Meal Template Proportional?

[simmie]

We recently had a question come up on a Whole30 Facebook group about the meal template--specifically about whether the portion sizes of the components should be proportional to each other.

Should the different components of the meal template be proportional to each other necessarily? For instance, one part protein, 1 part fat, 2-3 parts vegetables?

We had someone who had a very large steak with their meal and did have enough vegetables but it came up whether or not all the parts of that meal should have been proportional to each other.

 

[ShannonM816]

I feel like this gets into overthinking things, especially if this was a one-off type meal. If most of your meals meet the template, and occasionally one is heavy on fat, or another is light on vegetables, it all evens out over time. 

[Queenbeejo]

This was the meal in question

[simmie]

2 hours ago, ShannonM816 said:

I feel like this gets into overthinking things, especially if this was a one-off type meal. If most of your meals meet the template, and occasionally one is heavy on fat, or another is light on vegetables, it all evens out over time. 

Follow up with a bit of a twist. The member that posted that said that if this is how they could eat on Whole30 they would have no problem doing it. Not that it matters but this was a man that had this as a meal. If this is the norm with the protein being as heavy as it is on a regular basis, and he's getting his vegetables and fat in, is this an issue from a Whole 30 standpoint?

[SugarcubeOD]

7 hours ago, simmie said:

Follow up with a bit of a twist. The member that posted that said that if this is how they could eat on Whole30 they would have no problem doing it. Not that it matters but this was a man that had this as a meal. If this is the norm with the protein being as heavy as it is on a regular basis, and he's getting his vegetables and fat in, is this an issue from a Whole 30 standpoint?

I agree with @ShannonM816 - it's definitely over thinking it. I would encourage the person to make sure they're eating more non starchy veg on a regular basis because this much meat and starchy carbs could create a problem with bathrooming habits.  I would also find out from the person if they are going 4-5 hours between meals or if when eating in these proportions, they seem to be able to go 6-8 or more. If it's the latter, then we would encourage them to scale back to get to a 4-5 hour place and the first place that would make sense to scale back would be the steak (in this case) as you wouldn't want to remove the veg.

If the person eats like this, goes 4-5 hours between meals, feels satiated, has good bathrooming habits and is feeling good, then nothing to worry about.