Hmm, it’s pretty variable.

I don’t do a breakfast at all, it’s more of a brunch. I’m nauseous when I first wake up.

First meal is usually a bowl of cereal, whole milk, whatever the single serving on the side is. Sometimes it’s a biscuit with a teaspoon of jelly/jam/honey/whatever, and a pat of butter. Less often, it’ll be something like pancakes. It’s always something carb based because that’s all my stomach can handle as the first food of the day.

Then I’ll do something simple towards early afternoon. A sandwich, rotating between various meats w/cheese, pb&j, that kind of thing. Usually something fruity along with. Depends on the season, but we keep something around all year, even if it’s just bananas and apples. Sometimes the fruit is the sandwich, sometimes it’s instead of. Now and then, I’ll do up some eggs, two or three, since our hen lays more than the rest of the household will eat before they go bad.

Dinner is usually bigger. Assuming someone is able to cook that day, it’s almost always going to be veggie heavy, we too damn poor for a lot of meat. There’s no steady menu, we buy what’s on sale, or what’s available from family that farms. But it’ll typically be something like a big spoon of legumes; a similar size spoon of whatever we have between corn, rice, maybe something like quinoa or potatoes, running towards the starchy end of things. Then will be the “yummy” veg. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cooked greens, okra, carrots, sweet potatoes.

Most of the yummy veg is roasted because that’s what we prefer. A little olive oil, some salt and pepper, whatever herbs or spices work well with the specific veg.

The no meat days, it’ll be multiple yummy veggies, sometimes a medley.

In any case, that’s where I really splurge. It’s going to be a heaping spoon/spatula full of those. Two if I’m really into something with a craving.

Meat days, that’s typically going to be chicken unless it’s a special occasion. We usually go with breast meat because it can store better without turning funky. Approximately a half breast per person. Now, most of the time, we get that from family. I’ve got a cousin that does chicken farming alongside his corn. They’re red rangers. Not as big as some breeds, but they grow fast and do it almost entirely free range. So the pieces we eat tend to be smaller than a thigh you might get at a store. Usually around the 6 ounce range, though that’s obviously variable. Each breast comes in a little under a pound most of the time, after trimming and such.

Red meat tends to be ground beef, maybe every other month or so. I make some wicked meatballs, sometimes we’ll do burgers or a meatloaf. I never bother to measure much. We get our meat from a different cousin (yay for country life lol) that runs a dairy and raises a few steer for the family as a whole, so it’s cheaper than buying at a store (and better tbh). Usually a pound, pound and a half at a time. Split between 4 or 6 people, two meals each, depending on what we make with it. Those meals, I couldn’t tell you any measurements at all beyond that. We plate with a generous helping, but splitting it into amounts per person rather than a specific serving size.

Snack wise, I tend to not snack. But we keep fruit around, so that’s usually what it’ll be when I feel like having one.

Now, I do have my splurge choices. Stuff that’s purely for pleasure. I keep some dark chocolate around, and I’ll allow myself 2 squares a day if I want them. It isn’t every day, but a few times a week. I love me some chocolate milk, and I’ll have a 16oz cup once or twice a week, though I’ll add a smaller cup if I’m having a pb&j. Sometimes that’s a store bought, sometimes it’s from syrup.

I have a ginger ale or ginger beer as needed when my stomach is extra grumpy. I keep a few bottles of bundaberg in the fridge and cork them after I pour a glass. I think they’re 12 oz bottles? It’s into a cocktail glass, and it usually takes about half a bottle. That might be every day, might go a few without. Rarely, it’s a couple of times a day.

Now, that’s the norm, the way it usually is day to day. Days that nobody is physically up to cooking, we end up having shitty freezer food because it’s realistic. Chicken strips, prefab lasagna or pizza or whatever. My and my wife are both disabled, and my dad is old as fuck. So on the bad days, we feed the kid the good food and eat the cheap freezer crap as fuel. Which fucks up dietary balance (and calorie count), but it’s the best we can do some days.

2009-2014 I rode a bicycle everywhere. I put in over 100k miles back then. For 2 years of that, I worked 33 miles away from home based on the safest bike routes. I did that 5-6 days a week spending at least 3-4 hours on a bike per day. I went from 350 lbs to under 190 lbs and was quite lean. I’m not your stereotypical cyclist. I’m 6’ 1" with a larger than average build, like 34/44 in waist/jacket. So 190 was pretty low for me. I’m at 220 now but I don’t ride nearly as much or care to eat ultra lean or count calories.

The exercise isn’t actually how I lost the weight. Exercise never has that effect. I felt great as a side effect. At that kind of exercise level, my calories requirements were somewhat affected. The human body adapts to almost anything and can normalize to around the same calories, but I became quite sensitive to what I ate. The stomach largely shuts down during intense sustained aerobic activity. Anything I ate needed to be absorbed and processed when I was off the bike. It resulted in bad eating habits making me sick a lot. I just got sick so much that eating the wrong stuff was repulsive to me. I still don’t eat much of anything processed or prepackaged. I don’t drink anything but water black coffee and a single beer. Everything in the isles of a typical grocery store is basically garbage except some granolas with fortified vitamins and iron. Milk and dairy in the USA is absolute garbage too. My main starch is brown rice. I also use cooking techniques for most of my flavors and avoid prepackaged sauces. It can be challenging. Almost everything in American grocery stores is garbage, as is the food in most restaurants. Fast food made me the sickest. Like even a coffee drink and salads at McDonald’s made me sick. That is the last thing I ever ate from a McDonald’s like 15+ years ago, and it made me so sick for a few days of riding that I still remember every detail.

Ultimately, weight is just a matter of what you put in your mouth. Your digestive regularity is important. You need to control that with natural fiber and not supplements. Basically only eat foods that look like they grew as much as possible (almost all). The other major hurtle is simple but a challenge. Meals are one of the dumbest of human inventions. Only eat when you are actually hungry, and have the self discipline to stop yourself after a few bites of anything. Wait 15 minutes and then see how you feel. Eat a bite or two more if you are in debilitating pain that prevents you from slithering on the floor to scantily function. Seriously, eating too much is normalized in present culture to a stupid degree. When you eat, your body absorbs a ton of calories. That is converted to blood glucose. This does a few cycles around the track and anything that remains becomes fat. The more processed the food is and the more sugar it contains, the faster this cycle will happen and the more your body will absorb quickly. Natural high fiber foods take longer to absorb and slow this cycle down. Then they also do not turn into concrete at later stages stopping you up. Real athletes at elite levels do not eat meals like the rest of us. They nibble all day on the minimum calories they need and chose foods with nutrients density. I worked with a 4 time Olympic cyclist. Talking with them and observing taught me this.