Walt Disney world

I'm not sure they publish them anywhere but all the restaurant menus are available on their My Disney Experience app and site. I'm going back myself in April. In all honesty, I'd loosen the reins, you've got the deluxe plan so you'll be going to their best restaurants, would be sad to just have a salad with a drizzle of dressing. Personally i'm taking the reins off entirely, I do so much walking that any gain is small (last time I gained 2lbs in 2 weeks, that's fine with me!).

Yeah, for the cost of the Deluxe Dining Plan I would definitely not limit myself over worrying about calories. Otherwise you will be seriously reducing the value of an already expensive plan. Not to mention:
1. you're on vacation. It's ok to take a little bit of a vacation from the dietary plan as well.
2. you do so much walking when you're in the parks it can help counter the eating a little bit. I was there for 5 days in the beginning of December and averaged 8-9 miles per day. You can also, if you really want to, work in some extra exercise while you're there. My first day down there wasn't a park day, since I arrived in the early afternoon, so I went over to Wilderness Lodge and did a run from there over to and through Fort Wilderness Campground. It was especially awesome because I went in the evening and a lot of the people staying in the campground go all out decorating their campsites for Christmas! There are various run/walk paths in and around the resorts: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/jogging/

Most important of all: have FUN!

gratuitous Disney pic - decorated campsites at Fort Wilderness:

The last Disney trip I went on, I lost 5 lbs. That said, I was *not* on the deluxe dining plan. But I did eat out for at least 2 meals a day (breakfast was a bowl of high fiber cereal every morning but I did have two brunches). Anyway, I made it a point to not count calories, but I tried to order the healthier options (think salmon instead of fried chicken). Also, I did not eat a Mickey Bar or two everyday--just got a special dessert at each restaurant. Between the heat and LOTS of walking through the parks at a very fast pace, I lost 5 lbs.

We went at the end of 2015 on the deluxe meal plan. There wasn't any calorie info and to be honest, not that many "healthy" meal choices apart from breakfast when there were little pots of fruit, hard boiled eggs etc. So I just had a light-ish breakfast and then had at it for the rest of the day, no way I'm not making the most of a meal plan. But as others said, if you are going to the parks then you are going to rack up a lot of walking, I was averaging over 20,000 steps a day and whilst I didn't lose weight, I barely put any on and I ate like a real porker! If I had tried moderation at any of the buffets I probably could have lost...

Francl27 wrote: »

Much cheaper not to have a plan if you're going to count calories IMO.

And sure, there's a lot of walking, but 20k steps is really not an extra 1000 calories, and that's not even half the calories of one meal with dessert... So I don't agree with the 'eat what you want' part unless you want to gain weight...

When I went there, I was still 20 lbs in the overweight category, I ate what I wanted for maybe 40% of the meals (mostly breakfast because I'm always hungry in the morning), stuck to the healthier options the rest of time (had to look for a restaurant that had those), only had dessert once (the French bakery at Epcott), and I managed to maintain (we stayed 4 days). I would have gained 5 lbs easily if I had eaten whatever I wanted every time.

Just to reiterate my experience. I went last year for two weeks, ate freely but found that I couldn't eat three meals a day on the portions. I've never used the dining plan (in fact never stayed on property even), is it two full service meals a day? I probably would have struggled enormously with that. I'd have coffee and something in the pastry family for breakfast generally (hello Cinnabon and Epcot cronuts), a snack, sugary drinks, water and then one full meal with maybe another snack. Only a 2lb gain.

But I guess if I was having two full service sit down meals with dessert plus trying to use up snack credits (which I believe are plentiful) then I may have had a different experience. Perhaps aim for something lighter for a couple of meals and go all out on one each day.

Let's keep in mind that it's easier to go to Disney and not gain weight when you're overweight than when you're a lower weight too. It really depends on how much you have to lose, OP.