How To Build Muscle For $8/Day (HEALTHY MEAL PREP ON A BUDGET)

22 April 2025


How To Build Muscle For $8/Day (HEALTHY MEAL PREP ON A BUDGET)



There’s a common misconception out there that eating healthy (and tasty) on a budget is impossible. But that’s not true. You can, in fact, meal prep on a budget. I’m going to show you exactly how you can build an effective and healthy budget-friendly meal prep plan for just over $8.00/day ($8.39)–complete with budget meals recipes. So, the first thing we need to do to make our meal prep budget friendly is choose the right food sources. I've listed out what the most friendly protein, fats, and carbs options are in the video and you want to use those sources to design your meal prep on a budget.

So, knowing that, let’s put this into practice and dive into our budget meals recipes. The meal plan will consist of 4 main meals with at least 20g of protein within each meal in order to keep our muscle protein synthesis levels elevated throughout the day. The total equates to 2,700 calories and roughly 160g of protein.

Meal #1: Breakfast Smoothie ($1.70)

2 tbsp (30g) Peanut Butter: $0.16
2 cups (500mL) 2% Milk: $0.30
1 banana: $0.16
1/3 cup (30g) Oats: $0.08
1 scoop (35g) Whey Protein: $1.00

766 calories, 55g protein, 78g carbs, 29g fat

Meal #2: Egg Stir Fry ($1.51)

3 whole eggs: $0.42
½ cup (~100g) uncooked brown rice: $0.45
1 chicken stock cube: $0.06
½ (~45g) cup carrots: $0.12
½ (~45g) cup celery: $0.20
½ (~45g) cup cabbage: $0.14
3-4 tbsp soy sauce: $0.08
2 tsp garlic powder: $0.04

602 calories, 27g protein, 81g carbs, 18g fat

Meal #3 Fajita Bowl ($2.84)

½ cup (~100g) uncooked brown rice: $0.45
1 chicken stock cube: $0.06
4oz (~110g) raw diced chicken breast: $1.10
1 green pepper: $0.48
1 diced sweet onion: $0.28
1 cup (~230g) canned pinto beans: $0.30
¼ cup (~100g) salsa: $0.11
Seasoning: $0.06

782 calories, 48g protein, 130g carbs, 8g fat

Meal #4 Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Dish ($2.34)

4.5 ounces (~125g) raw ground turkey (93/7): $0.76
10oz (280g) raw diced sweet potato: $0.73
1 cup (~150g) fresh green beans: $0.69
1 tbsp (15mL) olive oil: $0.06
Seasoning: $0.10

560 calories, 30g protein, 58g carbs, 24g fat

So now that we’ve gone through the budget-friendly meal prep plan, let’s go over some important information as to how to actually implement it. What I’d recommend is meal prepping the 3 meals but not the smoothie and instead just making that fresh as it takes just 5 minutes to do and will taste a lot better. I’d also recommend prepping these meals to be good for 3 days.

Next, let’s cover how to add some variety to it. Doing this is actually quite simple and can be done by just swapping out some of your protein, carb, or fat sources in your meal for an equivalent amount of another budget friendly food source instead (I have a chart of them in the video). In addition to this, experiment with different seasonings, sauces, and veggies for each dish as well.

Lastly, let’s cover how to tweak the calories and macros of this meal prep plan to better suit you while still being budget friendly. Basically, you want to prioritize aiming for around 1g of protein per lb of your bodyweight and a calorie intake of your bodyweight in lbs multiplied by around 15-17. Once you have these two targets set, you can simply increase or decrease the portions of the meals in this plan as needed.

Hopefully, you were able to see that eating healthy while at the same time keeping it tasty can indeed be done on a budget. And for a step-by-step program that puts this all together for you by showing you not only how to train to build muscle, but also shows you exactly what to eat, how much to eat, and then how to adjust this overtime so that you can build muscle as efficiently as possible just like several of our members have done with their Built With Science programs, then simply take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:
https://builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/gender?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=Video&utm_content=Description%20box&utm_campaign=Build%20muscle%208%24%2Fday%20Nov%201%2F2020

DOWNLOAD YOUR BUDGET MEAL PLAN:
https://builtwithscience.com/budgetmealplan

Subscribe to my channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/jeremyethier/?sub_confirmation=1

Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo

MUSIC: https://soundcloud.com/iamryanlittle

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Budget friendly food sources
2:00 – Budget friendly grocery stores
2:40 – Overview of meal plan
3:00 – Meal #1
3:33 – Meal #2
4:35 – Meal #3
5:33 – Meal #4
6:30 – How to meal prep
7:58 – Food swaps
8:42 – Customizing macros
9:50 – Download meal plan
10:10 – Watch me!

there's a common misconception out there that eating healthy and tasty is expensive today i'm going to share the truth and show you exactly how you can build an effective and healthy muscle building diet for just over eight dollars a day so the first thing we need to do to make this happen is we need to choose the right food sources we want to choose nutritious protein fats and carb sources that'll not only be the best option for us to use to build muscle with but are also the most budget-friendly options to hit our calorie and macronutrient targets with and based on the analysis of multiple sources here is a pretty accurate list of the best options for each category for protein some excellent options that maximize the amount of protein that you get per dollar are foods like eggs milk canned tuna chicken breasts and lean ground turkey for example but at the same time don't discount the cost effectiveness of whey protein powder although it may seem expensive when you look at it from a cost per tub perspective most whey protein powders actually come out to be just as cost effective as chicken breast or canned tuna when it comes to the amount of actual protein it delivers per dollar because it contains minimal fat and carbs and the fact that it is such a high quality and convenient source of protein that can be used in a variety of ways it makes it a great budget-friendly option as for carbs the best options here are oats bananas rice pinto beans and potatoes for fats the best bang for your buck would be olive oil and peanut butter as for vegetables to help with your vitamin mineral intake carrots onions cabbage and romaine lettuce are some notable options and lastly as for cost-effective condiments and seasoning i'd highly recommend investing in salt pepper paprika garlic powder soy sauce and salsa as these are staples that for a very minimal cost can easily add a ton of flavor and variety into whatever dish you choose to make overall these lists will provide you with the most budget-friendly yet healthy food sources to create your meal plan with however to take this one step further you want to then purchase these foods at the most budget-friendly grocery stores bank of america actually recently conducted a study on this and they compared the price of a pre-determined grocery list at various supermarkets as you can see here the difference in price from the most cost-friendly option walmart to the priciest option whole foods was almost about 30 so sticking to cost-friendly stores like the ones on this list and some other notable ones like aldi will be wise to minimize additional costs i'm going to be using the walmart prices for this meal plan so knowing that let's put this into practice and dive into our muscle building meal plan the meal plan will consist of four main meals with at least 20 grams of protein within each meal in order to keep our muscle protein synthesis levels elevated throughout the day so we're going to aim for a daily total of roughly 2700 calories and 160 grams of protein but after you run through it i'll provide you with some guidance on how to implement the plan and then how to customize it to best suit your body so to start off we're gonna make a smoothie that takes just five minutes to whip together here we'll use a third of a cup of oatmeal one frozen banana two cups of two percent milk two tablespoons of peanut butter a scoop of whey protein and then just blend this all together the total of this comes up to just one dollar and seventy cents yet provides a great return in terms of convenience calories protein and nutrients meal two is going to be an egg stir fry here we're going to need three whole eggs half a cup of uncooked brown rice with a chicken stock cube thrown in there for some additional flavor half a cup of diced carrots half a cup of diced celery half a cup of diced cabbage and some soy sauce and garlic powder to taste for a grand total of 1.51 cents first give your rice a good rinse and throw it in a pot or rice cooker use a finger hack to cook the rice by lining up the water with the first line of your index finger this asian hack guarantees perfect rice consistency without fail then throw in your chicken stock cube and let cook next scramble your eggs in a pan and set that aside once that's done throw your veggies in the pan with some garlic until the veggies are cooked through add in your rice and soy sauce and give it a nice mix for a few minutes last but not least take it off the heat and add in your scrambled eggs give it a taste and then add whatever additional seasoning or sauce is needed meal 3 is going to be a fajita bowl here we're going to again need half a cup of uncooked brown rice with a chicken stock cube four ounces of uncooked chicken breast one green pepper one sweet onion one cup of canned pinto beans half a cup of salsa and some paprika and salt for a total of two dollars and 84 cents all right time to get cooking so we're going to use the exact same rice cooking process as a previous meal but don't worry after i go through all the meals i'm going to show you how to properly cook your rice in bulk as your rice is cooking throw your chicken green peppers and onions in a pan and season with paprika and some salt after a little bit throw in your canned pinto beans mix it all up and you're ready for plating add the mix beside your cooked rice and top with salsa if you prefer for some additional flavor and there you have it about a third of the price of a chipotle bowl yet just as tasty and packed with a ton of protein and nutrients the