Meal planning apps/websites

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gmz3296
gmz3296 Posts: 18 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've tried all kinds of meal planning apps and services. A lot are "one size fits all" and are very boring to eat. The only one that I've really liked is www.realplans.com - it's been very customizable, has lots of recipes with my dietary restrictions (except breakfasts), and I can add recipes to it to even further customize it (thus remedying the breakfast menu deficiency!). I also like a LOT how easy it is to copy and past the ingredients list into myfitnesspal so that I get an accurate nutritional breakdown and log here.

Generally I plan out my meals a week in advance, cook most of them on the weekend, and plow through them most of the week (weekends I get to go out a couple of times). I've found this approach to be incredibly helpful and important in my weight loss.

Although I'm pretty happy with realplans, wondering if anyone has other suggestions to increase even more menu variety? Has to be customizable - I'm diagnosed as sensitive to gluten and allergic to casein (dairy).

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Nothing will ever beat your brain. I started out meal planning inspired by those programs (eatthismuch, myfridgefood), but I soon discovered I could do it faster, easier and more flexible myself. My meal planning is just a spreadsheet for all my meals, an inventory of pantry, fridge and freezer, and a shopping list.
  • Aerona85
    Aerona85 Posts: 159 Member
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    I am enjoying emeals. It does cost a decent amount but there are lots of plans to choose from and you can pick if you want 2-3 servings or 4-6 servings. I feed just myself so it is nice to have recipes that I don’t have to eat 6 days in a row. I figure once I use it for a year I will probably have enough in rotation I will be set. It also creates grocery lists (and you can automatically send to places like Walmart or some others for online ordering if they have that in your area) which is really convenient. Not all plans have calorie info but many of them do. You can pick from plan options like paleo, budget, kid friendly, low calorie, diabetic, cooking light, healthy in under 30 min, etc. and can bounce around among them as often as you want.
  • BethicaJ
    BethicaJ Posts: 13 Member
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    I loves emeals! You can pick your diet and there's no thinking about it. My grocery store does online ordering, so I put my grocery list from my program into the website and they pack it all up for me. It's great when you're in a food slump and need a change of pace. They also will allow you to change your plan in case you sign up for one you don't like. When the kids were little, I did 30 minute meals or kid friendly. Now that they're older, we're doing paleo menu (even though we don't follow a paleo diet, the meals are more adapt to how we eat). It does cost $30 for 3 months or $60/year but to me, it's worth it to not have to plan my meals ahead of time. It also gives you a calorie/nutritional count for each meal. Message me if you want to try it out. I think there's a discount for referring people.

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