Recipes Resources

[eschab89]

I'm having trouble getting over 3000 calories per day without resorting to fast food or junk calories like chips, soda, etc.

When I meal prep for myself, most meals are a protein, a carb, and some vegetables. I try to hit a little over 50g of protein per meal. When combined with a protein shake, that gets me to my daily target of around 200g of protein per day. I'd say each of these meals has around 60g of carbs, although I don't focus on that macro so much. I don't track fat at all, figuring I'm getting what I need from the protein, since it's primarily animal protein.

The problem is that these meals tend to end up clocking in only around 500-600 calories. With a protein shake added on, I'm barely breaking 2k calories per day.

I've tried just doubling the carbs as that seems to be where I'm coming up short, but I get bored eating that much rice or pasta or whatever all in one sitting, and find it takes me forever to finish a meal.

Anyone have any resources for recipes ideas that I could use to pack in some more calories in a way that's more palatable? If there's a cookbook or something on this, I'd love to check it out. Most fitness-related cooking advice I've come across is all about cutting out calories, which doesn't really help in my situation.

[Robert Santana]

The RP cookbooks are pretty good if you like to cook. However, how much time do you want to spend prepping?

[HailMary]

Are you weighing & measuring your food? Use a tracking app?

[eschab89]

Is this what you're referring to? If so, is there one geared towards bulking or strength training? These all appear to be focused on weight loss, other than maybe the one about endurance training.

Currently, I make breakfast every morning (eggs, sausage, toast, etc.). Other than that, I prep 3-6 meals at a time 2 or 3 times per week (typically on days I don't exercise or on weekends), which usually takes between 1 - 1.5 hours to do. I wouldn't mind cooking a little more often, but I also don't see myself cooking every single night.

[Robert Santana]

I mentioned the cookbooks, not the templates.

Renaissance Periodization | RP Store

[HailMary]

I’m at about 2300 calories per day. I do track, weigh & measure because I find it’s helpful, overall. I don’t find it inconvenient, and it doesn’t make me neurotic.

I don’t have to work very hard to get to 2300. I do use lean meats, reduced fat cheese slices, smaller slices of bread, zero fat Greek yogurt, watch snacks, all so I don’t go flying over 2300. Maybe you are eating more calories than you are estimating?

[my_back_hurts]

You should post what you typically eat in a day.

1lb ground beef
3 cups (cooked) rice
16oz whole milk
2 scoops protein powder
1/2 cup mixed nuts
8oz OJ
1 cup nonfat cottage cheese

This works out to 2600 cals, 200P/220C/100F. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to get that in and another 400 calories should be easy to find. Toss a couple raw eggs in your protein shake and you're good to go.

Another thought is that vegetables are high satiety and low calorie. Maybe just eat them all at night with your last meal instead of spreading them throughout the day. I know if I just eat meat and a carb I'm hungry again 2-3 hours later no matter what.

[eschab89]

Obviously, this varies, but below is what I would consider representative of a good day:

Breakfast
3x Large Eggs: 210 cal; 18p
1x Sausage Link: 120 cal; 11p
1x Toast: 100 cal; 4p; 19carb
Cream cheese on toast: 35 cal
Total: 465 cal; 33p; 19carb

Lunch
1/2 lb chicken breast: 341 cal; 69p
1/2 cup white rice (uncooked*): 320 cal; 6p; 70 carb
Random veggies (calories and macros are negligible; I toss these in for micronutrients)
Total: 661 cal; 75p; 70 carb

Dinner
1/2 lb beef**: 280 cal; 46p
1/2 cup white rice (uncooked*): 320 cal; 6p; 70 carb
Random veggies (calories and macros are negligible; I toss these in for micronutrients)
Total: 600 cal; 52p; 70 carb

Protein Shake
2x cup whole milk: 300 cal; 16p; 26 carb
1 scoop protein power: 200 cal; 30p; 7 carb
1 cup frozen berries:80 cal; 19 carb
Total: 580cal; 46p; 52 carb

Daily Total: 2,306 cal; 206p; 211 carb

I do use butter or olive oil for cooking all of the above that I don't measure, so I am probably under-counting by a couple hundred calories and the actual total may be closer to 2500. If I was trying to lose weight, I would be more concerned about that, but in this situation, I don't see a harm in under-counting some. In my initial post, I was not factoring in the protein shake because I have not been as consistent with having that every single day lately. If that's removed, it brings the daily total down to 1700-1800 calories, which is more what I had in my head when I said I'm barely cracking 2k calories per day. Regardless, even if that's added back in, I'm still a decent distance from my current goal of 3k, and I expect I will have to further increase this as time goes on.

To another person's question, I don't measure or weigh things. If I purchase a pack of chicken breast that is 1 & 1/2 lbs, and distribute that evenly across three meals, I figure each meal has roughly 1/2 lb of chicken. Some may be a little higher or lower, since I am eyeballing this. However, over the long run it should average out.

The weak spot here appears to be carbs. I'm not surprised by that at all. I've never been the kind of person who could stomach large quantities of pasta or rice. As initially stated, I've tried simply doubling the portions of rice as that alone would probably get me to 3k, but I just get bored eating that much of the same thing in one sitting. I can force myself to do it sometimes, but I've not been able to keep that up multiple times a day every day. I'm prone to procrastinating and then ultimately skipping meals when I try to do this. I was hoping to find some recipes ideas that'd make it easier to get more food in.

Another alternative would be to add another protein shake. However, I am concerned about relying too heavily on shortcuts like that, and it appears I'm already getting enough protein. I don't think it's necessarily harmful to get in more, but what I've read indicates that your body just can't process it after a certain point and ends flushing the excess protein out.

* I measure the rice before it's cooked. For example, I'll measure out 1 & 1/2 cups of uncooked rice and cook that, then distribute evenly across three containers. I have no idea how many cups of cooked rice this equates to, as I don't measure it that way.
** For this example, I used Trader Joe's Beef Stew Meat, but this could also be ground beef.

[eschab89]

Thanks! Didn't find this initially.

[my_back_hurts]

Can you eat oats? 1/2c of steel cut oats is like 300cals and 60 carbs, swap the toast out for that. Add a glass of OJ in the morning. Another trick is to make a PB&J (but maybe add honey too), cut into quarters, and then eat that throughout the day - that's about 350-400 calories there. Boom, I just added 1000 calories of real food to your diet.