Strength training is a fundamental part of my life. One of my greatest sources of happiness and satisfaction comes from lifting weights and seeing how I can improve my fitness and shape my body.
Fueling these efforts is the real engine behind any exercise program: nutrition. I track my macros every day to make sure my gym work doesn’t go to waste.
One question I get a lot is what exactly do I eat to hit those macros.
So today I’m going to walk you through my diet: exactly what I eat every day, what its nutritional profile is like and what it costs me.
This setup worked for me. The proof is in the pudding. I’ve stuck with it for years. I’ve lost 30 pounds doing the low calorie version and gained 10 pounds of muscle doing the bulk version of it.
But it’s probably not for everyone. I measure my food and eat basically the same simple and basic things every day. Kate laughs at how robotic I am when it comes to food. To me it’s just fuel. I’m not a foodie. I love that my diet doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth or a lot of work. I’m busy and need a system that is fairly automatic and requires little thought.
I know not everyone is wired that way. If you need variety at every meal, this would not work for you. It’s fine. Different guys need different settings, but maybe my menu will give you some ideas you can use in yours. Or maybe you’re just curious about what I eat. I know I’m always curious about what my fellow humans consume each day.
So let’s take a look.
Breakfast
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cost: $3.75–$4.10
Macros:
- Protein: 51 g
- Carbohydrates: 38 g
- Fat: 5–17 grams (depending on the cheese)
- Calories: 430–500 calories (same)
Breakfast is two egg wraps. I mix a whole egg with 8 ounces of runny egg white and a handful of spinach, throw it in two Xtreme Wellness wraps, add an ounce of shredded cheese (Great Value Fiesta Blend or Kraft Free if I’m cutting) and eat it with some Cutie oranges on the side.
I’ll usually have a side of kimchi as well. I love kimchi and you have to take care of that gut.
I also take care of my gut: the pile of fiber I get with my breakfast. The Xtreme Wellness wraps contain about 11-13 grams of fiber each, and with the oranges and spinach, I’m getting almost 25 grams of fiber from this one meal alone. This is most of my daily fiber requirement before 7am. I’m doing my best to hurt like a champ.
Lunch
Preparation time: 1 minute
Cost: $3.80–$4.40
Macros:
- Protein: 57 g
- Carbohydrates: 66 g
- Fat: 4 g
- Calories: 500
A few hours after breakfast, I have 340g of Fage Total 0% yogurt mixed with 140g of blueberries and 60g of Kashi cereal or oatmeal. When bulking, I bump things up to 120 grams of oats, which brings the above total to about 66 grams of protein, 100 grams of carbs, and 750 calories.
When I’m deep in a cut, cereal or oats are the first thing to go, and I only eat yogurt and berries.
Lunch
Preparation time: 4 minutes (20 minutes to make a batch, divided by 5 meals)
Cost: $1.25–$3.70 (depending on meat/starch/vegetable)
Macros:
- Protein: 33–50 g
- Carbohydrates: 36–50 g
- Fat: 8–11 g
- Calories: 335–400
I don’t prepare my food except for my lunches, which I prepare on Sundays. And even that meal prep I keep pretty minimal.
Lunch has two main ingredients: a protein and a starch. And then I do a vegetable on the side.
For protein, I alternate between chicken breast, pork tenderloin, and 93/7 ground beef. How I cook it depends on how ambitious I am on that particular Sunday.
If I’m making chicken and I’m motivated, I’ll roast a bunch of breasts in my smoker (here’s why you definitely want yours). If I’m feeling lazy (which is most Sundays), I’ll throw the chicken breasts in the pan with a jar of marinara or barbecue sauce before church. It happened at 2 in the afternoon
If I make pork tenderloin, I season it and put it in the smoker for a few hours. Hardly any active work.
If I make minced meat, I season it with salt and pepper and brown it in a pan. It takes about ten minutes.
Whatever protein I cook goes into a Pyrex container in the fridge. During the week, I split a 150 gram portion for lunch.
For starch, I rotate between russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice, and pinto beans. If it’s potatoes, I’ll boil some until soft, mash them in another pyrex, and that’s it. No butter or cream, just mashed potatoes. I know it sounds cheesy, but I’m not trying to win any Michelin stars here. If it’s rice or beans, I cook a big pot of beans, or use the canned variety, or cook a big pot of rice. I give a serving along with my protein. The portion goes up or down depending on whether I’m trying to lose, maintain, or gain weight.
I always add a vegetable. They are usually frozen green beans or a California blend. Frozen vegetables are cheap, easy and just as nutritious as fresh. And they only take a few minutes to microwave.
Post workout PB sandwich
Preparation time: 1 minute
Cost: 75 cents
Macros:
- Protein: 15 g
- Carbohydrates: 52 g
- Fat: 19 g
- Calories: 410
I do my training in the early afternoon. After I finish lifting, I’ll have a PB sandwich. Two slices of Nature’s Own perfectly crafted white bread, two tablespoons of Jif Creamy. That’s all.
When I’m in a pinch, this is the first meal I leave.
Dinner: What we eat as a family
By the time we get to dinner, I’ve already eaten three to four meals and have plenty of macros left. Which means I can eat whatever we have for dinner as a family. I don’t want to be the weird dad who eats plain chicken and broccoli while the kids make the tacos mom makes. I don’t want to do family dinner like this. So I eat the tacos, spaghetti, quesadillas, burgers or pizza that the family eats. I just make the portions convenient. After all these years of watching, I have a pretty good sense of what a serving of pasta or rice looks like without weighing it. I always try to stop eating before I’m completely full.
If I know we’re going out to eat that night, I’ll open the restaurant menu in the afternoon, write down what I plan to order, and then adjust earlier in the day to make the macros work. I talk about how to do this in the macro tracking article, so I won’t get into the weeds here.
What does it cost to feed me?
If I eat pork or chicken with my meals, the whole day comes to $9.50–$9.75 + dinner.
If beef is on the menu, the daily cost is $12 to $13 (plus dinner), because beef is very expensive these days.
Monthly, this works out to somewhere between $300 and $390. For three to four meals a day, every day, hitting all my macros and most of my micros, that’s not bad. I have bought pre-made frozen “paleo” meals in the past where just one ticket was $13.
Final Thoughts
One of the interesting things about the menu I’ve landed on is that I usually no longer have to drink whey protein shake, which was a mainstay in my diet. I get all my protein from food. If I’m deep in a cut, I might bring a whey shake to get the protein in while keeping the carbs and fat low, but most of the time I hit my protein goals with whole foods.
The arrangement also leaves room for treats. I like to have some small cookies after lunch. If I’m bulking up, I’ll have some Rice Krispies treats before a workout or enjoy a peanut butter cup. I’ll have the occasional dessert with the family after dinner, too. Even when I cut, I never feel like I’m depriving myself.
There you go. What do I eat in a day? What made this work is that it gives me a structure that I can easily modify as needed. Depending on whether I’m cutting or bulking, I can switch things up and up or down portions without thinking too much. Also, my meals are stupid easy to prepare. Robotic, sure, but stupid easy. Beep boop, beep boop, Brett out.
