LOOKING TO MAKE A MEAL PLAN

It's not vital to be exactly exact on macronutrients.

If your key goal is weight management, that's all about calories. Really, only calories have a direct effect on body fat levels. Food choices and nutrition can affect success at weight management indirectly, either by triggering fatigue (via sub-par nutrition) so reducing calorie expenditure, or by not keeping you reasonably full and satisfied so likely to cause periodic overeating (or even giving up).

Macros affect things like energy level, health, body composition, exercise/job performance, and that sort of thing. That means nutrition is important, even if it doesn't directly affect weight.

But humans are adaptive omnivores, so being close to your macro goals (a little high, a little low, no big deal) is fine, especially if you're averaging right around the target level over a few days. If persistently low on something essential, then chip away at revising your eating patterns to improve that. It doesn't have to happen instantly, as long as you're not going into this with some diagnosed disease or deficiency that requires more meticulous nutritional management.

You have two general options, at extremes of a continuum, if you want to get your nutrition to what you se as a certain ideal-to-you level.

1. Gradually tweak your current eating routine to improve the nutrition, using foods you like that are practical and affordable for you. There's more about that kind of approach here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

Quite a few people who are successful here on MFP seem to do some variation on that approach.

2. Find or create a detailed meal plan, which it sounds like you're aiming at doing. One site that might help is this one:

https://www.eatthismuch.com/

I think that if you sign up for an account, you can customize the macros to the levels you want, though I've only played with the free, no-account-needed version that lets a person look at meal plans for a few common eating patterns.

For clarity, I didn't do that to lose weight. I used approach #1. There are other options, but those are kind of the two extremes, either highly pre-planned and structured, or "remodel your current eating gradually".

Whatever you decide, best wishes for success!

I'd start with just making your own plan based on what you already eat. Then make adjustments from there. You could find you can reach your goals by eating the same things, just less, or subbing out a few ingredients with healthier choices.

opalle wrote: »

I'd start with just making your own plan based on what you already eat. Then make adjustments from there. You could find you can reach your goals by eating the same things, just less, or subbing out a few ingredients with healthier choices.

This is what I did. When I first started MFP, I realized I ate over the recommendation for carbs and under for protein. When I corrected that, I found I felt fuller for less calories.

I'd been pretty much ignoring fat and eating lots of it until I learned in late 2020 that I have a medical condition that appreciates reduced fat (which for me is just the MFP default of 30%.) My breakfast and lunch these days are pretty standard and low/moderate fat. I plan to prelog dinner and evening snacks so I can stay within my fat budget.

I reduce full fat salad dressing by using less of it and adding fat free cottage cheese. I also have fat free cottage cheese and a fruit cup for an afternoon snack.

I was previously using reduced fat cream cheese. I tried regular 50% and didn't like it. But now my store carries Green Mountain Farms Cream Greek Cheese & Greek Yogurt, which is also 50% fat but tastes a lot better to me. (It did take a few servings for me to get used to the tang of the yogurt, but now I am fine with it.)

I use low or no fat yogurt.

I've reduced butter and cheese.

If I want a high fat food such as pizza or ice cream, I plan for this well ahead of time so I can eat lower fat throughout the day and exercise more. I've told my partner no more spontaneous pizza/ice cream - he needs to give me notice so I can plan for it.