Thinner dinners with dessert!

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If you're determined to lose a few pounds but love food and don't want to give up dessert, then these thinner dinners, all under 500 calories including pudding, are for you.

Guidelines recommend that women need around 2,000 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight. So if you're sticking to that, you will probably be eating 600 calories at each meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner), plus a couple of snacks at around 100 calories each. But if you're trying to lose weight for health reasons, or you're worried about putting on the pounds after giving up smoking, then you need to be consuming fewer calories. Aim for 1,500 calories a day. That means:

Breakfast: 400 calories
Lunch: 400 calories
Dinner: 500 calories
Plus two snacks of 100 calories each

We've picked out some delicious thinner dinner recipes for you to choose from. Simply pick a main dish and some vegetables, add the calories together and see how much you have left to choose from our dessert menu. Or if that sounds like too much of a faff, try one of our meal plans to get yourself started.

Next: Thinner Dinners with dessert recipes

The recipe pictured above is balsamic grilled lamb with olive salsa - only 240 calories!

By Anna Penniceard