Following a Basic Macro Plan {and a 1700 calorie day}
Here is a full day of eating on 1700 calories PLUS a free printable with a basic macro plan to help you build healthy meals!
Recently, a friend wanted me to help her lose weight. When coaching friends for fun, I like to teach them how to track their food in MyFitnessPal. Then, I let them know that I’ll be checking their food log. This way I can see how they’re doing, where they can make changes, and what a good calorie and macro target should be.
This approach did not work well for my friend. She became too neurotic about her food. This was accompanied by a lot of guilt for how many times she and her husband (both retired) eat out. They like to eat out every day!
So, she wanted to pull back on the tracking, and learn just how to do a “macro diet”. So, I created this basic meal plan template for her to follow.
How to Build Meals with the Basic Macro Plan
To make things EXTREMELY simple. The goal is to eat a protein and a carb at every meal, with unlimited veggies. I included a list of common proteins and carbs to get started.
For example:
Proteins: Protein Lean Sources: Chicken Breast | Turkey Breast | 96% Lean Ground Beef | 96 Ground Chicken | 96 Lean Ground Turkey | Lean Pork Tenderloin | Cod | Tilapia | Orange Roughy | Tuna (fresh or canned | Halibut | Shrimp | Tuna | Egg Whites
Carbs: Bread, tortilla, Potato Boiled and Mashed any type | Cooked Rice White/Brown | Cooked Quinoa | Cooked Beans | Plain Quaker Rice Cakes | Cooked Cream of Rice | Oatmeal
Veggies: Asparagus | Broccoli | Cucumber | Lettuce | Cabbage | Cauliflower | Spinach | Zuchinni | Brussel Sprouts | Kale | Onion | Radishes | Celery | Mushrooms | Green Beans | Sauerkraut | Arugula | Eggplant
Anyway, just wanted to share this meal plan template that you can print out if you want to just get started with the basics of macro counting!
Macro Plan Free Printable
So, onto day 2 of my Bikini Prep 2023. These were my meals from yesterday!
Pre-run: 1 banana. Intra run: 1 salted caramel gu
Breakfast: 1 Egg, 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/2 ounce cheese, 1/2 piece of toast, greek yogurt with 1/2 scoop CSE Strawberry protein powder mixed in.
Lunch: 5 ounces chicken tenders, shredded mixed ith G Hughes Honey mustard dip, 2 cups greens, 1/2 ounce walnuts, 1 can pears
Snack: Greek yogurt, Sugar free pistachio pudding, whipped cream, built bar
Dinner: THIS WAS DELICIOUS! I spiralized 1 medium zucchini, and cooked it on a skillet with 1/4 cup cottage cheese and 1/8 cup parmesan cheese (plus salt!). Then, I had leftover sloppy joe ground turkey.
The printable Myfitnesspal record is here.
I will start with the numbers to paint you a picture before we go any further.
Gender – male
Age – 59
Height – 5ft 6in
Weight – 265lbs…..that’s right 265lbs, long story but not relevant for now but those are the numbers.
Let me start by saying that I love Health Beet. I wish I had found this earlier in my life.
Honest accounts of foods eaten and full disclosure of not only wins but struggles and discouragement along the way. Thank you for that, because in so doing you have humanized yourself. What rang true to me was the 3 week strict adherence to eating absolutely correct and then getting the self doubt, WTH moment ,upon the scale when you thought “WHY ISNT THIS WORKING”?. Then tadaaa the 2lb scale move. I could so relate to that and have thrown in the towel so many times by not sticking with it. However I have never had that shared by any of the online coachs I ve had in the past. They simply assigned and delegated the blame to me as opposed to encouraging me to ride it out…you get the gist.
I am wondering about an eating regimen for someone of my “size”. Your weight ( Amy ) was 20 or so pounds away from your goal whereas mine is 80. How does that translate for me?
Is it still a1500 calorie menu or am I 2000 calorie etc. The macro profile is 40/40/20 and that’s a lock but how much is enough or too little for my weight loss journey?
I will leave you with that for the time being as I don’t want to email word bomb you in one correspondence. So think it over, let me know and drop me a line when able.
Thanks for all you do and contribute to your web page, you’re helping a lot of people to find the courage and answers to move forward with change in a healthy direction.
Sincerely
Patrick Myles
408myles@gmail.com
Patrick!
Thanks for writing to me, and sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. I read your email over the weekend, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
I sincerely appreciate your kind words in following my blog. It’s hard to know what and how much to share, so it encourages me when someone like you can relate.
As far as your calories and macros- I do think a 40/40/20 split is good, at least for me because I enjoy carbs and protein a lot more than I like eating fat. But at the end of the day, total calories with whatever macro breakdown you choose, will have the biggest impact.
I do believe you’ll see progress at a higher calorie goal. In fact, I would start at 2500 calories. If you can stay consistent with 2500 calories, I think you would see weight loss.
Have you started tracking? Do you know what your current calories are right now?
Let me know!
Amy