Most students don't eat badly because they don't care. They eat badly because every meal is a fresh decision, made when they're tired, hungry and short on money, and the easy answer is usually a meal deal or a takeaway. The average student spends £155 a month on groceries and another £45 on takeaways and eating out, according to the 2026 National Student Money Survey [1]. That's £200 a month, and a lot of it doesn't even feed you properly.
The fix isn't a cleverer recipe. It's deciding once. Work out roughly what you need, build one simple day that covers it, and buy the same shop every week. This is the system I use. It comes in five sizes, from 2,250 to 3,250 calories a day, all built from the same foods: work out your number with the calculator, pick your size, and the meals, the charts and the weekly shop below all change to match. Depending on the size, it costs £47.14 to £61.92 a week at Aldi, about £6 less with a few swaps. That's £204 to £268 a month. The average student spends £200 a month on groceries and takeaways together, so this costs a little more than that, but it covers every meal of the day, there's no takeaway to pay for, and with the swaps the smallest size comes in under it at £179.
Here's the whole playbook: the numbers, the meals, the shop, the cooking and the supplements. The sums are shown, so you can change anything to fit you.
- Work out your numbers once. Calories from your size and training, 1.6 to 2.2g of protein per kg with 40g or more a meal, and 30g of fibre.
- Eat the same simple day. Eggs and sourdough, a yoghurt bowl or a shake, chicken and a carb, beef or fish and a carb, fruit and veg in between.
- Get the variety from the cheap things. Rotate the carb, the seasoning and the sauce, not the whole plan.
- Fish twice a week, red meat three times. It gets omega-3 in and keeps you inside the NHS advice on red meat.
- Buy the same list, cook in bulk. One shop, two cooking sessions, and the freezer for the rest. £47.14 to £61.92 a week at Aldi, depending on your size.
- Creatine daily, vitamin D in winter. Anything else only if your food falls short.
01Work out your numbers
Even if you never count a calorie, work your numbers out once. It takes two minutes, and it tells you roughly how much you should be eating, which is all you need to build a plan around. Without it you're guessing, and most people guess low on protein and high on everything else.
Calories
Start with what your body burns at rest. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the standard way to estimate it: a review of the main formulas found it predicted resting metabolism within 10% for more people than any of the others [2]. Multiply that by how active you are, then take some off if you want to lose fat or add a little if you want to build muscle.
Protein
Protein is the number that matters most if you train. A meta-analysis of 49 trials and 1,863 people found that extra protein stopped adding muscle at around 1.6g per kg of body weight a day, with the upper end of the confidence range at about 2.2g [3]. So aim for 1.6 to 2.2g per kg. For someone who weighs 75kg, that's 120 to 165g a day.
Fat, carbs and fibre
Give fat about 30% of your calories, and the rest goes to carbs, which fuel your training. Then fibre: the UK recommendation for adults is 30g a day [4], and most people fall well short. It keeps you full, keeps your gut working, and it's the one number a high-protein diet quietly forgets.
Put your own details in here. It runs the same sums I use, then shows how much to eat to lose or gain weight at three different speeds, and which size of the plan below is closest.
- Protein
- 135g1.8g per kg
- Carbs
- 350gthe rest
- Fat
- 92g30% of calories
- Fibre
- 30gUK guideline
Mifflin-St Jeor equation times an activity factor, then 250, 500 or 1,000 calories a day off or on for each speed. It's an estimate, usually within about 10%: weigh yourself on the same morning each week and adjust by 150 to 200 calories if the trend isn't what you want. The NHS suggests losing no more than 0.5 to 1kg a week [20], so the extreme rate is the top of that, not a target.
Example: male, 20, 180cm, 75kg, trains 3 to 5 times a week
Resting: 10 × 75 + 6.25 × 180 − 5 × 20 + 5 = 1,780 calories
Active: 1,780 × 1.55 = 2,760 calories a day
Protein: 75 × 1.8 = 135g · Fat: 30% of 2,760 ÷ 9 = 92g · Carbs: the rest ÷ 4 = 348g
Use it as a guideThese numbers are a starting point, not a rule. If tracking ever starts to make food feel stressful, stop counting and let the routine below do the work. It was built to hit these numbers without an app.
