I developed this spreadsheet a few years ago for a friend but have dusted it off, refined it a bit and put everything onto one page so I can tackle 2025! The aim is for simple but tasty meals, quick to prep and packed with veggies and protein.
I call it the 2-3-4 – 200 cals for breakfast, 300 for lunch and 400 for dinner. Seems small, yes, but that means there’s redundancy built into the plan; 300-400 cals for snacks, drinks and treats in the evening, or even to increase the size of your meals if you’re going out or have a larger meal planned. This is also geared towards meal-prepping as you can throw together multiple servings of pasta, curry, salad, etc for the week ahead.
Breakfast is light but with lots of protein, so I get energy to start my day without feeling bloated or sluggish. Lunch is a combo of protein, some fat, and lots of veggies – usually a salad. Dinner is the same, but with a carb serving (i.e. pasta, rice, burger bun). I found that having carbs both at lunch and dinner was leaving me MORE hungry as my blood sugar spiked in the mid-afternoon and I was reaching for snacks.
yes, full disclosure, I’m not a nutritionist or dietician and I haven’t cited a million medical sources developing this. I’ve just codified what works for me and I wanted to share it here in the hopes that it provides a bit of inspo to other people.
District_RE
This is the first time I ever bookmarked a reddit post.
PlayfulPerseph
This is great! Thank you so much for sharing.
spy-on-me
This is great! Personally I would never save 300 calories for an evening treat but we all use our “allowance” differently and this is such a clear and helpful way to approach it. Especially for anyone new.
6 Comments
I developed this spreadsheet a few years ago for a friend but have dusted it off, refined it a bit and put everything onto one page so I can tackle 2025! The aim is for simple but tasty meals, quick to prep and packed with veggies and protein.
I call it the 2-3-4 – 200 cals for breakfast, 300 for lunch and 400 for dinner. Seems small, yes, but that means there’s redundancy built into the plan; 300-400 cals for snacks, drinks and treats in the evening, or even to increase the size of your meals if you’re going out or have a larger meal planned. This is also geared towards meal-prepping as you can throw together multiple servings of pasta, curry, salad, etc for the week ahead.
Breakfast is light but with lots of protein, so I get energy to start my day without feeling bloated or sluggish. Lunch is a combo of protein, some fat, and lots of veggies – usually a salad. Dinner is the same, but with a carb serving (i.e. pasta, rice, burger bun). I found that having carbs both at lunch and dinner was leaving me MORE hungry as my blood sugar spiked in the mid-afternoon and I was reaching for snacks.
yes, full disclosure, I’m not a nutritionist or dietician and I haven’t cited a million medical sources developing this. I’ve just codified what works for me and I wanted to share it here in the hopes that it provides a bit of inspo to other people.
This is the first time I ever bookmarked a reddit post.
This is great! Thank you so much for sharing.
This is great! Personally I would never save 300 calories for an evening treat but we all use our “allowance” differently and this is such a clear and helpful way to approach it. Especially for anyone new.
I love this and I am saving!!
Thank you for sharing !! This is great