Okay, so I'm starting the planning process. I'm going out today to look at stationary bikes so I can do cardio at like 70% for 30 minutes every morning. I'm going to get a trainer at my gym to set me up a 3 day weight lifting routine. So exercise is done basically. At least as far as planning goes.

Food. I've done some work here. I've figured out to cut I need 2500 calories. 40:40:20. I actually did the math on this with the sticky in this forum and that's actually what I got. Protein was like 41% so I dropped it to 40. I'm a big guy and I double checked my math so I know it's right. I know I want to get most of my carbs in the morning and most of my protein in the later part of the day and take in fats throughout the day. I'm psyched. Now how do I do it?

I've been told countless times WHAT to eat. I've been on diet after diet and it's not working. I've been told, very wisely, that I need to know how to make my own meal plans. I've been reading about this and I'm kind of fed up trying to find the right info. I need a good source on how to set up a meal plan. I know what kinds of stuff to eat, now I need to know how to FIGURE OUT ON MY OWN what exactly to eat and when.

So am I not going to be able to do this? Do I need to get a nutritionist or should I be able to read up and figure out how to cut my day apart and eat what I want? How do you guys do it?

Talio.

Most of it is trial and error, but there are some general guidelines. The stickies provide good starting information, so follow them religiously, until you learn more, then make changes. Post up what you have so far, and then we can help you make it better :)

Well the stickies are good baseline for what to eat. I know I need fruits, vegitables, whole grains and lean meats. I understand that, but the problem is actually knowing that I have 6 meals I need to eat a day. I know what nutrients need to be filled by these six meals. I have a general idea of what kinds of stuff are good for me and what kinds of stuff are bad. What I don't know is how exactly to distribute them onto the list. So lets say I want to eat a banana. Well for one, who's to say the exact protien, fat and carb make up of a banana? Are there books that tell you this? Is there a book I can look up banana and it tells me what the nutrient make up is. Also, when should I eat banana's. Now don't get hung up on banana's because this goes for just about every food that doesn't come pakaged. I know chicken breast has lots of protein, but I need to have a specific ammount of protein. How can I know how much chicken I should eat in a day? This is the confusing part, this is how I've screwed up in the past. I know I need a meal plan. I know what kinds of foods should go into it roughly. I know how many times I need to eat and I know how much of each nutrient I should get. Now with this info, how do I go about making the actual plan. That's the grey zone. I know it's possible because everyone wants to give me a meal plan. It's one of those "give a man a fish" things. I need to learn how to fish, not be given fish. Know what I mean?

Talio.

There is software including databases with nutritional information that can make all these calculations for you, but I'll leave the naming of the best ones to the others here. But I think you are making things more complicated than what they need to be. I like the simplicity in this:


1. Eat every 2-3 hours, no matter what. You should eat between 5-8 meals per day.
2. Eat complete (containing all the essential amino acids), lean protein with each meal.
3. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with each food meal.
4. Ensure that your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables. Exception: workout and post-workout drinks and meals.
5. Ensure that 25-35% of your energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (e.g. animal fat), monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil), and polyunsaturates (e.g. flax oil, salmon oil).
6. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, the best choices being water and green tea.
7. Eat mostly whole foods (except workout and post-workout drinks).
So what about calories, or macronutrient ratios, or any number of other things that I’ve covered in other articles? The short answer is that if you aren’t already practicing the above-mentioned habits, and by practicing them I mean putting them to use over 90% of the time (i.e., no more than 4 meals out of an average 42 meals per week violate any of those rules), everything else is pretty pointless.

Follow those rules and you will end up in with a nutrition plan that is much better than most. There are other ways to construct them too though. I doubt that you need a nutritionist, since you seem very willing to learn stuff.

The best advice I can give is use common sense. Chicken breasts are good, donuts are bad. Read the stickies, eat as natural as you can. Avoid processed foods if you can, in most cases they hold no nutritional value. Ultimately your body will tell you what it needs once you start to feed it real nutrients. Good luck!

Yeah, that's just not going to do. I need specific resources. If I could just figure this out or use my common sense I wouldn't be fat. I appreciate the help, but honestly, I know what kinds of things to eat, when I should eat them, but I don't know how much or what time is best. I need to know how to make a plan and not just wing it. If I wing it I'm gonna do it wrong just like I have in the past. I think the bookstore is the next step. If anyone else has any more suggestions I'm all ears, but I still don't know how to make a thorough plan and I can't just figure it out. I'll find the info I need eventually.