02Make it a routine
Eating similar food every day sounds boring, and some days it is. But it's the thing that makes everything else work. When the meals are fixed, you know your numbers are covered without checking, the shopping list never changes, cooking gets quicker every week because you've done it a hundred times, and there's no decision to make when you're tired and the takeaway app is right there.
It's the same idea as the Sunday reset: make the right thing the easy thing. The variety comes from the cheap parts, the carb, the seasoning and the sauce, which I'll come to. The structure stays the same.
Decide what you eat once,
not five times a day.
03The everyday plan
This is the day I eat, more or less, every day. It's built from five things:
- Breakfast: four eggs (three in the smallest size) with sourdough and avocado.
- A snack or pre-workout: a bowl of real Greek yoghurt or skyr (at least 8g of protein per 100g, so not Greek style) with oats, berries and a little honey. The 3,000 plan swaps it for a shake (milk, a scoop of protein, oats, peanut butter and a banana) and the 3,250 plan has both.
- Lunch: chicken and a carb, with veg.
- Dinner: beef or fish and a carb, with veg.
- In between: fruit, like kiwis, a banana and an orange, and veg with every main meal.
Pick the size closest to your calories from the calculator. Between sizes, the foods stay the same and only the amounts change: more rice and potatoes, more oats, a bigger portion of meat, then the shake.
| Meal | What's in it | Calories | Protein | Fibre | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 3 eggs, 2 slices of sourdough, a third of an avocado | 507 | 31g | 6g | 107p |
| Snack | 200g Greek yogurt, 30g oats, 80g frozen berries, 1 tsp honey | 274 | 24g | 5g | 108p |
| Lunch | 150g chicken breast, 100g rice (dry), 100g broccoli, 80g cherry tomatoes | 616 | 47g | 5g | 152p |
| Dinner | 150g 5% beef mince, 400g potatoes, 80g carrots, two handfuls of spinach | 596 | 43g | 12g | 218p |
| Fruit | 2 kiwis, a banana, an orange | 264 | 4g | 11g | 83p |
| Day | 2,257 | 149g | 39g | £6.68 |
| Meal | What's in it | Calories | Protein | Fibre | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs, 2 slices of sourdough, half an avocado | 617 | 39g | 7g | 136p |
| Snack | 250g Greek yogurt, 40g oats, 80g frozen berries, 2 tsp honey | 352 | 30g | 6g | 127p |
| Lunch | 175g chicken breast, 100g rice (dry), 100g broccoli, 80g cherry tomatoes | 643 | 53g | 5g | 167p |
| Dinner | 175g 5% beef mince, 400g potatoes, 80g carrots, two handfuls of spinach | 629 | 49g | 12g | 243p |
| Fruit | 2 kiwis, a banana, an orange | 264 | 4g | 11g | 83p |
| Day | 2,504 | 175g | 41g | £7.57 |
| Meal | What's in it | Calories | Protein | Fibre | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs, 2 slices of sourdough, half an avocado | 617 | 39g | 7g | 136p |
| Snack | 250g Greek yogurt, 50g oats, 80g frozen berries, 2 tsp honey | 387 | 31g | 7g | 128p |
| Lunch | 175g chicken breast, 120g rice (dry), 100g broccoli, 80g cherry tomatoes | 760 | 54g | 5g | 169p |
| Dinner | 175g 5% beef mince, 475g potatoes, 80g carrots, two handfuls of spinach | 731 | 50g | 14g | 249p |
| Fruit | 2 kiwis, a banana, an orange | 264 | 4g | 11g | 83p |
| Day | 2,759 | 179g | 44g | £7.66 |
| Meal | What's in it | Calories | Protein | Fibre | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs, 2 slices of sourdough, half an avocado | 617 | 39g | 7g | 136p |
| Snack | 300ml milk, a scoop of whey, 40g oats, 1 tbsp peanut butter, a banana | 615 | 44g | 8g | 144p |
