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Nail Lunch, Dinner Is Yours (Plus Fast Food That Fits)

Put your focus on one meal a day and you get to relax at the other. Here's how to build lunch, what to order at the drive-thru, and why dinner is where you get to play.

By John Schaefer, fat loss coach for 27 years

There is no diet that will not eventually fail. There is no amount of willpower that will not eventually break. You don't need a diet. You need a framework with simple parameters that fit your life, not the other way around.

This is one of the simplest pieces of that framework, and it has worked like clockwork for me and for every client I've been fortunate to work with. Nail lunch. Dinner is yours.

Why lunch

For most of us, even if you're sitting down with co-workers, lunch is not as relaxed as dinner. You're in the middle of the day, you're on the go, your mind is engaged in the work of the day. It's much easier to dial in that meal.

Dinner, on the other hand, is the point in the day when you're mentally and physically taxed. You want to kick back, relax, unwind, maybe pour a glass of wine or crack a beer. You don't want to count calories or worry about "sticking to your diet" and eating food you don't want to eat.

So put the willpower that still has some battery life into lunch. If you get lunch right, it opens a ton of room for dinner.

How to build lunch

Build lunch on protein, fat and fiber. Keep protein high, fat moderate, fiber high and carbs low. Stated even more directly, keep calories low while getting a good amount of protein, and use fat and fiber to keep you full. That combo helps prevent snacking and leaves you with a lot of room to play at dinner.

Aim for roughly 500 to 800 calories and 40 to 60 grams of protein.

My go-to is a Cobb salad with double meat and a vinaigrette instead of the heavy dressing. You get protein from the eggs and chicken, good fat from the avocado and lots of fiber from the greens. Other options that work well:

Then dinner is yours

For most of us, the daily calorie limit lands somewhere in the 1,300 to 2,000 range. If lunch rings in around 500, that leaves 800 to 1,500 calories on the table for dinner, and you've already knocked out a good chunk of your protein. Do you see how much room you have to play?

This is where the discipline from the first half of the day pays off big. Want pasta for dinner? A thin crust pizza? A burger? A couple beers? You can have it, as long as you're paying attention to your numbers. Build dinner around your protein of choice, then have your big carb hit for the day or open a bottle of wine with your significant other.

For years I would tighten up when dinnertime rolled around. I'd be running numbers in my head to see what I could "afford" to eat. I'd turn down happy hours or certain restaurants with friends and family. That's not living. This framework is how I eat what I want, do happy hours and stay as lean and strong as I've ever been. The even bigger win is peace of mind.

Prefer a bigger lunch and a lighter dinner? Flip it. Same rules, just swapped. And if you don't know your daily calorie limit and protein minimum yet, get your two numbers here so you know exactly how much room you're working with.

Don't snack, plan

Snacking is reactive, and you've got to get proactive. A couple of seemingly harmless handfuls of nuts or a few bites off the kids' quesadillas can add up to 300 to 500 calories without you noticing. When a good day's deficit is only a few hundred calories, that's a problem.

If you love a certain snack, plan on having it with lunch or dinner. If you need something between meals to hit your protein, make it intentional: a protein bar and an apple, or a protein shake. And if you feel shaky, dizzy or foggy, don't be a hero. Eat.

Fast food that fits

I love fast food. I know you do too. It's an absolute crime that you've been told you can't have fast food and get into the best shape of your life. As long as you stay under your calorie limit and hit your protein minimum, you can have it as often as your beautiful heart desires.

Here are some of my best high protein, lower calorie bets. Menus and numbers change, so double check in your tracking app.

McDonald's

Chick-fil-A

Taco Bell

Shake Shack

Arby's

A quick hack at any of these: go double protein whenever you can. Double meat is the cheapest upgrade on the menu for fat loss.

Your takeaway

Pick two lunches from this page that you'd actually enjoy and can get near work or keep at home. Rotate them all week. Nail lunch, then enjoy dinner.

Keep reading

Your Two Numbers: Goal Weight x 12 and Goal Weight x 0.7Two numbers matter: a daily calorie limit and a daily protein minimum. Hit their averages over time and you can eat and drink whatever you like.How to Drink Alcohol and Still Lose FatAlcohol isn't the villain. The behavior around the drinking usually is. Here's how to keep your wine, your margaritas and your progress.