Convenient Diet Plan for 3000 Calories 6 Small Meals

I was recently asked by a member of WLC for a convenient diet plan for 3000 calories of 6 small meals.

Since my reply would definitely help others, I decided to write an entire article about this.

Here's the email I received recently:

Hello Josh, Could you put together a diet plan of 6 small meals consisting of 3,000 calories? I don't have time to do a lot of cooking so canned items would be helpful (i.e, canned chicken breast, canned tuna, etc.). I currently weigh 195 lbs. and looking to transform my body by packing on lean muscle mass. Thanks, John

The goal of this page is to give John a healthy meal plan that will help him build lean muscle mass. The trick, though, is to make this a simple and easy meal plan to execute. I am going to minimize preparation time as much as possible.

I hope this will help you as well and give you some ideas to make your diet plan even easier.

3000 Calories Overall Divided by 6 Meals

Since John is looking for a 3000 calorie meal plan to start with for 6 total meals, we're going to need to average 500 calories per meal.

Some meals can be bigger while others can be smaller. The average, though, needs to be right at 500 calories.

Meal 1 Breakfast = 500 Calories
Meal 2 Mid-Morning Snack = 500 Calories
Meal 3 Lunch = 500 Calories
Meal 4 Mid-Afternoon Snack = 500 Calories
Meal 5 Dinner = 500 Calories
Meal 6 Night-Time Snack = 500 Calories
Total = 3000 Calories

This doesn't have to be perfect as you'll see with the meal plan, but you do need to get fairly close to the totals.

Please remember that this meal plan is also meant to flood your body with nutrients so I will not pay attention to protein, carbohydrates, and fat intake. As long as you're getting a good source of protein with each meal and loading each meal up with nutrients, you will do great.

Meal 1 Breakfast

I always include whole eggs from pasture-raised chickens for breakfast. To make this easier, you will need to cook hard-boiled eggs in a boiled egg cooker which makes all of this quick and easy for you. You can store the eggs for the week in your refrigerator. I've done this many times myself, and it's easy.

You'll then have a 1/4 cup (uncooked) of oatmeal which you might use quick oats which makes this fast. Just make sure you don't get any oatmeal with a bunch of added ingredients that may be unhealthy. Add a tablespoon of natural peanut butter to the oatmeal and then cut up a banana and add it to the oatmeal.

Let's look at the totals for this meal:

3 Whole Eggs = 210 Calories, 18 Protein, 0 Carbs, 15 Fat
1/4 Cup of Oats = 150 Calories, 7 Protein, 26 Carbs, 3 Fat
1 Tablespoon Natural Peanut Butter = 90 Calories, 4 Protein, 3 Carbs, 8 Fat
1 Whole Banana = 105 Calories, 1 Protein, 27 Carbs, 0 Fat
Totals = 555 Calories, 30 Grams Protein, 56 Grams Carbs, 26 Grams Fat

To pack this meal with power, I want you to add cinnamon to the oatmeal and some black ground pepper. Add a little bit of sea salt if you like too.

Also have a cup of herbal tea with the meal. You can make herbal tea quickly with a Keurig brewing system. You'll have tea in less than a minute. Let it brew whole you're getting your breakfast together.

You may notice that we went over by 55 calories. Don't worry, we'll fix that with another meal.

Meal 2 Mid-Morning Snack

You can put this meal in a small food container and take it with you. Store in a lunch box cooler or in a refrigerator at work or school.

Make sure the cottage cheese you are getting is from grass-fed cows as the nutrients within this will be much better. I actually already have the full recipe for this meal already here on the website. See Cottage Cheese Almond Cinnamon Mix.

Let's look at the totals for this meal:
Totals = 492 Calories, 31 Grams Protein, 39 Grams Carbs, 25 Grams Fat

Have a big glass of filtered water with this snack. Add a lemon or lime slice to the water if you have one close. Do this often whenever you drink water.

This time we were just under 500 calories so we're on track with the average of 500 calories up to this point.

Meal 3 Lunch

One of the tricks we use at my home for lunch meals is making plenty for dinner and taking the extra for lunch the next day. This gives you a great meal the next day. Dinner preparation for this meal plan is going to take the most amount of time, but I'm giving you one that's pretty quick.

I'm going to point you to this recipe as reference but I want to make this one easier for you (Roasted Chicken and Fall Vegetables).

Buy a roasted chicken from a natural grocery store like Whole Foods. Remember, you will have this for dinner the previous night so you'll have it ready for lunch the next day. You'll cut up a sweet potato and 2 carrots and put them in a pan that you'll use on your grill. This will be quick. Add grass-fed butter, extra virgin olive oil, fresh rosemary, onion, and lemon juice. Grill it for 30 minutes or so while you're working on something else at home.

I want you to get accustomed to some cooking as this is amazing food and you'll pack the meals full of additional nutrients. Trust me. The extra preparation time here is worth it. And this meal really is quick and easy.

Let's look at the totals for this meal:

6 Ounces Roasted Chicken = 240 Calories, 42 Protein, 0 Carbs, 6 Fat
1 Sweet Potato = 110 Calories, 2 Protein, 26 Carbs, 0 Fat
2 Carrots = 50 Calories, 2 Protein, 12 Carbs, 0 Fat
1 Teaspoon Butter = 30 Calories, 0 Protein, 0 Carbs, 3 Fat
1 Teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil = 40 Calories, 0 Grams Protein, 0 Grams Carbs, 5 Grams Fat
1/2 Onion = 20 Calories, 0 Grams Protein, 5 Grams Carbs, 0 Grams Fat
Totals = 490 Calories, 46 Grams Protein, 43 Grams Carbs, 14 Grams Fat

So this is a quick and easy meal that you can make for dinner and make extra. This heats up good so you can have this for a couple of dinners during the week as well as a couple of lunches.

