Cheatcode for flavor is chicken bouillon. Powdered chicken stock has almost no calories but packs a ton of non-specific savory flavor (umami) that you can put into any savory dish. If you feel like a dish is bland, you salt it and it still feels not salty, try adding chicken bouillon and the flavor pops out. It’s why Australians go mad about their “Chicken salt” which is mainly bouillon and salt. (If it still taste bland after this point, you probably need some form of acid like a vinegar in the dish.)

Tuna itself is pretty generic in flavor so just go ham with spices and seasoning. I like to mix my tuna into scrambled eggs (1 whole egg + 200g of egg white), mix it with gochuchang red pepper paste for big flavor, mild heat, and slight sweetness. You can also use Laughing Cow cheese wedges for about 45cal. Mix that into the pepper paste with a little bit of water to turn it into a creamy consistency. You can use the cheese wedge trick or cornstarch slurries to make creamy sauces/gravies for whatever dish you want with minimal calorie cost.

There’s a lot of exercise programming you can do to optimize your fitness, but when we know diet is like 90% of the aesthetic outcome, leveling up cooking skill is probably much more important for creating tasty lean food you have no problem adhering to.

Umm, you might want to consult this article (https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/how-worried-should-you-be-about-mercury-in-your-tuna-a5041903086/) before continuing with your plan.

How has no one mentioned (low calorie) mayonnaise yet? It’s such a staple tuna combo!

Don’t forget the herbs and red onions

I make pasta with red onions and tuna. Just cut up the onion in medium chunks, fry it up in a generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil, add the canned tuna in it. When pasta is ready mix it all together and add some extra oil on top. Add chilli flakes if you’d like some spice. It’s not really low calories unfortunately…

In general, I have to say that it does matter which canned tuna you buy. I only buy a very specific brand and only the one that comes in olive oil. Anything else is cardboard to me, so I feel you.

Try boneless & skinless sardines or mackerel for a less mercury-filled fish hit.
I eat 2 cans per day, generally on top of a leafy green salad. Ranch dressing makes everything taste great.

tuna mayo onigiri

Tuna croquettes.

Finely dice the white parts of two spring onions. Mix with 1/4 cup bread crumbs, 2 beaten eggs, 200 grams of flaked tuna (I think that’s like 8 oz?), salt, pepper and whatever herbs you like. Form into 8 balls. Put another 1/2 cup bread crumbs in a dish and roll the croquettes through it to pick up an outer layer of crumbs.

Coat with cooking spray and either bake for 25 minutes in a moderately hot over, or fry.

I use about a slice and a half of bread to make those crumbs and this is a two-serving recipe, so I think it works out on the low calorie front.

Mayo + pepper. Spread into toast. Perfection.

Could also throw in onion, celery, a bit of mustard and boiled egg to make tuna salad.

Regular tuna salad is good but with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some basil it can be great. I’m also a big fan of adding cayenne

If you are looking for lower calorie and less heavy metals canned salmon would be a better option than tuna. I had canned salmon on my diet every second day just with soy sauce, tastes heaps better than tuna.

A small amount of low sodium teriyaki sauce drizzled over canned tuna can do wonders. If you like chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, etc., it’s not quite as great but still strikingly comparable. Just make sure you don’t go nuts with the sauce – it’s got sugar so a tablespoon may get you 20 calories with the flavor but a lot can rack up empty calories really quickly, plus even the low sodium variety will add up sodium too if you pour it on heavy.

I often make lean chicken breast with oven or pan roasted vegetables (broccoli, red cabbage, diced onions, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, occasionally snap peas) for a healthier version of a stir fry (over brown jasmine rice on my lifting days but without the added carbs on rest/cardio days) but there are days when I just don’t have the chicken to do it. Canned tuna becomes the quick and easy substitute when needed.

(Important to note, however: I’ve tried mixing the tuna in with the vegetable/brown rice mix but that seems to disperse the low sodium teriyaki sauce to a point where it’s useless. Instead, put the canned tuna out on a plate separate from the vegetable rice bowl, drizzle the sauce over the tuna evenly and take a bite of it, then take a bite of the vegetables and rice after. It gives the tuna the full flavor benefit of the sauce but still allows you to simulate that teriyaki bowl satisfaction).

A Little olive oil, some herpes or spices…some vegetables…Well I described a salat :D

You can mix the tuna with some low fat creme cheese or some low fat Greek yoghurt (watch for added sugar)

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I’m going to make a really weird suggestion: I don’t like fish except salmon. Then I tried canned sardines in oil. They’re actually quite good and not fishy at all. I’d recommend trying to choke them down once. The Calorie count is high for the weight, but they’re very filling due to the protein and fats. I ate them on a 1200 calorie diet.

One of my favorite dishes is a variation of a tuna salad, the ratios are very flexible but would be something like:

1 can tuna 2 large handfuls of spinach, chopped chiffonade 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed (I just rinse them with water and let them drain) 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed Mayonnaise to taste (I tend to add around 2 tbsp to just barely dress the salad)

Mix all of the ingredients together and eat it with corn tortilla chips or tostadas.