The one thing people say they have a hard time with is tracking their food or how would they build a meal plan.
That said, when using MyFitnessPal and setting up your macros, you can start building your plan.
Further, even in this day and age, there are many people who think that quinoa is a protein source (it’s actually a grain making it a carbohydrate source with higher-than-normal trace amounts of protein), peanut butter is a protein (it’s actually a fat source with higher-than-normal trace amounts of protein), and even that broccoli is a protein (it’s a fibrous vegetable with almost no protein in it yet is pushed by the radical vegans and their agenda).
I have found that there is, by newbies who care to learn how to track, a 1-2 week learning curve to tracking calories and macros.
The best way to set up your meal plan, in my opinion, is to set your protein goals first, then fat and carbs. Why? Because protein is the most important when maintaining lean mass and losing fat while fat and carbs, at least to start can be pretty semantic. Further down the line, and the leaner you get, you may play around with certain #’s.
Below is, in grams, a cheat sheet for some of your favorite food, in their respective category, so you can add it to your calorie tracker. Build your meals from this list, adjust the intakes, and hit your targets.
Protein (100g Weighed)
1g Protein = 4 Calories
Chicken Breast (Cooked) – 31g protein
96% Lean Ground Beef (Cooked) – 30g protein
99% Lean Ground Turkey (Cooked) – 32g protein
Tilapia (Cooked) – 26g protein
Liquid Egg Whites – 11g protein
Whey Protein – 68g protein
Non-Fat Greek Yogurt – 10g protein
Non-Fat Cottage Cheese – 12g protein
Carbohydrates (100g Weighed)
1g Carbohydrate = 4 Calories
Starburst Jellybeans – 93g carbohydrates
Rice (Cooked) – 29g carbohydrates
Pasta – 34g carbohydrates
Potatoes (Uncooked) – 17g carbohydrates
Oats (Uncooked) – 68g carbohydrates
English Muffin – 44g carbohydrates
Pop-Tarts – 69g
Fats (100g Weighed)
1g Fat = 9 Calories
Avocado – 15g fat
Butter – 110g fat
Egg Yolks – 27g fat
Walnuts – 65g fat
Peanuts – 53g fat
Almonds – 50g fat
Flaxseed – 42g fat
The Kicker
All macros have trace sources of other macros.
This means if you used 40g of almonds (20g fat), it also brings with it 8g protein. This doesn’t mean it’s a protein source, it just means if you have X-amount of protein to hit, you will have to either take away from another protein source or not have that many almonds.
This goes on and on with other food items.
The beauty of using a tool like MyFitnessPal or any other calorie tracker is you don’t actually have to calculate anything more than the quantity of the food item you put in.
If you have 150g protein to get in for the day and you know you eat 4 times/daily, then divide 150 by 4 = 37.5g protein/meal.
Well shoot, 100g weighed/cooked meat from above pretty much gives you your protein for the day. Then add you carbs and fats to hit your calorie target and your macro target. As you add in your carbs and fats, protein is added to the total.
This is why bulk cooking and prep goes so much further and why it is better than just giving excuses as to why you can’t hit your targets.
A tool is only good if you know how to use it. You will also need to take some time to learn.
Hopefully this gives you better insight and you can get yourself going eating for your goal.
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