The Shake Method - Advise Wanted

[MicrochipsNDips]

What’s up y’all, my first ever post here so bare with me.

I’ve always been good about cooking food ahead of time or finding time to cook food throughout the day. However, recently I my job has become much busier and somehow I don’t have the energy or motivation to prep meals each night to take to work.

I was complaining to a bodybuilding coach friend of mine about this and he told me he practices what he calls „the shake method“. Each night you prep 3-5 shakes (number of shakes and macros obviously dependent on whether you’re bulking, cutting, maintaining, etc) to take to work. End result is, you leave work at 5 with perfect macros for your diet and a preworkout shake for the drive to the gym. Then you only have to worry about cooking your dinner for the day.

My concern is that the majority of my daily food intake is not real / whole food. Is this anything to be worried about? Right now I am cutting and seeing great results, maybe the best results I’ve ever had from a cut. But I do wonder if I’m shooting myself in the leg by taking this lazy approach to nutrition.

Thanks all for any input and for all the great threads I’ve read so far in my short time here.

 

[CJ]

What’s up y’all, my first ever post here so bare with me.

I’ve always been good about cooking food ahead of time or finding time to cook food throughout the day. However, recently I my job has become much busier and somehow I don’t have the energy or motivation to prep meals each night to take to work.

I was complaining to a bodybuilding coach friend of mine about this and he told me he practices what he calls „the shake method“. Each night you prep 3-5 shakes (number of shakes and macros obviously dependent on whether you’re bulking, cutting, maintaining, etc) to take to work. End result is, you leave work at 5 with perfect macros for your diet and a preworkout shake for the drive to the gym. Then you only have to worry about cooking your dinner for the day.

My concern is that the majority of my daily food intake is not real / whole food. Is this anything to be worried about? Right now I am cutting and seeing great results, maybe the best results I’ve ever had from a cut. But I do wonder if I’m shooting myself in the leg by taking this lazy approach to nutrition.

Thanks all for any input and for all the great threads I’ve read so far in my short time here.

You want to minimize shakes when cutting, as you won't feel full, and more than likely you'll be much more hungry.

Also, they tend to lack important micronutrients which are important for your body.

They're called supplements for a reason, they SUPPLEMENT your diet, they shouldn't be the main component of it.

Stop being a bitch and meal prep, it's barely any more work to cook 10 meals vs 1 meal, it's just more quantity.

You're making excuses. Knock that shit off.

 

[Send0]

You want to minimize shakes when cutting, as you won't feel full, and more than likely you'll be much more hungry.

Also, they tend to lack important micronutrients which are important for your body.

They're called supplements for a reason, they SUPPLEMENT your diet, they shouldn't be the main component of it.

Stop being a bitch and meal prep, it's barely any more work to cook 10 meals vs 1 meal, it's just more quantity.

You're making excuses. Knock that shit off.

Agreed, stop being a bitch . I'm surprised a "bodybuilding coach" friend would give this advice. This sounds like something that a person would say when they are either being lazy or know absolutely nothing about diet... Or both

Also whey protein is fast digesting. So it's a waste to drink so many shakes where you won't benefit from all the protein you're drinking.

Keep it to 1-2 shakes at most, and keep the total amount of whey per shake on the lower end... Like 25-30g of whey isolate. The best time for a shake IMO is right after a training session.

 

[Yano]

You want to minimize shakes when cutting, as you won't feel full, and more than likely you'll be much more hungry.

Also, they tend to lack important micronutrients which are important for your body.

They're called supplements for a reason, they SUPPLEMENT your diet, they shouldn't be the main component of it.

Stop being a bitch and meal prep, it's barely any more work to cook 10 meals vs 1 meal, it's just more quantity.

You're making excuses. Knock that shit off.

I'm waiting for his ... .. well well ,, you're not my REAL Dad ,, reply haaaahahaha.

 

[Diesel59]

Prepping shakes?? That's a new one to me.

 

[Wizbang]

Agreed with the top advice, meal prepping an entire baking sheet of chicken and making a big thing of rice/veggies,etc takes at most an hour (oven and instantpot for rice), and like @CJ said you can make more or less in the same amount of time. If you can't spare an hour what on earth are you doing?

 

[Send0]

If you can't spare an hour what on earth are you doing?

Masturbating and talking to "bodybuilding coaches"

 

[Yano]

Masturbating and talking to "bodybuilding coaches"

Maybe he's a slow starter and just wants to buy some ones drawers first ,, ya know , an ice breaker ?

