The Student Room Group

Help making a weekly meal plan (Getting lean)

After a lot of research I found I should have 2250kcal (200 grams of protein, 205 grams of carbs, 65 grams of fat)

After more research, I found, I need the 'good' kinds of these macronutrients i.e. LEAN protein, COMPLEX (slow digesting) carbs, and HEALTHY (mono/poly-unsaturated fats)

After looking around, I compiled a list of foods in each of these 'categories'
===================================
Lean protein:
-eggs
-chicken
-turkey
-beef
-tuna/salmon
-tofu
-quinoa
==================================
Complex carbs:
-oats
-potatoes
-rice (wholemeal I assume)
-pasta (wholemeal I assume)
bread (wholemeal I assume)
beans (not sure what kind, I assume not baked beans)
==================================
healthy unsaturated fats:
-mono:
---oil (olive/canola/sunflower/peanut/sesame)
---olives
---avocados
---nuts (almonds/peanuts/macadamia/hazelnut/pecan/cashew)
---peanut butter

-poly:
---oil(soybean/corn/safflower)
---walnuts
---seeds(sunflower/sesame/pumpkin)
---flaxseed
---salmon/tuna
---soy milk
==============================


I'm extremely useless with making nutritious meals (or meals in general). Having the list above, I was tempted to just search for simple meals that included ingredients from all 3 categories, then just change the amount so that my macros were met (ending up with a giant meal which I would eat portions of throughout the day).

However, how do I know potatoes (a good complex carb) has bad fats? or eggs have simple (bad) carbs?
Can I really just mix and match these?

If so, do I just add up the carbs/proteins/fats on the info section of these ingredients to see if my macros are met?
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 1
You almost certainly don't need 200g protein.

Supercook.com might be useful to you. You can search recipes by ingredients.

But mostly you are over thinking things. You are not some top bodybuilder so you do not need precise nutrition, just get it mostly right. Meet your macros but don't worry if you are a bit out. Don't worry if you have an off day either. You know what foods are healthy and what aren't, right? Eat mostly healthy foods and vary your diet, don't worry about it beyond that.
Reply 2
Original post by BKS
You almost certainly don't need 200g protein.

Supercook.com might be useful to you. You can search recipes by ingredients.

But mostly you are over thinking things. You are not some top bodybuilder so you do not need precise nutrition, just get it mostly right. Meet your macros but don't worry if you are a bit out. Don't worry if you have an off day either. You know what foods are healthy and what aren't, right? Eat mostly healthy foods and vary your diet, don't worry about it beyond that.


Generally, I've been told a good approx would be 1 gram per lb (i'm 183 and I just averaged this to 200 when looking at bodybuilding.com/ iifym.com etc)

i never really had a healthy diet before so I thought it would be great to sort out a good one (even if it does not exactly match up with my macros).

I know about the food pyramid and everything i wrote in the op in terms of what foods i know are healthy.

If I have some fruit (in the op) as breakfast in the morning, and have my regular meals (meats, fish, milk, veggies, starches like potatoes [not altogether, I'm just mentioning ingredients]) that fill up most of my macros, not only will I meet my macros (get close to it), but I will be eating from all the food groups, and I will be having my 5 a day. Is that not the 'ideal' diet to have?
========================================
I thought I had a decent idea of what was healthy, and I have respect for TED videos, but I found this video very confusing in that it screwed up the entire diet I worked a long time to form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkEYcmCCCk#t=725
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by 00100101
Generally, I've been told a good approx would be 1 gram per lb (i'm 183 and I just averaged this to 200 when looking at bodybuilding.com/ iifym.com etc)

i never really had a healthy diet before so I thought it would be great to sort out a good one (even if it does not exactly match up with my macros).

I know about the food pyramid and everything i wrote in the op in terms of what foods i know are healthy.

If I have some fruit (in the op) as breakfast in the morning, and have my regular meals (meats, fish, milk, veggies, starches like potatoes [not altogether, I'm just mentioning ingredients]) that fill up most of my macros, not only will I meet my macros (get close to it), but I will be eating from all the food groups, and I will be having my 5 a day. Is that not the 'ideal' diet to have?
========================================
I thought I had a decent idea of what was healthy, and I have respect for TED videos, but I found this video very confusing in that it screwed up the entire diet I worked a long time to form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkEYcmCCCk#t=725

There's no scientific basis for 1g per lbs. It's marketing by protein companies that has been repeated enough to become standard gym 'knowledge'. Science says more like 1g per kg.

Don't get caught up on 'ideal'. There's no ideal diet and it's also silly to aim for since a bar of chocolate and a few beers a week aren't ideal but in moderation won't do you any harm but you may well do your own head in trying to eat 'ideal'. But otherwise what you have said is reasonable.



Consulting ted is overthinking it. I'm vegan and have been vegitarian all my life so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask :tongue: I respect that guy's activism- he was involved in making a documentary that has probably led to more people becoming vegan than any other ever. He's very good at not saying 'vegan' (because it makes certain people refuse to listen) but that is what he's arguing for. I CBA watching the video but know his general thing.

Personally, I'd never argue for veganism on healthy grounds because I'm not convinced (and don't even think it's an important argument) and the science just isn't close to there- most things are bits and bob with low sample size. However, most people don't eat enough plants. A lot of people eat too much meat (especially red). Most people eat to much cholesterol (which only comes from animal products). He does have a point, he's just taking it further than I think there's necessarily a basis for.

