Meal Plan Functionality

dcolum23
dcolum23 Posts: 3 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been using MFP for a number of years, but what continually surprises me is that there still isn't an option to create a meal plan. I'm not talking about adding foods a day in advance and then copying them for each subsequent day ... I'm talking about a meal plan "template" that can be used day after day without all of the manual input.

It seems silly that after all of these years, user base increase and under armour ownership that this functionality still doesn't exist. At least make this a feature for paid users...

Anyone else feel similar?

Replies

  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited October 2019
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    Hmm, this must be on the app or with Premium. I use the free version on desktop and do not get "often eaten at the same time" at all.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    Hmm, this must be on the app or with Premium. I use the free version on desktop and do not get "often eaten at the same time" at all.

    I do have the Premium version, and I am happy to pay the small amount per year for the extra features. Such as being able to select fractions of a serving.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    amy19355 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    Hmm, this must be on the app or with Premium. I use the free version on desktop and do not get "often eaten at the same time" at all.

    I do have the Premium version, and I am happy to pay the small amount per year for the extra features. Such as being able to select fractions of a serving.

    I'm not arguing with your desire to use Premium, but want to say that free has fractions of servings, which I don't like as it just adds clutter.

    When I create a recipe I use the total weight as the servings, and then log what I eat in grams.
  • dcolum23
    dcolum23 Posts: 3 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    To me a “template” is a generic outline that would still require manual modifications each day to tailor it to days actual food. Unless you eat the same thing everyday, in which case you can easily use the copy function.

    Yeah, but that's just it... I don't want to "copy" my daily diary entries. This functionality isn't exactly complicated, which is why it makes no sense that MFP hasn't implemented it. Not everyone subscribes to IIFYM.

  • dcolum23
    dcolum23 Posts: 3 Member
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    That is more helpful that it used to be, yes. Still want to be able to set my meal plan once and have MFP display those foods choices automatically each day so I can essentially check them off or adjust / replace them if something goes off.

  • essmac13
    essmac13 Posts: 2 Member
    I agree! I would love an option to create a meal plan for next week and have all my food on there and then let me 'check' off each item or each meal as I eat it. This way, everything I check off would then apply to my total for the day.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,106 Member
    dcolum23 wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    That is more helpful that it used to be, yes. Still want to be able to set my meal plan once and have MFP display those foods choices automatically each day so I can essentially check them off or adjust / replace them if something goes off.

    If you're using the app, you can click on multi-add and select the specific meal as opposed to all meals in your history and just go through and check off the ones you ate today.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,742 Member
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and

    I also eat the same things over and over, and I just copy my lunches, breakfasts, etc. to the next day and next day and next day ...

    If I happen to make a change, I just delete an item and put in a different one.

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    i eat the same things over and over, and MFP knows that and shows me a list of foods "often eaten at the same time" for me to select in the same screen where i am selecting the quantity of the first food.

    so, when i find chicken breast, it always shows me rice, and beans.
    When I add eggs, it offers me the chance to add cornbread , beans, rice or bacon.
    when I eat yogurt, it knows I often add mixed fruit,
    and dates I often eat with cashew butter.

    does that help at all?

    Hmm, this must be on the app or with Premium. I use the free version on desktop and do not get "often eaten at the same time" at all.

    I am using the free version and get this option with the app. However, I find using the meals tab for regular combinations of foods works a treat too.
  • meledous
    meledous Posts: 1 Member
    I agree that this app should have that function. If it had a meal plan for everyday, you lick what type of diet you want ie; keto, Low carb, vegetarian, vegan. Then it gives you a week worth of meals, grocery list and times to eat. And instead of adding food to your diary you check it off. It could include what part of meals could be prepped for the week as well.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,742 Member
    meledous wrote: »
    I agree that this app should have that function. If it had a meal plan for everyday, you lick what type of diet you want ie; keto, Low carb, vegetarian, vegan. Then it gives you a week worth of meals, grocery list and times to eat. And instead of adding food to your diary you check it off. It could include what part of meals could be prepped for the week as well.

    Grocery list for which country? Which part of that country?

    We come from all over the world ... knowing what foods are available in Australia, Canada, France, China, etc. is complicated.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    edited January 2020
    meledous wrote: »
    I agree that this app should have that function. If it had a meal plan for everyday, you lick what type of diet you want ie; keto, Low carb, vegetarian, vegan. Then it gives you a week worth of meals, grocery list and times to eat. And instead of adding food to your diary you check it off. It could include what part of meals could be prepped for the week as well.

    I think there may be some feature in the works for this, but MFP traditionally has never been a meal plan app. There are lots of those out there (here's a good free one: https://www.eatthismuch.com/), and they can be added to MFP, but I wouldn't expect MFP to tell you what you should eat or what to shop for. Nor would I trust MFP to plan my diet, personally.

    Indeed, even if one is doing a specialized diet like keto, what people like and choose to eat is vastly varied.

    I'm not really sure how what OP is asking for would be different from just logging a couple weeks in advance based on what you plan to eat and then deleting or modifying if the reality is different.
This discussion has been closed.