an empty fridge.
Most players who “eat a lot” are eating about 2,400 calories and wondering why the scale has not moved since March. Two hours on a Sunday fixes it: one rice cooker, one air fryer, one pressure cooker, and ten containers that make the right choice the easy one.
Both calculators run right here. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to download.
Why prep beats willpower
The player who “eats clean” from Monday to Wednesday and lives on gas station food by Friday is not lazy. He is out of food.
Tool 1. Your actual calorie and protein target
Guessing is why the scale is stuck. For a player 18 and under this runs the Institute of Medicine energy equation for growing boys and girls, the one pediatric dietitians use, which counts growth as a cost. Over 18 it runs Mifflin St Jeor. Training load sets the burn, then the surplus is sized to your goal weight and your date. The rail: 10 pounds a month, or 1.5 percent of body weight a week if that is more. Inside that, your date stands.
Calorie and macro calculator
Ages 9 to 18 run the Institute of Medicine energy equation with growth, and the rail is the American Academy of Pediatrics line, 10 pounds a month or 1.5 percent of body weight a week. These are estimates for a healthy athlete, so weigh in weekly and consult a doctor before a big change in what a growing player eats.
Your calories per meal number feeds the day below and the week builder in Tool 2. Every container on this page is sized to it. A container is not a meal slot: the six meals are built big, so a slot is often half or three quarters of one. Protein is a floor, the meals run over it, and over is fine.
A Day of Eating on Your Number
Your calculator result, laid out as a real day. Change the meals or the shakes above and this redraws. Every food here is on this page or the shake page, nothing you have to invent.
6 Meal Preps That Move the Scale for a Baseball Player
The cooking is the easy half, and Josh Cortis at The Meal Prep Manual already filmed it well. We took six of his meals, kept his process, and rebuilt the plate for a baseball player who has to gain weight: more fat on the beef, thighs over breast, a tortilla that carries protein. Watch one video all the way through. After that your family spaghetti, your stir fry, your grandmother’s chili all run the same way. The system is ours. The recipe is yours.
Every video is the creator’s own, played in the official YouTube player, nothing edited or re-uploaded. Ingredient amounts, method and macros below are ours, recomputed for the swaps from standard food composition values. His originals are linked on every card.
Follow the people who do this every week
These channels prep for a living. New ideas every week, and every one of them fits the containers and the appliances on this page.
The four appliances that do the work
Buy them once. After that a week of food costs you one Sunday afternoon and about fifteen minutes of actual attention.
Tool
Cosori Rice Cooker
10 cup, fuzzy logicSet it and forget it. Rice, oats and potatoes with zero attention while you cook everything else.
Tool
Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer
6 qt, 9 in 1Chicken, potatoes, vegetables, reheats. The one appliance that makes day four food taste like day one.
Tool
NutriBullet Full-Size Combo
1,200 W, 64 oz pitcherSame blender as the shake protocol. Blends oats to flour for the biscuits and purees the mac and cheese sauce.
Tool
BOMATA Kitchen Scale
0.1 g, 11 lb, large platformThe one that turns “some chicken” into 225 grams. Same scale the shake protocol uses.
Full kit: rice cooker, air fryer, containers and the scale. Starter three: rice cooker, containers and a thermometer, which is enough to run every recipe on this page using the oven you already own. No money for the rice cooker: a pot on the stove with a lid does the rice, it just needs you in the room. Edit the cart before you buy anything. Price shows in your cart.
Containers, and the bag that gets them to the field
Ten containers is a week. Buy one size, buy them stackable, and never think about it again.
Start here
Bentgo Prep, 3 compartment
20 piece, microwave and dishwasher safe, stackableCompartments keep the rice out of the chicken juice, which is the difference between food you eat on Thursday and food you throw out. Twenty is two weeks with a rotation.
Cheaper, 50 pack, thinner: add the Freshware 50.
Buy once
C CREST Glass, 10 pack
glass, oven safe, no stains, no smellHeavier in a bag, better in every other way. Glass does not hold tomato stains or garlic smell, and it reheats without the plastic question.
Tournament day
Carhartt Cooler Bag
insulated, holds a day of food and iceThree games on a Saturday is three meals, not one concession stand. This is the bag that makes a tournament weekend survivable and about forty dollars cheaper per day.
