"Slow metabolism" meal plan
For this week’s nutrition case study, we’re following up from Wednesday’s article to solve the mystery of the slow-moving metabolism over 40.
Or so it seems.
In reality, the difficulty of losing weight as we age has less to do with metabolism, and more to do with how our lifestyles change in response to growing responsibilities. We carry more mental and emotional load, and prioritize everyone else first – it’s no wonder we carry more physical weight too.
So here are a few sample meals for one of our Persist athletes in this predicament. In addition, I’d encourage them gently to find small ways to move more throughout the day and prioritize protein and resistance training.
Stats
Female, 5’0″, 128 lbs, 26% body fat, 43 years old
- Mom of 2, works from home full time
- 3-5 training sessions/week – combo of Persist PUMP, Persist PILLARS, and a couple Peloton rides
- Sedentary the rest of the day
Calculator Inputs
Using the FBB Macro Calculator, I selected the following:
- Activity Level – Limited (despite 4-5 good training sessions a week she is sedentary)
- Protein Approach – High Protein (1gram/lb of bodyweight) to optimize for muscle mass retention
- Carb Approach – High Carb – Wants to experiment with higher carbs to get more from her workouts. Been suffering from fatigue lately and has been fearful of adding in carbs for years.
Calculator Outputs
- Maintenance: 1573kcal/day
- Target: 1416kcal/day (10% deficit)
- Protein: 128grams/day
- Carbs: 132grams/day
- Fat: 42grams/day
The Meals
This athlete likes meat and veggies for main meals, as well as white rice. She is ok with some fruit. And her typical breakfast is eggs and coffee with cream, so I kept that in.
Breakfast
- Fat 20g
- Carbs 9g
- Protein 34g
- Cals 377
Blueberries, 50g – 28
Heavy cream, 2 Tbsp – 100
Eggs, 2 – 140
Egg Whites, 200g – 109
Lunch (Post Workout)
- Fat 7g
- Carbs 60g
- Protein 38g
- Cals 462
Chicken thigh, 6 oz – 195
Calrose rice, 75g – 267
Dinner
- Fat 13g
- Carbs 29g
- Protein 39g
- Cals 388
Zucchini, 300g – 51
Grass fed ground beef, 93% lean, 6 0z – 255
Pink apple, 165g – 82
After Dinner Snack
- Fat: .1g
- Carbs: 33g
- Protein: 19g
- Cals: 223
Frozen berries, 1 c – 70
Non-fat plain greek yogurt, 1c – 120
Honey, 10g – 33
Easy Does It
One more note for those of you who have a lot on your (life) plate right now. Tracking all your food and macros is very effective, and helps you learn a ton about what your body responds well to.
But you may not be ready to take on a full meal plan right now. Fortunately, even the simple act of eating enough protein will move the needle a ton. When you eat roughly your body weight (lbs) in grams in protein per day, and balance that across all your meals, you’ll stay full longer and build more muscle too.
That’s why we include the Practical Protein Guide with the Persist subscription and for our individual clients. It’s packed with recipes, simple meal ideas, and troubleshooting guides to the most common reasons why we don’t get enough protein. From travel to no-prep protein and more, you can find this guide inside Persist.
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