter on all sides, including the sides.
4. Place the prepared turkey in the pan.
5. Wash the tomatoes and cut into slices. It is better to use fruits with a dense structure that will retain their shape when baked. Place vegetables on top of the chops - a few circles for each piece of meat.
6. Grate the cheese and sprinkle on top of the tomatoes.
7. Place the dish in the oven for half an hour at 180°C. The meat should be soft, but not fried, so it is necessary to control the baking process.

Turkey baked in the oven is good warm, hot or even cold.

Lobio with green beans

List of ingredients:

• green beans – 2 cups;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 bell peppers – green or red;
• 3 ripe tomatoes;
• 4 chicken eggs;
• 2 garlic cloves;
• dry adjika, salt, seasonings to taste;
• olive or sunflower oil.

Preparing the dish:

1. Wash the green beans well under running water, remove the stalks and dry tails.
2. Cut each pod into three parts and place in a pan of boiling water.
3. Cook for 5-7 minutes, then drain the water, drain the beans in a colander and rinse with cold water.
4. In a frying pan, sauté chopped vegetables - onions, garlic, carrots and peppers.
5. At the end, add diced tomatoes and beans, add dry adjika and half the prepared salt.
6. Make the egg filling - break all the eggs into a glass container, add salt and beat lightly.
7. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables and cook for a few more minutes with the lid closed.

This version of the Georgian dish is considered one of the most dietary, as it is prepared without lamb and beef. Traditionally, lobio is served with pomegranate seeds, which are sprinkled onto the finished dish directly in a portioned plate.

Lunch on healthy nutrition

Traditionally, lunches consist of a first and second course, as well as a salad. During proper nutrition, it is best to make the first courses without frying, the second courses should preferably be stewed, baked or steamed (grilling is also possible), and in salads, it is advisable to replace mayonnaise dressings with low-fat sour cream, and vinegar with lemon juice.

Taking into account the basics of proper nutrition, the lunch diet may include such dishes.

First courses with proper nutrition. Description and recipes

What to do first when the usual chicken noodles and borscht are already boring?

Greek bean soup. Recipe

Required:

• one carrot;
• 120-160 gr. vegetable oil;
• one onion;
• 1/4 celery root;
• a glass of beans;
• 3-4 tbsp. tomato paste;
• a few cloves of garlic.

Pour water over the beans, bring to a boil and pour out the liquid. Then fill the beans with water again and boil for 5-6 minutes, then turn off the stove and let the broth brew for an hour. Then add finely chopped vegetables: celery, carrots and onions along with tomato paste and garlic, then cook for about 25 minutes (until the vegetables are ready). Add black pepper and salt.

Tomato puree soup. Recipe

This summer soup will be perfect, by the way, during the holidays, when it’s hot and there’s absolutely no desire to be near the stove. And here we take a kilo of tomatoes, scald them, remove the skin, cut them in half and remove the seeds.

Afterwards, simply mix the remaining pulp in a blender with 2 grated cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp. spoons of olive oil, 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice and a small amount of nutmeg, thyme and basil, as well as black pepper and salt to taste.

Mushroom soup with lentils. Recipe

First, soak 120 g for several hours. dried porcini mushrooms.

Then fill them with several liters of cold water and, bringing to a boil, cook for a quarter of an hour. Then add 220 gr.

washed lentils and let cook for another 30 minutes. Separately, you need to saute the onion in oil and several finely chopped carrots.

Add one chopped potato and sauteed vegetables to the broth, cook everything until fully cooked. A few minutes before the end of cooking, add cilantro, bay leaf, and salt.

Serve with herbs and low-fat sour cream.

The second meal is no less important than the first. It is an important abundant and satisfying component of our diet.

As a rule, while sitting at work, everyone is looking forward to the onset of this meal in order to enjoy hot food: aromatic soup or just a salad.

In order not to suffer from heaviness or indigestion the rest of the day, lunch should also be healthy! In this case, basic recipes for proper nutrition are suitable - spinach and mushroom soups.

Mushroom cream soup

• 500 g of mushrooms (preferably champignons);
• 600 g potatoes;
• 200 g onion;
• 1.5 liters of vegetable broth;
• A glass of milk / 20% cream;
• Salt/pepper/seasoning to taste.

Mushroom soup can be cooked with both meat and vegetable broth. Since the soup is dietary, the broth will be vegetable. To do this, you need to boil the onion, carrots, potatoes and celery, season with a couple of peppercorns and salt. After the vegetables are cooked, they can be removed, with the exception of potatoes.

Finely chop the onion and fry in a dry frying pan until transparent, add a drop of water and leave to simmer.

At the same time, cut the mushrooms into slices, add to the onion, add salt and pepper. Fry until all the liquid has evaporated.

Next, add the fried mushrooms and onions to the potatoes with vegetable broth and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Pour cream and milk into the resulting mass. Add salt to taste and bring to a boil.

On a note! Croutons go well with cream soup. And to make them dietary, you just need to take regular rye bread without unnecessary additives. Cut it into squares and dry in the oven without oil.

Cream soup with spinach

• 200 g spinach;
• 300 g potatoes;
• 100 g onion;
• 100 g arugula;
• 1 bunch of lettuce;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 1.5 liters of vegetable broth;
• A glass of 10% cream/milk;
• Salt/pepper to taste.

