Meal Prep One Cup at a Time

Recently I have gotten in to an arrangement with my GA that if one of us skips lunch and the other one calls them out on it they then owe them 20 push-ups whenever they want. I figure we will both pay our debts to each other at graduation (probably on stage when he is hooded). With this incentive to not skip meals, I have started doing more food prep on Sunday for lunches for the week. Currently it is some form of protein with vegetables and then 1-2 cups of rice in each container. Preferably, in glass containers so I can just put them in the microwave and go. When filling the containers I use a measuring cup and typically put one cup of protein and another cup of vegetables with the rice. With this simple tactic, I was interested to figure out how many calories this ended up being since it makes for an easy way to track my macronutrient intake. Therefore, below I have some simple tables of how many calories are in one cup of a few different food options. This becomes far easier when you are doing the same meal multiple times per week so prepping really makes life easy to grab and go along with have a ballpark idea of what I’m ingesting.

The ease of just using a measuring cup to quickly measure and load up food  in containers is super easy to do. Obviously you can decrease or increase the calorie load easily by doing the math for a half cup, third of  a cup and so on.

Protein

Item	Calories	Grams Protein	Grams Carbs	Grams Fats
Beef	338	36.57	0	20.11
Chicken	335	38	0	19
Turkey	296	34	0	16
Salmon	280	30	0	17
Tuna	290	54	0	6.7

For the protein sources I kept it simple to things I would possibly use and the beef and turkey are in the ground form along with the chicken is diced. In addition, you can google “calories in one cup of meat” and it gives a result.

Fats

Item	Calories	Grams Protein	Grams Carbs	Grams Fats
Mixed Nuts	876	23.44	30.64	79.95
Peanuts	828	38	24	72
Oil	1910	0	0	216
Butter	1627	1.9	.1	184
Almonds	825	29	29	73

This really was just to entertain myself and have an idea of how many calories each of these would be. I’m concerned for anyone that would drink a cup of straight up oil, but hey, now you know.

Carbs

Item	Calories	Grams Protein	Grams Carbs	Grams Fats
Rice (cooked)	206	5	45	1.8
Oatmeal (cooked)	158	6	27	3.2
Potatoes (diced)	116	3	26	.2
Applesauce	166	.4	43	.4
Bananas (mashed)	200	2.5	51	.7
Corn (sweet)	177	5.4	41	0

For carbohydrates these are some simple options that would be easy to cook up ahead of time or just pack with you. Obviously this is with very low effort preps, not adding any butter or other ingredients to the food.

Vegetables

Item	Calories	Grams Protein	Grams Carbs	Grams Fats
Broccoli	31	2.6	6	.3
Romaine Lettuce	8	.6	1.5	.1
Spinach	7	.86	1	0
Beets	59	2.2	13	.2
Celery	16	.7	3	.2
Brussel Sprouts	38	3	8	.3

As you would likely expect vegetables are very low calorie yield per cup. Be aware again that this is without the addition of butter, cheese, or dressing which would massively ratchet up the calories per serving.

Fruits

Item	Calories	Grams Protein	Grams Carbs	Grams Fats
Blueberries	85	1.1	21	.5
Strawberries (halves)	49	1	12	.5
Oranges (slices)	85	1.7	21	.2
Apples (slices)	57	.3	15	.2
Blackberries	62	2	14	.7

Fruits though higher in calories than vegetables are still quite low of a yield per cup, which is another reason why they make a great food to eat when you are dieting since there is not a whole lot of calories per serving.

Summary

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully this basic set up idea of how many calories are in different cups of food can help you with your own meal choices. Try some of this out when you are making up meals for yourself and have a great day.

Dan John Eat Anything You Want Diet Broken Down

The eat anything you want diet was original told by Dan John (that I can remember). The idea is to have someone eat so much volume of healthy food that you have no space for anything afterwards. So below is a diet plan that after you consume all of the calories listed below (food) without any added dressing, fat, sugar, etc. you can eat anything you want. You have to eat the foods plain. They can be steamed, roasted, or just eaten raw (with the vegetables). After you consume all of this feel free to go for it. The goal here is to make good decisions by eating too many calories.

