I’ve always loved junk food and have a **SUPER** unhealthy relationship with it, so that’s why I chose the items I did for my snacks and lunch. Can also throw in a Quest shake w/160 cals and still be good.
The water and propel flavoring will hold me over, and of course I can change the flavoring etc., but I think that’s what’ll help me adjust easier, if that makes sense.
I also workout every day at the gym if it matters.
by EmotionlessExecution
21 Comments
Looks pretty good! Lots of good protein.
The only that you might wanna consider, is if your having a protein bar for lunch plus all the quest snacks every day, that is a lot of processed stuff that’s not great for you. Over time that could take a bit of a toll on your body. But, not everyone cares about that (including me lol), so I’d say it’s a solid plan! 🙂
Over 1/3 of your calories are coming from protein bars. If you can stay satisfied with snacks like these, then feel free to use these.
Can you add some vegetables to breakfast and/or lunch. It’ll be hard to get enough produce in dinner to meet your vitamin and mineral needs.
Fruit and veg? Good on the protein front though!
If this is sustainable for you in the long-term, I’d say go for it. Personally I think you should nix one of your snack protein cookies and add a little more “meal” to your lunch or dinner–I think of protein bars as a snack and not really a meal. I find chicken or eggs or tuna to be much more satiating than protein shakes/cookies/bars, but you may be different! It’s just about whatever works for you.
[Here’s an example of what I eat just to give an idea (all of my snacks are after I get home from work).](https://imgur.com/a/i22BVH2)
If you’re good with the protein bars, then it looks fine.
Personally, I’d be starving/frustrated if I only had a protein bar for lunch – or, essentially, THREE protein bars if the two snacks are mid-morning and afternoon.
If you get bored with those and are tempted to cheat, maybe you could replace 1-2 of those with healthy snacks/real food like a lightly dressed green salad, raw veggies/fruit, or a few cups of healthy popcorn.
Maybe some Greek yogurt with fruit, and some cottage cheese with grape tomatoes and everything bagel seasoning. That will give you sweet and savory proteins that should help you stay full.
Just want to add in the comments that everyone has such amazing ideas that I didn’t even think about! I really appreciate the support and ideas!
Are you used to eating barebells and quest products? Only reason I ask is they each have a lot of sugar alcohols. Some people tolerate them well, some don’t. I can’t even have a bite of a quest bar personally because of the erithrytol. It might be a lot for your system to be eating that much throughout the day.
Will you be okay with the added fiber from the protein bars?
Everyone has pointed out the abundance of protein bars and lack of fruit and vegetable, which I also want to comment upon.
I understand that dinner is going to have a lot of vegetables. Is it going to have 400 grams of a variety of vegetables? 5-a-day as indicated by the US and UK governments with a serving being 80 grams, or 400 grams total as indicated by the WHO, is the recommended minimum for a healthy diet, and you want to get different types in a day. Fruit isn’t strictly necessary if you’re getting your quota in veggies, but people often default to a few of the same vegetables and not that many people use many types in the same meal. It can help with the distribution of a variety of nutrients if you have some blueberries or a banana with breakfast, and apple and a side of baby carrots with lunch, *and then* 1-2 of the vegetables at dinner that are more classic for cooking.
Also, the Quest cookies and bars have a ton of saturated fat in them. If cholesterol is one of your medical issues, you may want to rethink that. I haven’t been overweight for years but my LDL was high when checked, and that was one of the first things I found that was driving up my saturated fat. One Quest cookie was about half of my daily target of 10% of calories. I’d rather have cheese!
Try this instead:
Breakfast:
Protein drink and a cup of egg whites – 250cal
Lunch:
6oz Instant pot chicken with sugar free bbq sauce – 200cal
Dinner:
93% lean beef with vegetables, reduced fat cream cheese and taco sauce – 300cal
Whole bag of Steam in bag vegetables with 2tbs country crock light spread – ~200-250cal
=1000cal total
Snacks:
Nonfat Greek yogurt with berries and erythrital – 150cal
1 serving halo top ice cream – 130cal
15 chips – 150 cal
Grand total – 1450 calories and over 100grams of protein, low carbs, low fat.
