Meal Planning 101
- Chelsea Magyar
- Jun 28, 2024
- 15 min read
Meal planning has been a big help to me. It saves me time and stress. I enjoy having a plan going into the week so I don't have to spend hours thinking about what my next meal is going to be, and the plan allows me to meal prep so that I can have meals ready to go. My mom is the one who first introduced me to the practice of meal planning, so big shout out to her. 🥰
In this article, I will share steps, tips, and tricks to get you started with your own meal planning!
Step 1: Decide How Many Meals You Will Eat Each Day
A meal in this context is a serving of food you plan to eat. A snack is considered a meal here, as well as typical breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Another important categorization for meals would be pre- and post-workout, the food you plan to eat before and after exercise.
Some people do well with intermittent fasting and only need one or two meals per day. Other people enjoy a breakfast, lunch, dinner split with three meals per day. My coach and his partner do four meals per day. I do my best with five meals per day. Some people do as many as six meals per day. I wouldn't recommend going beyond this, unless perhaps you really enjoy snacking or have multiple training sessions per day and need an intraworkout meal (food eaten during a workout).
The first step for creating your meal plan will be to decide how many meals you will need each day, ranging from 1-6 meals. This can also vary from day to day. For example, you may eat out on weekends and cut out snacks to give yourself a bit more leeway when eating out. Another example might be you eat an extra snack on workout days or plan to eat an extra meal during a hike.
You can create a chart if it helps. For me, I typically eat five meals per day, but sometimes it's four on the weekend or rest days. My chart might look like this:
Sunday: 4 meals
Monday: 5 meals
Tuesday: 5 meals
Wednesday: 5 meals
Thursday: 5 meals
Friday: 4 meals
Saturday: 5 meals
Categorizing these meals can also help determine how many you will need each day, but we will treat this as its own step.
Step 2: Name Your Meals
In this step you will categorize your meals. This will help you to decide what kind of foods to select, when you will eat, and, as aforementioned, how many meals you will eat. Giving meals names can also give them a function, for example a post-workout meal helps you recover and a pre-workout meal helps fuel performance.
If you eat one meal per day and follow an OMAD diet, the meal may be your OMAD, your meal, or named after whatever time of day you choose to eat. I am not an expert on OMAD, but I would recommend eating this meal post-workout to help with recovery and muscle gain/maintenenance. It could also then be referred to as your post-workout meal.
For two meals per day, you could look at the meals as pre and post workout, the two times each day you eat (I would recommend brunch and linner or breakfast and late lunch), or meal 1 and meal 2.
A three meal per day split will typically be breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you could also think of them as pre and post workout meals and whenever the third one is, as well as meals 1,2, and 3. If some of the meals are smaller, you may also think of them as snacks and the other one is a meal or breakfast/lunch/dinner.
For four meals, a neat nomenclature I learned from Nancy Clark's book Sports Nutrition is breakfast, lunch 1 and lunch 2, and dinner. You may also do breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, or instead of dessert eat a snack sometime during the day. I often refer to snacks as meals, but if the meal's function is to tie you over until your next meal, is smaller in size when compared to other meals, and/or is missing one of the major macronutrients (protein, carbs, or fats), snack might be an appropriate name. Pre and post workout titles can be applied to four meals per day as well, along with good old meals 1-4.
I typically eat five meals per day, and I call mine breakfast/pre-workout, post-workout/morning snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Meals 1-5 are also decent names, and breakfast, lunch 1 and 2, dinner, and dessert (or sub for afternoon snack) also work.
