High Calorie Lunch Ideas: How to Build a Quick, Compact One

A high calorie lunch is a midday meal of about 600 to 1,000 calories, built from calorie-dense foods so it stays a normal size. Start with a starchy base, add a fat layer such as olive oil, cheese, nut butter or avocado, then a dense topping. Tuna mayo and cheddar on two thick slices of bloomer comes to 725 calories.

That sandwich, added up: 100g crusty bloomer (245) + 100g drained tuna (110) + 30g mayonnaise (205) + 40g cheddar (165) = 725 calories and about 45g of protein, in 270g of food. Every lunch on this page is worked out the same way, from the weights shown and the per-100g values in McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods (CoFID 2021), rounded to the nearest 5.

Lunch is the meal most people get least from. It has to travel, it competes with work, and a huge plate at midday can leave you heavy all afternoon. The fix is food that carries more calories per mouthful, and most of that comes down to fat, at about 9 calories per gram against roughly 4 for carbohydrate or protein. For the principle behind it, see calorie-dense foods.

How many calories should a high calorie lunch have?

Aim for 600 to 1,000 calories if you are trying to eat more, against the 600 that Public Health England's 400-600-600 rule of thumb suggests for an adult's lunch. That guide was written to help people cut back, so if you are gaining weight or training hard, treat 600 as a starting point.

Density matters as much as the number. McCance and Widdowson's averages for shop-style sandwiches on white bread run from 163 calories per 100g for ham salad to 282 for cheddar and pickle, so a 200g sandwich carries roughly 325 to 565. The homemade sandwiches below reach 530 to 655 in about the same size, because they carry more fat. When you do buy lunch, the front of a UK pack shows energy as a percentage of the 2,000 calorie reference intake: 25% is 500 calories, 35% is 700.

How do you make a lunch higher in calories?

Layer it: a starchy base, a fat layer, a dense topping, and a drink that carries a few hundred more. Fat is the lever, and step 2 is where most of the calories arrive.

Step 1: choose a calorie-dense base

Start with bread, pasta, rice or potato rather than salad leaves. Two thick 50g slices of crusty bloomer are about 245 calories, 75g of dried pasta about 255, and a 200g baked potato about 195. The base sets your floor.

Step 2: add a fat layer, this is where the calories are

This single step usually adds the most. A 14g tablespoon of olive oil is about 125 calories, 15g of mayonnaise about 105, half an avocado (70g of flesh) about 120, 30g of cheddar about 125, and a 16g tablespoon of peanut butter about 95. Two tablespoons of olive oil come to about 250 calories and fit in an egg cup.

Step 3: finish with a calorie-dense topping or side

Add nuts, seeds, houmous, pesto or dried fruit. A 30g handful of cashews is about 170 calories, 30g of pumpkin seeds about 170, 30g of houmous about 90, 15g of pesto about 65 and 30g of dried apricots about 55. Two of the nut or seed options together add a third of a 1,000 calorie lunch.

Step 4: add a drink that carries calories

A 200ml glass of whole milk is about 130 calories, and a shake of 300ml whole milk, 30g oats, a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter comes to about 485. For recipes, see high calorie drinks and smoothies.

What are some quick high calorie lunch ideas?

Six lunches, each with weights and a total. Adjust portions to your appetite.

• Loaded sandwich, about 805 calories: 100g crusty bloomer (245), 15g mayonnaise (105), half an avocado (120) and 40g cheddar (165), with 30g cashews on the side (170).
• Cold pesto pasta, about 705 calories: 90g dried pasta (310) tossed with 14g olive oil (125), 30g green pesto (125), 50g feta (125) and 80g cherry tomatoes (20). It is better the next day, so make it the night before.
• Jacket potato with the works, about 715 calories: a 250g baked potato (240) with 15g butter (110), 50g grated cheddar (210) and 50g houmous (155).
• Tomato soup and a buttered roll, about 800 calories: a 400g tin of cream of tomato soup (205) with 30g double cream stirred in (150), an 80g crusty roll (210) with 15g butter (110) and 30g cheddar (125). More ways to load a bowl are in the high calorie soup recipes.
• A salad done properly, about 940 calories: 50g leaves (5), 150g cooked couscous (265), half an avocado (120), 30g pumpkin seeds (170), 50g feta (125), 100g chickpeas (130) and a 14g tablespoon of olive oil in the dressing (125). Salad is only low calorie if you build it that way.
• No-cook desk lunch, about 745 calories: a 75g white pitta (190) with 75g houmous (230), 30g cashews (170), 40g dried apricots (75) and a 100g banana (80). It packs flat.

To go all the way to 1,000, the 1,000 calorie meals page has four lunches that get there. For the morning, see high calorie breakfast ideas.

