My First Meal Plan

[TinyBeal]

Hey all,

I just finished my first meal plan and was hoping that you guys could help me refine it.

Stats

Age : 28
Weight : 290lbs
Height : 6'2
BF% 30%
Activity level : High - Training 5-6 days a week, high sets and high reps
Low rest period during low weight, increased rest during higher weight.
Goal is to just drop BF% if I lose a tiny amount of Muscle mass I would not shed a tear.



Doing at least 30 Minutes of Steady State Cardio via Bike or Light Jog on Treadmill Post Workout.

My Calculations based on 40/40/20 left me with a target of 2545 after reducing cals from 3045 which would be maintaining levels.

254.5g Protein
254.5g Carbs
56.5g Fats

Broken down further divided by 6 looks like

42.42g Protein / Meal
42.42g Carbs / Meal
9.4g Fats / Meal

Could someone verify those numbers for me if its not too much trouble?

Almost all of these numbers are taken from another forums list.

Meal 1

1 Whole Egg 85cal / 0c / 7p / 6f
2 Egg Whites 42 / 0 / 10 / 0
1/2 Cup Oats 150 / 27 / 5 / 2.5
1 Cup Strawberry 46 / 11 / 1 / 0

473 Cals
43g Carbs
48g Protein
11.5g Fat

Meal 2
1 Chicken Breast 150 / 0 / 28 / 3
1/2 Baked Potato 139 / 31.5 / 3.5 / 0
1 Cup Spinach 48 / 7 / 6 / 1

337 Cals
38.5g C
37.5g P
4g F <---- Supplement it here? / Add more?

Meal 3

1 Turkey Breast 135 / 0 / 30 / 1
1/2 Cup Brown Beans 170 / 30 / 6 / 2.5
1 Cup Broccoli 41 / 7 / 4 / 0

346 Cal
37g C
40g P
3.5g F

Meal 4
3.5oz Extra Lean Ground Beef 230 / 0 / 28 / 12
1/2 Cup Brown Beans 170 / 30 / 6 / 2.5
1 Cup Broccoli 41 / 7 / 4 / 0

441 Cal
37g C
38g P
14.5g F

Meal 5
Pork Tenderloin 3.5oz 173 / 0 / 28 / 6
1/2 Baked Potato 139 / 31.5 / 3.5 / 0
Asparagus Spears (8) 26 / 4 / 2 / 0
1 Cup Spinach 48 / 7 / 6 / 1

386 Cal
42.5g C
39.5g P
7g F

Meal 6 (I would probably put this either Pre or Post work out rather than last meal of the day) This a good idea?

2oz Dry Whole Wheat Pasta 198 / 40 / 8 / 1
1/2 Cup Classico Red Sauce 50 / 8 / 2 / 1
3.5oz Extra Lean Ground Beef 230 / 0 / 28 / 12

478 Cal
48g C
38g P
14g F

1 Shake Before Bed

200 Cals
15g Carbs
22g Protein
6g Fat


Final Numbers

2627 Calories
261g Carbs
263g Protein
58.5g Fats

Thoughts?

[SlimmerMe]

Welcome! and kudos to you for starting out with a photo! This forum will certainly help you tweak what you are doing. I have a question. Could you trade the strawberries for raspberries? every little bit helps and raspberries have less of an insulin spike which is what we are after.

Also, what kind of time frame do you want to do this in? Setting a specific reasonable goal helps to stay on track. And will you be posting up a daily log? hope so. This helps a lot too.

Good luck to you!

[Tron3219]

Just a quick thought, try to keep a majority of it carbs post workout, and preworkout (a little less then post). Try to stay away from carbs throught the day, breakfast being the possible exception. Split your cardio and strength training. Even if u have to drop weights to 3 days a week, use compound lifts that strengthen the whole body. Also, I'd consider lifting heavy with low reps. You shouldn't need to b in the gym more then about an hour. But, all in all, looks good for a starting diet. If you want something more aggressive, u can drop ur carbs and a lower level and raise protein and fat slightly on cardio days and keep them how u have them on lifting days. Diet approaches to look into include carb cycling, intermittent fasting, and keto (which I don't recommend). But it's all depending on how ur body reacts. But what u have is a pretty good starting point. Oh yeah, personally, I'd stay away from pork as well

-TroN

[Soar]

I see a beast in the making! Good luck mate, looks like you have some solid grounds to work on.

