Meal plans
Eating well is not complicated, it's just not automatic. This page gives you the rules, your own numbers, and three plans you can start tomorrow.
The six rules
You could read a hundred diet books and they'd boil down to this. Everything that works, from bodybuilders to grandmas in Japan, follows these.
- Protein at every meal. Aim for a palm-sized portion (25–40 g) three or four times a day. Protein builds muscle, keeps you full, and your body burns more calories digesting it than anything else.
- Mostly whole foods. Meat, eggs, dairy, rice, potatoes, oats, fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts. If it has more than five ingredients, or one you can't pronounce, it's a sometimes food. Not never. Sometimes.
- Eat enough, not too much. Most guys your age under-eat protein and over-eat snacks. Your numbers are below. Get close, don't obsess.
- Carbs around training. Rice, potatoes, oats, fruit before and after you train. Your muscles store carbs as fuel; that's where the energy for sprints and heavy sets comes from.
- Water, not calories. Half a gallon to a gallon a day. Soda, juice, and energy drinks are the easiest way to drink 500 calories and still be hungry.
- Same breakfast, same lunch. Decide once. People who eat the same few meals on repeat hit their targets. Variety at dinner, routine the rest of the day.
Build a plate
Use your hand. It scales with your body size, and you always have it with you.
One of each is a regular meal. Two of each is a training-day or bulking meal. If you're trying to lose fat, keep protein and vegetables at two and drop carbs and fats to one.
Your numbers
A calorie is a unit of energy. Your body burns a certain amount a day just existing (your BMR), plus more for moving and training. Eat about that much and you stay the same weight; eat more and you gain; eat less and you lose. The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor formula, the one dietitians use, then adjusts for how active you are and what you're going for.
Calorie and macro calculator
Saving stores your age, height, activity and goal as your body profile and logs today's weight as a weigh-in, the same as on the Track page. Protein is set at 0.8 g per pound of bodyweight, fat at 25% of calories, and carbs fill the rest. These are starting points: weigh yourself once a week, same morning, and if the scale isn't moving the way you want after two weeks, adjust by 200 calories.
Three plans
Each plan is a full week on repeat: same breakfast and lunch every day, two dinners that alternate, plus snacks. Pick the one matching your goal from the calculator, then scale portions up or down to land on your calories. Approximate macros are for the portions written.
Plan A: Maintain and perform (about 2,800 cal · 190 g protein)
For a 160–180 lb guy training 4–5 times a week who wants to feel good, play well, and look lean. Most of you.
| Meal | What | About |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs scrambled, 1 cup oats cooked with milk, a banana, honey on the oats | 750 cal · 40 g P |
| Lunch | 8 oz grilled chicken, 1.5 cups rice, a big handful of spinach or broccoli, hot sauce or salsa | 750 cal · 60 g P |
| Snack | Greek yogurt (1 cup, plain or vanilla) with berries, and a handful of almonds | 400 cal · 25 g P |
| Dinner 1 | 8 oz ground beef (90/10) tacos: 3 corn tortillas, cheese, salsa, lettuce, avocado | 750 cal · 50 g P |
| Dinner 2 | 8 oz salmon or chicken thighs, a baked potato with butter, roasted vegetables in olive oil | 750 cal · 50 g P |
| Before bed | Glass of milk or cottage cheese (optional) | 150 cal · 15 g P |
Plan B: Lean bulk (about 3,300 cal · 200 g protein)
For gaining muscle. Same food as Plan A, bigger carbs, plus a shake. Expect to gain about half a pound a week; if it's more than a pound a week, you're gaining fat too, so pull the extra carbs back.
| Meal | What | About |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs, 1.5 cups oats with milk, banana, 2 tbsp peanut butter | 950 cal · 45 g P |
| Lunch | 8 oz chicken, 2 cups rice, vegetables, drizzle of olive oil | 900 cal · 60 g P |
| Shake | 1 scoop whey, 2 cups milk, a banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter, handful of oats (blend) | 650 cal · 45 g P |
| Dinner | Plan A dinner 1 or 2, plus an extra cup of rice or a second potato | 950 cal · 50 g P |
| Before bed | Cottage cheese or Greek yogurt with honey | 200 cal · 20 g P |
Plan C: Cut (about 2,200 cal · 185 g protein)
For losing fat without losing muscle. Protein stays high, carbs drop, vegetables go up so you stay full. Expect about a pound a week. Keep lifting heavy; that's what tells your body to burn fat and keep the muscle.