| Lunch | 175g chicken breast, 120g rice (dry), 100g broccoli, 80g cherry tomatoes | 760 | 54g | 5g | 169p |
| Dinner | 175g 5% beef mince, 475g potatoes, 80g carrots, two handfuls of spinach | 731 | 50g | 14g | 249p |
| Fruit | 2 kiwis, a banana, an orange | 264 | 4g | 11g | 83p |
| Day | 2,987 | 192g | 45g | £7.82 |
| Meal | What's in it | Calories | Protein | Fibre | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 eggs, 2 slices of sourdough, half an avocado | 617 | 39g | 7g | 136p |
| Snacks | 250g Greek yogurt, 40g oats, 80g frozen berries, 2 tsp honey, 300ml milk, a scoop of whey, 40g oats, 1 tbsp peanut butter, a banana | 966 | 74g | 14g | 271p |
| Lunch | 175g chicken breast, 120g rice (dry), 100g broccoli, 80g cherry tomatoes | 760 | 54g | 5g | 169p |
| Dinner | 175g 5% beef mince, 475g potatoes, 80g carrots, two handfuls of spinach | 731 | 50g | 14g | 249p |
| Fruit | 2 kiwis, an orange | 157 | 3g | 8g | 67p |
| Day | 3,232 | 221g | 48g | £8.93 |
That's 2,759 calories, 179g of protein, 331g of carbs, 44g of fibre and 69g of fat, for £7.66 a day. The protein covers the 1.6 to 2.2g per kg range for anyone from about 81 to 112kg. Lunch and dinner clear 40g of protein in every size, and breakfast gets close to it from 2,500 up. Fat comes in a little under 30% of calories, which is fine; a drizzle more olive oil brings it up if you want it. If you sit between two sizes, pick the nearer one and adjust the rice.
Vitamins and minerals
Here's a week of the plan, averaged per day, against the reference values printed on UK food labels [19]. Every size clears all nine, most of them two or three times over. Vitamin D isn't on the list because food in the UK barely provides it: that comes from the sun, or in winter from a supplement, which I cover below.
Get protein in at breakfast
This is the one I see people miss most. If breakfast is avocado on toast or plain porridge, you've had maybe 10g of protein by lunchtime, and you're left trying to fit 130g into two meals. It's very hard to do, and it isn't the best way to use it either. My rule of thumb is 40g or more at every meal. The research points the same way: Brad Schoenfeld and Alan Aragon's review suggests spreading protein across at least four meals, at 0.4 to 0.55g per kg each [5]. For a 75kg person that's 30 to 41g a meal.
Four eggs on sourdough gets you to about 40g on its own. If you love porridge, keep it, but make it with milk and stir a scoop of protein powder in once it's cooked, which takes it from about 16g to about 40g. Avocado on toast on its own is a side, not a breakfast.
04Fruit and veg, and why
Protein gets all the attention, but the fruit and veg are where the vitamins, minerals and most of the fibre come from. A portion is 80g [6], and this plan gets in about ten a day without trying. These are the ones I'd build around, because they do the most for the money.
Fruit
- Kiwis. Two give you about 139mg of vitamin C, more than the 80mg reference you see on food labels, plus 4.5g of fibre. They're cheap and they keep for a week.
- Bananas. Potassium and quick carbs, which makes them the easiest pre-gym snack there is.
- Oranges and easy peelers. Vitamin C and fibre, and they last.
- Berries. Buy them frozen. They're a fraction of the price of fresh, they don't go off, and a study comparing frozen produce with fresh produce stored for five days found frozen held its vitamins at least as well, and often better [7].
Veg
- Broccoli. Fibre, folate and vitamin C. 100g has more vitamin C than an orange.
- Peppers. Weight for weight, a red pepper has more vitamin C than almost anything else you'll buy.
