Re: Lunch construction

I know this is labelled water goal 2, but I wanted to ask for clarification about the "brother" lesson next to habit 11, namely Lunch Construction.

The essay reads: “Lunch will be our only meal containing all four components: starch, vegetables, fat and protein.”

I've read the earlier Dinner Construction essay a few times, and thought dinner also had these four components, and that the main difference was that you ate raw veg for lunch and cooked veg for dinner.

In fact, here's a rundown of what I currently understand. Please let me know if I'm askew on anything:

Breakfast: Fats, proteins (eggs will do). Aim to eliminate or radically reduce carbs.

Lunch: Fats, starches, proteins, micro-nutrient-dense veg (aim for raw as it's harder to digest).

Dinner: Fats, starches (less than at lunch?), proteins, veg (aim for cooked as that's easier to digest)

Any feedback appreciated. I'd hate to think I was getting this rule-of-thumb stuff wrong.

Colm, thanks thats probably something I need to make clear. What I had intended to get across was...

Dinner: You will generally have fat at this meal so don't worry about trying to add more. For example you will probably cook veg in some sort of fat, that is enough.

Lunch: You will deliberately add a fat like olive oil said dressing. 

Does that make sense? IF not let me know because Im sure when others get here they will have the same questions. 

That makes sense. I was adding olive oil to my lunch salads but then also eating meat (chicken/shrimp cooked in coconut oil, for instance). Is that overkill for fats at lunch?

No thats great! Perfect. 

Hey Jeff,

concerning dinner and fat I'm not quite sure if I'm getting too much fat for dinner as I often eat a burger patty, rip-eye steak, grilled salmon or grilled chicken with skin as my protein source.

No problems with sleeping after that greasy meal.

The real secret of way too much fat is what and how much oil you cook it in. If you are cooking your burger in 25ml of coconut oil then yes its too much. But, no those sources of meat are not too fatty for dinner. Post a pic just so I can see proportions and all of that. I can get a lot of info from that instead of asking you 20 questions

Thanks for your answer Jeff!

I'm using just a bit of butter or coconut oil - not too much.Will post a pic next week when I'm back in my kitchen!

Okay sounds good. 

On 2/8/2016 at 9:56 PM, Jeff Serven said:

Colm, thanks thats probably something I need to make clear. What I had intended to get across was...

 

Dinner: You will generally have fat at this meal so don't worry about trying to add more. For example you will probably cook veg in some sort of fat, that is enough.

 

Lunch: You will deliberately add a fat like olive oil said dressing. 

 

Does that make sense? IF not let me know because Im sure when others get here they will have the same questions. 

I honestly was confused about it as well and from the Dinner construction essay I thought we had to aim to have extra fats like at breakfast as well. Only after the Lunch construction one (where you mention that is the only one with all the macros) I started to have doubts.

I think it would be best to clarifying that in the essays.

Thanks

I also starting having doubts about my dinner since I love the combination of sweet potatoes, cinammon, and greek yoghurt... I wonder if something like 100g is too much.. In addition I also cook my chicken breasts on a bit of coconut oil...

Okay guys thanks for the tip. I will make that more clear in the essay. 

The gist of my answer is this: You eat predominantly fat for breakfast and you have some fat with lunch. If you included the fat that is in your meat, cooking oils you have probably met the minimum. 

Don't get too stressed out about adding fat to dinner. Don't add too much but a tsp of butter on your veggies won't hurt ya.  

Hi Jeff -

Reviving this thread to see if you would have time to explain a bit more why we should avoid excess fats at dinner? Just to get an explanation as to why fats have negative effects at that time of day compared to lunch/breakfast :-)

I tended to have dinners with a good amount of fat (1 avocado is not uncommon) and if working late, I tended to eat sheep yogurt (fatty) with nuts in it before bed...

I already adjusted to minimal fats after lunch time, but would appreciate understanding why :-)

Many thanks!

Best,
- Julien

If you eat a predominantly fat breakfast and you have some at lunch how as well as indirectly at dinner you have met the criteria for total fat needed in the day. Extremely high fat dinners can impeded sleep. Further you don't need the energy for anything, you are sleeping.

Dinner with fat in it is okay. Just ditch the avocado. Yogurt and nuts before bed is not a good idea. 

On 2/29/2016 at 9:19 AM, Jeff Serven said:

Yogurt and nuts before bed is not a good idea. 

Jeff, can you elaborate a bit on the 'why' of that statement. I'm in this to learn so if you would care to tell me I'd appreciate it.

All the fat is front loaded in your day. By this time of the day you should have ate your allotment of fat. 

Don't want to beat this bit tired horse any more, but this is still unclear to me - is fatty fish for dinner (assuming adult sized portion ) still a ok dinner with fat, or the fat we don't need in the evening?

Yea a fatty fish is great. The idea is to skip the added fat like we do with lunch. like adding an avocado. 

Jumping on the original topic of lunch construction but staying with the evolved topic of how much fat is too much, here is my lunch:

This is post workout: salad with a thumb of dressing, then the shake of: two fingers of coconut cream, 2 handfuls of sweet potatoes, whey protein and 4 eggs. 

My concern is if I am adding too much fat with eggs already in the mix. Pun intended. 

Thanks.

Pun received...

Thats a good lunch. Where it could get tricky is if the eggs were cooked in 4t of coconut oil.