In this article I'm going to share with you exactly what I eat in a day for my current 2300 calorie diet for fat loss.
For reference, my macros at the moment are the following:
Carbs - 260g
Fats - 60g
Protein - 200g
Now, if you prefer to watch this in a video form in just 10 minutes...
I made this into a YouTube video as well, which you can watch here:
Before I share everything I eat in a day to hit my current macros and calories to lose fat,
I want to be very clear that I'm not claiming that these meals & foods are the 'best' or 'healthiest' foods.
I'm also not saying that you should eat any or all of these foods in order to lose fat.
The way you successfully lose body fat is by consistently being in a calorie deficit.
So, that means you can eat any foods you want or prefer. And as long as you're still in that calorie deficit, you will also lose fat.
But my main point in sharing everything I'm eating, is that maybe it can give you an idea or two that you didn't think of before.
And ultimately, we should all choose foods that we enjoy, that help us feel our best, as well as help us optimize our performance in the gym.
That being said, I hope you enjoy the article and get some value from it.
At the end of the article, you'll find a free Lean Muscle Cookbook that you can pick up if you think it will be helpful.
But let's get into my full day of eating for 2300 calories....
MY EATING STRUCTURE / SCHEDULE
I try and keep my eating schedule as simply and time-efficient as possible.
I'm not one who likes to do hours of meal prep or considers myself a great cook.
So this is how I set up my meals....
- 2 square meals daily (Lunch & Dinner)
- Pre workout snack
- Post Workout snack
- Additional snack after dinner (if needed to hit macros)
I workout first thing in the morning, so the first thing I eat is my pre workout snack / nutrition.
Next is my post workout nutrition. Followed by my first official meal around lunch time.
And dinner is the last meal.
So here is what I'll often have before my workout...
PRE WORKOUT
Before my workout I don't like to eat a big meal or snack.
Because it's usually 30-45 minutes before my workout. So I don't want to have a whole lot of food sitting in my stomach for my workout.
What I'm usually aiming for is some quick carb source like fruit along with a little bit of protein.
So, here is what I'll often have....
This is an Oikos PRO Greek yogurt and a banana.
The Oikos yogurt has 20g of protein, 8g carbs and only 3g of fat.
I like this before a workout because I'm getting a little bit of carbs and protein, but I'm not accumulating many fats.
Which I actively avoid in my pre and post workout nutrition.
The next thing I ate, was actually a drink. And it was during my workout....
INTRA WORKOUT
This is a carb powder from Transparent Labs that I've been putting in my water to drink during my workouts for the last 6 months or so.
Each scoop has 25g of carbs in the form of Dextrin. The point of doing this is to help maintain muscle endurance and energy throughout the workout.
And I've found that it does help marginally to have even better quality workouts.
Drinking some additional carbs isn't something I would do in every situation. Say, if I was eating 200g of carbs or less per day.
I probably wouldn't use 25g on carb powder or a drink during my workout and I'd opt to use those additional carbs in my meals.
But with 260g to work with, I have felt that most days I can allocate 25g to use during my workout.
And in my Lean Bulking phases where I was eating 350 and 450+ grams of carbs daily, I've even used 2 scoops during my workout for 50 total grams of carbs during my workout.
So for today, I actually used 1.5 scoops during my workout because it fit my macros for the day. Getting me 37g of carbs.
The next thing I ate was my post workout snack....
POST WORKOUT
This has been my go-to post workout nutrition for a while now.
I use 1 serving of the Fiber One cereal mixed with 1 serving of this Premier Protein cereal.
On the side I generally have 1-2 scoops of Transparent Labs Whey Isolate.
Today, I had 2 scoops of it. I also had some raspberries and blueberries in the cereal which I forgot to take a picture of.
Which got me some additional carbs as well.
Here are the macros for each of these foods...
Fiber One - 34g carbs, 1g fat, 3g protein. (and 18g fiber)
Premier Protein cereal - 14g carbs, 5g fat, 20g protein
Whey Isolate - 1g carbs, 0g fat, 28g protein (per scoop)
So, this post workout snack is getting me some carbs, plenty of protein, and very little fat.
MACROS FOR PRE & POST WORKOUT
Here's what the macros look like for my pre and post workout nutrition combined. . .
About 78g of carbs, 100g protein and 10g of fat.
