In previous videos, I’ve discussed how to determine your actual maintenance calories. Based on what you eat and your change in body weight over time, it is more accurate than any online calculator. From that, you can determine your total daily macronutrient needs. To create a meal plan you need to know how to distribute your macros throughout the day. That is the topic of this video.
Much of the information in this video, as well as the previous videos, comes from “The Renaissance Diet 2.0.” The book covers this topic in much more detail than I can here and I recommend taking a look. You can find it HERE.
Let’s review my previous example for my massing phase. I calculated a protein target of 187 grams per day, at least 56 grams of fat, and at most 440 grams of carbohydrates. Since I am not in a cutting phase, we can adjust the carbs and fat. Something like 100 grams of fat and 300 grams of carbs should work.
We will look at the simplest scenario first, a non-training day. On non-training days you will divide your macros into equal amounts across your meals. How many meals? Between 3 to 6 meals will work fine and the number will depend on your preference. On what works best for you to adhere to your plan. I eat 4 meals on non-training days. This would give me a target of about 50 grams of protein, 75 grams of carbs, and 25 grams of fat for each meal. Simple as can be.
Things get more complicated when it comes to training days. I refer you once again to “The Renaissance Diet 2.0” for more details. I will discuss the changes I make on training days, but the permutations are quite extensive. It takes a book to cover all the possibilities, but I cover the principles here.
On training days, you still distribute your protein across all the meals in equal amounts. This brings me to my first complication. I work out first thing in the morning, around 7 am. Since I am coming out of a fasted state I need to have at least something before I work out. So now I need to divide my protein across 5 meals rather than 4, or 40 grams per meal.
The next complication comes with distributing carbohydrates. To maximize muscle growth, you should bias your carb intake to the meals around your workout. “The Renaissance Diet 2.0” recommends eating 20% of your daily carbs before the workout. In the meal immediately after the workout, you would eat 30% of your carbs. In my example, that would give me 60 grams of carbs pre-workout and 90 grams post-workout.
The next complication is in regards to fat. Fats tend to slow digestion so you want to avoid them around your workout. You want the carbs and protein you eat to get into your system as soon as possible. Eating around 10% of your fats in both pre and post-workout meals should be fine. For me, this would be 10 grams in each of those meals.
This brings us to the final complication. This one caused by the timing of my workout. I generally have about 30 minutes from when I get up until I am in the gym and starting my workout. If I attempted to eat 40 grams of protein, 60 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of fat, I would be sick before the workout ended. To avoid this I try to get some protein and carbs in my system, enough so I am not fasted, immediately after getting up. I drink a protein shake I call morning oats. This is a scoop of whey protein, 20 grams of oats, and my creatine. I let this soak overnight and drink it when I get up. This gives me 26 grams of protein, 18 grams of carbs, and 3 grams of fat.
This is less than the targets for the pre-workout meal so I move the leftover macros to the post-workout meal. This makes my post-workout targets 64 grams of protein, 132 grams of carbs, and 17 grams of fat.
I divide the remaining macros into equal amounts across the last 3 meals. That would be about 50 grams per meal of carbs and about 26 grams of fat. Remember, these numbers are targets but they are not etched in stone. If you find, as I often do, that you are eating less fat, you can make up the calories in carbs (or protein). Or vice versa. If you have eaten at least your target for protein, no less than your minimum fat target, and you are within +/- 100 of your calorie target, you are good to go.
One caveat for older trainees like me. There is some evidence that as you age your body becomes more resistant to the effects of protein. To trigger the most muscle growth there is a minimum amount of protein required per meal. For a young trainee, this is about 20 grams of good quality protein. For an older trainee, this amount could be twice as much or 40 grams per meal. Eating less than this amount could result in achieving less muscle growth than would be possible otherwise. This can impact your choice of how many meals to eat per day. If you are an older trainee and you have 120 grams of protein as a daily target, 6 meals per day will not be ideal for you. While you can eat over your protein target you will need to adjust for those calories by reducing carbs and or fat. This could make your diet less sustainable in the long term.
| Non-Training Day | Training Day |
|---|---|
| Distribute macros evenly across meals | Distribute protein evenly across all meals |
| Adjust as desired | Eat 20% of carbs and 10% of fats in pre-workout meal |
| Be sure to eat at least the minimum fat target | Eat 30% of carbs and 10% of fats in post-workout meal | Eat to within +/- 100 calories of your target | Spread remaining carbs and fats over the rest of your meals |
| Adjust as needed to fit your situation | |
| Be sure to eat at least the minimum fat target | |
| Eat to within +/- 100 calories of your target |
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