Hey Reader!

In the 134th issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:

• Recipes for my Nashville Hot Honey Chicken Crunch Wrap and Fruity Pebble Protein Cheesecake Frosting!
• What's my body fat %, and is it sustainable? Here's the truth...
• The surprising timeline of pineapples (and an 18lb one that is bigger than a baby)...
• 300 calories of carbs vs 300 calories of fats (surprising difference)...

Preheat your ovens…

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Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️

Nashville Hot Honey Chicken Crunch Wrap Nashville Style without the Nashville Style Calories! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​​​Nashville Hot Honey Chicken Crunch Wrap.pdf​

Fruity Pebble Protein Cheesecake Frosting A great 2 minute high protein dessert meal prep! ​​Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself:​ ​​​Fruity Pebble Protein Cheesecake Frosting.pdf​

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Recipe Recreations Of The Week 🤌

Protein Pancakes recipe will transform your breakfast 🥞

Macros for each 10-12in Protein Pancake:
​320 Cals, 40g Carbs, 4g Fat, 31g Protein

Here's the recipe and video:​
👉 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYr6KnyFPok/?igsh=MXgzeHh3Mm5vcXF2cQ==​

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This Week's Flavor 🎥

199 Cal Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Dipping Burritos Dipping burritos are so clutch for meal prep. And these are only 199 Cals with 24g protein! ​Here are the recipes and video.​

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Zach's Beats 🎧

I was moving this past week and was listening to the true goated genre of mashups 🤠 ​Down Under Country Vol. 6​

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One FAQ ❓

Answer: This is a great question.

My answer is yes, it’s easy now, but it wasn’t always that way.

Let me explain how I got here.

What body fat % do I maintain?

If I had to guess, I'm sitting around 13% right now.

For context, I've been as low as 6% and as high as 25% over the years.

And what I've learned about MY body is that anything below 10% and I get cranky, I'm thinking about food constantly, and it's just not a fun way to live lol.

My sweet spot is 12-14%.

That's the range where I look how I want to look, I feel good, my energy's high, and (this is the key part) I can stay here without really trying that hard.

Is it sustainable? Here's the proof.

I'll be totally honest with you...

I’ve been slammed with moving into my place and the new filming studio so I haven’t had a single workout in 3 weeks.

And I'm still sitting around that 12-14%.

I'm telling you this not to flex but to make a point.

I'm not grinding myself into the ground to maintain this.

I'm not doing two-a-days.

I'm not eating 1,200 calories.

I just keep my macros in the back of my mind each day, I hit my protein, and I stay pretty consistent with the food I love.

That's it.

The body kind of takes care of itself when your nutrition is dialed in and your maintenance is genuinely maintainable.

That's the whole reason I preach sustainability so hard.

A body fat % you can only hold by suffering isn't your real maintenance, it's a temporary peak.

Your TRUE sustainable range is the one you can hold even during a busy month where life gets in the way and you miss some workouts.

Do I ever feel unnecessarily hungry?

At 12-14%? Not really.

Because I'm eating enough, I'm prioritizing protein and volume, and I'm eating food I actually enjoy so I'm satisfied.

When I've cut down toward that 6-8% range? Absolutely.

That's when the constant hunger kicks in, and honestly, that's my body telling me "hey man, this isn't where we're supposed to live."

That hunger is information.

My body signaling my caveman brain to eat something.

And regarding your cut, you have the right idea.

That 300-500 calorie deficit is the move.

A slower cut is going to serve you way better than trying to rush it.

You keep more muscle, your hunger stays more manageable, and you're way less likely to rebound hard when you're done.

And here's the biggest thing I'd tell you:

Don't chase the lowest number.

Chase the number you can HOLD.

Get down to a body fat % where you like what you see AND you're not struggling every day.

That's your real goal.

The lowest you can get to for a photo means nothing if you can't live there.

Cut slow, hit your protein, eat food you love, and find the range where looking good and living good overlap.

You've got this 🤝

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Weird Food Fact 🤓

Imagine deciding you want to plant your own pineapples at home.

You head to the store, grab a fresh pineapple, slice off the crown, carefully plant it, and proudly mark your calendar.

In just a few weeks, you'll be eating fresh pineapple, right?

Wrong. So, so wrong.

Turns out growing pineapples isn’t a weekend DIY gardening project.

From planting to harvest, pineapples take their sweet time (literally), often taking over two full years to reach their full potential.

Imagine waiting two birthdays, two Thanksgiving feasts, and enduring two full football seasons before tasting the fruit of your labor.

But the craziest pineapple story I've heard comes from Australia, where a family decided to test just how big their homegrown pineapple could get.

After a few years of dedicated gardening (and probably daily pep talks to their pineapple plant) they harvested a monster fruit weighing a jaw-dropping 18.25 pounds.

So next time you're casually tossing pineapple chunks into your smoothie or onto your pizza (no judgment here), pause for a second.

Each juicy, golden bite is the culmination of literal years of waiting 🙌

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Serving Surprise 😮

When I hear someone say “carbs make you fat,” I immediately think:

“Well I don't know about that.”

This visual is a great representation of that.

Fat sources are naturally much more dense in calories.

9 calories per 1 gram of fat.
4 calories per 1 gram of carbs.

So that means, for every gram, carbs are less than half the calories as fats.

Let's compare the two:

Which do you think is easier to overeat on?

This is not to demonize fats (you should know by now that I love me some balanced macros).

We should be eating protein.
We should be eating fats.
We should be eating carbs.

They all serve their purpose.

They make up a dream team for optimal health, body composition, and performance (which is what we're after).

It's just something to look out for!

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People like us don’t follow diets.

We break them.

We don’t trade joy for results.

We cook food that fuels us and actually tastes amazing.

We flip cravings into victories.

And we treat every meal like an opportunity (not an annoying math problem).

Because eating better should feel like a flex!

Not a punishment.

Just some food for thought (ba dum tss 😆).

Much love and happy cooking,
​Zach