- Spinach. Folate, vitamin K and iron. It wilts into anything in about thirty seconds, so it's the easiest veg to add to a meal.
- Carrots. Beta-carotene, which your body turns into vitamin A, and about the cheapest veg in the shop.
- Cherry tomatoes. Something fresh on the side that needs no cooking at all.
- Frozen peas. More fibre and protein than most veg, and they cost almost nothing.
05Rotate your carbs
The carb is the easiest place to get variety without changing anything else. Keep the portion roughly the same and rotate between these:
- White rice. Quick, cheap and easy to digest before training. The only catch is food safety, which I'll come to in the cooking section.
- Potatoes. The cheapest portion of the lot. Keep the skins on for the fibre.
- Sweet potatoes. More fibre and loads of vitamin A, for a little more money.
- Homemade fries. Potatoes cut into chips, a spray of oil, salt and paprika, 25 minutes in the oven or air fryer. Same potato, much more satisfying, and nothing like the fat in chippy chips.
- Quinoa. More protein and fibre than rice, but the priciest per portion. Good once or twice a week.
- Pasta. Fine now and then. It's the most calorie-dense once cooked, so portions creep up without you noticing.
06Flavour for free
Eating the same thing every day only gets boring if it tastes the same every day. Seasoning and sauces cost pennies a portion and add almost no calories, so this is where the variety should come from.
Season the meat properly
Season the chicken and beef generously. A good starting rack: black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic granules, ground cumin, cayenne pepper and jerk seasoning, plus a little salt. With that much flavour from the spices you need much less salt, which matters, because adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day [8], and shop-bought jerk and fajita mixes often have salt in them already. Check the label.
A rub for 1kg of chicken (5 portions)
2 tsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp garlic granules · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp cayenne · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Mix, coat, roast at 200°C for 20 to 25 minutes, until the juices run clear and there's no pink in the middle.
Rotate the sauce
Then change the sauce. Plenty have almost no calories, and the ones that don't are worth knowing about:
Hot sauce, lemon juice, salsa, soy sauce and mustard are close to free. Ketchup and BBQ sauce are fine in a tablespoon, but they're mostly sugar if you pour. Mayonnaise is where the calories really hide: one tablespoon is about 100.
The same chicken, six ways
07Fish twice a week
Swap one or two of the meat meals for tuna, salmon or mackerel. It gets omega-3 into your diet, and the NHS advises at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, with a portion around 140g [9]. Salmon, mackerel and sardines count as oily. Tinned tuna doesn't, but it's the cheapest lean protein in the shop, so it still earns its place.
It solves a second problem too. The NHS advises that if you eat more than 90g of red or processed meat a day, you cut down to 70g or less, cooked weight [10]. That's about 490g a week. A portion of beef in this plan is 175g raw, about 130g once cooked, so beef every night would come to around 900g, nearly double. Three beef dinners, two oily fish and two chicken, with tuna for a couple of lunches, keeps you inside it without losing any protein.
08The weekly shop
Consistency makes shopping easy. When you eat the same things, you buy the same list, you know exactly what it costs, and nothing goes off at the back of the fridge. Here's the week for your size, priced at Aldi on 26 October 2026:
- Protein
- Chicken breast1.05kg£6.45
- 5% beef mince450g£4.54
- Free range eggs21£3.99
- Tuna in spring water4 tins£2.60
- Salmon fillet1 fillet£1.71
- Mackerel in tomato2 tins£2.18
- Dairy and grains
- Greek yogurt 0%1.40kg£5.17
- Sourdough560g£1.78
- Porridge oats210g£0.18
- Long grain rice800g£1.00
- Potatoes
- Baking potatoes2kg£1.59
- Sweet potatoes400g£0.48
- Fruit
- Kiwis14£2.78
- Bananas7£1.09
- Oranges7£1.95
- Frozen summer fruits560g£2.23
- Avocados2.5£1.74
- Veg
- Broccoli700g£1.67
- Cherry tomatoes560g£1.61
- Carrots560g£0.49
- Baby spinach420g£1.91
What the week uses. Packs that last longer, like oats, rice and whey, are costed for the week's share. Olive oil, honey and spices come from the cupboard.