Edit:

Okay, maybe this will help. This is as far as I've gotten:

Daily consumption: 2500 cals.

Make up -

Protein - 1000 cals.
Cards - 1000 cals.
Fat - 500 cals.

Suppliments:

2 Multivitamins twice with food

30 minutes cardio in the morning.

Meal plan:

Meal 1:
2 Multivitamin

Meal 2:

Meal 3:

Meal 4:
2 Multivitamin

Meal 5:

Meal 6:

I'm going to eat most my carbs in the first three meals and most of my protein in that last three meals.

That's it. That's all I got. I know donuts don't go in there but I certainly can't put chicken breast under every meal. Even if I did do I eat an ounce of protien or a pound. Now I know people can fill this in and I'm not asking for a full on meal plan. What I'm asking is how to fill it out. How do I know what I should put into each meal and how much I should put there? I've seen sample meal plans everywhere, I just don't know how to come up with my own.

Edit 2:

Okay, now I know for a fact that the resources are out there. I just looked in Burn Fat, Feed Muscle and sure enough, it gave a list of foods, listed them under what catagory they are in. So I know now what foods to pick and put into catagories, so I'll do that now since I have the day off. I'm still stumped on how to figure out exactly how much I should eat of it and how to add up exactly what I've eaten throughout the day. I'll work on the math later, right now I'll get to putting foods where they belong.

Edit 3:

Here's what I've got so far:

Meal 1:

Multivitamin
Egg Whites
oatmeal
banana

Meal 2:
Skim Milk
Cereal

Meal 3:
Tuna
Wheat Bread
Lettuce
Tomato
Apple
Brown rice

Meal 4:

Multivitamin
Cottage Cheese

Meal 5:

Chicken Breast
Pasta
Tomato Sauce
Green Bean
Roll

Meal 6:

Milk
Protein powder

Okay, now I need the math. I need to know what's in what and what the portion sizes of this stuff is to make sure it's meeting what I need in a day. I guess for that I can check labels, but banana's again don't have labels. Anyone know of good databases where the basic nutrition and serving sizes of most foods are kept? If not, how do you normally figure out the math here?

Last edit (probably) -

Looks like that is also in the back of BFFM.

So final word to anyone who comes across this thread in the future - Read the sticky on cutting nutrition, figure all that out, then get BFFM, look at the chapter on making meal plans, follow it, then use the appendix in the back to figure out just how much you need. Knowing is half the battle. God speed.

Meal 1:

Multivitamin
Egg Whites
oatmeal
banana

Meal 2:
Skim Milk
Cereal

Meal 3:
Tuna
Wheat Bread
Lettuce
Tomato
Apple
Brown rice

Meal 4:

Multivitamin
Cottage Cheese

Meal 5:

Chicken Breast
Pasta
Tomato Sauce
Green Bean
Roll

Meal 6:

Milk
Protein powder

Some good choices, some not so good choices. But how much of each thing are you eating? 1 egg white or 10, for example.

Yeah, that was extremely rough on the estimates. And as far as bad choices, well that stuff was all picked out as a good source of whatever I need. However, I think it's back to the drawing board. I tried it exact math and lets just say one day took about 30 minutes of work and I didn't get it close.

Maybe exacts aren't the way to go. Perhaps I need to fudge it a bit. So I know that I need 40% to come from carbs, 40% to come from protein. I know what kind of stuff in general I should eat and what I should stay away from. Actually to be honest I have no idea how to do this. I thought I was onto something, but that didn't work. I need to go to the grocery store, I need to know what to buy. Damn, this is frustrating.

So calculating exacts is not going to work. I know I need 2500 calories a day. I just literally have no idea where to go from here. I'm not giving up, but I tried and I need to try something else. I guess I'll ask again. How do you guys come up with your menu's for the week?

Talio.

You don't "need" 40% to come from carbs. That's just a number that works well for some people.

I think if you're having trouble, you should start from the bottom up, and don't worry about the numbers right now. If you're making good clean, and balanced food choices, the numbers will look after themselves.

You don't "need" 40% to come from carbs. That's just a number that works well for some people.

I think if you're having trouble, you should start from the bottom up, and don't worry about the numbers right now. If you're making good clean, and balanced food choices, the numbers will look after themselves.