He is also just talking about eating good cooked from starch and eating whole foods. The idea is a vegan diet means less junk/high sugar/high salt/high bad fats/ full of unpronounceable crap. That's not true any more, there's loads of vegan junk food. But eating food you cook from scratch and whole foods is healthy.
Reply 4
Original post by BKS
There's no scientific basis for 1g per lbs. It's marketing by protein companies that has been repeated enough to become standard gym 'knowledge'. Science says more like 1g per kg.

Don't get caught up on 'ideal'. There's no ideal diet and it's also silly to aim for since a bar of chocolate and a few beers a week aren't ideal but in moderation won't do you any harm but you may well do your own head in trying to eat 'ideal'. But otherwise what you have said is reasonable.

Consulting ted is overthinking it. I'm vegan and have been vegitarian all my life so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask :tongue: I respect that guy's activism- he was involved in making a documentary that has probably led to more people becoming vegan than any other ever. He's very good at not saying 'vegan' (because it makes certain people refuse to listen) but that is what he's arguing for. I CBA watching the video but know his general thing.

Personally, I'd never argue for veganism on healthy grounds because I'm not convinced (and don't even think it's an important argument) and the science just isn't close to there- most things are bits and bob with low sample size. However, most people don't eat enough plants. A lot of people eat too much meat (especially red). Most people eat to much cholesterol (which only comes from animal products). He does have a point, he's just taking it further than I think there's necessarily a basis for.

He is also just talking about eating good cooked from starch and eating whole foods. The idea is a vegan diet means less junk/high sugar/high salt/high bad fats/ full of unpronounceable crap. That's not true any more, there's loads of vegan junk food. But eating food you cook from scratch and whole foods is healthy.



If I went by 1g per kilo (83g ~ 100g for simplicity), where does the rest of the calories from the other 100 grams of proteins go? into carbs? i.e.

protein=100g
carbs=305g
fat-65g
?
protein and carb wise, this kind of goes against what other people say on bodybuilding websites :confused:

One of the main things I dislike about my journey in trying to get lean and have some strength is the large amount of contradictions i see between people during my search; the added annoyance of bro science; and possible misunderstanding of published scientific experiments as well as scientific experiments with a flawed methodology. There is probably an ideal amount of protein/carbs/fats for to maximize muscle making/losing fat (and likely similar to stats that, for me maximizes this, despite not knowing it), but all this confusion just clouds everything in grey. I can't trust anyone :frown:

My main goal from this thread is to have a good healthy diet (which I want to help me with losing fat and gaining muscle), I'm not sure how I can get this without over thinking what to eat.

would you say the below assumptions are correct?

maximize muscle making/fat loss = follow macros (roughly)
healthy diet = get variety of food by eating from various food groups (don't overdo on the meat as you put it) and having 5 a day

therefore

healthy diet that maximize muscle making/fat loss= eating from various food groups (don't overdo on the meat) and having 5 a day and follow macros (roughly)
Reply 5
Original post by 00100101
If I went by 1g per kilo (83g ~ 100g for simplicity), where does the rest of the calories from the other 100 grams of proteins go? into carbs? i.e.

protein=100g
carbs=305g
fat-65g
?
protein and carb wise, this kind of goes against what other people say on bodybuilding websites :confused:

One of the main things I dislike about my journey in trying to get lean and have some strength is the large amount of contradictions i see between people during my search; the added annoyance of bro science; and possible misunderstanding of published scientific experiments as well as scientific experiments with a flawed methodology. There is probably an ideal amount of protein/carbs/fats for to maximize muscle making/losing fat (and likely similar to stats that, for me maximizes this, despite not knowing it), but all this confusion just clouds everything in grey. I can't trust anyone :frown:

My main goal from this thread is to have a good healthy diet (which I want to help me with losing fat and gaining muscle), I'm not sure how I can get this without over thinking what to eat.

would you say the below assumptions are correct?

maximize muscle making/fat loss = follow macros (roughly)
healthy diet = get variety of food by eating from various food groups (don't overdo on the meat as you put it) and having 5 a day

therefore

healthy diet that maximize muscle making/fat loss= eating from various food groups (don't overdo on the meat) and having 5 a day and follow macros (roughly)

You're a noob right? Right now you're not going to know much and that's fine because you start off knowing a reasonable amount to stop you doing stupid things then learn as you go. This is good because as you get more advanced you need to be more precise to make progress which requires knowing more.

Just now you can get away with knowing less and still make progress which is why you can not worry about it. You might eventually decide that you do better on low carb or high carb but the fact you don't know that now doesn't matter. It's like a running before you can walk thing.

I wouldn't worry too much about where the rest of the calories go from not eating 200g protein. You can eat it all as protein really if you want, there's just no need. I think it's more useful to get into the habit of eating the right amount of calories and eating healthy before you start worrying about precise macros. Remember fat isn't the enemy, if it weren't for fitting in variety eating 5 avocados a day wouldn't do you any harm.


Your assumptions, yes. I'd say more day 5 a day minimum. In Canada it's much higher, I assume they say 5 because people feel it is achievable but more veg is always good.


You know the extent to which you can gain muscle and loose fat is limited? It's body recomposition which isn't too hard if you are a noob and have a fair bit of fat to start with but it becomes increasingly difficult which is why people bulk and cut- though some people do it slower/gentler/in smaller cycles than others.

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