[--->>405<<---]

tiny good work man. the numbers line up!

dont worry about supplementing fat at this point. IMO if u stick to the above diet u will see progress. we can go from there if/when ur progress slows. i have learned its actually better to not micro-manage ur diet too much in the beginning, otherwise itll be harder to find areas to change down the road.

run what u have and log here. we'll see how ur results go and help u make the necessary changes along the way!

personally id lift no more than 5 days per week and hit cardio 6 days per week. give urself an off day.

now get to work!

[TinyBeal]

Just a quick thought, try to keep a majority of it carbs post workout, and preworkout (a little less then post). Try to stay away from carbs throught the day, breakfast being the possible exception. Split your cardio and strength training. Even if u have to drop weights to 3 days a week, use compound lifts that strengthen the whole body. Also, I'd consider lifting heavy with low reps. You shouldn't need to b in the gym more then about an hour. But, all in all, looks good for a starting diet. If you want something more aggressive, u can drop ur carbs and a lower level and raise protein and fat slightly on cardio days and keep them how u have them on lifting days. Diet approaches to look into include carb cycling, intermittent fasting, and keto (which I don't recommend). But it's all depending on how ur body reacts. But what u have is a pretty good starting point. Oh yeah, personally, I'd stay away from pork as well

-TroN

TroN, What I've built this around was a Pro/Carb approach, I read quite a bit on a bunch of topics and I like the idea of having consistent energy throughout the day. I have a terrible time when I am low on energy / feeling fatigued. Not just in the gym but all aspects of life, work, social etc... Once I get into the lifestyle a bit better I may give the carb cycling a go. As of now I hope to just keep my power gains on the up and up as over the last month I have had a noticeable increase in strength return so I hope to keep that going.

Going to really start using the compound workouts Squats, Deads, Bench gonna go Heavy.

I will post up my logs in this thread as long as people are interested.

Thanks for the support

[Armykid93]

I wish my first meal plan had looked this good. Great work brotha

[TinyBeal]

tiny good work man. the numbers line up!

dont worry about supplementing fat at this point. IMO if u stick to the above diet u will see progress. we can go from there if/when ur progress slows. i have learned its actually better to not micro-manage ur diet too much in the beginning, otherwise itll be harder to find areas to change down the road.

run what u have and log here. we'll see how ur results go and help u make the necessary changes along the way!

personally id lift no more than 5 days per week and hit cardio 6 days per week. give urself an off day.

now get to work!

I'm going to lift as much as my body allows me to. By that I mean if I feel tired in the slightest I will give that body part an extra day to rest and recover. I will probably take a day off much like you suggested due to my work schedule.

I am going to be working on a few things (Sleep Schedule, Workout Schedule) on top of this new meal plan.

I will do my best to post my stats and such in this thread so anyone that wishes to can watch my progression.

[Shsm]

Awesome job brother. Stick to this diet and you'll be a beast in no time. I can't wait to see you a few months from now.

[--->>405<<---]

I'm going to lift as much as my body allows me to. By that I mean if I feel tired in the slightest I will give that body part an extra day to rest and recover. I will probably take a day off much like you suggested due to my work schedule.

tiny i can remember when i started my cut originally. i was so ready to get the fat off me i wouldve lifted 8days a week if i thought itd speed up the process! since then i have learned a fair amount about diet and fat loss.

when u think about how often u are gonna be lifting keep this in mind: fat loss is ur primary goal. as a result of this u will be eating at a caloric deficit. LBM gain is typically done during a caloric SURPLUS.

the main idea for ur lifting program at this point is to preserve LBM (or maybe gain a little depending how active u have been in the recent past). this can be accomplished with less volume than u might think. 5 days per week is more than enuff IMO to maintain what u have as well as work on strength. i too am cutting and i only lift EOD. (7x every 2 weeks).