- Protein
- Chicken breast1.23kg£7.53
- 5% beef mince525g£5.30
- Free range eggs28£5.32
- Tuna in spring water4 tins£2.60
- Salmon fillet1 fillet£1.71
- Mackerel in tomato2 tins£2.18
- Dairy and grains
- Greek yogurt 0%1.75kg£6.46
- Sourdough560g£1.78
- Porridge oats280g£0.24
- Long grain rice800g£1.00
- Potatoes
- Baking potatoes2kg£1.59
- Sweet potatoes400g£0.48
- Fruit
- Kiwis14£2.78
- Bananas7£1.09
- Oranges7£1.95
- Frozen summer fruits560g£2.23
- Avocados3.5£2.43
- Veg
- Broccoli700g£1.67
- Cherry tomatoes560g£1.61
- Carrots560g£0.49
- Baby spinach420g£1.91
What the week uses. Packs that last longer, like oats, rice and whey, are costed for the week's share. Olive oil, honey and spices come from the cupboard.
- Protein
- Chicken breast1.23kg£7.53
- 5% beef mince525g£5.30
- Free range eggs28£5.32
- Tuna in spring water4 tins£2.60
- Salmon fillet1 fillet£1.71
- Mackerel in tomato2 tins£2.18
- Dairy and grains
- Greek yogurt 0%1.75kg£6.46
- Sourdough560g£1.78
- Porridge oats350g£0.30
- Long grain rice960g£1.20
- Potatoes
- Baking potatoes2.38kg£1.89
- Sweet potatoes475g£0.57
- Fruit
- Kiwis14£2.78
- Bananas7£1.09
- Oranges7£1.95
- Frozen summer fruits560g£2.23
- Avocados3.5£2.43
- Veg
- Broccoli700g£1.67
- Cherry tomatoes560g£1.61
- Carrots560g£0.49
- Baby spinach420g£1.91
What the week uses. Packs that last longer, like oats, rice and whey, are costed for the week's share. Olive oil, honey and spices come from the cupboard.
- Protein
- Chicken breast1.23kg£7.53
- 5% beef mince525g£5.30
- Free range eggs28£5.32
- Tuna in spring water4 tins£2.60
- Salmon fillet1 fillet£1.71
- Mackerel in tomato2 tins£2.18
- Whey protein210g£6.93
- Dairy and grains
- Semi skimmed milk2.1L£1.53
- Sourdough560g£1.78
- Porridge oats280g£0.24
- Long grain rice960g£1.20
- Peanut butter105g£0.29
- Potatoes
- Baking potatoes2.38kg£1.89
- Sweet potatoes475g£0.57
- Fruit
- Kiwis14£2.78
- Bananas14£2.18
- Oranges7£1.95
- Avocados3.5£2.43
- Veg
- Broccoli700g£1.67
- Cherry tomatoes560g£1.61
- Carrots560g£0.49
- Baby spinach420g£1.91
What the week uses. Packs that last longer, like oats, rice and whey, are costed for the week's share. Olive oil, honey and spices come from the cupboard.
- Protein
- Chicken breast1.23kg£7.53
- 5% beef mince525g£5.30
- Free range eggs28£5.32
- Tuna in spring water4 tins£2.60
- Salmon fillet1 fillet£1.71
- Mackerel in tomato2 tins£2.18
- Whey protein210g£6.93
- Dairy and grains
- Greek yogurt 0%1.75kg£6.46
- Semi skimmed milk2.1L£1.53
- Sourdough560g£1.78
- Porridge oats560g£0.48
- Long grain rice960g£1.20
- Peanut butter105g£0.29
- Potatoes
- Baking potatoes2.38kg£1.89
- Sweet potatoes475g£0.57
- Fruit
- Kiwis14£2.78
- Bananas7£1.09
- Oranges7£1.95
- Frozen summer fruits560g£2.23
- Avocados3.5£2.43
- Veg
- Broccoli700g£1.67
- Cherry tomatoes560g£1.61
- Carrots560g£0.49
- Baby spinach420g£1.91
What the week uses. Packs that last longer, like oats, rice and whey, are costed for the week's share. Olive oil, honey and spices come from the cupboard.
