The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid is a tool that helps guide you toward eating a balanced, nutritious diet while achieving a healthy weight.

Vegetables and fruits, the foundation of the pyramid, should be your focus. These foods are low in energy density. That means you can eat a lot of them because they don't contain a lot of calories. As you go up the pyramid, the food groups become higher in energy density — they have more calories for their volume. To lose weight, you should limit how many servings of these foods you eat.

The number of servings for each food group is determined by your daily target calorie level. If your target is 1,200 calories, your meal plan should include four or more servings of vegetables, three servings of protein/dairy and three fat servings.

This sample menu for a day follows the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid. The sample shows you how to fit in servings from each category in the pyramid without going over 1,200 calories. You can adjust the menu to suit your own tastes and calorie needs.

If you feel hungry while following the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid, reach for more fruits and vegetables to snack on. Just make sure your fruit is either fresh or canned in water or juice — and that you pour off the liquid before eating.