The Question –

when i buy breakfast and lunch lite n easy does that mean all that adds up to 1200 calories <--- this question came through from the search engines today - and it is a really great question.. First things first -

Calories VS Kilojoules.

Whoever made it so that the only thing appearing on Australian labels these days is kilojoules should be tortured for the rest of their natural life. We all know calories, right? I grew up with them. I know what 100 calories means in the scheme of things. However when you convert 100 calories to kilojoules, depending on the website that you do it at, you will get all kinds of different results – mine ranged from 415 to 420KJ.

One of the first things you want to do if you want to count calories in Australia these days is get yourself a portable KJ to calorie converter. If you have a smart phone you can just do a search for calorie to kilojoule converters and find one you like.

Lucky for me, Lite N Easy still speak in understandable terms – calories. Though you will find kilojoules on a lot of the packaging you will find calories as well, and you also have access to this handy online guide which contains all the ingredients, calorie and kilojoule amounts as well as other nutritional details. Mind you, it is 49 pages long.

If you download it to your computer and use a pdf reader, you can search for specific words to find the calorie breakdown of what you are eating. It is a great shame that Lite N Easy do not put a calorie count for each item on the menu – it would make life a lot easier if you want to substitute.

The Breakdown – Summer Menu Day 1 (my choices)

Let us do the time consuming and annoying maths! :) Here is the breakdown from todays breakfast, lunch & snacks –

Almond Toasted Muesli with skim milk* (138Cal)

Multigrain Toast (98Cal) with Plum Jam (38Cal) (=136)

Orange (55Cal)

——————–
Total breakfast & morning snack = 329
——————–

Roast Chicken Tender (84Cal) with Beetroot & Baby Leaf Salad (24Cal) and Garlic Lemon Vinaigrette (48Cal) (=156)

Small Multigrain Roll (88Cal) with Butter (36Cal) (=124)

Peaches with Raspberry Sauce (63Cal)

Citrus Sultana Oat Biscuit (98Cal)

——————
Total lunch & snacks = 441
——————

Total breakfast, lunch & snacks calories = 770

You still have 430 calories left for dinner.

Dinners range from 330- 490 calories. You can see all the dinners and their nutritional details by clicking here – Lite N Easy Dinners.

I don’t do this kind of maths every day. I know pretty much that if I eat what I’m given over the course of a week it will all work out to be somewhere around 1200 calories daily.

This week for dinners for example –

Chicken Tikka Masala 424cal
Sweet & Sour Chicken 428
Maple Glazed Chicken 402cal
Fishermans Pie 457cal
Rigatoni 394cal
Tortilla Stack 484
Fragrant Thai Chicken 382cal

So if I ate the highest in calories for dinner tonight, my daily total would be = 1254 calories. If I ate the lowest in calories it would be 1152 calories.

These calorie counts are never going to be exact because you might get a smaller orange which is less calories, or you might not want the butter, or you might cut out one of the snacks because you aren’t hungry enough. I use full fat milk which costs more calories than skim, but I use a lot less milk in total than they recommend – not a fan of milk with cereal added, I prefer cereal with my milk! ;)

In general, if you stick only to water for your drinks (I go with soda water though I do have one cup of coffee per day) you are going to be pretty close to the 1200 calories.

The Answer Is –

So the answer to the question is no – breakfast and lunch do not add up to 1200 calories on their own. When you add in the dinner, that gets you to the 1200 (or thereabouts).

Similar Posts:

• Summer Menu Day 2 – Lite N Easy
• Monday Menu – Day 3 – Lite N Easy –
• Day 3 – 1200 Calories – Lite N Easy
• 1200 Calorie Delivery – it arrived!
• Summer Menu Day 5 – Lite N Easy