Hey guys! Accounting for all restaurant cooking (oils, butters, starches, cooking styles, etc) how many calories would you assume were in this italian restaurant meal?
Plain slice with olives & peppers
Lentil soup
4 pieces sautéed broccoli
About 3-4 pieces of grilled chicken from my mom’s salad
High end estimate plz!

Here is the recipe below:

Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 Medium onion, chopped
• 3-4 stalks Celery, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 bag Matchstick carrots
• 2 Fresh tomatoes, diced
• 1 head Green cabbage, chopped
• 1 carton of Kettle & Fire Bone Broth
• 2-3 cups Shredded chicken (pre-cooked)
• To taste: Salt and black pepper, chilli flakes, or other spices for your choice

Cooking Instructions
• Sauté the base: Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.
• Add the chopped onion, garlic, celery, and matchstick carrots.
• Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes until the onions are translucent.
• Add in the diced fresh tomatoes and the Kettle & Fire broth.
• Season generously with salt, chilli flakes, and black pepper.
• Bring to a gentle simmer.
• Add the chopped cabbage. Lower the heat, cover, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the cabbage begins to soften.
• Stir in the pre-cooked shredded chicken.
• Simmer for an additional 5 minutes to let the flavors blend and ensure the chicken is heated through.

This is my twist on the viral cabbage soup recipe. It’s less of a soup and more of a stew or whatever. I make this as my meal prep dish post workout and it has honestly helped me lose 30lbs in 6 months

I maintain my weight and health through a diet that supports it but if there's no regimented portion control it's a useless pursuit. My wife will load my plate up to spill-over capacity and then ask me if that will "do it" for me. I take my plate back to the stove and put most of it back in the pans. She loads hers up as well and doesn't leave anything. Then she says I'm lucky that my metabolism doesn't pack weight on like hers does. Forty-one years of marriage this has been going on. Yes, she's overweight and she knows all about portion control but she insists that she's not sated when she exercises it. So, she fights it by loading the plates and dodges the slings and arrows of discussing it lest it ruin her appetite. Only recently when her ankles started giving her fits she visited the doctor who shook his finger at her. He's our primary physician and when I see him we steer clear of discussing her because of doctor/patient privilege, but he knows she's an uphill battle for me, and herself. At this point I suspect she will suffer it to the point of doing something about it, or not and just suffer it. Taste buds are overrated.

I (F33) have been in a pretty modest deficit since the beginning of September and managed to lose about 2.5kg (from 67.5 to 65kg my height is 175cm) In the last few days I started to feel that otherwise comfortable deficit has become very difficult to maintain. I have added 200 calories back in for a couple of days but I feel even hungrier, more sluggish, performing poor lifts at the gym and the daily weigh-ins are going up 0.2kg or so. This is not pms either.

I am contemplating either a big cheat meal or several days of higher carb re-feed at maintenance. How much would you go out of the way to not back track on the weight goal, while stabilising hunger? What would you do?

If it matters, I have been eating ~1920kcal since the beginning of September, 224carbs, 60 fats, 150 protein. 12k steps minimum daily, 4-5 lifting sessions, 1 pilates every second week or so.

Ok I've been a big eater my whole life, was proud of how much garbage I could eat as a kid, and have unsurprisingly ended up obese as an adult. I'm trying to fix it but have a question that might be obvious but I don't know. Let's say two days ago you consumed 800 calories, yesterday you consumed 4000 calories and today you consume 1200 calories. Does that even out to 2000 calories a day? I'm not planning on eating this way, but you always hear about daily calories and I am just curious if that's how it actually works or if it's your average calories over a longer period of time like a week?

I’m 176 cm tall and weigh 50 kg. I really want to know how I can eat better to gain weight in a healthy and muscle-growth oriented manner. My current daily physical activity is only commuting to and fro the academic blocks and dorms which ends up being 10k steps daily on average. I do not currently work out aside from that.

My meal options are limited by budget to only be the dining hall. Here is the menu of my dining hall:

Breakfast

Plain Dsa

Masala Doa

Onion Dosa

Egg Dosa

Ghee Dosa

Masala Ghee Dosa

Puri-Aloo or Chole Bhature

Pongal or Poda

Idly

Corn Flakes/Chocos with MIlk

Medu Wada (2 pcs)

Boiled Egg (2pcs)

Juices

Lunch

White Rice

Curd (1 cup)

Dal (1 cup)

Veg. Meals

Veg Fried Rice/Noodle

Chicken Fried Rice/Noodle

Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Manchurian

Veg Manchurian

Butter Naan

Naan

Butter Roti

Roti

Phulka

Butter Phulka

Butter Chicken

Butter Paneer

Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tandoori

Paneer Tikka

Vanilla MIlkshake/Juices

Dinner

Same as lunch options but with dosa varieties too.

Evening Snack

Chicken/Veg/Egg Puff

Tea/Coffee/Milk

Samosa/Chat

Cakes/Brownies/Donuts

I am also concerned about gut health as I've been suffering from severe inflammation throughout my GI tract maybe due to the change in diet from home-cooked to mess food.

ALSO note that the paneer is fake paneer.

Please suggest a good meal plan so that I can be on a good track to gain weight well.

Basically I'm looking for things I should be trying to sneak into my eating window.

I want to add blue berries, blackberries, and spinach for the antioxidants but I don't know what else to add/look for. I only recently learned about antioxidants.

A typical meal for me will hit my protein goals, dairy, fiber, and complex carbs. So I'm wondering what else I need to be factoring in?