Six meals per day is not so different than five, and the meals might be smaller, so more of them may be referred to as snacks. For example, you may eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then do snacks after each of these meals. Some people do a protein shake before their morning workout and then eat a larger breakfast after. Naming meals after the food or drink consumed during that time can be useful. For example, you could call a meal "protein shake" or "ice cream" and that can make it a special time of day to enjoy that particular food. Happy Hour and Tea Time may also have a spot in your diet. If you consume alcohol during Happy Hour, try to get in the majority of your protein and micronutrients beforehand (as recommended by The Bodybuilding Dieticians), stay hydrated, drink responsibly, and give time between each drink. Planning out what food you will eat with your alcoholic beverage can also be helpful for making healthy choices. Deciding in advance how many drinks you will stick to can also help you practice moderation and stick to your goals.
After deciding how many meals you will eat each day and what they are called, you can start to make a daily chart. Because I typically eat five meals during the week and four on weekends/rest days, I might make a chart like this:
Monday-Thursday + Saturday
Meal 1: Breakfast/Pre-Workout
Meal 2: Post-Workout/Morning Snack
Meal 3: Lunch
Meal 4: Snack
Meal 5: Dinner
Friday + Sunday
Meal 1: Breakfast
Meal 2: Snack or Lunch
Meal 3: Lunch or Ice Cream
Meal 4: Dinner
Customize the names of your meals in a way that makes sense to you and helps you meet your goals and nutrition targets. This leads us to our next step.
Step 3: Set Your Nutrition Targets
Although you could start by determining your nutrition goals (i.e. eat more fruits and vegetables, reduce processed foods, create a decificit to lose weight, create a surplus to gain weight, consume adequate protein or iron, etc.), sometimes it's easier to start with your current eating patterns (how many times per day you are eating and what you call these meals) and then shape these patterns to your goals. Your nutrition targets can be specific numerical values, such as 110g of protein, 18mg of iron, or 1900kcal. The targets could alternatively be more general and food specific, such as consume whole foods at each meal or limit alcoholic beverages to one meal per week. I will share my nutrition targets as an example, and I encourage you to set your own.
My goals are muscle gain and weight maintenance. I try to maintain my current weight by mostly keeping my caloric intake the same and slowly increasing it when weight stabilizes. My current calorie target is 1800-1900kcal, as I was maintaining on 1800kcal but then I started losing weight, so I am in the process of increasing to 1900kcal per day. For muscle gain, a caloric surplus is more ideal than maintaining calories, but I'm okay with a slow rate of gain and am trying to avoid a post bulk dieting phase for the time being. To accomplish my "maingaining" strategy (see a coold article about that here: https://www.boostcamp.app/blogs/maingaining-the-ultimate-guide-to-building-muscle), I pay attention to my protein and aim for 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight (for me that's 110g) or more per day. The carbs and fats fall into place for me, as I try to eat them at each meal with more carbs than fats (about a 2:1 ratio). For micronutrients, the only one I pay attention to at the moment is iron. As a woman in mestration years, I aim for 18mg of iron or more, especially because I have a history of low iron.
In addition to numerical targets, I also have more general nutrition targets I try to hit. I try to eat vegetables at two of my meals (lunch and dinner), and fruit for one to two meals (breakfast and sometimes post-workout). For food selection, I have been planning meals week to week using The Cycle Syncing Method, which recommends different foods for different phases of the menstrual cycle. I also pay attention to meal timing, as not eating meals too close together or too far apart helps me manage my IBS (it ends up being about 3-5 hours between meals).
If I were to map out my goals, I might write something like this at the top of my meal plan:
Chelsea's Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 1800-1900kcal
Protein Target: 110g+ protein
Micronutrient Target(s): 18mg+ iron
Meals per day: 4-5
Once you have your targets, you can divide them into the number of meals you've decided on. For instance, you may divide 1900kcal by 5 and aim for 235kcal per meal. You may also use the names of the meals to dictate food distribution, such as eating more protein and carbs for pre and post workout meals or eating less food for snacks. At this point, I make food choices for each meal instead of choosing the caloric value first, and the food choices typically add up to the total daily calorie, protein, and iron targets. I will shoot for a protein/dairy, carb, fat, and fruit/vegetable for each meal, and protein and carb, or carb at the very least, for snacks. To start off composing your meals though, choosing calories and other nutrition targets for each meal and then selecting foods to fit those targets can be easier. We will take a closer look at meal composition in the next step.
