eating the same stuff

[tfranc]

Coach,

If you eat mostly the same things every day, does that eventually make it much harder for your body to absorb the nutrients from said things?

I'm asking because I've been struggling to be consistent with your nutritional recommendations for me here: http://startingstrength.com/resource...-critique.html
(daily: 400g carbs, 200g protein, 75g fat, 3000 cal)

It seems like the only way I'm able to keep these nutritional amounts is to literally eat the same things every day. Perhaps this is a pretty naive notion, but I'm not sure what else to do. It seems like when I try to replace these specific meals or ingredients to mix it up and break up some of the monotony, the balance between Carbs/Protein/Fats gets thrown off. I have a newfound respect for guys who have been doing this for years and years. Any advice you're willing to give I would really appreciate.

Thanks for your time

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

If you eat mostly the same things every day, does that eventually make it much harder for your body to absorb the nutrients from said things?

No. Most successful dieters eat similar things daily. Best advice is to always have a couple go to meals that are easy, require no prep, and help hit the numbers you need to hit.

[tfranc]

Thanks. Yeah I'm discovering that there are any only a few food combinations that hit the required numbers perfectly. But that's just the way it goes I guess

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Thanks. Yeah I'm discovering that there are any only a few food combinations that hit the required numbers perfectly. But that's just the way it goes I guess

Eh, I'm not sure I would agree. In general, most of your meals are going to be a lean protein source, a starchy carb, some fibrous vegetable or fruit, and maybe some added fat source. You can pretty much get as creative as your budget and culinary skills allow with this.

[jdoolittle]

Eh, I'm not sure I would agree. In general, most of your meals are going to be a lean protein source, a starchy carb, some fibrous vegetable or fruit, and maybe some added fat source. You can pretty much get as creative as your budget and culinary skills allow with this.

I pretty much just work off the fat that is naturally part of the proteins I eat and rarely add any extra fat. I have spary olive oil so I might use that to get a little bit of flavor in the pan before I cook my veggies. Any issues with not adding fat from extra sources?

[tdood]

What is a good, lower fat, high protien breakfast that doesn't have tons of egg whites or whey?

[Tom Campitelli]

What is a good, lower fat, high protien breakfast that doesn't have tons of egg whites or whey?

Chicken breasts. If cooked the night before, there is nothing faster in the morning.

[LimieJosh]

I understand someone might think like that if they are new to counting macros, but there really is an unlimited set of combinations a person can consume in the day and still hit their numbers, especially with a budget of 3000Kcal/day. It can be difficult to fine tune the final meal of the deal to hit the targets on the respective macros and so I've found that it's useful to have a few "go to", predominately single-macro snacks that you can add in however much mass/volume to get you to your target.

Need 15 g more protein? Go to your supply of precooked chicken breast or weigh out the right amount of whey
Need 30g more CHO? Fruit you can protion out easily, like cut up melon. Precooked rice
Need 10g more fat? Put the jar of peanut butter on the scale and scoop out 20g (assuming a 32g serving has 16g of fat) and eat it off the spoon.

[tfranc]

Eh, I'm not sure I would agree. In general, most of your meals are going to be a lean protein source, a starchy carb, some fibrous vegetable or fruit, and maybe some added fat source. You can pretty much get as creative as your budget and culinary skills allow with this.

The thing I "struggle" with the most is breakfast in terms of regulating fat while still getting enough protein/carbs. I see other ways to balance carbs/fats/protein/calories with other meals, but not sure about breakfast.

You had recommended I shoot for 200g protein, 400g carbs, 75g fat split up 5 times for the day, 3000 cal total. 4 times seemed to work better for my schedule, so I've got 50g protein, 100g carbs, 18-19g fat per meal. I haven't figured out how to split the calories into 4, 750 cal chunks, though.

A breakfast for me looks like: 3 servings of oatmeal, blueberries, banana or orange, 2 eggs, 5 servings egg whites, ounce of cheese in eggs. This comes out to roughly 20g fat, 50-55g protein, 100-110g carbs, but around 1,000 calories.

I feel like I'm stuck with this meal because if I replace anything with something else, it throws things off. For example, I could replace a serving of oatmeal with 2 tbs honey for carbs, but that takes away from the protein that serving of oatmeal provides. If I try to replace an egg or two with breakfast meat, that changes the fat content. If I take the cheese away, it lowers the fat content, but it also takes away 7 grams of protein.

One other thing I have a hard time with is going over the calorie quota of 3000 and obtaining enough macros. It seems like I have to eat incredibly clean to make that happen.

[iamsmuts]

cod?

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