Bigger and cheaper, double deck: add the MIYCOO.
The season
Meal Prep Containers, 50 pack
32 oz, single compartmentOne size, stackable, a season of lunches. Fifty is ten weeks with a rotation, and the mac and cheese card uses the same ones.
Price shows in your cart.
The gallon jug from the hydration page rides in the same bag. Food and fluid are one system on a tournament Saturday, not two.
The part nobody teaches, and it matters
Meal prep means cooked food sitting for days. Three USDA numbers cover almost all of the risk, and none of them are complicated.
Do not shortcut these
- Two hours to the fridge. One hour if it is over 90F. A gear bag in a hot car counts as over 90F.
- Three to four days in the fridge. Cook Sunday, eat through Wednesday or Thursday. Anything past that goes in the freezer on cook day, not later.
- 165F on reheat. Every time, measured, not guessed. Egg dishes hit 160F. + cart
- Cool it in shallow containers. Portion it hot into the containers instead of cooling one big pot on the stove.
- Label the lid. A cook date written on the lid ends every “is this still good” argument in the house.
Pick Your Cook Day. The Fridge Does the Rest.
Two ways to run the week. Cook twice and nothing gets frozen. Cook once on Sunday and the freezer covers the back half. Both keep the four day fridge rule.
Sunday cooks Monday to Thursday. Thursday cooks Friday to Sunday. Four breakfasts, four lunches, four dinners on Sunday. Three of each on Thursday. Nothing sits longer than four days, so nothing gets frozen.
| Day | Eat | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Breakfast is yours, anything. Lunch and dinner from Thursday’s cook | Cook day one: 4 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 4 dinners into the fridge |
| Monday | Sunday’s containers, day 1 | Two containers and the shake into the bag the night before |
| Tuesday | Sunday’s containers, day 2 | Game day: a container from the bag after the last out |
| Wednesday | Sunday’s containers, day 3 | Check the fridge. Thursday is the last day for anything from Sunday |
| Thursday | Sunday’s last containers, day 4. Dinner from tonight’s cook | Cook day two: 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners |
| Friday | Thursday’s containers, day 1 | Pack the doubleheader bag Friday night |
| Saturday | Thursday’s containers, day 2. Two in the bag, one between games | Shake after the last game |
Sunday morning, eat whatever breakfast you want. Then cook the week. Six breakfasts, seven lunches, seven dinners, twenty containers, and today’s lunch and dinner come out of it. When the containers are full, three breakfasts, three lunches and three dinners go straight into the freezer. The rest go in the fridge. Those are Sunday through Wednesday, four days, the fridge limit.
| Day | Eat | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Breakfast is yours. Lunch and dinner from today’s cook | The cook. Freeze 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners the moment the lids go on |
| Monday | Fridge, day 1 | Set one phone alarm: 7 am, Wednesday to Friday, “pull tomorrow” |
| Tuesday | Fridge, day 2 | Game day: a container from the bag after the last out |
| Wednesday | Fridge, day 3, the last of the fresh set | Morning: pull Thursday’s three from the freezer into the fridge |
| Thursday | Thawed set 1 | Morning: pull Friday’s three |
| Friday | Thawed set 2 | Morning: pull Saturday’s three. Pack the bag tonight |
| Saturday | Thawed set 3. Two in the bag, one between games | Sunday cooks again. Nothing left over, nothing thrown out |
Four days in the fridge, eat it or freeze it. A frozen container thaws in about 24 hours in the fridge, which is why the pull happens the morning before. Youth and high school players run the same week with smaller containers. The calculator in Tool 1 sizes it. For a player who cannot drive, the bag is the parent job on this page.
Tool 2. Build Your Week, One Grocery List
Your three picks from the cards, your cook day from above, your number from Tool 1. Every container is sized to you, and the three meals merge into one grocery list you copy into your phone.
Week builder
Weights are raw, because that is how you buy food and how a scale reads it. Each container is scaled to your calories per meal, so a bigger number means more of everything. Spices are merged across the three meals. Containers, foil and freezer bags are on the kit list below.
