Nutrition: Meal Prep 2

This is a continuation of the previous meal preparation blog and mixes in a little bit of calorie and macro management. Here we will talk about meal timing and quantity.

Calculating Number of Meals Conventional wisdom suggests to eat 5-6 small meals a day. I generally agree with this but do also recognize that there are various types of dieting and caloric intake methods. Whether it is intermittent fasting, carb cycling, Atkins or Shakeology; as long as you are accountable to some sort of system, I believe you will have results. Beware of gimmicks or "fad dieting". Try to find something that is maintainable for you and make a lifestyle change. I dropped about 10lbs since that post last year and am going to stay lean since summer is approaching (between 180-185lbs). It's purely a personal decision on how to split your calorie count up. Everyone has different daily schedules so certain methods may or may not apply well to your lifestyle. I work a desk job with access to a refrigerator and microwave. I can also choose to workout at lunch or after work if I get busy. Due to my work situation, I can be pretty flexible with my meal count and timing. My method of calculating meal count is based on my protein macro (instead of fats or carbs). Since I'm focused on bodybuilding/aesthetics, it's one of my most important macros to hit. It also is a macro that is hard to exceed. I often find myself trying to limit fats and carbs, looking for foods that are low in these categories. For protein, if I'm being strict and counting every gram, I often have to try to make up protein at the end of the night. So I like to figure out how much protein I need daily and try to split that between 5-6 meals. For those of you trying to drop weight, your total caloric intake is likely the most important macro. Track that and split it in between your chosen number of meals.

Meal Timing Below is the timeline of a typical day of eating and a brief look into the activities between those meals.   Meal #1 8:00am *** Woke up, walked dogs. 1 pinch of Almonds (1/4 cup) 5oz Salmon fillet 2 cups steamed veggies   Meal #2 11:17am *** At work, just out of meeting. 5-6oz Ground Turkey 1-2 cups black beans   Snack #1 2:00pm *** Finished workout during lunch. Protein Shake (Whey mixed with water)     Meal #3 3:16pm *** Still at work. 5oz Salmon fillet 1-2 cups black beans Additional: Nuun tab in water   Meal #4 4:45pm *** Wrapping up at work. 5-6oz Ground Turkey 2 cups steamed veggies Additional: Green Tea in water   Meal #5 8:15pm *** At home or out and about. Bowl of Ramen w/ an egg and a can of tuna added. Example Alternate Dinners/Lunches Repeat Meal #1 or #4 (low carb meal) Meal from my girlfriends prep. Generally some type of tofu dish w/ veggies. Large Texas Tuna Sandwich Lean Lemon Turkey Chicken bowl, stock velvet w/ double veggies instead of rice   Snack #2 10:30pm *** Optional meal, before bed. Boiled Egg Pinch of almonds If short on Protein that day: Protein shake w/ Almond Milk

Considerations This style of eating is not for everybody. Depending on your fitness goals, it may not be ideal for you to use this meal timing. This is just an example of what works for me and my specific goals. I encourage people to research various styles of eating habits and explore what works best for them. Whether it is counting all macros or just carbs or "points". Once you become familiar with your chosen diet system, I believe that you can transition to "free eating" and become less strict with your bean counting. That may not be ideal for those trying to lose lots of weight however. The more you eat your meal prep, the better your results will be. Not everyone can eat steamed veggies and fish all the time so I do like having "cheat" meals. Just don't turn a cheat meal into a cheat day. On weekends if I have some drinks or dinner out, I still will have eaten at least two meals from my meal prep. It's all bout finding a sustainable balance between living life and being healthy. As long as you are eating healthy and exercising more often than you are not, you should still be moving toward a fit physique. Of course the higher percentage of meals you prepare and control yourself, the better your results will be. If you are just starting out with eating healthy, do not try to drastically change your eating habits immediately. Maybe just switch out your lunch for a healthy option initially and slowly expand from there. Read more about that in our Getting Started Blog.

Check back for additional advice and browse our posts regularly for ideas on workouts and nutrition. Good luck! Submitted by Bars