That's £52.99 a week, or £7.57 a day, for 2,802 calories and 179g of protein on an average day. Over a month it's £230. The average student spends £155 a month on groceries and £45 on takeaways [1], so set that against what you spend now, remembering this covers every meal and you never need the takeaway.
Spend less
If that's still too much, these five swaps barely touch the protein:
- Avocado three days a week, not seven.
- One kiwi and two bananas instead of two kiwis and an orange.
- Frozen broccoli instead of fresh.
- Frozen peas instead of fresh spinach.
- Beef twice a week, with chicken instead of the third.
Together they take £6.39 off the week, bringing it to £46.60.
Pick the supermarket
Where you shop makes a real difference. In Which?'s September 2026 comparison of 93 everyday items, Aldi came to £159.48 and Lidl £161.48, against £187.71 at Tesco with a Clubcard and £188.95 at Sainsbury's with Nectar [11]. That's about 15% less for the same basket. If there's no Aldi or Lidl near you, the same list will cost more, but the habits below still bring it down.
Protein per pound
If you're on a budget and want to hit a protein target, the useful number isn't the price on the shelf. It's how much protein each pound buys you.
Milk, frozen peas, eggs, chicken and tinned tuna all give you about 40g or more of protein for every pound. Greek yogurt gives 27g, which is why the bowl uses real Greek yogurt rather than the cheaper Greek style: the Greek style has about 6g of protein per 100g against nearly 10g. Beef, salmon and mackerel cost two or three times as much per gram, which is why they're the ones to ration, not the chicken. Pack size matters as well: the 2kg bag of chicken gives 39g per pound, against 36g for the 1kg bag. Oats (133g) and peanut butter (91g) look better still, but they come with a lot of carbs and fat, so they don't count as your protein.
Check the pack covers the week
Before you put a pack in the trolley, check it actually covers your meals. Take the protein per 100g on the label, multiply it by the pack's weight, then divide by the number of meals it has to cover. Aim for 40g or more a meal.
Chicken breast, 2kg: 24g × 20 = 480g of protein. ÷ 7 = 69g a day, so one chicken meal a day at 40g+ with some to spare
Beef mince 5%, 500g: 21.6g × 5 = 108g. ÷ 3 dinners = 36g each, plus about 10g from the potatoes and veg: just over 40
Eggs, 2 × 15: 14.1g × 16.5 = 233g. ÷ 7 = 33g a day, plus 7g from the sourdough: 40
Let an AI do the comparison
Once your list is fixed, you only have to compare it properly once. Paste it into an AI assistant and ask it to do the sums for you. Something like this:
"Here's my weekly shop, with quantities. For each item, find the cheapest own-brand version at Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury's, give me the price per kg and the protein per pound, and total the basket at each. Then tell me which items to buy where if I'm only doing one shop."
Check anything surprising against the supermarket's app before you trust it, because prices change and assistants get them wrong. Then a few habits that save more than any comparison:
- Read the price per kg on the shelf label, not the pack price. Bigger packs of chicken and mince are often far cheaper per kg. Freeze what you won't use.
- Buy frozen for berries, veg, fish and even chicken. Same nutrition, less waste.
- Use the loyalty apps where you shop, like Lidl Plus and Clubcard. They're part of how those prices above are reached.
- Look for yellow stickers on meat near its use-by date, and freeze it the same day.
- Buy own-brand for anything that's one ingredient: oats, rice, tins, frozen veg.