 

[buck]

For decades i prepped all my work food on a sunday and ate the stuff all week. May not have been the tastiest thing but it accomplished what i wanted. And doing several days really takes little more time then just one day.

 

[CJ]

For decades i prepped all my work food on a sunday and ate the stuff all week. May not have been the tastiest thing but it accomplished what i wanted. And doing several days really takes little more time then just one day.

I make 15 work meals on Sunday or Monday, it's so convenient and easy. 9 meals are chicken, rice, and frozen veggies mixed in, 2 are chicken and veggies with olive oil, 2 are canned sardines and veggies, and 2 are omelettes.

That's a total of 3 pans being used. One big saute pan for the chicken, a stew pot for the rice, and a large frying pan for the omelette. Add in a cutting board for the chicken, and a mixing bowl for the omelette, a knife and spoon. 7 total things to wash.

Less than an hour, prep to clean up.

 

[MicrochipsNDips]

And now here I sit on my lunch break, shake in hand, tears in eyes, defeated and deflated.

Thanks for the input all, as most people mentioned here, I am in fact being a lazy bitch.

Maybe I'm retarded but it never occurred to me to bake a bunch of chicken, sounds far less time consuming than cooking all that chicken in a pan, will definitely be using that tip! As for rice, I could've sworn I learned at some point that rice gets mold really quickly when stored for more than a couple days, is that not the case?

Sounds like I may be back to chicken, rice and mustard maxxing quite soon!

 

[CJ]

And now here I sit on my lunch break, shake in hand, tears in eyes, defeated and deflated.

Thanks for the input all, as most people mentioned here, I am in fact being a lazy bitch.

Maybe I'm retarded but it never occurred to me to bake a bunch of chicken, sounds far less time consuming than cooking all that chicken in a pan, will definitely be using that tip!

I prefer to cube it when still semi frozen, and cook it on the stove top, covered in a big pan. It's 4+ lbs of bird. I think that it cooks faster, and easier to divide when done cooking. Cutting hot chicken from the oven can be tricky.

As for rice, I could've sworn I learned at some point that rice gets mold really quickly when stored for more than a couple days, is that not the case?

Nope, I've eaten it 5+ days later. It's fine.

Sounds like I may be back to chicken, rice and mustard maxxing quite soon!

Different seasonings go a long way in adding flavor, avoiding pallette fatigue.

 

[Yano]

Maybe I'm retarded

/rəˈtärd/ - Verb

delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.

"our progress was retarded by unforeseen difficulties"

Not that far off to be honest. At least it's an easy fix.​

 

[MicrochipsNDips]

I prefer to cube it when still semi frozen, and cook it on the stove top, covered in a big pan.

How do you track how much chicken is in each meal if you do this? Just by taking total weight before, eyeballing that each portion is equal, and then dividing X lbs of chicken by Y portions?

 

[Yano]

How do you track how much chicken is in each meal if you do this? Just by taking total weight before, eyeballing that each portion is equal, and then dividing X lbs of chicken by Y portions?

31g of protein in 100g of cooked chicken breast ,,, only reason I know that shit is ,,, forgetting to weigh it before I cooked it .. God Bless Google.

 

[Yano]

There is also canned chicken , give it a rinse so its not so salty , mix 2 cans of that with your rice , 40g of protein , 20 in each can , some have 22

 

[MicrochipsNDips]

Canned chicken is pretty clutch.

 

[CJ]

How do you track how much chicken is in each meal if you do this? Just by taking total weight before, eyeballing that each portion is equal, and then dividing X lbs of chicken by Y portions?

Yes. Say I cook 4 lbs of raw chicken, so 64 ounces. I then divide it into 10 meals. That's 6.4 ounces per meal, on average. I just call it 6 ounces per.

There's no need to be super precise, it does not matter if one meal is 5.5 ounces and the next is 6.5 ounces. Digestion of these meals overlap, and we can never be 100% accurate anyway, no matter how hard we try.

 

[CJ]

Canned chicken is pretty clutch.

In an emergency, it's fine. It's much more costly per ounce vs raw, and there's usually a lot of added salt.

 

[CJ]

31g of protein in 100g of cooked chicken breast ,,, only reason I know that shit is ,,, forgetting to weigh it before I cooked it .. God Bless Google.

Deiends upon how it's cooked. You dry it out, it's more protein per gram, since less water.

Weighing raw is better.