Nutrition: Calories and Macros

1 - CALORIE CALCULATION

I don't usually track my nutrition year-round but when "cutting" (or trying to drop weight in general), it is by far the most effective way to manage your diet. The are many methods out there to calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is basically just a minimum amount of calories your body needs to run. Too many factors go into each method to discuss at length but the system I use is just "guess-timate" at my daily calorie requirements. The way I confirm my estimates are by tracking my nutrition for a couple weeks and seeing how my weight fluctuates. If your weight falls, then you are burning more than you ingested (deficit). If you make gains, then you are in a calorie excess. Cals Per Pound Base calorie per weight calculation. 12-14 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ little extra activity 14-16 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ moderate activity 16-18 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ high activity 18+ kcal/pound - Athlete level Activity Modifier Activity outside of your workouts. x1.2 - Sedentary, no exercise x1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active, light exercise x1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active, regular exercise (3-5 days/week) x1.7-1.8 = Very active, demanding daily routine x1.9-2.2 = Athlete level Weight Direction *** To GAIN weight (bulk): Add 10-20% calories to your total *** To LOSE weight (cut): Subtract 10-20% calories from your total My Maintenance Calculation My weight average is 195lbs. I workout 4-6 days a week (moderate activity). I'm employed as a web developer who sits at a desk all day (sedentary job). BASE CALC: 14-16kcal x 195lbs = 2730-3120 calories MODIFIER CALC: 2730-3120 x 1.2 = 3276-3744 calories Use your judgement to take into account other factors that may modify your calorie estimate (i.e. age, current health, body fat%, etc). As for myself, i'm in my thirties but I still have a somewhat high metabolism so I use a middle ground estimate on my calorie count of 3500cals. Thats about the total amount of calories it takes to maintain my current weight. I generally like just maintaining a healthy, lean weight year-round but the past two winters I did "bulk" on purpose to make some quick size gains. I still ate clean a majority of the time but I didn't allow myself to get hungry at all. I was eating 7-8 meals a day. I calculated my calories for a typical day and it would regularly exceed 4.1k calories. Eating like this during the winter, I put on about 10 lbs of size (peaking at 197lbs). This made sense because I was eating well over my maintenance calorie count. I also cut out cardio during this time. Unfortunately some slop came along with that size too. Since it's summer now and time for the pool, I figured I would try to drop weight as best I can while trying to maintain a little size. I'm at a higher weight and accustomed to eating everything in sight. My first action was to try and break that habit & space out my meals. Moving from about 8 meals a day down to 5-6 meals. I also had to modify the type of nutrition I was consuming. I was eating clean while bulking but I was ingesting a lot of carbs. While dropping weight, I am more carb conscious and tend to go low (or no) carbs from my later meals. I eat a majority of my carbs pre and post workout. And I also aim at a lower overall calorie count of course. My Cutting Calculation I use a median between 10-20% for losing weight to allow myself some wiggle room. 3500 (total) x 15% (cut percent) = 525 calories 3500 - 525 = 2975 calories So for now my target total calories are 3k cals. For my off days (sat/sun) I ingest 90% of my training target (~2.7k).

2 - MACRO CALCULATION

Protein I generally use a standard of 0.8-1.5 grams of protein per pound. To gain muscle, you want to ingest at least 1g/lb or higher. MY PROTEIN CALC (standard based): 195lbs x 0.8-1.5g/lb = 156-292g protein There is also an alternate standard of using a percentage of your total calorie goal to figure out protein. Somewhere between 15-30% of your total calories should be protein. 1g of protein is 4 cals so divide the percentage by four. MY PROTEIN CALC (percentage based): (3200 x 15-30%) / 4 = 120-240g protein I personally aim for about 255g protein per training day (about 1.3g/lb) and try to make sure to eat my current body weight at the very least. Fats I use a standard of 0.4-1.0 grams of fat per pound. While most people try to avoid fat at all costs, your body does need fat to survive. You just don't want an excess of it so I place my ceiling at a gram per pound. Just make sure to not exceed it. MY FAT CALC: 195lbs x 0.4-1.0g/lb = 78-195g fats Carbs This is a really controversial subject for everyone trying to manage their weight. There are many different systems and gimmicks but like with anything you have to ultimately discover what works for you. I use an estimate of 2-3g per pound for carbs. This is for someone that is moderately active. If you are an athlete or someone with an extremely physically taxing job I would go 3+ grams. For people that are not as active you would want to use 2g/lb as a ceiling. MY CARB CALC: 195lbs x 2-3g/lb = 390-585g carbs Since i'm currently cutting, I use 2g/lb as a ceiling and try not to approach 390g of carbs per day. When i'm bulking, it's usually no problem to hit the higher end of this as i'm cramming pasta and rice in my mouth all day.

3 - TRACKING The hardest part of calorie and macro maintenance is tracking your food intake. Some companies (i.e. Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem) make a lot of money by simply making it easier to track your intake or doing it for you. I admit that it sucks. Until you get to your goal weight and fall into a routine of eating that you can upkeep unconsciously, I recommend tracking your nutrition. I personally only do it while cutting and during the summer months just to maintain my abs. While bulking I just eat like crazy. Although I bet that if I tracked my diet while bulking I would likely make cleaner gains instead of having so much slop. I use an iPhone App called: My Macros+ (by Jason Loewy). It's a couple dollars and has a pretty clean interface. The first couple weeks of using any app are a little difficult as you have to enter in the nutritional data for foods that you commonly eat. Once you have most of your regular food items in, it's fairly easy to track each meal. Some apps have large amounts of pre-loaded data for popular foods and restaurants. My goal is to always "eat boring", meaning that I consume a lot of the same foods most of the time during training days. On my off days (weekends) I do open it up a bit and have a cheat meal or two and allow myself to drink alcohol. Whether you use technology or a paper and pen, try to make your best attempt to accurately track your nutrition. Most store or restaurant bought items have nutrition info readily available but home-cooking can be tricky. For home cooked meals I just google search the item and use the nutritional info for the closest recipe. It will give a best guess as to what's in your meal. So it's not an exact science but an educated guess is better than not tracking it at all.

I will post again when I reach my goal in a month or so and also review the workout and supplement changes that occur while cutting. As with anything, this is just advice and it's up to everyone to find out what works for them. Good luck!

Submitted by Bars