Healthy Lunch Recipes For Work To Lose Weight

Whether trying to manage weight or just eat healthier, we tend to focus on breakfast and dinner. We look at breakfast as “the most important meal of the day” and do our best not to have “too heavy” of a dinner. Meanwhile, lunch becomes an overlooked time when you might overindulge at a fast food place by your office or skip the meal entirely running on quick snacks because of the busy workday. Feeling like your lunch needs more attention? Let’s take a look at how healthy low-calorie lunch recipes for weight loss look like!

Why You Should Go Low Calorie For Lunch

Going out for lunch we might end up having 1000+ calories in a single meal, which ups your total calorie intake significantly and can slow down weight loss. But even with a home-cooked lunch, going overboard is easy, if you think that a high-calorie lunch will make you eat less at dinner.

However, according to the study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (6), when eating higher energy-dense meals, people don’t take it into account for the subsequent meals and end up consuming 56% more energy.

That’s why paying attention to the calorie count at lunch is a good idea.

Balancing The Macros: What Makes A Healthy Lunch For Weight Loss

To create a healthy on-the-go lunch you need to adjust the portion size based on your daily energy expenditure. Otherwise, unless you follow a specific diet for health reasons, the rules for a good midday meal are straightforward:

• Carbohydrates should make up a quarter of your meal volume (9). This includes starchy vegetables like chickpeas, beans, and peas. We suggest going for those with more fiber if your goal is weight loss. Also, if you often have white bread, white rice, and pasta for lunch, switch to whole grains like whole-wheat bread, quinoa, brown rice, quinoa, oats, and whole wheat pasta (10).
• Proteins – another ¼ of your lunch (10). They are essential for conquering the afternoon slump, as with 20 to 30 grams of protein for lunch, your blood sugar is steady and you avoid a rapid energy spike followed by a crush (13). Aim for lean protein sources:
  • White meat poultry (without the skin)
  • Tuna, salmon, shrimp, or other fish
  • Tofu
  • Cottage cheese and Greek yogurt
  • Eggs
  • Legumes
  • Quinoa
• As for fats, they are also necessary in moderation. Avoid trans-fats, opt for nuts, seeds, avocados, and cook with vegetable oils like olive, canola, or soy oil (9).
• We recommend non-starchy fruits and vegetables along with raw greens to make half of your lunch. This is extra important for your overall health, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that only 1 in 10 adults eats enough fruits and vegetables (12). They note that they are mostly consumed for dinner, so including them in your on-the-go lunches is a sure way to make them healthier.

• Extra Tips For A Healthy Lunch At Work

  • Timing matters, so try to have your lunch before 3 p.m. In the office or at home, busy work makes you put off lunch, but we recommend treating it as seriously as any business call. To compensate for delayed lunch, you might eat extra snacks you didn’t plan for, or overeat when you finally do have lunch. Moreover, the International Journal of Obesity published that those eating late lunches lose weight slower (17).
  • Avoid eating lunch at your desk. Getting distracted by emails and unfinished tasks promotes mindless eating (2). Try to focus on the food and leave your workspace if possible.