High calorie sandwich ideas

A high calorie sandwich starts with two 40g slices of bread (175 calories) and gets the rest from fat in the filling. Six fillings, with totals that include the bread:

• Tuna melt: 100g tuna, 30g mayonnaise and 40g cheddar, toasted. About 655 calories.
• Chicken, bacon and avocado: 100g roast chicken, a 25g rasher of grilled bacon, half an avocado and 15g mayonnaise. About 645.
• Egg mayonnaise: two boiled eggs (110g), 30g mayonnaise, and 10g butter on the bread. About 610.
• Peanut butter and banana: 40g peanut butter, a 100g banana and 15g honey. About 545.
• Falafel pitta: a 75g pitta instead of the bread, 100g falafel and 50g houmous. About 535.
• Cheddar and pickle: 60g cheddar, 10g butter and 20g pickle. About 530.

The dietitians at St George's Hospital give the same advice in their weight-gain recipe leaflet: use richer spreads such as mayonnaise, pesto, houmous, cream cheese or peanut butter, and add fillings like egg, cheese or oily fish.

High calorie lunches for work

The best work lunches are cold, packable and dense, so they survive a bag, a desk and a morning without a microwave. A few habits help:

• Build around food that is good cold: pasta salads dressed with oil and pesto, wraps, sandwiches on sturdy bread, couscous and boiled eggs.
• Pack the fat separately when it would make bread soggy. A small pot with 30g of peanut butter adds about 180 calories at your desk.
• Take care with rice. NHS advice is to refrigerate cooked rice within an hour and eat it within 24 hours, so make rice lunches the night before, not on Sunday for the whole week.
• Keep a no-fridge backup in your drawer for days lunch gets squeezed out: oatcakes and a jar of nut butter, a bag of nuts, or a calorie-dense bar. One Phoenix Bars customer, an ultra runner and lorry driver, wrote that they "help me stop buying service station food."

Which high calorie lunches are best for weight gain?

For weight gain, pick lunches that combine 600 calories or more with a good serving of protein, so the extra calories come with it. Of the lunches above, the tuna melt (about 42g of protein), the chicken, bacon and avocado sandwich (about 41g) and the salad done properly (about 36g) do both. Weight gain still comes down to the daily total, so lunch is one part of the plan: how to gain weight covers the whole day, and bulking meals has bigger plates for heavy training.

What can you eat for a high calorie lunch when you fill up fast?

If a full lunch is too much in one sitting, make the calories smaller in volume and easier to get down rather than pushing through. Choose dense-but-small foods, lean on liquids, and split lunch into two short sittings an hour apart instead of one big plate.

Drink part of your lunch, since a shake or a mug of soup goes down when a sandwich will not. Put the fat in early, because a spoon of nut butter or a slice of cheese adds calories without bulk. For more on why this happens, see why you get full so fast.

Keeping a compact option to hand helps on the days a meal feels like a mountain, and it is the problem Phoenix Bars were designed around. Each Phoenix Bar has up to 557 calories in only 120g, is vegan and gluten-free, and can be stirred into water or milk as a porridge if you would rather eat it soft. Our page on high calorie bars explains the format.

Will a high calorie lunch make you sluggish?

Usually it is the size of the plate rather than the calories that does it. A compact lunch built partly on fat is less food to sit through than a large low-density one with the same calories. Keep the portion sensible, include protein and fat as well as starch, and drink water alongside.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good high calorie lunch?

A good high calorie lunch combines a starchy base, a generous fat layer and a calorie-dense topping, landing around 600 to 1,000 calories. A loaded sandwich (about 805), cold pesto pasta with feta (about 705) or a jacket potato with cheese and houmous (about 715) all get there without a huge plate.

How do I add calories to my lunch without making it bigger?

Add fat, because it carries more than twice the calories of the same weight of carbohydrate or protein. A tablespoon of olive oil, a tablespoon of nut butter, a 30g slice of cheese or half an avocado each adds roughly 95 to 125 calories, and two tablespoons of olive oil about 250, with very little extra volume.

Is 650 calories a lot for lunch?

For an average adult it is a little above the 600 calories in Public Health England's 400-600-600 guide, so a fairly normal lunch. If you are trying to gain weight or you train hard, 650 is about right for a main meal.

What is a high calorie vegan lunch?

Peanut noodles with 250g cooked rice noodles, 40g peanut butter, 10g sesame oil and 100g fried tofu come to about 825 calories. A wrap of a 64g tortilla, 50g houmous, 15g tahini, 100g falafel and half an avocado is about 730. Nuts, seeds, oils, avocado and tahini do most of the work.

Are high calorie lunches unhealthy?

Not by definition. Calorie density describes how many calories a food holds for its weight, not its quality. Nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado, oily fish and wholegrains are all calorie-dense, and every lunch above can be built from whole, minimally processed foods.

Related guides

For smaller bites, see high calorie snacks. For the evening, see high calorie dinner, and for the method behind any meal, high calorie meals. For liquid options, see high calorie drinks and smoothies. For the porridge method and how to eat a bar, see how to use Phoenix Bars.

Sources: McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2021 (Public Health England); Public Health England, 400-600-600 guidance (March 2018); NHS, Starchy foods and carbohydrates; St George's Hospital, Recipes for weight gain; Department of Health and FSA front-of-pack labelling guidance.

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Updated October 2026: every lunch recalculated from McCance and Widdowson values with weights shown, plus new sections on sandwiches, work lunches and weight gain. James answers every email himself at jfrost@flaming-phoenix.co.uk.