Step 4: Compose Your Meals to Fit Your Nutrition Targets
In this step, you will decide what you will eat for each meal using your nutrition targets and goals. Put your targets at the top of the meal plan, write out the different meals you plan to eat, and then choose the foods that help you meet your targets. To choose foods and portion sizes that help you meet your goals, it can be helpful to think of foods generally in terms of their dominant macro and micronutrients and then dive into their specific nutritional values. If you aren't paying attention to numerical values, these general specifications will help you stay nourished and learn about what your food choices do for your body.
For one meal per day, you will have a lot of nutritional ground to cover and may need to include supplements to fulfill your micronutrient requirements. Eating 1g of protein per pound of your body weight in one sitting will likely cause digestive upset. You could consider adding a shake or two as extra meals during the day and sit down to eat one larger meal, technically making your one meal three. If you are really set on eating one meal per day, however, try to include all of the food groups, and find what digests best for you. You can also drink some of your food choices if you need to. Your plan might look something like this:
OMAD Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 1200kcal
Other Targets: Include all of the food groups
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Then, you could pick specific foods for each macro/micronutrient target. For instance, Monday-Wednesday your protein sources might be chicken breast and a protein shake, and Thursday-Sunday they may switch to Greek yogurt, a hamburger patty, and protein bar.
For two meals per day, let's look at the meals as pre and post workout meals. The macronutrient guidelines will apply to a 3-6 meal per day plan as well. For pre and post workout meals, you will want your carbs to be at their peak, and protein to be high. Dietary fat can help with satiation, and if you prefer fats over carbs, you would eat more fats than carbs. For a two meal per day split, you will also want to get in as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Fruits typically digest easier than vegetables, and may work better for a pre workout meal; however, you could easily blend vegetables to help them digest, or use a greens powder to help you hit your micronutrient targets. A two meal per day plan might look something like this:
Two Meal/Peri Workout Nutrition Plan
Calorie Target: 2000
Protein Target: 100g+
Other Targets: Eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible and find the ones that digest best
Meal 1: Pre workout/Brunch
-Fruit source(s): 2-4
-Vegetable source(s): 0-2
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): add up to 40 or more g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Meal 2: Post workout/Linner
-Fruit source(s): 0-4
-Vegetable source(s): 2-5
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): add up to 50 or more g and add to protein from meal one to equal 100g or more
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
In a three meal split, you may be going foe breakfast, lunch, ans dinner. You may include pre and post workout specifications, but your training goals may not be a large part of your life, and that's okay. We will look at a three meal per day split in terms of breakfast lunch and dinner. This type of meal plan could include and even split in protein, fruits and vegetables. It is also good to try to include all of the food groups/macro and micronutrient categories. The plan might look like this:
My Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 1400kcal
Other Targets: Eat all of the food groups at each meal and spread protein intake throughout the day
Breakfast
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 20-60g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Lunch
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 20-60g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Dinner
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 20-60g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
For four meals per day, you might insert the peri-workout scheme from the two day meal plan. The workouts farthest away from your workout (if you are training) might have equal protein values, while those closest may have higher protein values, with the post workout meal having the largest amount or containing the same amount if protein as the preworkout meal. It is still a good idea to try to eat as many food groups as you can at each meal, but because you are consuming more meals, the composition of them can be more flexible in terms of hitting your nutrition targets. For instance, if you don't eat any vegetables before or after your workout, you can get in your daily intake during the other two meals. Your meal plan may look something like this:
Muscle Building Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 3000 kcal/day
Protein Target: 200g/day
Other Targets: Get in 4-5 servings of vegetables for lunch and dinner, get in adequate protein and carbs for pre and post workout meals, as well as for the other two meals to help meet daily protein target
Breakfast/Pre-workout
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s): skip
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 60-80g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Post-Workout
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s): skip
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 60-80g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Lunch
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s): 2-5 servings
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 20-40g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Dinner
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s): 2-5 servings
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s): 20-40g
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
If you've made it this far, well done! We will check out examples of meal compositions for five and six meal per day splits and then move to the next steps. Five and six meal per day splits may include equal meal sizes, or the meal sizes may fluctuate based on their function and the times of day you are hungriest. For example, you may treat yourself to an icecream cone each afternoon, so your morning snack is less calorically dense. Another example would be your post workout meal is larger than your dinner because you are hungrier after your workout than in the evening, the post-workout meal helps you recover, and/or a smaller dinner helps you sleep better. I will show examples of five and six meal per day plans below with the five day plan showcasing different sized meals and the six day plan featuring similar sized meals. Then we will move onto the next step of meal planning, which is food selection.
