Level 2, Phase 1 Meal Plan Questions

[tchapma1]

I'm going to begin my journey with P90x here next week. While I would love to have time to fix all of the meals listed in the Nutrition Guide, I just don't have the time. So I'm wanting to put together a meal plan that uses the same breakfast/lunch/snacks throughout the day, then just make a different dinner every night. FYI, I'm approximately 175lbs currently, so it looks like I need to be around 2700 cals a day (that seems like a LOT of food to me, but I'll do it). Here is what I have put together so far...

(7am) Breakfast – 2 Protein, 1 Dairy, 1 Veggie
Omelet – 6 Egg Whites, 3 Oz of Ham, ½ Cup Onion, ½ Cup Yellow Peppers

(9:30am) Snack – Protein Bar

(12:00pm) Lunch – 2 Protein, 2 Veggie, 1 Condiment
Salad – 3 Cups Lettuce, ½ Cup Tomatoes, 6 Oz of Grilled Chicken, 2 Tsp Fat Free Dressing

(2:00pm) Snack – Double Snack
8oz Cottage Cheese, 2 - .75 Oz String Cheese

(4:00pm) Protein Shake – 1 Dairy, 1 Fruit, 1 Protein
8oz of Skim Milk, 1 Cup Strawberries, 8oz of Water, 1 scoop of Vanilla Whey Protein mix.

(5:00pm) Workout

(6:30pm) Recovery Drink

(7:15pm) Dinner – 2 Protein, 1 Carb, 1 Veggie, 1 Condiment, 1 Dairy, 1 Fat

1 – Chicken Parmesan - 6oz Chicken, 1 Cup Wheat Spaghetti , 1 Cup Marinara Sauce, 3oz Parmesan Cheese, 1oz Olive Oil (used for cooking chicken)

2 – Spaghetti - 6oz Lean Hamburger, 1 Cup Wheat Spaghetti , 1 Cup Marinara Sauce, 3oz Parmesan Cheese, Fish Oil Supplement

3 – Steak – 6oz Sirloin Steak, 1oz Olive Oil (on steak before cooking), 1 Medium Baked Potato, 1 Cups Lettuce, 1oz Cheese, ½ Cup Tomatoes, 2 tsp Fat Free Dressing

4 – Pork Tenderloin – 6oz Pork Tenderloin, 2tsp BBQ sauce, 3 spears asparagus, 1oz Olive oil (on asparagus for cooking), 1 cup brown rice, 8oz – Skim milk

5 – Chicken Soft Taco – 6oz Chicken, 1 Cup Lettuce, ½ Cup Tomatoes, 1 large whole wheat tortilla, 2 tsp taco sauce, 1oz Cheese, Fish Oil Supplement.

I've got a few more dinners to think out, but they will follow the same trends. Does the menu look to be pretty close?

If I'm adding things up right, the above puts me right around 2470 calories (P90x bar and recovery drink). How can I add addtional calories to this to reach my 2700 requirement, yet still fit within the guidelines?

Any help would be appreciated.

[tchapma1]

Anyone have any input? Thanks

[JimNAZ]

As long as you are eating the right foods it looks ok to me. I do not do the portion version and I do not eat grain carbs so can't help too much (sorry). I hear you about the cals looking like a lot. We are about the same weight and it is tough for me to get that high daily. I use a lot of protein powder!

We keep it a lot the same during the day during the week and it works for us. Just switch up the little things to give some variety.

It looks like you spent some time planning your meals. Good commitment! Have you entered any of them into an online calorie tracker to see where everything falls for ratios?

[Sterling]

2700 calories is a bit high for fat loss and it looks like too many carbs.

What's your height and age?

Ideally, I'd shoot for 45-50% protein, 30-45% fat, and 10-20% carbs. Set your protein at 1.3 grams/lb body weight and fill in the rest. Let me know if you need more help.

[tchapma1]

Thanks for input. I'm right at 6', 175lbs. I was basing the 2700 calories off of the P90x guide. It would definitely be easier to reduce that. ;)

I did a quick calc on livestrong for one of the days, it roughly came out to 2450 cals, 45%P/32%C/23%F. I'm not sure how accurate the numbers are on a few of the items though.

[JimNAZ]

Thanks for input. I'm right at 6', 175lbs. I was basing the 2700 calories off of the P90x guide. It would definitely be easier to reduce that. ;)

I did a quick calc on livestrong for one of the days, it roughly came out to 2450 cals, 45%P/32%C/23%F. I'm not sure how accurate the numbers are on a few of the items though.

I feel your pain! Just be careful about mixing up the plans. The ratios in the P90X guide have a higher carb% and the portion guide is set up for it. If you want to drop your carb% down I would suggest just to go off of the calorie tracker program you use. That seems to work the easiest for me.

[FitRunner]

Also, don't forget that the P90X nutrition plan is designed to NOT have you lose weight. The 600 calories you add back in are to make up for what you burn doing P90X. If you want to lose fat, you need to burn more calories than you take in, and so you should aim for roughly what you already have, actually - between 200 and 500 calorie deficits a day. I personally think the carbs look fine, but I also don't think eating primally, or avoiding all grain products, is advantageous. That's a call you have to make for yourself.

Teresa

[tchapma1]

Thanks for the input guys! Great help.

Jim - From my example I'm at 45P/32C/23F, the guide says 50P/30C/20F. Seems like I'm close, I'm sure I can probably play around with things a little bit to hit it closer if the small percentages are really worth the effort (plus I will probably enter in the actual foods I have).

I'm really not needing to loose much weight (just some belly fat), otherwise it is more to strengthen. I might stay roughly where I'm at on the plan, maybe take some of the snack out and cut down slightly on the breakfast to take out a couple hundred calories.

Previous to P90x I was only eating a small lunch and a big dinner every day (no breakfast, snacks, etc). Going to the gym right before lunch for an hour (running, minor weight stuff, etc). So changing to this plan where I'm eating every couple of hours, working out in the evening, is probably going to be a big change for me. ;)

Thanks again!

[JimNAZ]

In my opinion I would not overly worry about hitting the ratios right on every day. That is always going to change. Getting close with good planning is a good chunk of it. I would imagine that getting down to a certain BF% would take more fine tuning. Just remember that the more you fuel your body with food the less it will need to use body fat. (This is more important if you eat a lot of carbs)

Going to smaller more frequent meals will have a positive impact!

Jim

[scourtney7]

Smaller meals has been a game changer for me!!!