final meal is going to be some ground turkey with a side of roasted sweet potato and green beans here we're going to need about four and a half ounces of raw ground turkey about eight ounces of chopped sweet potato a handful of green beans a tablespoon of olive oil and a mix of different seasoning for a total of two dollars and 34 cents to start place your chopped sweet potato on a baking sheet season with salt and pepper drizzle over a tablespoon of olive oil and then give it a nice mix roast for 30 minutes at 400 degrees as that's going cook up your ground turkey in a pan with some salt pepper garlic and paprika in a separate pot of pan steam your green beans by adding a bit of water covering it and then let it steep until cooked to your liking and there you have it if you got some extra change to spare feel free to top this meal with some cinnamon or ketchup for some extra flavor but this alone guys it honestly tastes great without breaking the bank so now that we've gone through the plan let's go over some important information as to how to actually implement it first let's cover how to prep it what i'd recommend is meal prepping the three meals but not the smoothie and instead just making that fresh as it takes just five minutes to do so and will taste a lot better i'd also recommend prepping these meals to be good for three days since if you prep for the whole week some of the components will start to get a little bit off tasting and looking by the end of the week you can alternatively cook a week or even two weeks worth of meals in advance freeze it and then just take it out as needed if you're short on time but cooking it fresh in smaller batches instead is generally what'll taste best so as for how to do this it's very simple you just cook enough of each ingredient i've gone through to last for three days worth of meals so for example when you're cooking the rice in our meal plan we use it in two of our meals every day and we use half a cup of uncooked rice each time so when we cook it in batch we simply multiply this amount by three and we find that we want to cook a total of three cups to have enough rice to cover these meals for three days then you just repeat this with the rest of the ingredients by multiplying their amounts by three to see how much you'll need to cover for three days worth and use this strategy to guide your grocery shopping as well i personally recommend that for the perishable foods like your protein sources and veggies shop once a week for just enough to cover a week's worth of meals to avoid minimizing any waste and additional costs next let's cover how to add some variety to your meal plan so you're not sick of eating the same meals every single day and doing this is actually quite simple and it can be done by just swapping out some of your protein carb or fat sources in your meal for an equivalent amount of another budget friendly food source instead for your convenience i've created a list of swaps for each of the main protein carbs and fat sources within each meal these swaps will provide a similar amount of calories and nutrients as the original but can help just add some variety whenever you need it in addition to this just experiment with different seasoning sauces and veggies for each dish as well as this is a very easy way to change the flavors of the dish and just add some variety whenever you may need it lastly let's cover how to tweak the calories and macros of this meal plan to better suit you basically you want to prioritize amine for around 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight and a calorie intake of your body weight in pounds multiplied by around 15 to 17 as these two factors are what's most important once you have these two targets set you can simply increase or decrease the portions of the meals in this plant as needed so for example if you require less than 2 700 calories simple tweaks to the carbs and or fats such as reducing the serving size of the rice in one meal by half can lower the calorie total quite significantly or for example if you require more protein than 160 grams just slightly bumping up the servings of each of the protein sources while of course being mindful of the additional calories that this will add will easily do the trick play around with it but don't stress over this too much the key is to just get started experimenting with it monitor how your weight is changing and then adjust the serving sizes to ensure that you're not either gaining weight too quickly or on the other hand you're not losing weight because it's just not enough calories that's pretty much all there is to it and to help you out even further with implementing this i've actually created a budget meal plan that puts all of these recipes together for you with a full grocery list included as well to grab a copy of this just head on over to buildwithscience.com forward slash budget meal plan and i'll send it right over to you and i'll also leave a link to this in the description box down below but hopefully you were able to see that eating healthy while at the same time keeping it tasty does not have to be expensive and for a step-by-step program that puts all this together for you by showing you not only how to train to build muscle but also shows you exactly what to eat how much to eat and then how to adjust this over time so you can build muscle as efficiently as possible just like several of our members have done with their built with science programs and simply head on over to buildwithscience.com and take the analysis quiz to discover which of our plans is best for you and your body anyways that is it for today guys i hope you enjoyed this one please don't forget to show your support by giving the video a like leaving a comment down below so what you like to see me cover next subscribing to the channel and turning on notifications for the channel as well as this all really does help me out thank you so much everyone i'll see you next time

