Veggies, and meat, and some complex carbs. I workout 6x a week and my last stint with IF I was doing a lot of strength Training and body building work. I’m not insulin resistant, and insulin response is a critical mechanism in muscle growth, so I don’t limit healthy carbs (home made breads, pastas, potatoes, etc).
But: no candy. No snacks. Limit added sugar and processed foods to the greatest extent possible. Each meal is a salad, fresh fruit, protein, and usually a slice of bread or some pasta.
Trying keto starting tomorrow.
Assuming this is pertaining to weight loss, the best way to get a baseline for calories is to consult a TDEE calculator. Plug in all your stats and it will give you a ballpark over what you need to eat to maintain in day. Then you’d simply deficit from that number to lose weight. -500 calories a day is roughly losing a pound a week.
As for what meals should consist of, that’s going to vary a lot based on goals, but in general a good variety mix of whole foods is best, ie more meals cooked with ingredients and less things that came from a box or restaurant. Specific to IF, more protein, fiber, and good fat can help keep you fuller longer during your fasts.
How many calories: Calculate your TDEE. That’s “Total Daily Energy Expenditure,” the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight. Then subtract 500 to get the number that should allow you to average one pound of weight loss per week. Here is one TDEE calculator.
Meals can consist of whatever you want. IF doesn’t prescribe what you eat, only when you eat. But in general, it’s a good idea to cut back on sugar, starch, and alcohol — those will leave you feeling hungrier. Focus on protein, healthy fats, and vegetables.
Primarily veggies and protein with the occasional bit of rice…or mac and cheese like last night.
I can never keep up with counting calories so I just eat until I’m comfortably full. Somedays that’s a full on 2 meals sometimes it’s a smallish 1 meal.
i eat the same meals almost every day. at noon i eat a 2 egg omelet with tons of veggies, cheese, a little avocado, hot sauce. at 6pm i eat a bowl or plate of whatever vegetarian stew/chili etc i’ve whipped up for the week. ive been doing this for a year with a couple months in there where i kinda fell off the wagon and put a few pounds back on. started at 226. now at 187 and now also exercising and running.
I’m a 145 lb woman lifting weight 5x a week. Right now I’m eating 2300 high protein calories every day, even when I don’t lift. When I was 180 and slow walking for exercise it was 1600 calories with keto macros. Every 10 lbs or workout change I adjusted my caloric/macro needs using online calculators. I eat at the same times every day and I use a meal planning app so my macros for each meal stay the same regardless of what I’m eating that day.
My first meal at 12pm is either eggs, bacon and oatmeal with nuts or a grilled sandwich with eggs, bacon and cheese. 3pm snack is always yogurt, chia seeds and nuts. 6pm dinner is some sort of seafood or chicken or bean with a grain and veggies. My last snack is always a post workout hemp protein shake with peanut butter and MCT oil around 8pm.
My advice is to find stuff you love to eat, make it fit your macros and find ways to switch up the ingredients enough so you don’t get bored but not so much that it significantly affects your time and effort.
I make something new about every day. Had a triple sirloin burger on keto bread, 4 slices of cheddar, mayo, ketchup, mustard, worstercire sauce, some pickles and lettuce. Then a bag of cheesy veggie pasta and an athletic brewing ipa. All under 1500 calories. I’ve found being smart about measurements and purchases and modifying some things, especially serving sizes, you can still eat great food. One trick I’ve found is measuring things in grams whenever possible. Is a tablespoon really right? I dunno but the weight is. Do you really need a tablespoon of mayo (14 grams). Or do you just need 9 for that burger. Game changer.