My Day to Day Eating Program - GetFitOver40.com
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 4:05PM
Michael Kaye in Back to the Basics, Conditioning, Nutrition, Video Requests, YouTube Video

How I eat depends on what I am trying to achieve, I generally eat pretty much the same foods every day, just a little more or less depending on if I am maintaining, cutting or bulking, but my Macros stay pretty consistent. The only acceptation to this is when I do contest prep since I have to eat supper clean starting about 3 weeks out from competition day.

How many Calories I burn each day:

My base metabolic rate is around 2200-2300 calories per day, add in about 1000-1300 addition activity calories which includes my basic moving around and  programmed workouts, and that give me about 3000-3500 calories per day that I burn.

My Macros each day:

I try to hit my body weight in grams of protein so around 200 grams of protein which equals 800 calories.

I set myself a base carbohydrate total of 150 grams of carbs and then top that up depending on how much exercise I do each day. So if I burn 1000 calories during my workouts then I eat back an additional 250 grams of carbs so in this example I would be eating 400 grams of carbs or 1600 calories worth of carbs based on 1000 calories of additional daily activity.

In terms of fats, I try to stay under 100 grams each day which will equals about 800 calories from fats.

So during a typical day I would eat around 3200 calories which is pretty close to what I burn most days.

At the end of the day I adjust my late night snack accordingly to count for any extra calories I need to eat and also change the food up to hit my target Macros. Generally a try to eat a lot of proteins in the evening and avoid loading up on carbs.

What works for me:

I like to start off the early part of my day fairly light or low in calories since I am not as hungry during Breakfast and Lunch eating times.

Breakfasts:

Breakfast can be as simple as a mixed protein shake (berries, 1/2 banana, low cal almond milk, peanut butter, protein powder, creatine) with an espresso. Usually around 400 calories.

I sometimes have a slice of low calories bread with a little bit of peanut butter and jam along with a simple protein drink and my espresso. Again usually around 400 calories.

Lunch:

Lunch will depend a lot on if I am maintaining, cutting or bulking. If I am cutting then lunch may be as simple as a protein bar and another espresso or perhaps a bowl of cottage cheese with a low calorie fruit cup added to it.

If I am maintaining, I will add in a bit more food at lunch. Sometimes a tuna or sardine sandwich with low calorie bread, or I will just add some items like turkey pepperoni or another quick protein drink.

Lunches can be anywhere from 200 calories up to 500 calories depending on how many calories I am shooting for that day.

Dinner:

Dinner is the hardest meal for me to control since I eat whatever the family is eating. But in general our dinners would go something like this. Chicken or fish of some sort, vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes  or yams, and usually a salad. I might even have a low calorie beer with dinner. If we eat out I still do my best to eat responsibly or it will effect what I can eat for my evening snack and I enjoy that too much to completely blow my dinner macros and calorie allotment.

My dinners will generally be around 1000 calories.

Evening Snack:

I really enjoy evening snacks so no matter what I am eating for, I always leave at least 500 calories left over for a snack before bed. I will often have to top up by eating 1000+ calories in an evening snack especially if I did a lot of extra activities or I am bulking at that time.

Evening snacks usually consist of a healthy raisin bran cereal (1 cup) with low calorie almond milk, a cup of cottage cheese again with a low calorie fruit cup in it, possibly some protein powder mixed with water and then pretty much just about anything I feel like to top up my calories for the day as required for my current eating goals.

Some of my daily Supplements and Vitamins:

Protein powder, creatine powder, BCAA's, fish oil pills, joint support vitamins, calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin B and D, a multivitamin pack and some vitamin C and electrolyte tablets.

That’s about it!

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