Macro Meal Plan?

Littlespoon007

Hi this is my first time making a meal plan for macro counting and I’m having a little trouble. I have a guide that says I need to reach 128g of protein, 133g of carbs, and 44g of fat each day. Does anyone have any recipes that meet those?

AnnPT77

First, you don't have to hit that exactly every day. Pretty close, is close enough. Protein and fats are "essential nutrients", i.e., you have to have some minimum intake, because your body can't manufacture them out of other nutrients. That makes those more important to hit (for most people**) than carbs.

It's hard for us to give you a detailed meal plan for those exact macros, because almost everyone likes different foods and has different goals (though maybe someone else knows an app that can help with your question). What I would suggest is that you log a typical day of eating in your food diary, and see how close you are to those goals. Then you can adjust foods and proportions in a "what if" experimental way to reduce macros that are over, and increase ones that are under, until it seems close enough.

Or, you can even just start out logging what you eat now, and gradually work day by day toward your macro goals, over a week or few, rather than trying to get there all in one jump. That's pretty much what I did when I was trying to improve my nutrition - it just seemed easier to gradually remodel. Since I wasn't really malnourished going into it, I felt like I could afford that time.

Best wishes!

** Diabetics and people who are insulin resistant, and possibly those with certain other health conditions, may have special issues regarding carb levels. I'm talking about average, generally healthy people without conditions like that. Also, some people find that carbs make their cravings/appetite more of a problem so the choose to eat fewer of them, while others find they need a certain amount of carbs to feel energetic. That's something that we mostly figure out by paying attention to experience, like other personal preferences.

Cahgetsfit

can't really provide recipes that will meet those exact numbers. What I find helps is that you pre-log your food.

it takes a little bit of time to get used to tracking macros - you need to kind of figure out how much each food has.

If you have some spare time, log a bunch of stuff you like to eat normally. Then you can get an idea of what the breakdown is for each food - then you just pick and choose and put your meals together based on that.

I have about 5 different breakfast options I go to which all add to similar numbers, then if it's during the week, my two lunches are always pretty much the same too in terms of numbers. and for dinner I'm more flexible and use the leftover macros with whatever I feel like eating.

Once you know the macros/calories in each food - play around with making up a meal plan with different options for each meal - that way you don't get bored.

I work on a give or take 5 from the prescribed number of C, F or P. But sometimes I'll go way over on one macro and then I just make sure I don't go over in overall calories and that's fine coz at the end of the day it's the calorie count that really matters.

Feel free to look at my diary, it's open.

23rochelle23

The way I work it is to start by pre planning protein portion of my meals (I eat slightly differently to you 1200-1300 calories and with <100gm carb most days (as low as 20-30) because I find carbs the easiest thing to drop to lower calories and still feel satiated (and protein and fat are more important as above) - but the planning works the same.

For instance

Eggs x2 for breakfast = 12gm
200gm chicken for lunch = 62gm
115gm lamb for dinner = 30gm
= 104gm protein done for the day
Maybe add in a high protein snack (prawns, eggs, cheese, meatballs, sausages etc) but also veges etc do have some protein which might make up your balance.
Fat is the next most important macro - but if you’re eating meat then you’ll likely be able to get enough fat fairly easily - or add butter or oil to your meals... or avocado or olives or mayonnaise or chocolate

Then the balance of your calories can be carbs/whatever you want.

Then i work out how i want to eat them
Eggs x2 on 1x toast with 5gm butter
Prawns with 15gm reduced fat salad dressing
200gm chicken made with peppers with cauli rice and cheese
115gm lamb with baby potatoes and peas and 10gm butter or with broccoli and peas and cheese grated over

So the above would bring me fairly close to my days calories (I’m lower cal than you) but if not I’d add in something like chocolate or fruit and cream or similar :-)

Then I just change things up as and when I feel like it - so today I had avocado and 1 egg on 1 toast and I’m having cheese and crackers as a snack cause I’ve been hanging out for it. So I’ll skip potatoes or anything carb heavy later in the day - i just make sure I still hit roughly my protein goal and I’ve never had any issues hitting fat goal (prob cause of all the cheese 😂)

Tomorrow I’m having sausages and potato’s cause my housemate had them last night and they looked delicious! So will have lower carb breakfast to balance it and so on.

Hope that helps a bit x

ETA: also my diary is open I think - I’ve been slack over xmas but feel free to take a look x

lemurcat2

The best way to do it is eat what you would normally eat on that calorie target, look at your diary at the end of the day and see where you were off. If lower in protein, think about why, and how to get in more. If higher in carbs, think about why (might just mean lowering portion sizes or having just vegetables instead of a starchy carb at one meal), so on.

That said, this site could help you. You have to sign up but not pay anything (I don't know what the premium version involves), and you can specify calorie target, preferred type of diet (vegetarian or Mediterranean or paleo or what not) and then a range for each macro, that you can make as large or small as you want. It will generate a meal plan. https://www.eatthismuch.com/

I could never use something like this, since trying to cook specific meals and recipes rather than just what I feel like from what I have drives me mad. But if you are really struggling with what types and amounts of foods those macros would involve or want ideas or just structure, this would help.

I would not bother with trying to hit the same macros at each meal unless that's just how it naturally works out, and remember if you are logging you can adjust over the course of a day. Find you are low on protein, high on carbs and fat after lunch? Make dinner focus on lean protein and veg. Stuff like that.