One of the most popular questions emailed to me is…
“Mark, what do you eat on the low-carb section on the MANS diet?”
Firstly, I’ve got a thread devoted to this in the forum, check it out if you haven’t already.
Regardless, I still get asked so I figured I would post my current daily low carb/high fat/high protein menu.
Low Carb at Chez McManus
Breakfast (6.30am)
Eggs & Bacon OR Low Carb Mock Porridge (from Total Six Pack Abs)
Mid-Morning Break (10am)
Small Chicken Salad with High-Fat dressing like Ranch dressing,
AND
Progurt – (protein-yogurt, my own invention). ‘Total’ Natural Yoghurt with 30grams of whey protein isolate mixed in.
Lunch (1.30pm)
Taco Salad OR Chicken Curry OR Beef Chilli. Whichever of these recipes I made for the previous day’s main meal, is today’s lunch. I make 2 servings and seal one for the following day – easy!
Main Meal (4.30pm)
Taco Salad OR Chicken Curry OR Beef Chilli. These are what I’m currently cooking but there is also the option of steak and non-starchy veggies OR low-carb chicken fried ‘rice’.
Post Workout Shake (7pm)
This potent post-workout shake consists of whey protein isolate, 5 grams of L-Glutamine, and 5 grams of micronized creatine monohydrate.
Bedtime Snack
Another Progurt, this time with a twist. I add some double cream (equivalent is heavy cream in the US) to bring the fat content up, a mixture of raspberries and blackberries (not too many), and just 2 grams of L-Glutamine to elevate growth hormone while I sleep.
Please note that this is only my CURRENT weekly menu and does not represent everything that I eat. There also used to be numerous cups of coffee thrown in there but I recently weened myself off it as I was starting to get addicted to the caffeine buzzes.
I hope that helps anyone still wondering what to eat to plan their muscle meals in the future. Don’t make it complicated, low-carb is easy!
Mark McManus
Mark,
Do you target a specific amount of protein per meal? Are you supplementing with leucine? or BCAA?
Your formulas are quite explanatory and helpful but I was curious if you would like to share you experience on the muscle growth/strategy you follow in terms of how quickly you add mass (at what ratio and how important you think protein quantity is)?
Interesting post, thank you.
May I ask what your day job is that allows you to cook at 4:30pm? I’m a novice at all of this and my goals, while different to yours, are generally about eating better and exercising smarter. I’d probably have to do something like switch the “main meal” and “post workout shake” around and make the shake may afternoon “snack” and move the carbs from that into the main meal at around 9pm (after training after work). Does that sound right?
Thanks for laying this out so nicely. I’m interested to look over some of your recipes and get some ideas there as well. I love chicken curry and could use a new recipe for it!
This is brilliant mark, it seems like without proper organisation I don’t seem to eat anything, I went to eat my lovely beans on toast yesterday at lunch and was like arrrrr I can’t eat this it’s 60g of carbs in one meal!! so then I just didn’t eat!! I think you can’t just throw yourself in at the deep end with this sort of diet, I haven’t eaten desent all week and have now gotten ill because of it so I think i’ll carb up this weekend and then plan in advanced what i’m going to eat, my first target is to reach 2000 cal 200g protein and under 100g of carbs then i’ll try and bring it down from there.
i am 158 pounds and am just beginning my training program (just moved into a condo with a gym, pool, sauna, squash courts etc) and I am 6ft on the dot (moderately thin). What calories and how much of the key nutrition (and how much (in grams) of the typical foods do I have to consume on this diet)?
For example….chicken ….g, tuna ….g, eggs …., fruit & veg …. g, fats. Can I just stick to conventional foods and not use any of the stuff for the post workut shake and still see results? The reason being where I live those things cost a fortune and I might start them later with some cash in hand.
Don’t you worry about the vegetable oil in your salad dressing? I would think something like olive oil would be a much better choice than the canola oil/soybean oil in the ranch dressing. Not to mention MSG.
Do you worry about sodium nitrates and preservatives with packaged meats like sausage or hot links? I only buy organic when it comes to meats, especially when it comes to the above mentioned, heard very bad things about nitrates, preservatives and the like..not to mention the high amounts of sodium and sometimes even fructose or dextrose in alot of them, yeah it’s only trace amounts of even 2% of it’s total volume but that’s still more then what I’d want to ingest regularly…
is whey protein + milk+ glutamine -fine as a prebedtime shake??if i dnt want to buy casein protein powder
@Channy. Yes it’s fine but why don’t you try my bedtime snack here:
https://musclehack.com/high-protein-bedtime-snack/
You can use natural yogurt instead if you like.
Mark
thanx mark.bt my concern is diffrnt.doesnt milk(even yogurt) block absorption of whey?and how much protein prebedtime is enough?
@Channy. No, it doesn’t block it, it slows the digestion down a bit. That would actually be beneficial as a night time snack.
30g is good.
Mark
thanx buddy….i ws vry much confused regarding bedtime snack…thanx 4 clearing my mind
i am 230 pounds and i am having trouble planing my diet. how can i get the needed Protein with out using Supplements . and how much protein do i need in a day
Hi Mark
Regarding the yogurt do you eat the entire tub of total and how much is that in grams?
Thanks
Hi Mark,
ive recently read that even though yogurt might be low gi, it still causes a considerable insulin spike as its high on the insulin index. Wouldnt having yogurt during the week cause unwanted insulin spikes ? Isnt that a problem on this diet then as the point is to keep insulin low during the week?