This also doesn't include my intra workout carb powder, which I added into the 'snack' section of MyFitnessPal.
A few hours after this post workout snack is when I had my first cooked meal...
FIRST MEAL
What you're seeing here is an egg white omelet with spinach, and a bagel with 2 whole eggs and a slice of reduced fat provolone cheese.
I use 4 servings of liquid egg whites to make the omelet.
This is an 'automated meal' for me....Meaning, I have it pretty much every day in some variation.
The reason for that is because I love how it tastes, it only takes 5-10 minutes to prepare, it usually keeps me full until dinner time, and it easily fits my macros.
Based on what I might need to hit my macros for each day, maybe I'll switch up the portions I have.
Some days I'll have 3 servings of liquid eggs whites or even 5 servings based on how much protein I need. And maybe I'll need 3 whole eggs instead of 2 some days.
But the foundation of the meal is always in my routine and I don't have to think about what I should eat for that lunch meal.
Which makes my nutrition and hitting my macros super easy - because I'm having 2 main meals in the day and 1 of them is always automated.
MACROS FOR FIRST MEAL
This is what the total macros look like for this first meal...
About 52g carbs, 16g fat, and 43g protein.
The next thing I had to eat was my dinner...
SECOND MEAL
This is what I had for dinner. Let me explain what you're seeing here...
I've got about 8oz of turkey breast, 2 servings of "little potatoes" and a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
I'm actually not a huge fan of turkey breast usually. I much prefer ground turkey.
But this was very good and turkey breast is also much leaner than ground turkey. Meaning, there's less fat.
These potatoes are from a company called "The Little Potato" company and they're great. About 16g of carbs, 0g fat, and 2g protein per serving.
MACROS FOR SECOND MEAL
Here's what the macros look like for this dinner meal...
So we're getting 48g of carbs, 12g of fat, and 47g of protein.
This is a lower fat meal compared to what I usually have for dinner. Because I usually save most of my fats for my 2 main meals and go lower fat in my pre & post workout nutrition.
But because I had the leaner turkey breast, I was left with more fats left over to hit my macros.
So, I needed to have an additional snack to round out my macros...
SNACK
What you're seeing here, doesn't looks super appetizing.
But this is basically a peanut butter an jelly on 1 slice of bread. Which I would never normally choose to do.
In this case, I did so because I didn't have enough carbs left to use 2 pieces of bread.
Anything to hit my macros.
MACROS FOR SNACKS
(Carb Powder + PB & Jelly)
Here's the macros for that PB & jelly plus the carb powder I had during my workout.
And at the end of the day, I successfully hit my macro targets within 3g. Here's what my final macros looked like after everything I ate...
FINAL MACROS & FINAL THOUGHTS
As you can see, I finished with 203g of protein, 258g of carbs and 57g of fat.
Which I know will help me lose more body fat and continue getting leaner.
But in general, I'm also happy with the food selection and this day of eating as a whole.
Even if some of the foods aren't the most nutrient-dense or perfectly 'healthy' foods....
Like the bagel, cheese, cereal, etc.
But for me, I did check a few boxes that I try to hit each day...
I got a vegetable in each meal with the spinach and salad.
I also got in multiple different fruits with the banana, raspberries and blueberries.
And my fiber intake was at a good level with 39g for the day. (I aim for 30+ grams daily)
My protein was also from a variety of different sources - the protein powder, Greek Yogurt, eggs, egg whites, and turkey breast.
One final thought that I want to be clear about,
is that not everyone will lose fat on the same amounts of food.
Just because I'm doing so at 2300 calories, doesn't mean you will.
And everyone has a different body, different metabolism, different activity level, and there's no one size fits all.
Some of my clients in my Modern Man Program are losing fat at 2800-2900 calories. Others are doing so at 2500, or 1900, even 1700.
So my point here, is not to just try and copy what someone else is doing and expect that the same results will happen for you.
An if you'd like some additional help with nutrition, I have a free resource that might be a game-changer for you.
I spent a few months putting together a recipe book that's 20+ pages of macro-friendly meal options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, protein shake recipes, and more.
All these meals are stupidly easy & pretty fast to make.
If you'd like a copy of my Lean Muscle Cookbook, you can grab it here:
But I hope me sharing my full day of eating was helpful even just 1%.
Thank you for reading.
- Jesse