In this blog post of The Macro Hacker. I will turn one of my favorite meals into 3 alternate meals, by only changing the protein source.
*Bonus = I will also show you how to make these meal alternatives into a weekly deficit, but yet still feel like you are eating the same amount of food!! Macro Magic!
Why am I doing this?
Because this one main meal I eat has many positives to my progress, why not make meal alternatives and keep making progress!!
The picture above is one of my go to meals, eaten on my hardest workout of the week, leg day. (1 x per week)
Main Meal: This is Meal 5 of 6 of the day.
Macros
Protein 30g
Carbs 19g
Fats 29g
115g Rib Eye Steak 5 Spears Asparagus 1 tsp Grass Fed Salted Butter 100g Boiled potatoes
Questions you need to answer about the meals you are eating so they can serve you better:
- How do you feel after eating this meal?
- How is your digestion after eating?
- Are there any negative effects from this meal?
- Will this meal keep you on track with your nutrition plan?
- Do you look forward to cooking and eating this meal?
- Is this meal easy to prep and prepare?
To answer the questions above. - After eating this meal I feel extremely satiated and satisfied. I have great sleep and no issues with digestion. *Note: when I ate this meal on 3 consecutive days my digestion did suffer and I felt bloated. - I absolutely look forward to this meal! I look forward to picking out my steak at the butchers. I love cooking and prepping the veg and starch because they are super quick and easy and can do in a mass prep 1 x per week. I know I will have improved recovery from this meal and it will keep me on point with my plan.
This meal 5, steak, veg, starch combo keeps me full for up to 4 hours, setting me up for my 6th meal. Meal 6, my last meal of the night is a low protein, low fat, high carb meal.
Alternate Meal *Substitution 1 *142g Baked Wild Salmon All other foods are the same as above main meal. Macros Protein 31g Carbs 19g F18g
This is still meal 5 of 6 for me. I am doing only cardio on this day with some LISS and some full body regenerative movement cardio. After doing legs, getting them moving again helps with recovery. Subbing out the Steak for Salmon, I did two main things.
I am eating more Omega 3 fats with the salmon, subbing out the steak's saturated fat. My fat grams are lower, as I am not training on this day thus I do not need the extra macros. My focus is recovery and regeneration. 29g fat from the steak meal, lowered to 18g fats in the salmon meal. That is a 11g fat subtraction, 99 calories reduction). This meal is perfect for this low impact day and sets me up for my 6th bedtime meal.
Alternate Meal *Substitution 2 *120g Chicken Thighs baked All other foods are the same as above main meal. Macros Protein 33g Carbs 19g F15g
This is still meal 5 of 6 for me. I eat this meal on my Upper Body Push/Pull day. The fats are now back to saturated for this meal. The fats are also a bit lower than the previous two meals (we went from 29g, 18g, to now 15g). It may not seem like much of a reduction in macros, but over the week it adds up to the deficit via calories. Again this meal works for me on this day to help feel full and satisfied at night before my last meal 6. My last meal is a low protein, low fat, high carb meal to help me release hormones which will help me sleep. Carbs do this for me and also have this effect when used properly for many other people.
Alternate Meal *Substitution 3 *120g Pork Chops All other foods are the same as above main meal. Macros Protein 30g Carbs 19g F13g
This is still meal 5 of 6 for me. Again this meal is lower in fat from my first main steak meal's fat amount of 29 (we went from 29g, 18g,15g to now 13g). The deficit over the week with just these 4 meals are 369 calories). NOTE: Doing just this small Protein alternative switch with 4 meals, can make a weekly deficit occur and yet, make you feel like you are eating the SAME AMOUNT OF FOOD! Crazy right!!
TIP: if you are NOT in a deficit! All you need to do is ADD 1 tbsp butter instead of a tsp butter. Doing this addition will have you increasing the FAT from the old Deficit numbers to around 26-29g per meal. Thus eating in maintenance or surplus depending where you are at. Or you could add carbs....but that is an entire other post. This is a ESD Cardio session workout for me (ESD = Energy System Development). This ESD workout focuses on specific energy systems with multiple modalities to attain that goal. Again my meal 6 and last meal of the night is low protein, high carb, low fat. This meal 6 in conjunction to helping me sleep and recover, also acts as a pre workout fuel up for the next days Lower Body session.
There you have it, 3 alternative meal options just by changing out the Protein source. I created my weekly deficit of 531 calories. It is not much of a weekly deficit but it will get the job done long term and is easily manipulated to progress results in fat loss.
The point being made here is, you do not need all these recipes and diet stess in your life when trying to get on the right nutritional path. Make small sustainable alterations to the meals that work best for you. Gather information from those alterations, make the changes where needed and start to progress! Give it time :-)
If you need help with a plan. We are here to help!! sculptedbybrandt@gmail.com
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