Do you plan your meals out before or eat what you fancy?

Ducks47

I’m curious what other people do. I usually plan it out and the change it last minute based upon what I’d prefer (within calories) Do you decide before that on Tuesday, for example, you’re having raisin oatmeal, turkey sandwich, and chicken and veg or do you decide the day of and just eat within your calories?

deannalfisher

But if both...I prep lunch and breakfast but all my snacks and dinner are what looks good

FL_Hiker

I plan out my main meals a week in advance, and then fill in the rest of the calories with snacks and sweets the day of. I’m a bit OCD so I like being organized, plus it helps us from wasting leftovers.

whatalazyidiot

I semi plan it out. I choose what I want for the week before grocery shopping, then I log my MFP a few days in advance. But if I change my mind, I will just log something different. I'm not too picky about it as long as it's still within my calories.

AnnPT77

Not a planner. I'm whim oriented.

At this point, I have some standard breakfasts, but almost everything else is decided when I'm fixing the meal. If I know I have enough wiggle room, I'll even cook/eat/log, in that order (I note foods/weights while I cook on a junk-mail envelope). I did a little more pre-logging right before cooking the meals when I was first losing, until I got the hang of things.

Many people find pre-logging helpful, but this really a personal style/personal preference question.

JBanx256

Especially with my work schedule, it's highly beneficial to me to plan out meals ahead of time. I'll meal prep once or twice during the week for the next few days of work etc. I have a little bit of wiggle room so when I'm off work and have the opportunity to eat dinner with my family I don't have to be as strict.

lemurcat2

Mix. I will have a basic breakfast that I eat for weeks at a time. Right now it's a 2 egg omelet with veg and feta, but the veg changes based on what I have on hand and what sounds good. Sometimes I have berries or some other fruit or cottage cheese with it.

Lunch is sometimes pre prepped, sometimes leftovers, sometimes I buy it (there are several good options that meet my requirements for calories, protein, and veg near my office). For example, I had steak tonight, and lunch tomorrow will be leftover steak plus some veg I'll cook in the morning when I'm cooking breakfast and perhaps some fruit.

Dinner is usually based on some protein that I've pulled out of the freezer or purchased (usually I have a couple of options), whatever veg and (sometimes) starches I have at home, how much time I have, and whim. I'm pretty used to cooking, though, and confident in my ability to figure stuff out based on available ingredients, and spent a lot of time learning how to use up a CSA box, so that doesn't mean that more planning might not be useful to you. Right now I find that trying to preplan too much makes me not interested, so I usually decide the specifics of what to make during the day or on my way home from work.

I don't prelog, but I can pretty much hit a calorie target when cooking, since I've got experience and know well what calories different foods and amounts have.

I dislike snacking, so that simplifies it.

aokoye

Yes and no. My breakfasts tend to be pre-logged because they're just so predictable. Lunch and dinner are really dependent on how far in advance I know what I'm going to eat and whether or not it's something I still have to cook. Either way, nothing is planned more than a day in advance. The night before is the farthest out I'll go.

I suspect that cooking a lot of my meals helps and not enjoying most "snack foods" does as well. This was a major issue when I was a teenager and needed to eat more than three meals a day but couldn't find a snack I liked and was also somewhat filling.

amusedmonkey

A bit of both, but predominantly eat whatever I want. Planning gets involved if "whatever I want" that day is high in calories and needs planning around or if I don't have too many calories left at the end of the day. In these cases, I ask myself what I want that is lower in calories or if it's worth it going over calories that day.

I go through occasional phases where I just don't want to think about food and calories, so I just plan a few days in advance and prep them. It doesn't happen often, though.

MelanieCN77

I plan out 3 days at a time based on what I have in the cupboards and whatnot.

jesspen91

I'm a terrible planner. I have a veg box delivered fortnightly and try to base my meals around that with using up the more perishable things first apart from that I tend to buy my lunches and dinners from day to day. Luckily I work from home and live opposite a supermarket so I have lots of options.