Five Meal Plan, Peri Workout Focus
Calorie Target: 1800kcal
Protein Target: 110g+
Other Targets: Consume larger, more protein and carb dense meals surrounding workouts, with smaller meals the rest of the day; get in adequate fruit, vegetables, dairy, and fats
Breakfast/Pre-workout
-Fruit source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Post-Workout
-Fruit source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Dairy(s):
Lunch
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Snack
-Protein(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
Dinner
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
Six Day Balanced Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 1700kcal
Other Targets: Eat roughly 280kcal per meal and have variety in diet while keeping meals similar in terms of calories
Breakfast/Meal 1
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Snack/Meal 2
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Lunch/Meal 3
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Snack/Meal 4
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Dinner/Meal 5
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Dessert/Meal 6
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s):
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Step 5: Choose Your Foods
Once you have an outline of what you need to eat at each meal, you can plug in foods for each category. If you don't know which foods should go where, you can conduct an internet search for the different food groups. For example, you may look for foods high in protein, or list of fruits and vegetables. Even if you do know the general macro and micronutrient composition of different foods, a search can help you think of options you may not usually choose and add variety to your diet. You can also base your food choices off of whatever is on sale at the store or what you have on hand. You will create a grocery list based off of your food choices, or your meal plan based off of your pantry/fridge or grocery store sales.
The penultimate step is to decide how much of each food you will need.
Step 6: Plan Your Servings
This is maybe the most complicated step, especially if you are meal planning for people other than yourself (moms and dads and significant others, you are awesome!!). Some of the meals may be just for you, while others may be for you and other people. The people in your family might be eating other foods than you as well, in which case you three meals per day may actually be six meals per day because you need to provide two different options for each meal. Another factor to consider is if the meals will change each day. You and/or your family may not like to eat the same meals day after day. If this is the case, it can be easiest to pick meals with similar ingredients, so that you can buy larger quantities of different foods but use them in creative ways.
For planning servings, it can be helpful to take the one day meal plan and copy and paste it into as many days as you need to plan for and then add an extra option to each particular meal you need a second option for. It's also okay to not plan out every single day. I personally only plan meals for Monday through Friday, and then give myself more flexibility on weekends while still trying to hit my nutrition targets. Other times I only plan four out of five of my meals and decide day to day what the fifth one will be.
For a sample weekly meal plan to show how to move from this last step into a grocery list and meal prep (final step!!), we will look at a three meal per day plan with a second option for lunches. I am not going to provide exact caloric values, but this is something that you could calculate. You can also see some of my othee posts where I share my meal plans and break down calories and protein values for each meal.
