Most vegetables are fairly modest in calories as well. What I've been trying to do lately is stack my meals as follows:
200-300 calories from a protein source. I tend to use tofu, tempeh, nuts, beans. Meat eaters should choose fish (from what I hear fish is excellent overall) or chicken -- but then again I'm not an expert on that subject =D
Then use a considerable amount of vegetables alongside of your protein -- Pan-frying broccoli florets in 1-2tbsp of olive oil comes out great every time. If you like your broccoli less crunchy then cover the pan while it cooks.
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-b...grams=78.0
27 calories per cup of chopped broccoli! This is an excellent filler.
You will want to take in whole grains as well, but try and limit the portion as grains/breads are calorie dense. You don't need to have these at every meal portion either. Sometimes I choose to make a meal with just protein/veggies.
Browse around for low calorie options, it isn't as difficult as you think. Nearly a month ago I was in a completely different mindset about low-calorie until I read a good portion of the hacker's diet and it made sense. Once I applied it to my lifestyle the changes were almost instantaneously realized.
The other thing that I agree with the hacker's diet is that you shouldn't use exercise to "lose weight", but instead exercise to be healthier. I won't go into extreme detail as to why; it's already written down in that link I sent previously, but essentially the amount of non-stop exercise required daily to burn a minimal to moderate amount of calories is likely far less than enough to make a major difference.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/SM00109
This is a list of various exercises and how many calories you might expect to burn performing them.
In my opinion: it's easier (and less time consuming) to eat 500+ calories less each day than it is to burn 500 calories off via exercise.
So do I not exercise? No, I still exercise at my job (I'm on my feet a lot) and at home through situps/crunches/light pushups etc, but I don't do these activities to lose the weight.
3500 calories is roughly the equivalent to a pound in fat weight. If you cut 500 calories from your "maintenance calorie count" each day then within a week you will lose a pound; without getting scientific and technical it really is pretty much this simple.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Is a tool to find your daily caloric needs for weight maintenance, fat loss, and extreme fat loss. From there you can plan how big (calorie wise) to make your meals.