What I actually eat: a plant-based 2,500 calorie week

Every time I post training content, someone asks what I eat. So here is the actual spreadsheet rather than the photogenic version.

Starting caveat, and I mean it: if you have any history of disordered eating, calorie tracking may not be a safe tool for you regardless of how healthy the goal sounds. Know that about yourself before you download a macro app.

I am not a dietitian. This is one person's food diary.

The numbers

Maintenance for me came out around 2,193 kcal. I added roughly 15% to build muscle, giving a target near 2,520 kcal.

Split: approximately 25% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 35% fat.

Protein target: about 2.7 g per kg of bodyweight, which lands at 155–170 g a day.

And now the honest correction, because most fitness content will not give you one: that number is higher than the evidence supports. The useful ceiling for muscle gain sits somewhere around 1.6–2.2 g/kg, and beyond that you are mostly producing expensive urine. I run higher partly because mixed plant protein is used slightly less efficiently, and mostly out of habit. If you copy one thing from this post, copy 1.6–2.0 g/kg and stop thinking about it. It is cheaper and it works.

Here is the thing nobody warns you about with plant-based bulking: hitting the protein is easy, hitting the calories is brutal. Beans and vegetables fill you up without carrying much energy. I am regularly stuffed and still 300 kcal short. All the nut butter and oil in this plan is not health optimisation — it is calorie delivery.

What is in the kitchen

Legumes: black beans, kidney beans, lima beans, chickpeas, lentils, tinned lentil soup, pinto beans, edamame.

Nuts and seeds: hemp, chia, flax, sunflower, pumpkin, peanut butter, almond butter, almonds, cashews, walnuts.

Soy: soy milk, firm tofu, extra-firm tofu, tempeh.

Grains and starch: quinoa, white rice, brown rice, rice cakes, wholemeal bread, oats, seitan, wholewheat pasta, sweet potato, potato.

Fruit and vegetables: apples, bananas, oranges, blueberries, frozen berries, Brussels sprouts, peas, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, avocado, salad leaves.

Non-negotiable: B12. If you are plant-based and not supplementing B12, that is not a debate. Take it.

If you are shopping in Taiwan: quinoa and pinto beans are easier to find online than in shops. Avocados are cheaper in the large supermarkets than at the wet market. Check the current legal position on hemp seeds before ordering in bulk — it is not the same everywhere.

The week

Four meals a day — three plus one substantial snack. The week runs 2,740–2,810 kcal and 148–172 g protein per day.

Day	Meal 1	Meal 2	Meal 3	Meal 4
Mon	Protein oats, soy milk, apple	Lentil soup + hemp seeds	Rice, black beans, tofu, asparagus	Bread, peanut butter, shake
Tue	Oats, banana, almond butter	Chickpea sandwich, carrots	Tempeh, quinoa, broccoli	Soy yoghurt, berries, walnuts
Wed	Tofu scramble, toast	Rice, kidney beans, salad	Wholewheat pasta, lentil sauce	Rice cakes, peanut butter, shake
Thu	Protein oats, blueberries	Lentil soup, bread	Sweet potato, black bean burgers, peas	Soy milk, cashews, banana
Fri	Oats, chia, soy milk	Seitan wrap, avocado, leaves	Rice, tofu curry, edamame	Toast, almond butter, shake
Sat	Tofu scramble, potatoes	Quinoa bowl, chickpeas, avocado	Tempeh stir-fry, rice, Brussels sprouts	Soy yoghurt, pumpkin seeds
Sun	Pancakes, oats, banana	Big salad, lentils, seeds	Large mixed plate — 1,174 kcal	Shake if needed

That Sunday dinner is a ridiculous amount of food in one sitting and I usually split it in two. I have left the number in rather than smoothing the week out, because smoothing it out would be lying about how it actually runs.

The same macros, but nicer

The table is the skeleton. In practice it looks like: protein oats with banana and nut butter. Tofu noodle stir-fry with red lentils and spinach. Teriyaki tempeh with broccoli and quinoa. Black bean burgers with sweet potato fries. Coconut tofu curry with edamame. Chickpea "tuna" sandwiches.

What goes wrong

Cooking fatigue. By Thursday I do not want to cook. That is exactly why tinned soup and shakes are in the plan — they are what gets eaten on the days when nothing else would.

Fibre. Jumping straight to this volume of beans and vegetables produces a genuinely unpleasant fortnight. Ramp up slowly. I am serious.

Full and under target. The most common failure by a wide margin. The fix is liquid: oats and nut butter in a blender is 700 kcal and no effort.

Cost. Tempeh, protein powder and nuts are the expensive lines. Rice, oats, dried beans and tofu are cheap. Cooking a large batch of dried beans weekly cuts the bill substantially.

Monotony. I eat a great deal of rice and beans. I stopped treating that as a problem.

Why food is on a naturism site at all

For most of my life, food was about managing what I looked like. Eat less, feel guilty, feel guilty about the guilt.

What changed was not discipline. It was that after enough time being naked around people who genuinely did not care what my body looked like, food stopped being a control mechanism and became fuel for a body that was doing things.

Tracking calories in order to grow is a completely different mental activity from tracking calories in order to shrink, even when the spreadsheet is identical. That is the only reason I am comfortable publishing something this boring. It is not aspirational. It is just what I eat.

---

Not a dietitian, not nutrition advice. If you have kidney issues, an eating disorder history, diabetes, or you are pregnant, please get individual advice from someone qualified before copying anyone's macros.