#Build #Muscle #8Day #HEALTHY #MEAL #PREP #BUDGET

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35 Comments
  1. Hope you enjoyed this one! For more diet & training guidance, take our free analysis quiz at https://builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/ to find which of our step-by-step programs are best suited for transforming your specific body. Cheers!

    ***Note: In the video, the macros for the egg stir fry were accidentally duplicated from the smoothie macros. The correct macros for the egg stir fry are in the PDF and in the description box, which should be: 602 calories, 27g protein, 81g carbs, 18g fat

  2. I know this is old, however, if you’re only needing 1900-2100 calories, would it be easier to remove a whole meal option?

    Why 4 meals too?

  3. I started making that protein shake for breakfast quite often, only thing I add is hand of blueberries. It is so good.

  4. Can this be in microwave or do you recommend reheating in oven? What’s the best way to reheat if on the go vs at home? I want to make sure not to lose any nutrition value – a type one diabetic who is trying to gain muscle 😭

  5. 2025 food prices punching your wallet 😆

  6. Im gonna cry.
    This guy really understood the assignment and didn't leave anything to pick excuses from. Awesome!

  7. 3 eggs is not cheap any more when a dozen eggs is almost 10 dollars now. 2025

  8. 8$/day means 240$/month… in my country that's half the salary of the average person

  9. Love these ideas and will use them in preparing my 19 yr old son's meals….but will have to cook 3xs the amount to fill him up! 😂 thank you, i appreciate the video

  10. So I decided to slowly and gradually get on this diet around a week or so ago. The breakfast smoothie is good, although my sensitive digestive system took it a while to get used to. I like it, as it gives me energy for a long time (I am full till around 1pm), takes less time to prep and not very expensive.
    Secondly, I tried to go for the egg stir fry and this was simply not for me. Literally every single ingredient in that recipe is the kind which gives me an acidic stomach, creating too much gas and giving me terrible headaches. Its also not super delicious but you could blame my cooking skills for that. Maybe once in a week, but I just cant imagine eating this dish every day or every other day.
    I would definitely try the other ones too and give you my feedback! Thanks for putting this together, Jeremy!

  11. Just about to go grocery shopping thanks for this !

  12. I always look forward to your content! You’re changing lives one workout at a time! 🔥

  13. I love you for making this, you beautiful man

  14. I love you for making this, you beautiful man

  15. Amazing. I haven't any video with such great details of budget friendly meals.

  16. Another amazing video and tasty food but the only thing is that I really don’t like sweet potatoes is there a different thing that I can swap instead of sweet potatoes?

  17. The second meal is 25g of protein max.
    Where did you get the other 30g of protein from?

  18. I enjoy his videos BUT dont know where he gets his macro figures from but i tried to check them and the protein figures were way out😢 3 eggs 100 grams of brown rice 150 grams of veg 55grams of protein no way !

  19. What a great video!
    It took a lot of work for sure but it's worth it. Thx!

  20. How many ml is that smoothie? I'm trying to do this in a large blender

  21. All I hear after watching this video is the cash register noise

  22. Is Tempeh can build muscle like pea or whey protein?

  23. Did you incorporate snacks into this or is it just the 4 meals per day?

  24. How in the world in meal #2 did you get to 55g of protein with 3 eggs, rice, and some vegetables????

  25. How in the world in meal #2 did you get to 55g of protein with 3 eggs, rice, and some vegetables????

  26. Me in 2024, wondering about the costs he lists: Hol' up, somethin ain't right 🤔

  27. Was 2% milk actually $2.37 a gallon 3 years ago anywhere on this planet??
    Because I call supreme bullshit on that 54g per dollar

  28. So it is really cheap to be healthy

  29. What makes this guy stand out is he doesn’t beat around the bush sounding big and macho,,just lays it out like it is and gives excamples too

  30. Freakin Biden made this $20-25 dollars now

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