Hello everyone. I have done well exercising and have gotten fairly good results. I've tried the whole 5 meal a day thing and can't really do it with my extremely busy schedule. I have changed what I eat and drink very much with good results. Can anyone help me come up with a simple and relatively inexpensive meal plan that will fall below 1900 calories? I'm not very picky, I just need help creating 2 or 3 variations that I can swap between so I don't get bored. I eat out a lot due to lunch meetings but I try to get the healthiest thing on the menu. Currently, I weight train for an hour 3 days a week, very soon I will start doing much more cardio and will probably do cardio on M, W and F, with weight training on Tue and Thurs. Obviously at that point my nutrition needs will also change. I'd greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Sport Help with a good meal plan.
- Thread starter Bigdawg
- Start date
Sport Fitness
I wont tell you what to do, but this is what I do, feel free to use my method or adapt one similar if you feel it'll help you out.
Most of all it's ESSENTIAL to 'Plan' ... I plan what to eat for three or four days. (I use a calorie calculator with all the foods I eat already, I then make up simple meal plans for each day). I then write my meals down on post it notes and stick them above where I cook, and then simply rotate between them, day one, two, three and four... easy. This saves me LOTS of time!
When I work I cook all my next days meals when I get home from work. So whilst I cook my evening meal/s, I also cook three meals for the next day. I then refrigerate the meals and either eat them cold, or warm them up as required. On a bad day I spend an hour in the kitchen, but most days it takes me all of thirty minutes to cook four meals all at once!
Every meal has Carbs, Protein and a little fat... (I know my own macro breakdown and already have that set up on the calorie calculator). But if I didn't have a calorie calculator and was not following a macro nutrient breakdown I would use the 2 parts/serving carbs per meal and one part/serving protein, fats minimal - zero per serving rule, split across how ever many meals I needed, so depending on what I was doing it would work out like this, bulking (6-8 meals), maintaining (4-5 meals) or cutting (4-5 meals).
1900 cals per day could easily be made to spread across 4 decent meals or 4-5 medium size meals. You just need to sit down for an hour or so and plan it all out. That really is the hard part, planning!
Most of all it's ESSENTIAL to 'Plan' ... I plan what to eat for three or four days. (I use a calorie calculator with all the foods I eat already, I then make up simple meal plans for each day). I then write my meals down on post it notes and stick them above where I cook, and then simply rotate between them, day one, two, three and four... easy. This saves me LOTS of time!
When I work I cook all my next days meals when I get home from work. So whilst I cook my evening meal/s, I also cook three meals for the next day. I then refrigerate the meals and either eat them cold, or warm them up as required. On a bad day I spend an hour in the kitchen, but most days it takes me all of thirty minutes to cook four meals all at once!
Every meal has Carbs, Protein and a little fat... (I know my own macro breakdown and already have that set up on the calorie calculator). But if I didn't have a calorie calculator and was not following a macro nutrient breakdown I would use the 2 parts/serving carbs per meal and one part/serving protein, fats minimal - zero per serving rule, split across how ever many meals I needed, so depending on what I was doing it would work out like this, bulking (6-8 meals), maintaining (4-5 meals) or cutting (4-5 meals).
1900 cals per day could easily be made to spread across 4 decent meals or 4-5 medium size meals. You just need to sit down for an hour or so and plan it all out. That really is the hard part, planning!
to be honest, eating cost money no matter what. but if you are struggling to do the 5 meals a day. i would say have meal replacement shakes. because you want to keep you body anabolic (building) and not starving or being to filled up in one go. also when you eat food to have a great body you shouldn really worry about what foods are more appealing (getting boring) because this will only get in the way of you having a proper diet. so the best thing i'd say for you is to have 3 small meals in the day with 2 meal replacement shakes. so you don't have to worry about struggling to eat because of your busy schedule. so an example would be breakfast: bowl of cereal, maybe bannana. morning tea: small protein shake. lunch: sandwich, spaghetti, pasta..(low gi foods) afternoon tea: small protein shake. dinner: steak steamed veggies. lots of water during the day aswell. just one thing, if you left your body starve it slows down your metabolism in the long run. and for someone who exercises like you, you will become alot more hungry then usual. T D
Great advice! Thanks. My worry about meal replacement shakes is that it may be too much protein on days I don't workout. Also, in a meal replacement shake, how much protein should it contain? and I hate using water, so will using milk truly screw things up? I use fat free/skim and lactose free milk.
Currently, I have a large bowl of kashi cinnamon harvest for breakfast with skim lactose free milk, lunch usually is a sandwich on whole wheat bread with mustard and turkey. dinner is usually random and is often less healthy and is sort of thrown togeher at times. snacks at times mentioned above are kashi whole grain chewy granola bars.
on the nutritional info on the protein supplement. there are some that are pure protein or mix of carbs and protein. you want the mixed one so you don't put to much protein in your diet in one hit. now as long as you don't have a big shake the amount of protein in the shake should be fine. your body needs at least 1g (x) your body weight. and more if your training. so 2 (small) protein shakes in your diet should help alot even on your non workout days. it is only to keep your body from starving and helping your deit to have sufficent protein to build your muscles. on your non workout days you don't need to have the protein shakes if you don't want to. because your body won't need as much carbs or protein since your not exercising. and with the milk issues, only have milk in your protein shake if you just exercised before hand so you flush the energy back into your muscles. but you only half a one hour window to have this shake after your exercise. but if you havn't worked out just use water. Tony D
Thanks for the info. when I used to drink protein shakes, it had 24 grams of protein per 8 ounce serving and I usually drank 8 ounces with milk, I think I would be ok drinking it with water, just gotta adjust to the taste. I won't have it on non work out days to make it easy n myself. I think this will be good since usually on my work out days, I'm hungry all day even if I've eaten.on the nutritional info on the protein supplement. there are some that are pure protein or mix of carbs and protein. you want the mixed one so you don't put to much protein in your diet in one hit. now as long as you don't have a big shake the amount of protein in the shake should be fine. your body needs at least 1g (x) your body weight. and more if your training. so 2 (small) protein shakes in your diet should help alot even on your non workout days. it is only to keep your body from starving and helping your deit to have sufficent protein to build your muscles. on your non workout days you don't need to have the protein shakes if you don't want to. because your body won't need as much carbs or protein since your not exercising. and with the milk issues, only have milk in your protein shake if you just exercised before hand so you flush the energy back into your muscles. but you only half a one hour window to have this shake after your exercise. but if you havn't worked out just use water. Tony D