Food experiments

So, I have never been a believer in, or really understander of, macros. I eat what I like and make an effort to get all my vitamins and minerals from food, but the whole thing where you tweak the ratio of fat to carbs or whatever is just lost on me.

But I was reading a discussion about it somewhere, and a particular short-term muscle building plan someone was on, and their struggle to get enough protein without going wildly over in the other areas, so I googled “40-40-20 diet” because I couldn’t wrap my head around what that would actually look like:

“A five-foot-seven, 140-pound woman needs just under 2,000 calories per day to maintain her weight. If she follows the 40/40/20 protocol, she should consume 200 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, and 44 grams of fat per day.”

Whaaat 200g of protein per day? I rarely get as much as half that. I wondered, could it even be possible to eat that way? What would it look like? 

So, kidfree weekend and all, I thought I’d give it a shot: 

Not exactly right... would have helped if I had the idea first thing in the morning, before I ate a scone with butter and jam! was really difficult to force myself to eat this way. Did not want those chicken breasts at all, but felt I should eat something, as I had a massive deficit, and also got my second Shingrix jab yesterday, so didn’t want to skimp on nutrition. But as you can see, I failed on every measured nutrient except B2 (niacin) and my favourite, sodium.

I know this type of eating plan is only supposed to be a short term thing for people who do it, but yikes!