How to design your weekly meal plan to meet your daily goals?

PlanningBea

Everyone talks about how to meal plan and meal prep, but no one tells you how to make sure, that the meals you worked so hard to plan for the week will actually add up to your daily goals.

I might be overthinking, but it's very frustrating, because it makes my progress almost non existent. I put a lot of effort into planning meals that would work for me and my partner, who's rather picky eater. I go shopping with a list and buy only what I planned for and prep my lunches for the week. I enter all my information for the day the night before and only then it gets blandly obvious that my calories intake will be too high or I'll overeat on carbs/fat and have not enough protein.
I know I can adjust some things by changing the meals, but then what's the point of planning your menu if you need to figure something else out and probably go shopping again?

How do you make sure whatever you planned for the week, will work out for your daily goals? Do you enter all your meals for the week before you go shopping? What's your secret?

livingleanlivingclean

You plan your meals on mfp before going to the shops.

Work out what you want to eat, make it fit your calories/macros, then shop!

Lounmoun

If you are planning all of your meals for the week why not log them while you plan? Or note the calorie, protein, etc of foods you typically eat so when you plan you can see how the numbers add up?
Are you eat something different every day for every meal? Maybe less variety for some meals would help.

I plan dinners in advance for the month but shop once a week. Most recipes I use fit my typical 500 calorie dinners.
I don't plan other meals in advance but usually have an idea what I will be eating. I do not prep food for the week in advance.
I usually try to have some protein at every meal.
I have dinner leftovers, sandwich, some fruit or salad for lunches typically. Pretty much the same calorie count each time. If dinner is higher calorie then lunch adjusts down a bit.
Breakfast is usually yogurt, cottage cheese, sandwich, granola bar, or fruit. Pretty much the same calorie count each time.
I prelog my day every morning starting with dinner, lunch, breakfast and then snacks with whatever calories are left. I look at calories and protein. The rest takes care of itself IME.

You don't have to hit your nutrition goals exactly. They are recommendations.

PlanningBea

Fair enough. Thank you for your suggestions.
I think I'm just being overly paranoid about getting ever single calorie recorded. I mean, even if you don't follow a recipe to a T, the approximate calorific value is logged, so it does't really matter if you're 50 cal up or down at the end of the day, as long as you're in your range.

darbunk

I find the recipe builder very helpful. Once you put in all the ingredients and their amounts, it will tell you how many calories a serving is. I don't pay attention to the macros very much, but I believe it will break this down for you as well. Use this tool as you are planning your meals and before you go shopping.

comeonnow142857

Plan a few core meals within my caloric goals (or to establish a baseline of nutrition lower than my calorie goals), than replace/fill in with equivalent calories when I feel like having something else. Each time I do this with a new food, I log it.

MFP is great for this because after a few weeks I've plugged in enough varied foods that I can just click something into a daily plan before I buy/eat it, and know exactly what I can replace it with and where I'll be without any thinking effort.

There's no need to spend a lot of time planning meals that end up constantly going over calorie limits... planning and prepping meals before you figure out their calories? that's not planning/prepping in the context of calorie control at all, that's majoring in minor details, planning and prepping all the most irrelevant things for whatever reasons, and somehow overlooking the main goal.

Plan a meal that fits your calories (and protein). Keep this within sight and any rabbit holes of overthinking will fall into obvious irrelevancy.

For 90%+ of meals that takes me about 2 minutes, thanks to MFP's logging system.

comeonnow142857

PlanningBea wrote: »

I know I can adjust some things by changing the meals, but then what's the point of planning your menu if you need to figure something else out and probably go shopping again?

How do you make sure whatever you planned for the week, will work out for your daily goals? Do you enter all your meals for the week before you go shopping? What's your secret?

Or the TLDR answer:

There isn't a point to doing that, that's a simple failure to plan. Figure out what your menu needs re: daily goals while you're planning it. Not after.

lemurcat12

PlanningBea wrote: »

How do you make sure whatever you planned for the week, will work out for your daily goals? Do you enter all your meals for the week before you go shopping? What's your secret?

I don't plan to such a detailed level (it would drive me mad), but I have a good sense of what meets my goals: basically a template for meals (protein, vegetables, starch) that will hit particular calorie targets, roughly, and my protein targets. If I need to switch it up (high cal, low protein lunch out that was unexpected), I know how to do it on the fly: larger serving of the lean protein, lots of vegetables, save calories by skipping the starch and skimping on the fat).

