HEALTHY Meal Plan

I am a health & fitness coach, I run clean eating challenge groups every couple of months. Here is one of the meal plans I've used in the past. It's a good "guide" for clean eating, I believe this is around the 1200-1300 range, so feel free to add in an extra snack or bigger portion if needed. Hope that helps give you a few ideas :-)

It would be pretty hard for anyone to give you meal plan since we don't really know what you like to eat, or whether you have any conditions that would affect your needs. If you haven't read the stickies yet, I highly recommend you do so; they will give you the basic information and guidelines you need to prepare your own meal plan that will fit your needs, lifestyle, and preferences.

It's a bit of work at first, but only you can really design a truly sustainable diet that will be as easy as possible to adhere to for the rest of your life. Good luck.

This is my favourite sticky for giving an overview and links to more detailed information if you need it

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

vismal wrote: »

Meal plans are horrible in my opinion. They lock you in and give you little flexibility.

I agree with this. I never understand why people want them, especially when the MFP tool makes it so easy to just create your own by logging different possibilities and seeing the macros and calories. The goal should be to learn how to plan your own meals, and if that's something that seems intimidating or difficult for you that just makes it more important.

There's no magical weight loss formula needed, and what's a healthy balanced meal really isn't rocket science--it seems pretty intuitive: protein, vegetables, and either some sort of other carb (starch or fruit) or dairy or other extra of your choice is typically how I think of it, although everyone will have their own ways and preferences.

vismal wrote: »

Meal plans are horrible in my opinion. They lock you in and give you little flexibility. They rely on the fact that you can be compliant eating the same things over and over and over. What if you don't like one or several of the meals on the plan? What if your family is making something off the plan or you are going out to eat, or 1000 other reasons that you might want/need to deviate from the plan? It's far simpler IMO to simply eat what you want and track it so it falls in your daily calorie and macro nutrient goals. A generic meal plan can't take your bmr or tdee into consideration. They are usually one size fits all plans but in reality one size certainly doesn't fit all. Plus are you going to eat off of a plan your entire life? What happens when you reach your goal weight? Do you abandon the plan and go back to how you ate before the plan?

I agree with this mentality. What I have found to help me the most is to understand how foods work, how foods are digested and metabolize in your body . . . what really goes into each type of food. It's like that saying, give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime. If you put a lot of research into actually understanding foods and what kind of nutrition your body needs, you won' need a meal plan but rather you can look at a menu or even a plate of food and know what you're putting into your body and (usually) whether it fits into your daily calories.

Portioning is its own beast, but once you get the understanding of food sciences and nutrition, I believe you are better equipped to make informed decisions about eating - especially when life is so busy and you might be faced with options that aren't from a meal plan.

Also, if you understand the basics of food you can look at something like rice and say I can replace it with quinoa, or sweet potatoes, or yada yada. You don't have to go to the grocery store and buy the same thing every week because "that's what the meal plan says".

You can also get really creative with how you eat, too. What's more is that we could be the same weight but our fitness and nutritional goals may be really different - meal plans don't account that I may want higher protein because I am a heavy lifter and you might want really low carbs or sodium or whatever. There's more to than simply calories - they are a major, major part (don't think I'm starting anything with that) but your goals and your lifestyle may not work with it and then BAM! you're back in the same spot you were.

My experience has taught me to plan my meals, but not to follow a meal plan.

Can you write out a list of what you usually eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then maybe we can help you tweak it so that it fits your calories.

Are you basing your needed daily calories on what MFP says? You may be able to eat more than that and still lose. Find out your TDEE and reduce it by 15-20%. How many calories will that be for you?

I can tell you what I'm eating this week, as I spent the weekend preparing a bunch of soups!
These are approximate.

Breakfast (banana/kale smoothie, Greek yogurt, almond milk) about 250 calories

Lunch: Homemade chicken/kale/pea soup 300 calories

4 pm snack: Almond milk, 1/2 apple, strawberries, or bean/chicken soup 150

Dinner: Salmon, quinoa, broccoli or other veggie 400

Night snack- repeat lunch (I get very hungry at night and have to save 300-400 calories for that)

Total 1500