what ive learned is u need to focus more on ur primary goal (fat loss). this will be done with diet and cardio. the likelihood of u losing LBM right now is pretty low IMO. ur body has plenty of fat to burn for fuel.

when u feel u are able i would highly recommend trying to implement some am fasted cardio. also 30minutes is a good place for u to start but do realize at some point as ur cardiovascular system gets stronger and u start losing fat u are going to have to increase the duration of ur cardio.

tron raised a good point about u focusing ur workouts on big lifts. bench, shoulder press, deads, rows, chins, squat. isolation movements are good for sculpting but ur not there yet and they will not contribute to strength gain or burning cals as much as these above mentioned exercises IMO.

think diet and cardio! thats where ur focus needs to be. dont get me wrong lifting is a crucial component and im not trying to diminish it at all. just keep the lifting in its proper perspective!

[Tron3219]

TroN, What I've built this around was a Pro/Carb approach, I read quite a bit on a bunch of topics and I like the idea of having consistent energy throughout the day. I have a terrible time when I am low on energy / feeling fatigued. Not just in the gym but all aspects of life, work, social etc... Once I get into the lifestyle a bit better I may give the carb cycling a go. As of now I hope to just keep my power gains on the up and up as over the last month I have had a noticeable increase in strength return so I hope to keep that going.

Going to really start using the compound workouts Squats, Deads, Bench gonna go Heavy.

I will post up my logs in this thread as long as people are interested.

Thanks for the support

I understand what your trying to say about the energy thing. Me and 405 discussed that about me when I was considering a fasting approach, after such intense workouts I felt almost hypoglycemic, it was starting to effect my quality of life. But that's when I realized that more is not always better! And I wasn't suggesting you start carb cycling now or fasting right away, my apologies, I should have been more clear. I was just giving you food for thought, things to look into, start learning about now, that way when this diet stalls, which it will eventually, your not stuck in a stall for weeks trying to figure out what else u can do like I was. You will no doubts see results with the diet you've worked up and I commend you for ur efforts!

tiny i can remember when i started my cut originally. i was so ready to get the fat off me i wouldve lifted 8days a week if i thought itd speed up the process! since then i have learned a fair amount about diet and fat loss.

when u think about how often u are gonna be lifting keep this in mind: fat loss is ur primary goal. as a result of this u will be eating at a caloric deficit. LBM gain is typically done during a caloric SURPLUS.

the main idea for ur lifting program at this point is to preserve LBM (or maybe gain a little depending how active u have been in the recent past). this can be accomplished with less volume than u might think. 5 days per week is more than enuff IMO to maintain what u have as well as work on strength. i too am cutting and i only lift EOD. (7x every 2 weeks).

what ive learned is u need to focus more on ur primary goal (fat loss). this will be done with diet and cardio. the likelihood of u losing LBM right now is pretty low IMO. ur body has plenty of fat to burn for fuel.

when u feel u are able i would highly recommend trying to implement some am fasted cardio. also 30minutes is a good place for u to start but do realize at some point as ur cardiovascular system gets stronger and u start losing fat u are going to have to increase the duration of ur cardio.

tron raised a good point about u focusing ur workouts on big lifts. bench, shoulder press, deads, rows, chins, squat. isolation movements are good for sculpting but ur not there yet and they will not contribute to strength gain or burning cals as much as these above mentioned exercises IMO.

think diet and cardio! thats where ur focus needs to be. dont get me wrong lifting is a crucial component and im not trying to diminish it at all. just keep the lifting in its proper perspective!

To OP in regards to what 405 said, this is what I meant by splitting up ur cardio. You don't wanna lift all intensely and then jump on some cardio. I find it quite counter productive, I've done it both ways. If u want to lift and do cardio in the same day, split it up, am and pm. Idk what ur schedule consists of "life wise", but I can't do that. As 405 mentioned, u need to focus on your primary goal of fat loss. I'm cutting as well, and I HATE cardio and LOVE lifting and because cutting is my primary goal I've dropped lifting to 3 days a week. I've switched over to compound movements like discussed. You'd be surprised at how little it takes to maintain strength. Just go in with fierce intensity and hit ur high weighted compound movements and you will keep at least 95% of ur strength.

-TroN