Healthy 2000-2300 Calorie Diet Ideas
jonbsipes
Posts: 3 Member
In the last couple of weeks I have started exercising regularly and dieting to work towards a healthier lifestyle. In the past I had some success losing weight just by restricting my calories to 1500-1600 calories per day. Now that I have added exercise into my routine I feel that my diet is to restrictive for muscle recovery and growth. I am wanting to adjust my calorie intake but I am struggling with effectively adding calories that isn't junk food. Does any have any good examples or know of good meal plans designed around a 2000-2300 calorie goal?
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Replies
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Sample menu for 2000 calories/day: https://wellness.ucr.edu/sample_menu.pdf
Sample menu for 1800-2200 calories/day: http://www.nmnathletics.com/attachments1/515.htm?DB_OEM_ID=5800
Sample menu for 2200 calories/day: https://discovergoodnutrition.com/2013/11/2200-calorie-diet-plan/
Sample menu for 2300-3000 calories/day: http://www.nmnathletics.com/attachments1/516.htm?DB_OEM_ID=58005 -
Peanut butter7
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For your exercise to pay off, there's no way around it: your food should consist mainly of vegetables and fruits. Your plate should be at least 50% vegetables, by weight. That way you can eat plenty of low calorie food and feel super good. Of course you'll have a portion of meat for proteins and grains for carbs. But even if that's your main source of calories, you can add as many veggies as you want. The more the better.
For example, 100g of steak is 230kcal, while 100g of spinach is 20kcal.
You can't really do much about the steak. If your macros are balanced, you'll get a steady supply of calories from them anyway. This can't really be tweaked (except by choosing lean meat, low fat dairy, etc).
What you can truly adjust is your vegetable intake. It's basically free. You can eat 200g or 300g, it doesn't change your calories by much. Then you'll need less high calorie food to be full.
If you want to avoid junk food, focus on buying mono-products (products with only 1 ingredient).23 -
For your exercise to pay off, there's no way around it: your food should consist mainly of vegetables and fruits. Your plate should be at least 50% vegetables, by weight. That way you can eat plenty of low calorie food and feel super good. Of course you'll have a portion of meat for proteins and grains for carbs. But even if that's your main source of calories, you can add as many veggies as you want. The more the better.
For example, 100g of steak is 231kcal, while 100g of spinach is 21kcal.
You can't really do much about the steak. If your macros are balanced, you'll get a steady amount of calories from them anyway. This can't really be tweaked.
What you can truly adjust is your vegetable intake. It's basically free. You can eat 200g or 300g, it doesn't change your calories by much. Then you'll need less high calorie food to be full.
If you want to avoid junk food, focus on buying mono-products (products with only 1 ingredient).
How is this relevant or helpful for someone who wants to increase their calories? Filling up on food with low calories for volume and mass is more likely to be a hindrance than a help.13 -
Protein shakes maybe1
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »How is this relevant or helpful for someone who wants to increase their calories? Filling up on food with low calories for volume and mass is more likely to be a hindrance than a help.
From what I understand, the question isn't only increasing calories. But limiting the bad calories (like junk food) by finding alternatives, and being generally healthier so that the exercise is profitable.
Yes, I didn't go into details because the gist of my answer can be applied to many different diets and life styles. I still hope it can help. If not, I just lost my time writing it, no big deal
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How about increasing portion sizes of what you already are eating?6
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To be more specific an example of meals I had one day this week was
Breakfast - Frittatas 190 cal
Snack - Banana 105 cal
Lunch - Turkey tacos 495 cal
Snack - Strawberries 49 cal
Beef Jerky 70 cal
Dinner - Spaghetti 384 cal ( this is using a myfitnesspal meal so actual is probably higher)
This only adds up to about 1300 cal but I'm guessing my portion sizes might be slightly under estimated but even with that it is lower than it should be considering my activity and weight (approx 230lbs).
I feel that I need to increase my intake because of things like during my exercise the number of pushups I can do seems to be decreasing but I want to add meaningful calories to my diet.
