customized meal plan

rodzjcmaster
rodzjcmaster Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm looking to created a customized meal plan, with daily and weekly goals. This should make it easier to target specific types of foods at certain times during the day and to know exactly what you are eating on any specific day.
it would be extremely helpful if we could take advantage of the massive database compiled by MyFitnessPal.

I did a search throughout the site but I didn't find anything that allows me to experiment this way.

I hope someone here has the same goals and have a solution that we could all use.

cheers!
JC

Replies

  • stephie_nyc
    stephie_nyc Posts: 96 Member
    I am not sure in what way you want the app to be helpful. There are a lot of generic foods and other peoples recipes. It is not really a tool to sift through recipe ideas.

    Once you have your calorie goal, start picking the foods you´d like to eat for the week. Come up with recipes that allow you to stay in your calorie goal and use the recipe tool to log them.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I've never had luck with specific eating plans. Sure I lost the weight, but then gained it right back again.

    Eat food you like, log it. Learn portions for your favorite foods. Figure out what is filling to you (it's not the same for everyone). Protein, fiber and fat are the components, but it's an individual thing.

    Learn how to eat to lose weight AND how to eat to keep the weight off. Measuring and logging will give you the tools needed.
  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    TeaBea wrote: »
    I've never had luck with specific eating plans. Sure I lost the weight, but then gained it right back again.

    Eat food you like, log it. Learn portions for your favorite foods. Figure out what is filling to you (it's not the same for everyone). Protein, fiber and fat are the components, but it's an individual thing.

    Learn how to eat to lose weight AND how to eat to keep the weight off. Measuring and logging will give you the tools needed.

    Very well said / written. I also find it very helpful that I can chose my own macros. No "cheat meals" necessary but a healthy meal plan I enjoy and I can stick with very, very long term.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    I'm not really sure what you're asking for the app to do. But you can prelog your diary as many days in advance as you want, then as you get to that day, go back in and change serving sizes or anything that didn't go according to plan.

    I try to prelog the foundation of my meals and snacks for the day in the AM to make sure I'm getting enough protein and fiber, rather than worry about getting to the end of the day and trying to make my numbers line up with one weird snack with the right macros.
  • rodzjcmaster
    rodzjcmaster Posts: 2 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I'm not really sure what you're asking for the app to do. But you can prelog your diary as many days in advance as you want, then as you get to that day, go back in and change serving sizes or anything that didn't go according to plan.

    I try to prelog the foundation of my meals and snacks for the day in the AM to make sure I'm getting enough protein and fiber, rather than worry about getting to the end of the day and trying to make my numbers line up with one weird snack with the right macros.

    this makes sense, this is what I was looking for, so I guess prelog is the way to go.
    specifically what I was trying to do is to create as many combinations as possibe that would meet my daily and weekly goals.
    Planning food for the entire week...
    Thanks
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    Or, as an alternative, just start from more-or-less how you eat now, and gradually remodel it to accomplish your goals.

    It's nearly the exact opposite of the process you're looking for, but gets you to the exact same result in the long run. If you're starting from a basically pretty healthy point, malunutrition doesn't kick in instantly: You have time to make improvements. Revolution is more stressful than evolution IMO.

    Consider this approach:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,961 Member
    rodzjcmaster wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I'm not really sure what you're asking for the app to do. But you can prelog your diary as many days in advance as you want, then as you get to that day, go back in and change serving sizes or anything that didn't go according to plan.

    I try to prelog the foundation of my meals and snacks for the day in the AM to make sure I'm getting enough protein and fiber, rather than worry about getting to the end of the day and trying to make my numbers line up with one weird snack with the right macros.

    this makes sense, this is what I was looking for, so I guess prelog is the way to go.
    specifically what I was trying to do is to create as many combinations as possibe that would meet my daily and weekly goals.
    Planning food for the entire week...
    Thanks

    If I'm understanding what it is you're trying to do, something that might help you would be to combine prelogging with the "save meal" function. You could pre-log, switch things around until you get what you want, then save it as a meal (you could even include relative info in the meal name, e.g., "chicken stir-fry, 420 cals, 40 g protein" as the name of the meal, or whatever info you would find helpful in scrolling through your meals). Then you would have them stored for selecting in the future.
  • SAV0789
    SAV0789 Posts: 1 Member
    I have been searching the site looking to see if there were any tools or systems people to use to help plan meals for the week in a manner similar to what I assume the original poster was seeking. I currently use the recipe tool/meal save features to calculate nutrition on planned food and then make a Google spreadsheet for the week. It requires a lot of back and forth though and obviously isn't as streamlined as keeping it all on a single source, but allows me to get a sense of what might need more or less of in a week and consider that during my prep time. As a low-key nerd, the spreadsheet is set up to have the daily goals at the bottom and calculate the difference. I just copy and past the layout from week to week and have a tab per month. When I repeat recipes and food (which is pretty often) it's easy to copy from a previous plan.

    If other people use different techniques to create a balanced menu for the week I'd be very curious to hear!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    Realized I should've included this alternative in this thread, probably:

    https://www.eatthismuch.com/

    @SAV0789, I think this (above) might be more what you're talking about, vs. what OP was describing, but I'm not sure.

    For clarity, I don't use it (never have), but have seen others here say they like it as an input to their planning, and I've looked over the site's public info moderately thoroughly out of curiosity. (I do what was described in the link I posted earlier in the thread, personally. I like spontaneity, not plans. :neutral: ).

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