I would have a another cup of herbal tea if possible. If not, have a big glass of water with this meal.

Notice that we're right under 500 calories for this meal so we're hitting our averages very well so far.

Meal 4 Mid Afternoon Snack

All you need for this meal is a mixture of different nuts, seeds, and berries along with raw milk and some herbs and spices. This is one of my go to meals that's extremely healthy and very quick and easy to make.

I'm going to point you to this healthy recipe as I also have full details on this recipe already here on the site: Mixed Nuts, Seeds, and Berries Cereal.

Let's look at the totals for this meal:
Totals = 516 Calories, 18 Grams Protein, 35 Grams Carbs, 38 Grams Fat

Have another big glass of water with this meal and add some lime juice or lemon juice if you have one around.

We're just over 500 calories for this meal but we're staying very close to the average we need.

Meal 5 Dinner

Again, this meal is going to take a little longer to prepare BUT it's not very long. The most difficult part is ensuring you have all the ingredients and getting them out and ready. Make plenty of this so you have a couple extra meals for the week. Remember to always make enough so you have lunch the next day. This cuts back on overall preparation time and makes everything easier for you.

This meal heats up very well too! This is at the top of my list for my favorite recipes. I love this one. You've got to give this one a shot: Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps. Divide the recipe into 4 meals so you get the following:

Totals for this meal:
Totals = 404 Calories, 26 Grams Protein, 19 Grams Carbs, 26 Grams Fat

This meal is packed with nutrients! If you follow this meal plan, you will be flooding your body with nutrients. And this is a very convenient meal plan. You'll get quicker at all of this and overall you'll save time over trying to eat foods that are canned. And the taste of these meals will be amazing compared to the canned foods.

We went almost 100 calories below average with this meal so I would like to add a cup of raw milk to this meal. This will add about 150 calories to the meal putting you at 550 calories for this dinner meal.

Meal 6 Night-Time Snack

So let's go ahead and add up the total calories to this point before we finalize meal number 6:

Meal 1 Breakfast = 555 Calories
Meal 2 Mid-Morning Snack = 492 Calories
Meal 3 Lunch = 490 Calories
Meal 4 Mid-Afternoon Snack = 516 Calories
Meal 5 Dinner = 554 Calories
Total = 2607 Calories

So it looks like we're going to need 393 calories to hit our 3000 calorie target for the day. Let's finish this off with an extremely healthy meal before bed. This meal will feed your body while you sleep.

This one is very convenient and easy.

2 Slices of Cheddar Cheese from Grass-Fed Cows = 230 Calories, 15 Protein, 0 Carbs, 18 Fat
2 Stalks of Celery = 10 Calories, 0 Protein, 2 Carbs, 0 Fat
1 Cup Raw Milk = 150 Calories, 8 Protein, 13 Carbs, 8 Fat
Totals = 390 Calories, 23 Grams Protein, 15 Grams Carbs, 26 Grams Fat

Add another cup of herbal tea to relax you and calm you down right before bed. Make it a small cup so you don't have to use the bathroom from the extra fluids. Have the might-time snack an hour or so before bed if this fits into your schedule.

That gets us to 2997 calories overall so we almost hit our target of 3000 calories exactly. This is a very healthy meal plan that I think is very convenient and easy to manage. You just need a few tools like food containers, the boiled egg cooker, and the right foods. When you're setup correctly, everything goes much easier!

Vitamins and Minerals for this 3000 Calorie Convenient Meal Plan

I want you to see what you're getting with this 3000 calorie convenient meal plan. The vitamin and mineral content is great for building lean muscle as John intends to do.

The only thing you're missing 100% on is vitamin D. You can add some variety to your meals to get additional vitamin D. You should have a piece of wild-caught salmon to get more vitamin d or even supplement with a few capsules of fish oil. This will really add to your diet plan overall.

Notice the huge amount of other vitamins and minerals that you're getting.

Other Details That Make This a Great Meal Plan

You will notice that this diet plan is high in healthy fats. The foods in this diet plan need to come from the best sources. Local farmers or at least grocery stores like Whole Foods should be used for higher quality food. Foods from the big chain grocery stores many times are lower quality. The raw milk needs to come from a local farmer for sure.

Don't underestimate the power of foods from high quality sources! If you get food from the huge chain grocery stores, the nutrient content will be much lower.

I also recommend that you add some raw vegetables to each meal. You can cut up a big bag of veggies each week and make smaller baggies that go with each meal. This will continue to add an even greater number of nutrients to each meal and this is very convenient.

When you need to add more calories to this 3000 calorie diet plan, you can add nuts and seeds as a convenient option to each meal or you can increase the size of each meal slightly. For example, have 10 ounces of raw milk in meal 6 versus 8 ounces. If you increase the amounts slightly each meal, you'll get a good overall increase in calories if needed to continue building lean muscle.

If you have ANY questions about this convenient diet plan for 3000 calories split into 6 meals, please ask in the comments and questions section below. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have.