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It would be good to know Age, weight and height. But i will still say Protein shake when you have your snacks to start and then add more mix veggies and some fats. But your meal plan looks ok healthy and your right low in cals0
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jasonpoihegatama wrote: »It would be good to know Age, weight and height. But i will still say Protein shake when you have your snacks to start and then add more mix veggies and some fats. But your meal plan looks ok healthy and your right low in cals
6’0” 230lbs 33yrs old. My meals are the same as when I had a calorie deficit to lose 2lbs a week which is why they’re too low now. One idea I did have was adding whole milk to my breakfast for extra calories and protein. I’ve never used protein shakes so that would be something I’d need to research to find the best option.0 -
For your exercise to pay off, there's no way around it: your food should consist mainly of vegetables and fruits. Your plate should be at least 50% vegetables, by weight. That way you can eat plenty of low calorie food and feel super good. Of course you'll have a portion of meat for proteins and grains for carbs. But even if that's your main source of calories, you can add as many veggies as you want. The more the better.
For example, 100g of steak is 230kcal, while 100g of spinach is 20kcal.
You can't really do much about the steak. If your macros are balanced, you'll get a steady supply of calories from them anyway. This can't really be tweaked (except by choosing lean meat, low fat dairy, etc).
What you can truly adjust is your vegetable intake. It's basically free. You can eat 200g or 300g, it doesn't change your calories by much. Then you'll need less high calorie food to be full.
If you want to avoid junk food, focus on buying mono-products (products with only 1 ingredient).
what kind of BS woo science dr oz-ish BS is THAT?
shoo now go away ...10 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »what kind of BS woo science dr oz-ish BS is THAT?
shoo now go away ...
Care to ellaborate? I can understand if you think that's useless, not how it's wrong..0 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »what kind of BS woo science dr oz-ish BS is THAT?
shoo now go away ...
Care to ellaborate? I can understand if you think that's useless, not how it's wrong..
to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.9 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.14 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
cico-still-skeptical-come-inside-for-a-meticulous-log-that-proves-it10 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
"Sports people," that's a phrasing I've never seen before.
Look, there are a huge array of dietary options between limiting diet to one "mainly of vegetables and fruits" and "downing truckloads of oreos." You're ignoring that and giving OP a one-size-fits-all set of advice that may not actually fit their needs.
Actual "sports people" have a variety of diets. Some of us eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, some of us don't. Some of us spend a lot of time cooking, some of us don't. Some of us focus on "monoproducts," others don't. It's driven by our preferences, lifestyle, and specific fitness goals. You can be successful with a wide array of behaviors when it comes to eating, so your sanctimony about Oreos is misplaced and not grounded in the reality of how active people live their lives.6 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
For a person to build muscle, they need to have adequate protein and a progressive resistance program. A "healthier" diet won't matter one way or the other. And, there is absolutely no reason for someone trying to build to pile on the fruits and vegetables because, usually, they have a hard enough time getting the protein they need. It's even harder when you're full on vegetables.
You said that people should restrict their food to "monoproducts" and cut down on "processed food". Both of which are unnecessary restrictions. Food is food and processed, multiple ingredient foods are easily part of an overall healthy diet. They also make hitting calorie and macro goals a lot easier.
I have visible abs and have plenty of oreos in my diet.11 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
My coach is a "sports people"...he's a retired professional athlete and now he owns his own gym along with his wife and is a personal trainer to regular joes like myself as well as high level athletes, some of whom are professional.
Yes, he eats his veggies and fruit...he also eats a couple of 1200 calorie burritos from Chipotle pretty much every day and eats a ton of meat. He has a very high calorie requirement to maintain his weight because of his own training and working all day training others...just eating a bunch of low calorie food would not be in his best interest. Yes, veg and fruit are important to nutrition and health, but when you're trying to increase calories, veg and fruit aren't the optimal go to food items for that purpose.
And yes...he has a six pack and consumes around 5000 calories per day.7 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
What does 'toning' muscles even mean?
You may find this thread interesting
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348650/cico-still-skeptical-come-inside-for-a-meticulous-log-that-proves-it/p1
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »to lose weight, its all about the deficit. whether you eat your calories in pasta and bread and hamburgers or in veggies and tofu.
eat within your calories, eat a WELL BALANCED diet, dont restrict types of foods or 'treats' and give them personality labels like 'bad for you'. ive lost 130 pounds, and last night i had a dozen oreos. its all good. the scale will still be down at the end of the week. im still healthier than most people i know, still lose weight, and still have perfect labs. trying to convince someone they 'have to do this or that' to lose weight is nothing more than BS and woo science.
So you're calling me out on not being scientific enough, but your only evidence is personal anecdote? Alright.
