When you’re on-the-go at lunch or making a long journey to a meeting at the other end of the country, it is extremely tempting to pick up a selection of fatty snacks from the vending machine during your break. Yet by making a couple of swaps, you can get the same hunger satisfaction for around half of the calories. Here are five ideas to get you started:
THE CALORIE CULPRIT: On-the-go sausage buttie, 479 cals
THE SWAP: Breakfast omelette with onions and tomatoes, 170 cals
Whilst they say you should consume most of your calories in the morning so that they can be burnt off throughout the day, two fried sausages on a white bap can help you to consume nearly 500 calories in one sitting. When it comes to your elevenses, crack open the eggs instead and add in some veggies for a tasty, low fat and low calorie brunch.
THE CALORIE CULPRIT: Tuna melt Panini, 417 cals
THE SWAP: Tuna salad ( ½ tin tuna and ½ tin salad with 100g salad leaves), 175 cals
Panini’s can make you feel like an upper-class member of society, but with cheese and sauces slapped on it the calories really mount up. You can get the same source of omega-3 in a tuna salad. Add sweetcorn to bump up the hunger satisfaction and layer over as many salad leaves as you’d like, all for less than 200 calories.
THE CALORIE CULPRIT: Chip-shop chips with a battered fish, 838 cals
THE SWAP: Baked potato wedges with fresh cod and sweet chilli sauce, 250 cals
The weekly chippy trip may be the highlight of your week but, as the saying goes, a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips. Instead bake some potato wedges, with the skins on for extra goodnesss, alongside a fresh portion of cod. Drizzle some sweet chilli sauce over the top and you have a fulfilling, oriental-inspired meal for under 300 cals.
THE CALORIE CULPRIT: Battered chicken and salad wrap with mayo, 790 cals
THE SWAP: Grilled turkey steak and salad wholemeal wrap with tomato salsa, 379 cals
Kentucky fried chicken-filled wraps may seem like the healthier option in comparison to burgers and bargain buckets, but by swapping deep-fried chicken for un-battered, baked turkey breast, a white wrap for a wholemeal one, and creamy mayo for tomato salsa, you can cut nearly half the calories from your lunchtime favourite.
THE CALORIE CULPRIT: Caesar salad, 379 cals
THE SWAP: Garden salad, 33 cals
Caesar salad may seem innocent with its mountain of lettuce, but it is in fact one the worst offending salads on the calorie chart. Fatty additions such as bread croutons, parmesan and creamy dressings can really bulk up the fat content. Instead, ditch the croutons, cheese and dressing and substitute them for additional veggies in a garden salad, slathered in vinaigrette or a light dressing. Making this swap can reduce your lunch to almost a tenth of the calories, at around just 33 calories per serving. In other words, you could eat a bucket full of your swap salad and still consume less calories than one tiny Caesar salad!.