Preparing this vitamin-rich and, most importantly, delicious dish will not take you more than 30 minutes.

Boil vegetable broth from carrots, onions, potatoes and a couple of peppercorns. Once the broth is ready, remove all vegetables except potatoes.

While the vegetable base of the soup is preparing, finely chop the spinach leaves. Chop the onion.

Next, simmer the spinach and onion with a little water for about 7 minutes. Salt immediately so that the onion has time to release its juice and not burn.

Cut the boiled potatoes into pieces, add cooked spinach and onions to them, chop until smooth.

Pour the resulting mass into vegetable broth, add cream and bring to a boil.

Season the aromatic soup to taste. You can add greens or croutons when serving.

Interesting! Spinach belongs to the category of foods that fight excess fat, and is also considered one of the healthiest leaf salads.

Lunch is the main meal of the day and the main headache for the housewife, because you really want it to be both varied and healthy. Despite the frantic pace of our modern life, lunch must include a first course, as well as a main course and a salad. Moreover, the second course and salad can be swapped, depending on the level of usefulness.

Reviews

Elena, 27 years old : “I switched to a healthy diet six months ago. I’m not overweight, I just decided to improve my health after the winter vitamin deficiency. I try to stick to at least 4 meals a day: I have a hearty breakfast, no snacks or sweets before lunch. For lunch I always eat some kind of first course (usually a low-fat soup), and for an afternoon snack - some nuts and a slice of cheese such as feta cheese. Usually there is no time to prepare dinner - after work I want to come and immediately sit down at the table. Therefore, I prepare the dish two days in advance. I really like to eat baked fish with vegetables or separately with vegetable salad for dinner. Before going to bed, I drink a glass of fermented baked milk or kefir with bran bread. I advise everyone to eat moderately at least 4 times a day - believe me, you won’t gain excess weight, but you will feel great.”

Svetlana, 35 years old : “I don’t consider myself a fan of diets, but whenever possible I limit myself to sweets, fatty and fried foods. Like most working people, dinner is my main meal of the day. I experimented for a long time to create the perfect grocery list for lunch. I came to the conclusion that I feel best after eating dishes made from lean meat or fish and vegetables. I rarely eat side dishes of cereals and pasta for dinner; they are not needed before bed. About an hour after my evening meal, I drink a glass of vegetable juice. Or this option - I take regular fruit juice and heavily dilute it with purified water. I don’t like to drink fermented milk drinks; they retain water and swelling often appears in the morning. These simple rules help me wake up cheerful, rested, fresh-faced and in a good mood.”

Conclusion

Dinner is as vital a meal as breakfast and lunch. The time of the evening meal should be selected individually - so that you go to bed approximately 3-4 hours after eating. The basis of the evening diet should be protein foods with the addition of a small amount of carbohydrates and vegetable fats. It is best to cook at home, giving preference to natural products rather than preservatives and concentrates.

How to properly prepare food for dinner if you want to lose weight

Dinner is one of the main events of the whole day. It is very important to properly plan your evening diet in order to quickly and easily lose excess weight.

You need to remember a few simple rules for preparing food for dinner:

• Dinner time. The best time to start your evening meal is between 4 pm and 6 pm.
• Boiled and steamed with the addition of various salads. Avoid fatty, fried and salty foods.
• Vegetables and fruits should become your best friends for losing excess weight.
• Exercise after evening dinner.

It’s worth remembering a couple of simple tips from nutritionists:

• According to doctors, before losing weight and creating a healthy diet, you need to undergo an examination;
• Each diet must be selected individually by a specialist. It is strictly forbidden to exclude dinner in the desire to lose weight quickly.

Questions for a specialist

For those who want to know in detail what to eat for dinner to lose weight, advice from leading nutritionists will help.

What can you drink in the evening to lose weight?

It turns out that the process of weight loss is influenced not only by foods, but also by drinks. To eliminate mistakes when choosing them, you should learn a few tips. The following drinks are allowed for both men and women:

• herbal and green teas;
• coffee (weak, unsweetened);
• still mineral water;
• red wine.

Other drinks are prohibited. These include sparkling water, beer, etc.

What should the volume of the plate be?

The amount eaten should be calculated in the ratio of vegetables to proteins. So, in terms of volume, regular products should be twice as large as protein products. In other words, women can consume 100 g of protein and 250 g of vegetables, men - 150 g of protein and 300 g of vegetables.

How to prepare dietary meals?

The ideal dinner for weight loss is one that is boiled, baked, or steamed. Vegetables can be eaten raw. Fried foods are prohibited.

How to prevent evening cravings?

If you ask the question “What can you eat for dinner to lose weight?” everything is more or less clear, the problem of evening hunger for some still remains acute. Often in the evenings you really want something sweet. This happens due to a drop in insulin levels in the blood. To prevent night raids on the refrigerator, you should periodically eat something tasty and sweet for an afternoon snack or lunch (marshmallows, apple marshmallows, Maria cookies, etc.).

When the evening hunger is irresistible, it is permissible to brew a cup of herbal tea, adding a little honey. This combination will reduce the need for sweets.