I never said to restrict any kind of food, or to do anything special. You're imagining this. I just said to fill up on vegs & fruits to have a healthier diet (which seemed part of the question).
Read the first message again. OP doesn't want to lose weight. He wants to gain weight by building and toning muscles. I can't really answer on the building part... protein supplements are obviously common to increase gains.
But a big part of toning muscles happens in the kitchen. That's why he needs a healthier diet. Cutting down on processed food and investing a bit of time to cook monoproducts, including greens, is quite usual among sports people.
If you have a technique to build a six pack while downing truckloads of oreos, please share.
cico-still-skeptical-come-inside-for-a-meticulous-log-that-proves-it
ha, you beat me to it
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So that got interesting and I appreciate the positive criticism. Sorry to OP for derailing the thread with these messages, but I'd like to answer.
That's interesting. If I understand correctly, the guy tracked his calories while eating mostly junk food.
However, there's nothing special in the method he calls CICO. He's only tracking calories, so that's what we're all doing with the app (no matter if we eat more on the junk side or healthy side). I never said that tracking calories wouldn't work with junk food.
I'd say congrats on getting ripped this way, that's new to me. But I wouldn't call that a technique, he says himself it's an extreme test. He's only trying to prove that it works, not claiming that others should imitate him.
True, I only gave one set of advice. The one that makes sense to me. But I didn't imply it was the only one or that others were wrong. It's a bit hard to go over every method that exists. I don't think anyone could answer that way.janejellyroll wrote: »Look, there are a huge array of dietary options between limiting diet to one "mainly of vegetables and fruits" and "downing truckloads of oreos." You're ignoring that and giving OP a one-size-fits-all set of advice that may not actually fit their needs.
Granted, that may not fit his needs. Though I don't see how telling him to keep eating junk food would fit, since he explicitly said he was looking for alternatives.janejellyroll wrote: »Actual "sports people" have a variety of diets. Some of us eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, some of us don't. Some of us spend a lot of time cooking, some of us don't. Some of us focus on "monoproducts," others don't. It's driven by our preferences, lifestyle, and specific fitness goals. You can be successful with a wide array of behaviors when it comes to eating, so your sanctimony about Oreos is misplaced and not grounded in the reality of how active people live their lives.
I didn't blame any kind of diet or anyone.You said that people should restrict their food to "monoproducts" and cut down on "processed food". Both of which are unnecessary restrictions. Food is food and processed, multiple ingredient foods are easily part of an overall healthy diet. They also make hitting calorie and macro goals a lot easier.
I never encouraged restriction in any way. What I said was, whatever your main calorie source, add more vegs to get healthier. The main source could be hamburgers and adding vegs would make it healthier.
Cooking doesn't mean restricting. Everything you can buy processed at the store, you can also cook yourself. Even hamburgers or Oreos. And I know that not everybody has time for it.
Cooking gives you more choice over what you eat, while buying processed food restricts your choice to what the store has and what brands make. So I really can't see buying monoproducts as a restriction.
Many recipes are fatter than store bought meals. Many traditional meals are too unbalanced for someone who's tracking calories and macros. So clearly home made doesn't mean healthy. It means you can make healthier meals if you want to. It's not an obligation.
Certainly, not everybody who's into sports eat healthy. There's no obligation. But I think that people who practice a sport usually eat healthier than the general population, on average. I may be wrong so researching some statistics could be interesting.
True, my advice wasn't the best for gains. In that matter I can't give any. I was answering on the healthy part.cwolfman13 wrote: »Yes, he eats his veggies and fruit...he also eats a couple of 1200 calorie burritos from Chipotle pretty much every day and eats a ton of meat. He has a very high calorie requirement to maintain his weight because of his own training and working all day training others...just eating a bunch of low calorie food would not be in his best interest. Yes, veg and fruit are important to nutrition and health, but when you're trying to increase calories, veg and fruit aren't the optimal go to food items for that purpose.
If you look at the sample menus posted before, ranging from 2000 to 3000 kcal, they're all piled with fruits and vegs. The 2200 diet plan includes vegs on every meal, even on breakfast if desired.7 -
So that got interesting and I appreciate the positive criticism. Sorry to OP for derailing the thread with these messages, but I'd like to answer.
That's interesting. If I understand correctly, the guy tracked his calories while eating mostly junk food.
However, there's nothing special in the method he calls CICO. He's only tracking calories, so that's what we're all doing with the app (no matter if we eat more on the junk side or healthy side). I never said that tracking calories wouldn't work with junk food.