Understanding this, which you get from experience or just playing around with logging hypothetical meals for a while, can be helpful and make it easy.

What I tend to do now is have a general idea of the protein I will use and the type of meal/starch (pasta dish, stir fry, roasted potato, pork chop with a sauce involving apples), and then use what I have on hand. This is how I learned to make sure I used up my perishables on time (produce, basically) vs. having to go out and buy things specifically for a meal and then buy more if I change it up, which never worked for me.

Now I tend to have frozen meat in the freezer (I get it from a local farm) so take that out ahead of time -- main planning. I have most starch components on hand -- potatoes, sweet potatoes, various grains, rice, pasta, beans (if you do something with dried beans, of course, that needs to be planned ahead, but lentils are easy and can be on the fly). So my weekly shopping tends to be getting the vegetables that look good and perhaps are on special (and in season getting a box from a farm that I've gotten good at using up).

fitbethlin

I plan the heck out of my week. I just log everything in advance. I use the recipe builder and then adjust where I need to. Carbs too high on something? I look to replace tortillas with low-carb versions or lettuce wraps. Protein not high enough? I add in a protein shake later in the day.

I also have a husband who knows that he can either eat what I cook or cook his own. Mostly, he cooks his own. That helps a lot.

Other than the fact that you are planning meals around someone with different goals than your own (the partner whose goal is to work around his/her tastes rather than your goal to work around your weight loss), I'm not really sure what you are doing to plan meals.

I also have a few go-to meals that the hubs likes and that I know fit in my calorie/macro restrictions. Sometimes he gets a double portion of rice or pasta and I eat less, or he gets a larger, fattier cut of steak, etc. Once you figure out a small stable of go-to meals, you'll be able to experiment with one or two new ones every week and not be so overwhelmed. It's definitely harder in the beginning when you are still figuring all that out! You might ask around in another thread for recipe ideas - tell everyone what your restrictions are (my partner won't eat vegetables and hates chicken, I need 350 cals, can't take more than 30 minutes from prep to eating, etc), then see if you can crowd source the work of coming up with some ideas instead of having to do it all on your own.

Another suggestion that may or may not help: check out onceamonthmeals.com . I paid the money and used the hell out of that method when I was doing fertility treatment a few years ago. I didn't have the time or energy for weekly meal planning and taking one weekend a month to do almost everything was a godsend.

It WILL get easier. The first steps are definitely the hardest.

JustTrackinIt

Keep logging your meals and if you can make a meal plan for the next day with what you ate today, and begin substituting healthier choices. you need to figure out yoru calorie intake per your activity level (training or non training days). You should know the macros you are trying to hit protein/carb/fat percentages. I reference the bodybuilding stickies in the nutrition forums it is very useful https://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13

StarBrightStarBright

ooh- I love meal planning! It is the key to keeping my entire life going I have a husband with insanely awesome metabolism and two small children and I am only willing to cook one meal a night. I've built up a collection of recipes that I know my family likes and I have work-arounds to keep within my daily targets. But really portion size is key.

For instance DH might get double portions of everything , my kids will get appropriate kid-sized portions and I might take a half portion of the highest calorie thing but then fill up the rest of my plate with a double portion of veggies. That way our entire family has the exact same foods on their plates but in ratios that work best for us all.

I'm lucky that my DH is not picky at all and my kids are actually quite healthy eaters for small children.

I also pre-log my dinners in the morning and adjust my lunch around my dinner.

lindafit4life21

Love all the information everyone put on here . Thank you

MelanieCN77

Over time you'll get a much better ability to ballpark your idea of a meal without looking things up. Until then you can use the database and make notes as your meals add up. If you eat a lot of the same things it'll sink in faster, too. One thing I've found is that of the good, fresh calorie dense food items I can't really ever have a traditionally composed plate that has the protein, the starch and the veg. Like, I can have veggies, and I can have a potato OR a good portion of protein OR a white roll OR white rice. I can't have rice and beans, or rice and meat, or bread and meat, one of the two just can't make it on the plate. Last night I had rice and veggie curry. If I had put chicken or ground turkey in it, I would have ditched the rice.

JeromeBarry1

I don't get particularly obsessive about variety and goals. One goal I have is protein. I want a lot. Another goal I have is fiber. I want enough. I figured out a few ways to satisfy both goals and just repeat.

