Meal plans

[Insane Titan]

Anyone here stick to a good meal plan with a solid diet?

What does it consist of?

Just generally through in your thoughts and knowledge on the subject please.

[Upper_Krust]

Anyone here stick to a good meal plan with a solid diet?

What does it consist of?

Just generally through in your thoughts and knowledge on the subject please.

What are you trying to do? Lose weight or bulk?

My current diet is probably a bit crap but I will be doing a cutting month in September that will (most days) probably look like:

Weetabix Protein w. Skimmed Milk
Lean Chicken and/or Turkey + Rice
A low fat Microwave Meal* (variable: Chicken/Pasta; Hunter's Chicken; Spaghetti Meatballs; Chicken Chow Mein etc.)
Protein Shake (generally after training)
(More) Chicken + Baked Potato

Snacks: Fresh Fruit, Snack A' Jacks (small pack), any Chicken Leftovers, the occasional Protein Bar.

*Assuming the listed stats are accurate these are pretty good.

I'm hoping to lose at least half a stone (7 lbs) in that month (which should equate to a drop of about 3.5% bodyfat for me. Taking me back to around 13% bf for me. ie. Six Pack Territory.

It would make sense to replace the Weetabix with Oatmeal but I used to mix Peanut Butter (large spoonful) + Fruit & Nuts + Cinnamon into my Oatmeal (tasted great) but then found out the nuts were giving me mouth ulcers every week. So that put me off it and Oatmeal just tastes too plain without them.

[g-train]

Been a billion years; asked a similar question back in the day.

BLT made up a plan that was based around chicken,  tuna-fish, cheese etc.....lots of protein.

Probably still got it some where.

[Clock]

Anytime I hear meal plan I think back to college. There was lots of Chic-Fil-A.

[nu-safado]

My diet is obviously based on blood sugar control bit over the last few months I've been heavily loading up on as many greens as possible and small proteins; usually cheaper stuff like eggs, chicken, ground beef, and such that's easy to prepare and not too pricey.

I'm starting to use vegetable smoothies and I'm getting results.

As for supplements - availibility and price is a big concern but a protein shake is enough for me. I don't trust creatine on my kidneys - bcaa's are fine.

I'm loving vitamin and mineral supplementation and using it wherever possible and getting more educated about them recently.

Diet wise I try to plan 3 solid meals with a shake after each training session. Whenever I'm hungry, I throw lettuce and a (very)little salad dressing into a bowl to get it out of my system or a few tomatoes in an impromptu salad.

Diet is boring but lately I'm finding that the greener the better and getting enough protein isn't that hard if I'm just on schedule every day

[Not BAMF]

If you're just interested in losing weight, only calories matter. 1700 calories in fudge pops is the same as 1700 calories in lettuce and carrots. The nutrition for your body is shittier, but they'll have the same impact on your weight.

As long as you can dedicate yourself to counting calories, you can lose weight.

[Clock]

Could somebody even get down 1700 calories of lettuce and carrots?

[Animalia]

If you're just interested in losing weight, only calories matter. 1700 calories in fudge pops is the same as 1700 calories in lettuce and carrots. The nutrition for your body is shittier, but they'll have the same impact on your weight.

As long as you can dedicate yourself to counting calories, you can lose weight.

Yeah but what kind of weight would you be losing?

[g-train]

Anyone here stick to a good meal plan with a solid diet?

What does it consist of?

Just generally through in your thoughts and knowledge on the subject please.

You can do that diet that basically cuts out as much bread type products as possible and just focuses on beef, chicken, ham, eggs and veggies with some fruit on the side.

[Insane Titan]

I was more interested if ppl have there own meal plan/how many meals they have a day.

I have around 5-6 meals a day with post workout shake and bedtime shake.

[XerxesTWD]

If you're just interested in losing weight, only calories matter. 1700 calories in fudge pops is the same as 1700 calories in lettuce and carrots. The nutrition for your body is shittier, but they'll have the same impact on your weight.

As long as you can dedicate yourself to counting calories, you can lose weight.

You should actually count the macros. The Protein:Fat:Carb ratio.
If you're lifting and want to build muscle, go harder on protein.
Don't cut carbs too low or you'll be a shithead nobody wants to be around.
Don't cut fat too low because it's crucial for your heart and brain to function correctly.
Don't cut protein too low because if your body can't get it from food, it will get it from your muscle tissue. More muscle tissue means better caloric consumption even at rest.

Figure out what your goals are and what activity you will realistically stick with or ramp up to. Then you can properly choose a meal plan.

People who indulge in food have a harder time with meal plans because they focus on deprivation and then they binge on junk. Keep sugars around, but don't have a lot of them. That will help with your blood sugar, sugar cravings as a whole, and makes it so you don't want to kill yourself because you're eating microwave meals and weetabix protein with skim milk for some reason.

[Upper_Krust]

...don't think I ever bothered to break down macros before so lets see what's what...

1. Weetabix Protein Crunch (est. 50 g) + Skimmed Milk (est. 150 ml)
Fat 13 g + Carbs 30 g + Protein 10 g (cereal)
Fat 0.3 g + Carbs 7 g + Protein 5 g (skimmed milk)

Total: Fat 13.3, Carbs 37, Protein 15

2. Lean Chicken (est. 100 g) + Rice (250 g)
Fat 2 g + Carbs 7 g + Prot 20 g (chicken)
Fat 8 g + Carbs 77 g + Prot 9 g (rice)

Total: Fat 10 g + Carbs 84 g + Protein 29 g

3. Ready Meal (385 g)
Fat 12 g + Carbs 56 g + Protein 23 g

4. Protein Shake (1 1/2 scoops of whey + 50 ml water/150 ml skimmed milk*
Fat 3 g + Carbs 3 g + Protein 30 g (whey)
Fat 0.3 g + Carbs 7 g + Protein 5 g (skimmed milk)

*Incidentally the reason for the water + skimmed milk mix is that I find if you use all skimmed milk its much harder to clean the shaker afterwards.

Total: Fat 3.3 g + Carbs 10 g + Protein 35 g

5. Lean Chicken (est. 250 g) + Baked Potato
Fat 5 g + Carbs 18 g + Prot 50 g
Fat 0.1 g + Carbs 21 g + Prot 5 g

Total: Fat 5.1 g + Carbs 39 g + Protein 55 g

Daily Total: Technically this doesn't include any snacks

Fat = 43.7 g (393 calories)
Carbs = 226 g (904 calories)
Protein = 157 g (628 calories)

Total 426 g = approx. 10% fat; 52% carbs and 36% Protein (total 1925 calories, I think 2400 calories is my break even mark)

Looking at the above I could definitely do with increasing my fats at the expense of my carb intake a bit (part of the problem stemmed from me having to give up nuts). In fact Xerxes may well have a point about Skimmed Milk in this instance - it looks as if switching to whole milk would rectify part of the imbalance.