I'd say congrats on getting ripped this way, that's new to me. But I wouldn't call that a technique, he says himself it's an extreme test. He's only trying to prove that it works, not claiming that others should imitate him.
True, I only gave one set of advice. The one that makes sense to me. But I didn't imply it was the only one or that others were wrong. It's a bit hard to go over every method that exists. I don't think anyone could answer that way.janejellyroll wrote: »Look, there are a huge array of dietary options between limiting diet to one "mainly of vegetables and fruits" and "downing truckloads of oreos." You're ignoring that and giving OP a one-size-fits-all set of advice that may not actually fit their needs.
Granted, that may not fit his needs. Though I don't see how telling him to keep eating junk food would fit, since he explicitly said he was looking for alternatives.janejellyroll wrote: »Actual "sports people" have a variety of diets. Some of us eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, some of us don't. Some of us spend a lot of time cooking, some of us don't. Some of us focus on "monoproducts," others don't. It's driven by our preferences, lifestyle, and specific fitness goals. You can be successful with a wide array of behaviors when it comes to eating, so your sanctimony about Oreos is misplaced and not grounded in the reality of how active people live their lives.
I didn't blame any kind of diet or anyone.You said that people should restrict their food to "monoproducts" and cut down on "processed food". Both of which are unnecessary restrictions. Food is food and processed, multiple ingredient foods are easily part of an overall healthy diet. They also make hitting calorie and macro goals a lot easier.
I never encouraged restriction in any way. What I said was, whatever your main calorie source, add more vegs to get healthier. The main source could be hamburgers and adding vegs would make it healthier.
Cooking doesn't mean restricting. Everything you can buy processed at the store, you can also cook yourself. Even hamburgers or Oreos. And I know that not everybody has time for it.
Cooking gives you more choice over what you eat, while buying processed food restricts your choice to what the store has and what brands make. So I really can't see buying monoproducts as a restriction.
Many recipes are fatter than store bought meals. Many traditional meals are too unbalanced for someone who's tracking calories and macros. So clearly home made doesn't mean healthy. It means you can make healthier meals if you want to. It's not an obligation.
Certainly, not everybody who's into sports eat healthy. There's no obligation. But I think that people who practice a sport usually eat healthier than the general population, on average. I may be wrong so researching some statistics could be interesting.
True, my advice wasn't the best for gains. In that matter I can't give any. I was answering on the healthy part.cwolfman13 wrote: »Yes, he eats his veggies and fruit...he also eats a couple of 1200 calorie burritos from Chipotle pretty much every day and eats a ton of meat. He has a very high calorie requirement to maintain his weight because of his own training and working all day training others...just eating a bunch of low calorie food would not be in his best interest. Yes, veg and fruit are important to nutrition and health, but when you're trying to increase calories, veg and fruit aren't the optimal go to food items for that purpose.
If you look at the sample menus posted before, ranging from 2000 to 3000 kcal, they're all piled with fruits and vegs. The 2200 diet plan includes vegs on every meal, even on breakfast if desired.
The problem is that you're assuming that your advice (eat monoproducts, etc) is the only way to "eat healthy." The point is that there are many healthy diet patterns and buying only monoproducts (which is a restriction, no matter how you wish to spin it) isn't the only way to have a healthy diet.4 -
It's easy, just increase your portion sizes. It isn't that hard really.
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janejellyroll wrote: »The problem is that you're assuming that your advice (eat monoproducts, etc) is the only way to "eat healthy." The point is that there are many healthy diet patterns and buying only monoproducts (which is a restriction, no matter how you wish to spin it) isn't the only way to have a healthy diet.
How is that a restriction when you can eat absolutely everything? It doesn't make any sense.
You're mistaking dietary restriction (excluding food based on its kind, which I never encouraged) with buying selection (applying other criteria, such as overall quality, to choose among variations of the same kind of food).
Like everybody else, you apply some kind of selection on your groceries, since there are some products or brands that you never buy. That doesn't mean you're restricting yourself.3 -
Hold please, we have a goalpost shift in progress...4
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To be more specific an example of meals I had one day this week was
Breakfast - Frittatas 190 cal
Snack - Banana 105 cal
Lunch - Turkey tacos 495 cal
Snack - Strawberries 49 cal
Beef Jerky 70 cal
Dinner - Spaghetti 384 cal ( this is using a myfitnesspal meal so actual is probably higher)
This only adds up to about 1300 cal but I'm guessing my portion sizes might be slightly under estimated but even with that it is lower than it should be considering my activity and weight (approx 230lbs).
