Those eating 3,000 calories per day: What are you eating without spending a fortune on food?
I'm 6'4", 50 years old. Went on a cut phase back in March, working with a trainer. Started at 226 pounds and an initial target of ~2400 calories/day. A few months and calorie reductions later, I was down to 190# at 2100 cals/day at the end of July. This was a high protein diet and throughout that time I had figured out how to get >200g of protein pretty easily. But since then (end of July) we switched to a lean mass gain phase and started adding calories. As of today (Sep 11) my daily calorie target is 3,045 and nearly all of the calorie increase has come from carbs. Specifically I'm at 345g carb / 225g protein / 85g fat.
Like I said, I've been living at this protein target since March and I have that figured out. But trying to get > 300 carbs per day, healthily, has been a challenge. I feel like I'm grazing all day on bananas, apples, pretzels, chocolate milk, orange juice, etc. I need quick and easy carb-dense sources so I can have larger meals for breakfast and lunch and not play catch up at the end of the day where I need to have a monster dinner.
So back to the title, for those with large carb targets, how are you getting there?
Posted Sep 11, 2025, 4:50 PM UTC