PlanningBea

So many great ideas and advice! Thank you for all your suggestions.

annacole94

My biggest change is to skip the carby side a lot of the time. Used to be, I'd eat salmon and veggies with rice. Now, I just eat the salmon and veggies. I'm NOT low carb, but honestly, the bland carb is often the thing I can drop or cut in half without missing it too much. I'll also do main-course salads for the same reason - throw the chicken or salmon or steak on a salad (or beside a salad) rather than with rice/potato/pasta.

Once you know what's off balance in your favorite recipes, you get better at adjusting them. I automatically cut fats where I can (1 T of oil instead of 2), sub low-fat dairy, stuff like that.

annacole94

And yes: pick your metrics. Your calorie goal is the most important. Then pick 1 or 2 other things to worry about (maybe protein, or carbs, or fiber). Don't worry about hitting it all perfectly. I eat for my calories, and then try to get enough fiber. That's it. It works for me.

fitmom4lifemfp

Like some others said, I don't obsess over macros. I keep protein as a priority, try to not go overboard on fats, and try to get something green in every now and then. Other than that, I just stay within my budget.

stealthq

lemurcat12 wrote: »

PlanningBea wrote: »

How do you make sure whatever you planned for the week, will work out for your daily goals? Do you enter all your meals for the week before you go shopping? What's your secret?

I don't plan to such a detailed level (it would drive me mad), but I have a good sense of what meets my goals: basically a template for meals (protein, vegetables, starch) that will hit particular calorie targets, roughly, and my protein targets. If I need to switch it up (high cal, low protein lunch out that was unexpected), I know how to do it on the fly: larger serving of the lean protein, lots of vegetables, save calories by skipping the starch and skimping on the fat).

Understanding this, which you get from experience or just playing around with logging hypothetical meals for a while, can be helpful and make it easy.

What I tend to do now is have a general idea of the protein I will use and the type of meal/starch (pasta dish, stir fry, roasted potato, pork chop with a sauce involving apples), and then use what I have on hand. This is how I learned to make sure I used up my perishables on time (produce, basically) vs. having to go out and buy things specifically for a meal and then buy more if I change it up, which never worked for me.

Now I tend to have frozen meat in the freezer (I get it from a local farm) so take that out ahead of time -- main planning. I have most starch components on hand -- potatoes, sweet potatoes, various grains, rice, pasta, beans (if you do something with dried beans, of course, that needs to be planned ahead, but lentils are easy and can be on the fly). So my weekly shopping tends to be getting the vegetables that look good and perhaps are on special (and in season getting a box from a farm that I've gotten good at using up).

Yes, exactly.

In addition, when I make a recipe I know I like, I usually make it in bulk and freeze the extra so if what I always have the option of a couple of pre-made meals from which to choose - just in case I'm not feeling what I'd planned for the day.

I usually have something low-cal and protein-heavy like chicken chili verde that I can eat as a stand alone stew, as an enchilada filling, or with rice or beans. Then I'll have something more indulgent for when I have more calories left over - perhaps a lamb tagine or pulled pork.

nowine4me

I have three options for each meal and for snacks that each work within my macros for that meal. I just pick one from column A, B and C each day. Dinners have a bit more variety, but you get the idea.

olivbp

I took out some good books on nutrition, dietetics etc. from the library. They included meal plans, recipes and I tried all of them. I wrote a program for excel to count my daily calorie, carb, fat and protein intake and I put a nutrition list on the fridge.

deannalfisher

I eat roughly the same thing on a fairly regular basis - yogurt in the am, lunch is chicken breast and veggie; even bowl of cereal ad then I just tweak other stuff to fit my macros for the day

my recommendation is focus on one thing (i.e. protein) to start off and plan your week for that - pick 1-2 meats that you want to use (chicken, turkey, pork, steak etc) and plan your meals using those

inertiastrength

I'm a creature of habit so my shopping list is simple
English muffins
Garlic toast
Chicken breast
Pork loin
Big bag of frozen veggies
Laughing cow cheese
Salad and it's ingredients
Kirkland protein bars

That's pretty much all I ever eat and I know how to juggle my day flawlessly after a few weeks lol

Ocean_Breezy

Trial and error. I use the app and log everything so that I know I'm within my range. Before you go shopping try to use everything in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Throw a meal together and portion it out into containers.