by redgiki on Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:23 pm
The trouble I have with posting meal plan after meal plan is that Mark McManus has covered meal plans in Total Anabolism and Total Six-Pack Abs. If people just read the book, they get a nice cross-section.
My average day when cutting looks like this. Protein shakes will be about 150 calories, all other meals I target about 300 calories, keeping carbs minimal. Except on carb-up days -- I only take one carb-up day a week, tops -- when I typically just don't track at all but try to eat low-fat, high-carb.
* Pre-workout protein shake first thing after I wake up and a glass of water. (150 cal)
* Two eggs, two strips of bacon for breakfast and a glass of water. (300 cal)
* Protein shake for mid-morning snack. (150 ca) Sometimes I add in something else like some tuna or chicken breast to bump up the calories.
* Salad for lunch. I mean, like a SERIOUS salad, shooting for around 500 calories. If I'm in a hurry, the Wendy's "BLT Cobb Salad" fits the bill nicely for what I'm talking about as long as I skip the dressing (460cal, 12g carb, 46g protein, 26g fat)
* Protein shake for mid-afternoon snack. Same as mid-morning snack, usually. 150-300 cal.
* A big dinner, including a big, yummy salad.
A simple recipe to get you started is the "hand, palm, fist" recipe. A serving of veggies the size of the whole back of your hand. A serving of meats the size of your palm. And a serving of carbohydrates the size of your fist. Amazingly, when you calculate this out on Livestrong or some such, you end up with a very GLAD-ish 40/30/30 type of diet from this very, very easy-to-use rule. It's fun to use it when eating out, too: ask for a box with your order, then select out portions until you match this guesstimate. Remarkably accurate for a decent cutting diet until you reach very low body fat.