Sport Help me arrange my cutting menu

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MarkMyWords

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Hey all, I have been "bulking" for about 10 weeks, and have had mixed results. All things considered, being my first time, I am very pleased. Improvements across the board, as well as looking and feeling better. However, I feel my own lack of discipline with diet may have held me back somewhat. I did not count calories, or really examine my eating. Sometimes I wouldn't know what to eat, and that would either result in bad timing with foods and/or eating not enough.

That's in the past now though. My starting body fat % was 22%, which burned down to just under 20%, and I haven't checked in 5 weeks, but I'm expecting it to be about the same. So I am ready to make a change and get into a cutting cycle. I will be doing 3 full body workouts a week, and cardio. I will have questions about this later, but I feel confident in my skills with these.

So, I realize that diet is the most important factor when cutting so I want to do this right the first time and not have to "guess" what to eat. It is going to suck, but the only way I can really do this is to plan out every single one of my meals, and have it pre-made and ready, with proper portions. My weight is 208 pounds, so by rough calculations (208 x 12 cals = 2496) I need about 2500 calories to be in a respectable caloric deficit. I would like to set up 5 meals a day, with 500 calories in each one. I could really use some help with this, it's kind of like putting a puzzle together for me!

Meal 1:
1/4 cup steel cut oats - 140 calories
2 scoop protein shake - 240 calories
Banana - 120 calories
500 total

Meal 2:
1 cup carrot, 1 cup broccoli - 110 calories
1/2 cup navy beans - 150 calories
8 oz. chicken brst. - 260 calories
520 total

Meal 3:
2 scoop protein shake - 240 calories
Large Apple - 100 calories
3 egg whites - 60 calories
1 tspn. flaxseed oil - 120 calories
520 total

Meal 4:
Red-leaf/Romaine lettuce
8 oz. chicken brst. - 260 calories
1 tspn. olive oil - 120 calories
16 oz. fat-free milk - 160 calories
540 total

Meal 5:
1/2 cup 1% cottage cheez - 80 calories
2 tspn. peanut butter - 180 calories
2 scoop protein shake - 240 calories
500 total

By the way it is now, I have 2,580 calories total, which seems OK.

Any ideas or suggestions are more than welcome! If this all seems wrong, let me know, I want to have it 100% before I start.

With lifting, I'll do full-body, and it seems that 5x5 is reccommended. How many compounds do you usually have in a workout with this set/rep? What is the most amount of cardio I should do, I want to do as much as possible...
 
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A cutting diet should consist mostly of lean protien sources (eggs, meat, fish, nonfat dairy, nuts...) and vegetables and fruits. You might want to keep your starchy carbs (bread, rice, potatoes, oatmeal...) to one serving a day or less. Six small meals a day consisting of a lean protien source and a vegetable or fruit. Add 1/2 grapefruit and/or banana to breakfast for example. Tuna is an quick and easy protien source. Any type of fish is excellent.

A full body workout should consist of at least one lower body exercise. one pushing movement and one pulling movement, but never more than about 6 total compound movements. You might also want to mix up the set and rep schemes throughout the week, for example do 2x12, 3x8, 4x6, 5x5 every 4 workouts.
 
try to eat 6 times a day. with breakfast, you can put blueberries in your oats. buy frozen blueberries(they are cheaper) and warm up your oatmeal then melt the blueberries in your oatmeal while its HOT. blueberies have tons of antioxidants and fiber. they are great for you.

with a salad, you can put peanuts, salmon, turkey(i slice up lunchmeat if i have to), chicken in it. use a olive/canola oil dressing. have plenty of mushrooms, spinache and lettuce in it too. dont forget about brocoli!

try to stay away from simple carbs at night(16 oz. fat free milk). the cottage cheese is great though. i eat my cotage cheese with 2 tbs natural peanutbutter. crunchy :>

MAKE SURE you are geting AT LEAST 1 gram of protein/ pound of bodyweight. looks like your only geting ~ 150g protein in your current diet. you need more protein. i eat at least 200g protien a day (i weigh 149) and im on a 2800 calorie diet.

^^ good luck
 
Hey, thanks for both replies guys, very helpful to me! I am making adjustments here and there, and your insight is much appreciated. I'll post more when I have it updated...
 
I edited my menu, and plugged it into Fitday to see what I'd come up with. The total was 2,587 and the breakdown was as follows. 303 grams of protein, which makes up 48%. 202 grams of carbs, which makes up 27%. 70 grams of fats, which make up 25%. Any suggestions?

Edit, I also take 6 grams of fish oil a day, so that changes the numbers a little bit, but it's still mostly 50/25/25 P-C-F
 
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