SlimBride2Be wrote: »

That looks amazing. What's your approach - do you count calories or just macros? I only ask because I'm trying to do both and I'm not sure all that would fit in one of my days

Like @FIT_Goat said, whether you count calories or count macros, it's about the same thing. That said, my hunger signals pretty well match my calorie goal, and my macros pretty well fall into place, because I eat what's called "zero carb" (though I prefer "carnivore"), so I just eat meat and the macros take care of themselves. For example, yesterday, my ratios ended up about 10/20/70 c/p/f (it was a bit higher in carbs due to sauces on ribs I had at lunch and the milk sugar in the iced latte I had in the morning).

For those who are interested, that meal calculated out at about the following:

Calories: 1,416
Carbs: 4g
Fat: 113g
Protein: 85g

For those that don't already know -- no, I did not eat the lettuce, tomato, and pickles seen behind the burger. That's the approximate stats of the burger in the foreground. It was 2 7oz patties, a couple of pieces of Applewood smoked bacon, 2 slices of pepperjack cheese, and a tablespoon or two of bacon aioli.

There are a few things that made such a meal possible without blowing my deficit away:

1. A high enough base calorie goal. My usual calorie goal, at sedentary, is about 1,800 calories.
2. A two-meal a day schedule. I usually only eat two meals a day, plus maybe some coffee. This allows my meals to be larger by default. This also meant that prior to that meal, I had only consumed about half of my calories for the day, despite it being 8:30pm when I took that picture and was eating.
3. A lot of physical activity. According to my Fitbit and MFP, I earned an additional 1,800 calories yesterday, doubling my calorie allotment for the day and giving me about 3,700 calories to work with (according to Fitbit, I burned around 4,200 calories yesterday). I had spent the day getting and planting plants in my garden, which also included hauling dirt and mulch, as well as a lot of walking and digging in soil that has so much clay in it, a potter could set up shop with the contents of my yard and be set for life.

One nice thing about the way I'm eating right now, is that I could have foregone the above meal if circumstances had dictated it. Since it was hot off the grill, I had to wait a while for it to cool before I could eat it, and I was content doing so. In a past life, I'd have been working to try to eat it, potential burns be damned, because I'd be starving. That was an awesome realization.