I feel that I need to increase my intake because of things like during my exercise the number of pushups I can do seems to be decreasing but I want to add meaningful calories to my diet.
Can someone please link the thread “a list of calorie dense foods” for OP or you can search it yourself, posted by the awesome @diannethegeek who already responded in this thread
Looking at your typical day there are lots of things you can add here to bring calories up but I wanted to circle back to your first post when you said your goal was to increase calories without adding junk food. What’s your definition of junk food? What is your reservation about eating these types of foods, in the context of an overall nutrient dense and balanced diet?
Many successful people on this site prioritize nutrition as part of their weight loss/maintenance/gain goals but that doesn’t mean they don’t eat a serving of Oreos, pizza, ice cream, or drink beer on a fairly regular occasion. Life is not black and white and there’s a wide range of healthy foods and junk foods and all can be part of your successful program.
Also when you said the spaghetti is a MFP entry, that’s one of the biggest logging mistakes people make. If you made the spaghetti, create it in the recipe builder so you know for sure how many calories.
Some other suggestions:
Add cheese or protein to the frittata. Eat a slice or two of toast with it. Change the turkey in the tacos to ground beef. Add cheese or avocado. Add meat to the spaghetti. Eat a salad with it. Hello garlic bread! Eat a serving of ice cream afterwards.1 -
Ground Turkey, Salmon, Tuna, Chicken, Eggs, Bananas, Greek Yogurt, Cereal, Whole Milk, Rice stick to the basics and eat around 500/700 calories a meal with 24oz of water a meal to feel full. Divide your daily intake by 3 & that's how many calories a meal you should eat3
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WinoGelato wrote: »To be more specific an example of meals I had one day this week was
Breakfast - Frittatas 190 cal
Snack - Banana 105 cal
Lunch - Turkey tacos 495 cal
Snack - Strawberries 49 cal
Beef Jerky 70 cal
Dinner - Spaghetti 384 cal ( this is using a myfitnesspal meal so actual is probably higher)
This only adds up to about 1300 cal but I'm guessing my portion sizes might be slightly under estimated but even with that it is lower than it should be considering my activity and weight (approx 230lbs).
I feel that I need to increase my intake because of things like during my exercise the number of pushups I can do seems to be decreasing but I want to add meaningful calories to my diet.
Can someone please link the thread “a list of calorie dense foods” for OP or you can search it yourself, posted by the awesome @diannethegeek who already responded in this thread
Looking at your typical day there are lots of things you can add here to bring calories up but I wanted to circle back to your first post when you said your goal was to increase calories without adding junk food. What’s your definition of junk food? What is your reservation about eating these types of foods, in the context of an overall nutrient dense and balanced diet?
Many successful people on this site prioritize nutrition as part of their weight loss/maintenance/gain goals but that doesn’t mean they don’t eat a serving of Oreos, pizza, ice cream, or drink beer on a fairly regular occasion. Life is not black and white and there’s a wide range of healthy foods and junk foods and all can be part of your successful program.
Also when you said the spaghetti is a MFP entry, that’s one of the biggest logging mistakes people make. If you made the spaghetti, create it in the recipe builder so you know for sure how many calories.
Some other suggestions:
Add cheese or protein to the frittata. Eat a slice or two of toast with it. Change the turkey in the tacos to ground beef. Add cheese or avocado. Add meat to the spaghetti. Eat a salad with it. Hello garlic bread! Eat a serving of ice cream afterwards.
Here you go: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »The problem is that you're assuming that your advice (eat monoproducts, etc) is the only way to "eat healthy." The point is that there are many healthy diet patterns and buying only monoproducts (which is a restriction, no matter how you wish to spin it) isn't the only way to have a healthy diet.
How is that a restriction when you can eat absolutely everything? It doesn't make any sense.
You're mistaking dietary restriction (excluding food based on its kind, which I never encouraged) with buying selection (applying other criteria, such as overall quality, to choose among variations of the same kind of food).
Like everybody else, you apply some kind of selection on your groceries, since there are some products or brands that you never buy. That doesn't mean you're restricting yourself.
If you are only eating monoproducts, then you aren't eating "absolutely everything."
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