FIRST.
Figure out how hardcore you’re going to adjust your diet.
if wanna be hands on keep most what you eat in tact make tiny change, nothing wrong just embrace longer…
Here are a few rules to follow if you want to be lazy:
- First, don’t eat anything. (Not smart.)
- Second, eat mostly Mother Nature’s food.
- Third, drink mostly water and other zero calorie beverages.
- Fourth, eat a bunch of lean proteins.
- Fifth, eat a bunch of non-starchy carbohydrates.
If you don’t want to be lazy (you shouldn’t want to be lazy), then you need to track your food intake a little more aggressively, which you can do by…
SECOND.
Figure out how much you need to eat for fat loss with the following spreadsheet.
Enter your weight (in pounds) into the very yellow highlighted box. Out will pop your recommended macro numbers. I suggest using a conservative deficit with a 50/50 split between fats and carbs, for starters. This is the second second block down from the top with the light peach background. The aqua box is better if you want to eat fewer carbs, but I don’t see a reason to do so, initially.
THIRD.
Hitting your macros on a daily basis is KING. It matters more what WHAT and WHEN you eat. In other words, I don’t care if your protein comes from chicken breast, or if it comes from a mixture of beef and cheese. Likewise, I don’t care if you eat six meals, or if you eat two meals.
With that being said…
FOURTH.
If you’re struggling to create a meal plan out of these numbers, here’s the workflow…
First, identify how many meals you’re going to eat, and when you’re going to eat those meals.
The number of meals you eat isn’t that important. You want your feeding times to be convenient and comfortable, which is why I recommend sticking with whatever you’re currently doing. For instance, if you currently eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then a late-night snack, then stick with that pattern.
In general, you want to avoid unplanned and impulsive feedings. (When I use the word “snack” above, I’m simply referring to a smaller meal.) You should know when you’re going to eat and what you’re going to eat what at the beginning of every day.
If you absolutely need to have an unplanned snack, you want to keep it as low-calorie as possible, which can usually be done by eating vegetables.Â
Second, establish meal composition.
Now that you know when you plan on eating, you can start thinking about what to eat. I compiled a database of worthwhile foods from each macronutrient category. This is by no means an exhaustive list of foods, just a flashlight.
In general, you want every meal (snacks included) to be centered around protein. This is a good place to start. Look at your meals and think about which protein-dense foods would be appetizing and practical.
For instance, if you work a traditional job in an office and you eat lunch, you need something rather portable and easy to prepare. Canned tuna certainly fits the description, but you might not want to skunk your breakroom. Maybe, instead, you cook up a bunch of pulled chicken in your pressure cooker and put it atop rice. Easy to microwave. Not as smelly.
I don’t know.
Here’s what IÂ do know:
This is the hard part. This is the work. You have to experiment with different foods. You have figure out which foods you enjoy eating and how to prepare foods using the time you have at your fingertips.
Third, get specific.
Hopefully, you have some foods you can see yourself eating at each meal (eggs for breakfast, salmon for dinner, etc…). Now you have to get specific and find out how much of these foods you need to eat to respect your macronutrient numbers.
Before I show you how to do this, know that not every meal has to contain the same number of calories. You should delegate your calories across your meals in a way that corresponds with your likes and dislikes. For instance, if you enjoy eating a bigger dinner and you have more time to prep at night, then maybe you should eat smaller meals during the morning and afternoon.
Remember, hitting your macronutrients matters most. And one of the simplest ways to make sure you’re hitting your macros is using a human portion size system. You can read through No Frustration Fat Loss for a more thorough look at this system, but here are the cliffnotes…
Proteins, like meats and fish, can be measured with your palm. In general, there are around 25 grams of protein in one “palm” sized portion of a protein-dense food.
Fats, like nuts, butters, cheeses, and oils, can be measured with your thumb. In general, there are around 10 grams of fat in one “thumb” sized portion of a fat-dense food.
Starchy-sugary carbs, like grains, fruits, and potatoes, can be measured with your hand. In general, there are around 25 grams of carbs in one “cupped handful” of starchy-sugary carbs.
Non-starchy carbs, like vegetables, can be measured with your fist. In general, I don’t even worry about “counting” non-starchy carb intake, for reasons you’ll learn about later.
These “translated” numbers also appear in the spreadsheet I gave you. Using this system you can loosely estimate how much food to eat at each sitting.
FOURTH.
You can eat the same things every day. Most people do, initially. But you can swap foods in and out rather easily using the system above. For instance, let’s say I eat a can of tuna for lunch every day. I’m getting tired of tuna. I want something different. No big deal. I just swap out the tuna for the same amount of a similar protein, like chicken breast, for instance. Or ground turkey. Or pork tenderloin. Or…
FIFTH
From here, consistency is key. Regardless of whether you’re eaitng the same thing or being more varied, still want to hit macros. This is magic.
If do this, good.