Do you really have to measure your food?
The fitness industry is hot right now. Everybody is a guru on training & nutrition.
Counting ‘macros’ is getting preached by the majority, does it work? Yes indeed.
But do you really want to be counting and measuring everything you eat?
Personally I don’t so, heres meal guide so you don’t have to either.
The guidelines below are more geared towards dropping bodyfat or maintaining weight.
1.) Protein: 1-2 servings every meal. (Meats)
2.) Vegetables: At least 1-2 servings every meal.
3.) Carbohydrates: 1 servings with most meals. (Rice, potatoes etc & fruit)
4.) Fats: 0.5-1 servings with most meals. (Includes oils used for cooking & fattier meats)
*For men go for 2 servings on #1&2 and 2 servings of #3 if it is a heavy day of training.
My favourite Structure
Breakfast: 1,2,4
Lunch: All (lower on carbs, in order to ‘save’ them for later)
Dinner: All ( majority of my carbs here or post training)
Post training: 1,2,3
No magic to it.
However, for days you’re eating/drinking out or following a day where you went off the wagon;
STICK MAINLY TO #1 & #2!
-Pictures for plan obtained from precision nutrition.
This is simply a guideline on food quantity that should help you maintain a lean physique.
To get really lean or if you’re preparing for a bodybuilding contest, it is a different breed, thats not what we are getting after here.
The overly hyped macro counting generally comes from fitness professionals/personalities & physique athletes.
If you’re one of the above then count & measure away, I have in the past and it was a huge success, however if you’re counting your macros religiously just to ‘fit some pop tarts into your diet’ then I probably won’t find you interesting or want to be your friend.
To contradict myself as usual, I believe there is a huge benefit to counting your calories & macros for a small period of time at least, so you get a true idea of how much you’re actually eating.
Litchman et al. found that caloric intake was under-reported by 47%. Meaning that participants who thought they were consuming 2,00kcal were actually consuming 3,000kcal.
Obviously these people need to work on getting a realistic view of what they are consuming because estimating for them simply won’t work.
To conclude, if you simply don’t want to counting calories & macros then this template to help portion control should work nicely, coupled with some ‘damage control strategies ‘ when you know you’ll be out eating & drinking then you’ll be all set.
For training click below;
https://www.movementbymod.ie/apply-to-train
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