You won’t enjoy eating nothing but protein bars. You’ll get hungry and tired quick. Work out fir a half hour and you can have another 300 calories. Other snacks can be fruit, salad with fat free dressing, low fat cottage cheese, one packet of oatmeal with almond milk and truvia brown sugar, edamame, sugar free popsicles. and the list goes on.
Just saying, I see you want to get away from your unhealthy relationship with junk food… yet you seem to have mainly bars and cookies as your calories…. Now I’m not saying that this is a bad idea, but I don’t know that you’re going to change your relationship with food for the better if you maintain those as your primary sources of calories lol
Just a regular old sandwich with 2x or 3x the amount of meat and low cal bread is going to be as good, or better, than a protein bar by most metrics. There’s also stuff that’s not as good on the macros as a protein bar, like tortilla pizza lol I recommend r/Volumeeating for ideas as well. I love that place, because the meals help you get full!
Not enough carbs and protein. Too much processed food and not enough Whole Foods.
Be careful for sugar alcohol on those sweet protein snacks… they will give you terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea for weeks! Took me three weeks to get over my reaction to it.
You have a lot of processed food. I would try to go with leaner meats that will provide more protein, less sodium, and less cholesterol and saturated fats. The point of losing weight is to be healthy, but if your arteries still clog up, what’s the point?
I’d go with turkey bacon, maybe even egg whites instead of whole egg although that’s not too big of a deal.
Try to replace those processed snacks with fresh fruits and veggies and an isolate protein shake instead. Protein snacks may have soluble fiber, which is good for you, but you have almost no insoluble fiber. So your gut health won’t be as good as it can be.
These are all recommendations that I’ve learned over months and slowly introduced and adapted. the important thing is find what works for you! Make sure you’re happy with what you eat. If you feel like you’re being punished, it might not be sustainable. Check out my post history for some meal ideas. Good luck!!
I honestly would say when you get to the amount of pounds you desire, it doesn’t matter if you eat junk food as long as your burning it off after. You say you work out every day. That’s perfect I don’t think you have to take away one of your favorite snacks lol
Try doing 1 egg plus more egg whites for the breakfast instead of 2 eggs, more volume of food for the same amount of calories.
Edit: I’d also move then Barebell to snacks, remove one of the quest products, and have a more filling 250 calorie lunch, like a sandwich on light bread. I like turkey, apple slices, a small amount of goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. Lot of flavor, and probably more filling.
2 gallons of water is completely unnecessary
You might want to change up your lunch to eating more volume-based food that has low calories. Eating just one protein bar will lead to frustration down the road and you be inclined to binge at some point. Keep yourself satisfied to curb any hunger pangs before dinner rolls in!
Eat real food! It will be much more satiating.
Similar to what others have said, I’d look into some low cal vegetable snack options just as a backup.
Sometimes when I’m trying to maintain a good diet my brain goes into self sabotage mode and just has this burning, insatiable urge to eat. I don’t always have the mental energy to fight back at the end of the day, so I try to keep a few low cal options on hand to mitigate damage.
Any kind of salad with a low to no cal dressing is great. Cucumber, tomato & onion salad without the oil. Celery and tzatziki. Cherry tomatoes. That way I still get to eat some satisfying crunchy stuff, but the calorie count is minimal.
You’ll have days where you’re hungrier than others. If you have a plan with a handful of under 100 calorie snack options I think it will be helpful.
Aside from the already-mentioned lack of produce and a overuse of processed foods, this meal plan looks very… dense. Basically the opposite of volume eating.
Maybe that doesn’t matter to you and you’re good as long as you have calories. But if you’re someone who wants a full belly feeling occasionally, or even just finds more satiety with eating and chewing more, consider this point.
Check out r/volumeeating for some amazingly filling, low-calorie options. Big sandwiches have been hot lately. Soups and salads can both be great (they can also be really high in cals, too, so you have to watch that). Lately I’ve been adding a small (2oz /60g) day-old baked potato (letting it cool for a day after cooking makes resistant starch, which reduces calories and the blood glucose spike) to almost all my meals and it’s been super filling.