I'm not trying to push buttons here, I'm just really that confused. What exactly does "start from the bottum up" mean?

It may be frusturating, but honestly the best (and only) way you're going to figure YOUR perfect diet of when, what and how much to eat is by trial and error. The first diet you draw up for yourself probably won't be the same one you're sticking to 6 months from now. Your body changes, your goals change. If you're looking for something simply to start with, check out the Nutrition forum - there is literally hundreds of threads dedicated to people's diets and chances are some of those people are similar to you. Also, check out John Stone's diet, he has everything broken down where it is very simple to read. If you're still lost, contact a nutritionist and they'll walk you through EVERYTHING for a nice fee. Good luck. :tu:

I'm not trying to push buttons here, I'm just really that confused. What exactly does "start from the bottum up" mean?
Write down the foods you think make up a nice balanced diet.

Sign up for an account at www.fitday.com and add the foods into the worksheet. Don't forget to change the serving size to what you would eat. Take a look at the totals at the bottom.

Go to the home tab in fitday and find the link to your public journal.

Start a new thread at JSF beginner forums called Critique My Diet.

Post the fitday link, along with the major statistics for that day (calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, fibre). Also indicate what time of day you normally eat and workout, and your height and weight. Mention anything you are concerned about from the fitday log.

Write down the foods you think make up a nice balanced diet.

Sign up for an account at www.fitday.com (http://www.fitday.com) and add the foods into the worksheet. Don't forget to change the serving size to what you would eat. Take a look at the totals at the bottom.

Go to the home tab in fitday and find the link to your public journal.

Start a new thread at JSF beginner forums called Critique My Diet.

Post the fitday link, along with the major statistics for that day (calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, fibre). Also indicate what time of day you normally eat and workout, and your height and weight. Mention anything you are concerned about from the fitday log.

Guava...that is an excellent idea. Bravo, that was exactly what I was looking for. I'll do that exact thing. Thank you so much for the advice. Really.

Talio.

Talio:

Don't feel bad about asking for help with your meal plan. It is by far the most difficult part of reshaping your body. Most of us have never (and will never) take or be taught a class in school about REAL nutrition, not that food pyramid thing they try to pass off as reality. So by all means, ask away when you have a question about something because each time you do, we all learn and realize things we may haven't before.

I've found that it's near impossible to keep a 40/40/20 mix throughout each meal. To that end I've tried to schedule my meals according to which nutrients I need most and when. For instance, I like to have Kashi GoLean, usually mixed with fruit, in the mornings. The sugars in the fruit give me a nice wake-up energy rush while the carbs in GoLean keep that energy going once the sugars start to fade. Because I'm eating slow-burning carbs at the same time as fast-burning ones, I rarely, if ever, experience that "sugar crash" that people get if only eating fast-metabolizing carbs. My pre-workout meal is somewhat similar: slow-metabolizing carbs to keep me energized throughout the workout with a little protein thrown in to prevent muscle loss while lifting.

After my workout I have a PWO (post-workout) shake - 1 scoop GNC whey protein (vanilla) mixed with 3/4 cup of strawberries in 1 cup of water. Blend it all together and it tastes like strawberries and cream (delicious!!). The PWO shake is designed to prevent any additional muscle loss immediately after my workout, followed 60-90 minutes later by my PWO meal, which usually consists of 6-8oz chicken breasts (100% chicken, not that "rib meat added" crap) and a cup or so of vegetables. Granted I should probably add something to that PWO meal, but I'm still working on it. :p

So do you get the idea? If you can't allocate 40/40/20% throughout each meal (and like I said, it's near impossible and not worth the effort) then make sure you allocate those macronutrients when and where they're needed, as according to your daily needs.

You know what it sounds like to me? I need to go to my natural food store and buy stuff that isn't junk food that I like. And I need to eat a little bit of it six times a day and see what happens. Then I need to post it here and see what changes I need to make and I need to stop worrying so much about it. I pretty much get the idea. Good carbs in the morning, protein throughout the day, lots of protein after a work out. The fat thing...well I don't know. I'm sure I'm not going to have a problem eating enough fat. I think right now I just should stop the junk food and eating out. Throw some stuff I think is enough in my lunch box and adjust daily as I need to.

I guess I kind of have to fly at the seat of my pants, because I have no idea what I'm doing.

Talio.