The Sunday Cook, in Order
One breakfast, one lunch, one dinner from the six above. This clock runs Dugout Bag Biscuits, The Doubleheader Burrito Bowl and Penne That Puts On Pounds. Swap any of the six in, the order holds.
| Clock | Do this | Why in this order |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Rice cooker on, full batch. Oven to 425F | The rice is the longest thing that needs no attention. |
| 0:05 | Penne sauce started: beef, onion, garlic browning in the big pot | Sauce simmers on its own for the next hour. |
| 0:20 | Chicken thighs in the marinade, then onto a foil sheet pan and into the oven | Fourteen minutes, then chop and broil. One pan. |
| 0:35 | Potatoes diced and into the air fryer or a second sheet pan | Same oven, same heat, no new dishes. |
| 0:50 | Biscuit beef browned, peppers and onions softened, into one bowl to cool | Warm filling would melt the cheese in the dough. |
| 1:05 | Penne boiled, sauce and pasta combined, layered with ricotta, oven to 400F, bake 30 | The bake runs while the biscuits get scooped. |
| 1:20 | Biscuit dough mixed, 80 scoops onto three or four pans | Bake in rounds at 375F as the penne comes out. |
| 1:50 | Bowls built: rice and beans, potatoes, peppers, chicken on top, salsa cups | Everything for the bowls is done and cooling by now. |
| 2:20 | Penne cut into squares, biscuits cooling, lids off everything | Shallow and separated cools inside the two hour window. |
| 2:45 | Lids on, dated. Freezer set in the freezer, the rest in the fridge | Three of each go to the freezer now, not tomorrow. |
| 3:00 | Dishes, and the week is done | One cleanup instead of twenty. |
About three hours the first time, closer to two once the order is muscle memory. With a parent on the cutting board it is under two. It is also the easiest conversation about food you will ever have with them.
Take the handouts
The whole page on two printable sheets: the player one with your numbers, the 3-3-3 rule and the Sunday cook, and the parent one for the shopping and the bag.
Baseball Meal Prep 101
The player sheet. Your two numbers, the six meals, the Sunday cook and the freeze rule on one page for the fridge door.PDF | opens in a new tabFor parents: on the go meals for sports families
The six meals, the Sunday cook, the freeze rule, the bag packed the night before, and what to hand a player between games.PDF | opens in a new tabPrint them, put the player one on the fridge, text the parent one to whoever does the shopping.
Meal Prep Questions Players Ask
Short answers, and where on this page the long one lives.
Every answer here points back to a tool or a section above. The page is the long version.
The whole system, in order
This page is one step of Complete Player Development. The steps run Target, Eat, Drink, Train, Recover, and every one of them is live. Pick up wherever you are.
Step 1 | Target: The Weight Target Tool
What rostered college players weigh at your height, level and position, and the honest timeline to get there.uncommittedu.com/weight-targetsStep 2 | Eat: The Shake Protocol
Two shakes weighed to the gram, sized to your target, and the four cheap tools that make them repeatable.uncommittedu.com/shakesStep 3 | Drink: The Hydration Protocol
Measure your sweat rate once, get your game day clock, and pick the electrolytes that actually replace what you lose.uncommittedu.com/hydrationStep 4 | Train: The Training Schedule
The week around your games, free programs that are written down, arm care and the pitch count that protects the season.uncommittedu.com/trainingStep 5 | Recover: The Recovery Protocol
Sleep counted backward from the alarm, and the bag that gets a player through a doubleheader.uncommittedu.com/recoveryThe whole system: Complete Player Development
Five steps, six pages, every calculator free. From your target to the calendar on the fridge.uncommittedu.com/player-developmentGetting bigger is the easy half
Adding fifteen pounds of muscle does nothing if no coach ever sees you play. Uncommitted University is the other half: the coach vault, the highlight video course, the profile blueprint, and outreach that gets opened and tracked.
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Not medical advice. Every page in Player Development is education, built from the public guidance named on the page. It is not a diagnosis and it is not a prescription. Talk to your doctor, your athletic trainer or a registered dietitian before you change how you eat, train or sleep, or add any supplement, and check your league and school rules on supplements first. Pain that does not leave, sleep that will not come, or a game that ends in dizziness or cramping is a doctor or athletic trainer conversation, not a calculator.
Food safety is on you. Cook to temperature, cool inside two hours, and throw out anything you are unsure about. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service publishes all of it for free.