Family Meal Plan
Calorie Target: 1400kcal
Protein Target: 80g
Other Targets: Meet my nutrition goals while teaching my children about healthy choices and sending them to school with lunches they enjoy; going out to dinner with my spouse one time per week
Sunday
-Flexible, eat whatever is left from the week prior, or pick up something extra from the store on Saturday
Monday
Breakfast: 12 servings (4 for Monday-Wednesday)
-Fruit source(s): strawberries
-Vegetable source(s): skip
-Carbohydrate(s): whole grain toast
-Protein(s): greek yogurt
-Fat(s): peanut butter
-Dairy(s): same as protein
Lunch:
(Option 1: me + spouse): 10 servings (2 for Monday-Friday)
-Fruit source(s): clementine
-Vegetable source(s): arugala, beets, and shredded carrots
-Carbohydrate(s): quinoa
-Protein(s): chicken breast
-Fat(s): 1tbs olive oil dressing
-Dairy(s): skip
(Option 2: kids): 10 servings (2 for Monday-Friday)
-Fruit source(s): 2 clementines
-Vegetable source(s): baby carrots and snap peas
-Carbohydrate(s): from the other food sources
-Protein(s): homemade chicken nuggets
-Fat(s): 2 small cookies
-Dairy(s): cheese stick
Dinner: 12 servings (4 for Monday-Wednesday)
-Fruit source(s): technically tomatoes
-Vegetable source(s): zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes
-Carbohydrate(s): whole wheat pasta
-Protein(s): ground beef
-Fat(s): same as dairy
-Dairy(s): cheese
Tuesday
Breakfast: Same as Monday
Lunch:
(Option 1: me and/or spouse): Same as Monday
(Option 2: kids and/or spouse): Same as Monday
Dinner: Same as Monday
Wednesday
Breakfast: Same as Monday
Lunch:
(Option 1: me and/or spouse): Same as Monday
(Option 2: kids and/or spouse): Same as Monday
Dinner: Same as Monday
Thursday
Breakfast: 12 servings (4 for Thursday-Saturday)
-Fruit source(s): frozen blueberries
-Vegetable source(s): frozen spinach
-Carbohydrate(s): whole wheat bread
-Protein(s): eggwhites + eggs
-Fat(s): from protein and dairy
-Dairy(s): cheese + milk
Lunch:
(Option 1: me and/or spouse): Same as Monday
(Option 2: kids and/or spouse): Same as Monday
Dinner: 4 servings
-Fruit source(s): fruit popsicle
-Vegetable source(s): add spinach to pizza
-Carbohydrate(s): frozen pizza
-Protein(s): add frozen chicken to pizza
-Fat(s): same as carbs
-Dairy(s): sabe as carbs
Friday
Breakfast: Same as Thursday
Lunch:
(Option 1: me and/or spouse): Same as Monday
(Option 2: kids and/or spouse): Same as Monday
Dinner:
-Date night (look for options with low fat, high protein, and vegetables)
-Send babysitter with money for kids
Saturday
Breakfast: Same as Thursday
-Fruit source(s):
-Vegetable source(s): skip
-Carbohydrate(s):
-Protein(s):
-Fat(s):
-Dairy(s):
Lunch: Wing it or pick up at grocery store
Dinner: Wing it or pick up at grocery store
So much more I could say, but now you have an example of a weekly meal plan with multiple options. You can also plan for the month, which is a whole different topic. The final steps for meal planning are to make a grocery list and prepare the food you chose.
Step 7: Get Cooking!
Once you have your meal plan together and how much of each food you will need, you can create a grocery list, clip coupons (you could also look at coupons and sales and then make your meal plan), and decide when you will prepare your meals (options include day of, night before, and or at the beginning of the week). And of course, you also get to enjoy the delicious meals you planned and enjoy the benefits of setting goals and taking action to pursue them.
In Conclusion
There are many ways to meal plan, and while I tried to cover as much as I could here, I acknowledge that this is not a completely comprehensive process. The best way to find something that works can be to try multiple approaches and find what helps most. Please look at some of the other articles in this blog for more examples of meal planning (they are typically created for single people, but could be transformed to accommodate multiple eaters). For more information, you can also check out some of the sources listed below!
Sources
Cycle Syncing
Alisa Vitti In the Flo
Maingaining
My Mom!
Other Examples of Meal Planning
Sports Nutrition
Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition
The Body Building Dieticians
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