09Cook in bulk
Cooking every meal from scratch is what kills most plans. Cook in batches instead, and the work for the week takes two sessions. Invest in decent containers first: about ten glass ones with clip lids, that go in the microwave and the freezer. Cheap plastic ones stain, crack and leak in your bag. Write the date on the lid with a marker.
Then cook twice a week and use the freezer for the rest. The rules for keeping it safe are simple, and they come from the Food Standards Agency's guide for students [12]:
- Cool it fast. Get cooked food into the fridge or freezer within one to two hours.
- Two days in the fridge. Batch-cooked food should be eaten within two days. Freeze anything you won't eat by then.
- Rice is the exception. Cool it within an hour, keep it in the fridge for no more than a day, and only reheat it once. So cook rice every day or two, not on Sunday for the week.
- Defrost in the fridge, never on the side, and eat it within 24 hours of defrosting.
- Reheat until it's steaming hot all the way through, and only once.
The simplest way to run it: on Sunday, cook enough chicken and beef for Monday and Tuesday, and freeze Wednesday's. On Tuesday night, move Wednesday's into the fridge. On Wednesday, cook again for Thursday and Friday and freeze Saturday's. Potatoes, sweet potatoes and quinoa keep the two days with the meat. Rice and fries you make fresh, which takes 12 and 25 minutes.
10Make it easy to eat it all
The plan is a lot of food, and the hardest part for most people isn't buying or cooking it. It's fitting it in.
Wake up earlier
This is the best tip I have. If you get up at 7, you've got over twelve hours to fit five meals in, and they spread out naturally at about three-hour gaps. Get up at half ten and the same food gets crammed into less time, so you're still full from lunch when it's time for dinner, and the last meal gets skipped.
Train, and expect to be hungrier
Exercising regularly will make you hungrier, because you're burning more. That's a good thing: it makes the plan easier to eat, and it's the reason the targets go up with your training. On days when you're struggling, drink some of it. The shake is about 610 calories and takes two minutes, and liquid calories are much easier to get down than another plate.
11Supplements
Food first. Supplements fill gaps; they don't replace the plan. But a few are worth it, and they're cheap.
- Creatine monohydrate: take it every day. It's the most researched supplement there is. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends 3 to 5g a day, and found no compelling evidence of harm in healthy people, even over years [13]. You don't need to load it: 3 to 5g a day fills your muscles in three to four weeks. Plain, unflavoured monohydrate is all you need: a 250g tub lasts 50 days, about £5 to £10 a month depending on the sale.
- Vitamin D: October to March. In the UK there isn't enough sunlight in autumn and winter for your skin to make it, so the NHS advises everyone to consider 10 micrograms a day over those months [14]. It costs about a pound or two a month. Don't take more than 100 micrograms a day.
- Omega-3: only if you don't eat oily fish. If you follow the fish section, you don't need it.
- Protein powder: food, not magic. It's just a quick source of protein. At about 24g per pound it isn't even the cheapest: milk, eggs, chicken and tuna all beat it. Use it when it helps you hit your number, like the shake on a busy day; skip it if your meals already do.
If you take any medication or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or your GP before starting anything new.
12What else to get right
- Drink enough. The NHS suggests 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day [15], and more when you train. A big bottle on your desk does most of the work.
- Watch the drinks on a night out. A pint of 5% lager can be up to 222 calories and a 175ml glass of wine up to 158 [16]. Four pints is close to a whole extra meal, and a cheesy chips on the way home is the meal after that.
- Measure the oil. A tablespoon of olive oil is about 120 calories. Use a spray, or measure it with a spoon instead of pouring.
- Don't wash raw chicken. It splashes bacteria around the sink and the worktop. Cooking it properly kills them, and the Food Standards Agency says not to wash it [17]. Use a separate board for raw meat.
- Label your food in a shared fridge. Name and date on every container saves a lot of arguments, and a lot of lost chicken.
13The playbook
Everything above on one A4 page, for the size you've picked: the week's meals, the shopping list with prices and quantities, and the cooking rhythm. Print it, stick it on the fridge, and take a photo of the list for the shop.