Dan John Diet
Food	Calories	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fats (g)	Fiber (g)
2         Lbs. Broccoli	306	25.7	61	3.1	23.3
1         Lbs. Granny Smith Apples	263	2	62	0.9	13
1         Lbs. Wild Salmon	644	89.99	0	28.76	0
2         Lbs. Celery	127	6.26	26.94	1.54	14.5
1         Lbs. Romaine Lettuce	80	5.3	14.9	1.6	9.6
1         Lbs. Peppers	91	3.9	21.05	0.77	7.7
1         Gallon Water	0	0	0	0	0
1         Lbs. Kale	227	14.97	45.41	3.18	9.1
1         Lbs. Butternut Squash	204	4.54	53.03	0.45	9.1
(10lbs. food) Totals	1942	152.66	284.33	40.3	86.3

 

The idea of eating ten pounds of total food in one day is quite daunting. With all of that eating you still would not have eaten 2000 calories. The fiber load is going to make the next day involve using the toilet a lot, but otherwise the macro break down is quite good, if a little low in fat and perhaps also with protein depending on how big you are and your goals. Therefore, you can still eat a lot of food (volume) when on a diet, but notice you do not see a single hyper palatable food. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day.

Dan John Eat Anything You Want Diet Broken Down

The eat anything you want diet was original told by Dan John (that I can remember). The idea is to have someone eat so much volume of healthy food that you have no space for anything afterwards. So below is a diet plan that after you consume all of the calories listed below (food) without any added dressing, fat, sugar, etc. you can eat anything you want. You have to eat the foods plain. They can be steamed, roasted, or just eaten raw (with the vegetables). After you consume all of this feel free to go for it. The goal here is to make good decisions by eating too many calories.

Dan John Diet
Food	Calories	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fats (g)	Fiber (g)
2         Lbs. Broccoli	306	25.7	61	3.1	23.3
1         Lbs. Granny Smith Apples	263	2	62	0.9	13
1         Lbs. Wild Salmon	644	89.99	0	28.76	0
2         Lbs. Celery	127	6.26	26.94	1.54	14.5
1         Lbs. Romaine Lettuce	80	5.3	14.9	1.6	9.6
1         Lbs. Peppers	91	3.9	21.05	0.77	7.7
1         Gallon Water	0	0	0	0	0
1         Lbs. Kale	227	14.97	45.41	3.18	9.1
1         Lbs. Butternut Squash	204	4.54	53.03	0.45	9.1
(10lbs. food) Totals	1942	152.66	284.33	40.3	86.3

 

The idea of eating ten pounds of total food in one day is quite daunting. With all of that eating you still would not have eaten 2000 calories. The fiber load is going to make the next day involve using the toilet a lot, but otherwise the macro break down is quite good, if a little low in fat and perhaps also with protein depending on how big you are and your goals. Therefore, you can still eat a lot of food (volume) when on a diet, but notice you do not see a single hyper palatable food. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day.

Cause of Death Timeline – You don’t need toilet paper.

JM Blakley Diet Breakdown Example

The JM Blakley diet is something that has gained a lot of acclaim in power lifting circles with few humans ever even attempting it. For fun in one of my classes we broke down the actual calorie intake that you would have along a few other nutrients. The results are awesome, insane, and alarming. Here is what we came up with:

	Calories	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fats (g)	Fiber (g)	Cholesterol (mg)	Sodium (mg)	Sugar (g)	Trans Fat (g)
Breakfast
4 Breakfast Sandwiches
Example: 1 sausage McMuffin with egg	480	21	30	39	2	275	830	3	0.5
4 Hash browns
Example: 1 Hash brown McDonalds	150	1	16	9	1	0	320	0	0
4 packets mayo
1 packet mayonnaise	90	0	0	10	0	5	65	0	0
Breakfast total	2880	88	184	232	12	1120	4860	12	2
Lunch
General Tsaos Chicken (1 serving)	540	25	70	17	2	95	360	28	?
Fried Rice (1 serving)	333	12.47	41.7	12.34	1.4	103	822	1.5	0
Lunch Total (3 servings of each)	2619	112.41	335.1	88.02	10.2	594	3546	88.5	0
Dinner
Large Pizza
Example: Dominos large ExtravaganZZa pizza (1 slice which is 1/8 of the pizza)	390	17	38	18	2	40	970	3	?
1 cup oil (any oil but motor oil)	1910	216	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dinner Total	5030	352	304	144	16	320	7760	24	0
Snacks
4 Candy Bars over the day
King sized Snickers bar (1)	440	8	56	22	2	10	230	46	0
Snack Total	1760	32	224	88	8	40	920	184	0
Total for the day	12289	584.41	1047.1	552.02	46.2	2074	17086	308.5	2

 

Now this intake is incredible and when you look at having a normal college-aged female if you hold everything in balance you would in theory gain in some of the examples we ran nearly 1000lbs. Obviously this is not a real outcome that would occur, but still just insane and awesome. What we also delved down in to then is how as you gain weight you increase your resting metabolic rate due to having a larger body, a higher thermic effect of food due to the greater intake, and finally if you are working out, aside from just the eating, the exercise you do will cost more energy since you are moving a larger and heavier body.

A couple other points is a number of these foods don’t have nutrient information on trans fat and other so it is likely that some values are lower than you would expect. This is why there is a question mark (?) for the values of that food. The original lunch was eating at a Chinese buffet for an hour without stopping, so we made an approximation of what the total calorie intake would be with just three servings of each, it might be far higher.

Here are the resources that I based this on. Take a look and read them since it is quite interesting:

https://www.strength-oldschool.com/blogs/news/the-big-boys-menu-plan-by-j-m-blakley

https://70sbig.com/blog/2009/10/if-you-wanna-be-the-man-you-gotta-out-eat-the-man/

Thanks for reading and leave a comment below if you have any questions about this. Also, please don’t try this diet.

Marathon Training Program

Most people are surprised to know that I have completed a marathon. Notice, I did not say that I “ran a marathon”. It took me just under 5 hours of not really enjoying most of it. The other thing is I didn’t do a lot of mileage to prepare for it. What I did was concentrate on doing a long run once per week and then building in a bit more volume with other forms of cardio throughout the week.

Recently a friend of mine has been striving to run a marathon and wanted my input on his training program. He is also a guy who weighs around 200 lbs. and doing nothing but running on hard pavement will beat him down. So I put together this program for him where he will slowly increase his total volume each week, but do so in a way that he never massively hikes up his volume. This program is meant to run for 4-5 months and he went in to this with already having completed his first half marathon this fall. Take a look: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I7lusW9oWRgpndLV57KL6TVvqLWoSsYkc5gGEm8NnNs/edit?usp=sharing

Now with his program he has one tempo day which is meant to be running at faster speeds on likely a track. He has a cross training day where he just needs to do cardio with moderate to high intensity that is no impact like riding a bike, swim, or elliptical. Then he has his moderate day where he should strive to run at about his race pace and then his Saturday long day where he just needs to go out and get in the mileage, if he needs to walk some of it that is fine and the pace doesn’t matter.

Since he is a bigger guy he needs to run on softer surfaces, this means with good shoes (and technique) choose to run on dirt or wood chip trails. If those aren’t an option pavement is better than concrete any day of the week. With how high injury rates are for long distance running, we don’t want to make this any higher than it needs to be so controlling the surface is a great choice. The harder the surface the harder the impact with each foot strike on the body. If he could do running on sand that would be sweet, but super taxing.

On the right hand column you can see the acute to chronic training volume. This shows how much work he is doing that week compared to the average amount of work for the previous month. In the research with rugby players and some other athletes when you drastically increase the training volume from previous levels you massively increase injury risk. This is why the program increases and decreases with work volume in a pattern that fluctuates so that at no point is he ever doing 20% more on  a given week than he did for his previous months average, even though by the end of the program he is doing a massive amount of running.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. All of the basic principles here apply to any other endeavor and if you have any questions please just let me know. Have a great day.