Week 4 of OPT - food/meal suggestions

[tttgood]

Hello everyone - today was my first day of week 4 of the OPT (the regular new one not the remix) and it was challenging to get my protein in and only consume 20% carbs - though I did do it!

Does anyone have any good meal plans for week 4 of OPT? I am not used to eating such low carbs - have never done any sort of Atkins diet, and I normally eat a good amount of fruit and veggies as well as some complex carbs like oats and ezekiel bread.

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions, I'd really appreciate it! (My calories are pretty low this week too - only 1143)

Thanks in advance!

[LisaS]

you can't go wrong with meat, veggies & some good fats. 20% of 1000 is 200 - so about 50 g of carbs, right? Figure 1 small portion fruit (berries work well) (I'd go for a serving size that gets you maybe 15 g carbs) and fill out the rest of the day with plenty of veggies, without any sugar or flour or potatoes or beans - and you're golden.
Have all the broccoli, asparagus, celery, zucchini, green beans, cucumber, salad greens, salsa, peppers, cauliflower that you want.
Save some room in your calories for some good fats - avocado, butter, real olive oil in your salad dressing, a few nuts and seeds, a few olives, some excellent cheese.
If you're really bored with the eats, reserve some of those carbs for some restrained use of condiments - ketchup, BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce - if you measure them and plan for it you can still use them and hit your carb goals. Yes - it's mainly sugar and not the best - but if it helps keep you on plan and you still have plenty of veggies in the mix - why not?

[stingo]

Lisa's spot on - but to elaborate a bit:
Chicken Breast, boneless/skinless = 28g protein, 1.5g fat in an 85g serving
Very Lean Ground Beef (95% lean) = 26g protein, 5g fat in an 85g serving
Salmon = 17.15g protein, 10.44g fat in an 85g serving
Cheese = 15.18g protein, 24.29g fat in an 85g serving

So if you're looking at your macros and see that you're a bit higher than you'd like in fats, but still need protein, you'd opt for the chicken or ground beef. If you needed both, but more protein than fat, opt for the salmon. Lastly of course, if you need more fats, go for the cheese. Don't know if that helps or not, but that's how I figure out what I eat over the course of the day.

[Etana]

Originally Posted by stingo

Lisa's spot on - but to elaborate a bit:
Chicken Breast, boneless/skinless = 28g protein, 1.5g fat in an 85g serving
Very Lean Ground Beef (95% lean) = 26g protein, 5g fat in an 85g serving
Salmon = 17.15g protein, 10.44g fat in an 85g serving
Cheese = 15.18g protein, 24.29g fat in an 85g serving

So if you're looking at your macros and see that you're a bit higher than you'd like in fats, but still need protein, you'd opt for the chicken or ground beef. If you needed both, but more protein than fat, opt for the salmon. Lastly of course, if you need more fats, go for the cheese. Don't know if that helps or not, but that's how I figure out what I eat over the course of the day.

this was a helpful post...

Question: You wrote:
Chicken Breast, boneless/skinless = 28g protein, 1.5g fat in an 85g serving

I assume that's the weight RAW??

When I look at my fitday.com Trader Joe's chicken breast, and I put in RAW: 85g, I get this: 2.1g fat, 17.6g protein; that's a HUGE difference in our protein tabulations, and it would be great if you are right.

Where do you buy this chicken? What brand?

Thanks!

[stingo]

Originally Posted by Etana

this was a helpful post...

Question: You wrote:
Chicken Breast, boneless/skinless = 28g protein, 1.5g fat in an 85g serving

I assume that's the weight RAW??

When I look at my fitday.com Trader Joe's chicken breast, and I put in RAW: 85g, I get this: 2.1g fat, 17.6g protein; that's a HUGE difference in our protein tabulations, and it would be great if you are right.

Where do you buy this chicken? What brand?

Thanks!

It's the Wegmans store brand. And the values are for 3 oz (85 g) cooked.