14How Ritual helps
A plan like this lives or dies on doing the same few things every day and every week. That's what Ritual is built for. The protein breakfast, the creatine and the fruit become habits you tick off each day, the weekly shop and the two cooking sessions go on your calendar as blocks, and meals sit there as placeholders so you never plan work over dinner. Every habit you keep moves your own share price, so a week of eating properly shows up as a number.
- Daily habits for the things that make the plan work
- The weekly shop and cooking sessions as tasks with a time
- Meals held on your calendar as placeholders
Ritual is in beta. Join the waitlist and you'll hear first when places open.
15Questions
01How much should a student spend on food a week?
The average student spends £155 a month on groceries, about £36 a week, plus £45 a month on takeaways and eating out. A high-protein plan built around eggs, chicken, mince, fish, rice, potatoes and fruit and veg costs from £47.14 at 2,250 calories a day to £61.92 at 3,250 a week at Aldi, and about £6 less with a few swaps.
02How much protein do I need if I go to the gym?
About 1.6 to 2.2g per kg of body weight a day. A large meta-analysis found extra protein stopped adding muscle at around 1.6g per kg, so that is a sensible floor. For a 75kg person that is 120 to 165g a day. Spread it out: aim for 40g or more at each main meal.
03What is the cheapest source of protein?
Per pound spent, semi skimmed milk, frozen peas, eggs, chicken breast in a large pack and tinned tuna all give about 40g of protein or more at Aldi. Beef mince, salmon and mackerel give roughly half that.
04Is it safe to meal prep for the whole week?
Not in the fridge. The Food Standards Agency advises eating batch-cooked food within two days, and cooked rice within a day. Cook twice a week, freeze the portions for the third day, and defrost them in the fridge the night before.
05Do I need to count calories?
No. Work your numbers out once so you know roughly what you need, then build a routine that hits them. After that the routine does the counting for you. If tracking starts to feel stressful, stop.
06Which supplements should a student take?
Creatine monohydrate, 3 to 5g a day, if you train. Vitamin D, 10 micrograms a day from October to March, which the NHS advises everyone in the UK to consider. Omega-3 only if you never eat oily fish, and protein powder only if it helps you reach your protein target.
16Sources
All accessed 26 October 2026. Prices are Aldi's own-brand prices online on that date and change often; fruit and veg nutrition is from USDA FoodData Central, everything else from the product labels.
- Save the Student, "Student living costs in the UK 2026" (National Student Money Survey 2026)
- Frankenfield, Roth-Yousey and Compher, "Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review", Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2005)
- Morton et al., "A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults", British Journal of Sports Medicine (2018)
- Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, "Carbohydrates and Health" (2015)
- Schoenfeld and Aragon, "How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Implications for daily protein distribution", Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2018)
- NHS, "8 tips for healthy eating"
- Li et al., "Selected nutrient analyses of fresh, fresh-stored, and frozen fruits and vegetables", Journal of Food Composition and Analysis (2017)
- NHS, "Salt in your diet"
- NHS, "Fish and shellfish"
- NHS, "Red meat and the risk of bowel cancer"
- Which?, "Aldi crowned the UK's cheapest supermarket in September" (5 October 2026)
- Food Standards Agency, "Student guide to food safety and hygiene"
- Kreider et al., "International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine", Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2017)
- NHS, "Vitamin D"
- NHS, "Water, drinks and hydration"
- NHS, "Calories in alcohol"
- Quadram Institute (then the Institute of Food Research), "Don't wash raw chicken", on the Food Standards Agency's Food Safety Week campaign
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (Standard Reference, release 28): fruit and veg, cooked carbs, sauces, and the vitamins and minerals for every food
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 as retained in UK law, Annex XIII: reference intakes and nutrient reference values for food labels
- NHS, "Overweight and obesity in adults"
- Food illustrations: Microsoft Fluent Emoji, flat style (MIT licence)
Something here out of date, or a question the guide doesn't answer? Email hello@getritual.app. More in Guides.