Alice’s #MyChallenge Nutrition | Low-Calorie Meal Prep Plan
As part of her 8-week ice skating #MyChallenge, Alice isn’t only taking on an intense physical training schedule that combines lessons on the ice and sessions in the gym. She’s also committing to a carefully tailored low-calorie nutrition plan to help her lose weight in a safe, sustainable way.
With the guidance of qualified personal trainer, Jamie Bantleman, Alice calculated that her TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) was around 2,200 calories. Your TDEE is an estimation of the amount of calories you will burn per day, with exercise taken into account.
How To Calculate BMR & TDEE (& Why It's Important)
Adjust your targets to work for your goals.
Therefore, to help Alice achieve her weight-loss goal, Jamie created a meal plan with a daily target of 1200-1500 calories to make sure that she is always in a calorie deficit (which means burning more calories than you’re eating). On this diet, Alice is on track to lose around a pound a week.
Here’s what an example of what a typical day looks like.
Breakfast
Before #MyChallenge, Alice would usually skip breakfast which may initially seem like a good way to lose weight, but often isn’t sustainable and can lead to cravings/binging later on in the day.
As she’s also exercising more frequently — especially with early morning sessions on the ice — it’s become even more important for her to refuel her body to help with recovery, and to keep her energy levels up.
A protein shake is a great option to make sure she’s replenishing her muscles with the protein they need, while keeping the time and effort of meal prep to a minimum. It’s also an easy way to control keep her carb and fat intake down too.
- 500ml water
1 scoop Impact Whey Protein (Blueberry Cheesecake) - 100g spinach (frozen)
- 100g strawberries
| Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
| 156 | 23.9g | 8.5g | 2.7g |
Lunch
To keep on top of her nutrition no matter what her schedule throws at her, Alice has been meal prepping a week’s worth of lunches on a Sunday evening… well, she’s been “helping” her partner to meal prep her lunches. Well played.
- 4 skinny beef meatballs
- 55g brown rice
- 75g Mediterranean grilled veg
| Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
| 355 | 25.7g | 43.5g | 6.8g |
Dinner
A self-confessed sausage fan, this is one of Alice’s go-to evening meals. It’s quick and easy to whip up at the end of a long day and provides a nice balance of protein and carbs, along with some important veggies. Alice has lowered the fat content of her meal by opting for low-fat sausages and only using one whole egg with two egg whites for her scrambled egg.
- 1 large free range egg
- 2 egg whites
- 3 skinny pork sausages
- 2 tomatoes
- Handful spinach
- 1 large wholemeal pitta bread
| Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
| 530 | 52.4g | 47.8g | 12g |
You may have noticed that Alice didn’t manage to hit her calorie goal on this day, which is something that she’s been struggling with over the course of #MyChallenge so far. Check out her vlog this week
to hear what she has to say about her experience so far.
Lauren is an English Literature graduate originally from the South. She’s always loved swimming, has discovered the power of weight training over the past few years, and has lots of room for improvement in her weekly hot yoga class.
On the weekends she’s usually cooking or eating some kind of brunch, and she enjoys trying out new recipes with her housemates – especially since shaking off student habits, like mainly surviving off pasta. Above all, she’s a firm believer in keeping a balance between the gym and gin.
Find out more about Lauren’s experience here.