| Meal | What | About |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 3 eggs + 3 egg whites scrambled, half a cup of oats, berries | 500 cal · 40 g P |
| Lunch | 8 oz chicken breast, 1 cup rice, two big handfuls of vegetables, salsa | 600 cal · 60 g P |
| Snack | Greek yogurt (nonfat, 1 cup) or a protein shake with water, and an apple | 250 cal · 25 g P |
| Dinner | 8 oz lean beef (93/7), fish, or chicken, a small potato or half a cup of rice, a pile of roasted vegetables | 600 cal · 50 g P |
| Before bed | Cottage cheese | 150 cal · 15 g P |
Grocery list (one week, any plan)
This is roughly $90–130 a week depending on where you shop. Costco, Aldi, or Walmart for the meat and staples cuts it a lot. Buy once a week, same list, and you'll stop deciding what to eat.
| Section | Buy |
|---|---|
| Protein | Chicken breast 4–5 lb · ground beef 2–3 lb · salmon or chicken thighs 2 lb · eggs 2 dozen (3 for Plan C) · Greek yogurt large tub · cottage cheese · milk 1 gallon · whey protein (lasts a month) |
| Carbs | Rice 5 lb bag (lasts weeks) · rolled oats big canister · potatoes 5 lb · corn tortillas · bananas 7 · apples or berries · honey |
| Vegetables | Frozen broccoli and mixed vegetables (cheap, no waste) · bag of spinach · lettuce · onions · peppers · avocados |
| Fats and flavor | Olive oil · butter · peanut butter · almonds · shredded cheese · salsa · hot sauce · salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, cumin |
The cheapest protein you can buy
Protein per dollar is the number that matters when you're buying your own food. These are the winners, roughly in order.
| Food | Protein | Why it's good |
|---|---|---|
| Eggs | 6 g each | Cheapest complete protein there is. Whole eggs, not just whites; the yolk has the vitamins. |
| Chicken breast | ~50 g per 8 oz raw | Buy in bulk, cook a batch, eat all week. Boring is a feature. |
| Ground beef | ~45 g per 8 oz (90/10) | Iron, creatine, B12. Fattier blends are cheaper and fine on a bulk. |
| Greek yogurt | ~20 g per cup | Plain is cheapest. Add honey or fruit yourself. |
| Cottage cheese | ~25 g per cup | Slow-digesting casein. Perfect before bed. |
| Milk | 8 g per cup | Easiest calories on a bulk. A gallon a day was the old-school bulk for a reason (don't, but a few glasses helps). |
| Canned tuna | ~25 g per can | Under a dollar a can. Limit to a few a week because of mercury. |
| Whey protein | ~25 g per scoop | Not magic, just convenient. Food first, shake to fill the gap. |
| Beans and lentils | ~15 g per cup cooked | Protein plus fiber plus carbs for cents. Great next to rice. |
Meal prep in one hour
Sunday afternoon, one hour, and lunch is handled for the week. You need a sheet pan, a pot, and five containers.
- 0:00 Oven to 400°F. Rice in the rice cooker or pot (3 cups dry makes about 9 cups cooked).
- 0:05 Chicken breasts on a sheet pan: olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika. In the oven 22–25 minutes (until 165°F inside). Thin ones cook faster.
- 0:10 Second sheet pan: potatoes cut in chunks, or frozen broccoli, oil and salt. Same oven.
- 0:35 Everything comes out. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes, then slice.
- 0:45 Divide into five containers: chicken, rice, vegetables. Salsa or hot sauce when you eat it, not before.
- 1:00 Hard-boil a dozen eggs while cleaning up. Fridge. Done.
Eating out and still hitting it
You'll eat out, and you should. The rule is protein first, then whatever. Nearly every place has a move:
- Chipotle: bowl, double chicken or steak, rice, beans, salsa, lettuce, cheese. Skip the sour cream and chips on a cut. ~60 g protein.
- Chick-fil-A: grilled nuggets (12 count) or a grilled sandwich. Fried is fine occasionally.
- Burgers: double patty, one bun or no bun, skip the fries if you're cutting. The patties are the point.
- Pizza night: eat 2–3 slices with a big glass of milk or some chicken first, not six slices on an empty stomach. Pizza is bread with cheese; the protein isn't there.
- Gas station: beef jerky, string cheese, milk, a banana, hard-boiled eggs. There's always something.
- A friend's house: eat what's served, be grateful, hit protein at the next meal. One meal never changed a body. Patterns do.
Mistakes everyone makes
- Drinking calories. One Monster, one Gatorade, and one soda is 500 empty calories. Water, black coffee, milk, and a shake. That's it most days.
- Skipping breakfast then eating everything at 10 pm. You're not hungry in the morning because you ate at midnight. Eat a real breakfast and the night eating fixes itself.
- Thinking "healthy" means small. A salad with no protein is a snack. A 180 lb athlete eating 1,800 calories is why he's tired, flat, and not growing.
- All or nothing. One bad meal makes people quit the week. The plan works at 80%. Just eat the next meal right.
- Supplements before food. Creatine and whey are great (see the creatine page). But they're the last 5%. If you're not eating 150+ g of protein from food, a fat burner isn't the problem.
- Not planning. Hungry with no plan is how you end up at the drive-through. The grocery list and the Sunday hour are the whole system.