Calorie Intake and Meal Prep

Endurance athletes consume A LOT of calories. Questions I get asked are “Can you eat whatever you want and not gain weight?”and “How many calories do you consume?”

I definitely can't eat whatever I want, and I've never tracked calories (until last week). No matter how much I train, a steady diet of junk food will cause weight gain. It would also reduce the energy needed to sustain a high training volume. To better control what I eat, I choose to meal prep.

Sunday Meal Prep

My typical lunch consists of hardboiled eggs, carrots, avocado, an apple, yogurt, chips, granola bar, a “main dish” and a piece of candy. The main dish last week was slow cooked chicken with black beans, salsa, pineapple and cream cheese laid on a bed of rice and lentils. Recently, I’ve been prepping a 2^nd main dish for lunch each day to keep my energy level up.

Reason to Meal Prep:

It’s Quick - With a full-time job and 15-20 hours of training each week, time is limited. With the main dish prepared, assembling my lunch takes a minute. Having that little bit of extra time is invaluable when I’m jumping between workouts and trying to have a life.

It’s Cheap - Eating out/using the cafeteria adds up! With how much I consume, I’d be spending at least $15 a day on lunch. Based on grocery bills, a week of meal prepped lunches costs me around $20. Some quick math shows me saving at least $55/week, $220+/month and almost $3000 a year! Helps pay for the sport =)

It’s Healthier – By controlling what I bring to work every day, I am forced to either eat what I brought or go hungry. When I DO get hungry, I eat everything in sight. So at work, I’m stuck staring at container of carrots and an apple every day. Sure I can order a salad at work, but I’d like to refer back to the green point =)

Since I always gave a ballpark on how many calories consume, I used MyFitnessPal to track consumption last Wednesday.  The app allows you to conveniently scan bar codes and create recipes by listing the ingredients and quantities. For items that can't be scanned, there is a search option for restaurant items and miscellaneous foods. Below is what I entered in the App:

Breakfast

2 hardboiled eggs, 3 slices cinnamon bread, ½ cup baby carrots, 2 Tbsp Guacamole, Plain Bagel with cream cheese, 2 clementines

Lunch

Mountain Dew (a rarity), 2 servings of Famous Dave’s Georgia Chopped Pork with 1 bun, 1.5 cups hand mashed potatoes, 1.5 cups Cheesy Mac & cheese

Dinner

2.5 cups of my pulled chicken and salsa recipe, avocado, 1 cup 2% milk, chocolate chip cookie

Snacks

Zone bar, protein shake, Honey Stinger Waffle, Packet of Emergency

= 5,700 Calories!!!

That day, my workout was a 2:45 trainer ride at a low Zone 2 effort. Garmin estimated I burned 4,200 calories that day. I would guess that my typical intake is around 5,000 calories/day, and the catered Famous Dave’s made the number a little high when I was tracking.

As always, I’m up for feedback and future topics if anything interests you!