How To Make Your Own Weight Loss Meal Plan

The best type of diet, is a diet that most closely resembles the way you currently eat. Unless you eat like crap, then you might need to make some serious changes.

Said differently, if you are someone that generally has a lot of carbs in your diet and you try out the Atkins Diet, you’ll likely fail. On the other hand, if you are someone who doesn’t consume a lot of carbs, then you might do really well on the Atkins diet.

We don’t really advocate for any set diet of any kind, like the “insert diet name here” diet. Rather, we prefer to make customized “Not Your Typical Meal Plans” that resemble our client’s current dietary habits and food choices. Click HERE  to see a sample, to get a better idea of what i’m talking about.

Want to make your own Meal Plan?

Audible “Yay!” is heard in the background.

Ok, perfect because I’m going to tell you just how to do it.

Here are the simplified steps:

1. Figure out what your daily caloric total must be in order to lose weight. Read a previous post i did on the OverHaul Fitness Blog, or a more in-depth post on my weight loss blog.
2. Set your protein intake. A good rule of thumb is around 0.8-1 gram per pound of lean body mass.
3. Make a meal structure: outline your typical daily food intake habits, eg.
   • Breakfast
   • Lunch
   • Snack
   • Supper
4. Assign caloric totals to each based on the amount of calories determined in point 1. Lets assume you got 1600 calories.
   • Breakfast – 450
   • Lunch – 450
   • Snack -250
   • Supper – 450
5. Put together at least 3, up to 6 options, for each Meal or Snack listed in point #4.  Make sure they meet the caloric total assigned. If they don’t, alter each option so it does, eg. change their serving sizes.
   • Based on the meals you put together, you can now assess what your daily Macronutrient breakdown based on food your typically eat.

Now that the Meal Plan is made, simply follow it. By this I mean pick one of the options for each meal/snack that you made as you go throughout your day. Rinse and repeat, and watch the results come with ease.

A few things to note:

• You can combine some of the options above. For example, Instead of having your snack you could add those calories to one of your meals and have a larger meal;  this is handy when you are eating out with friends and family at restaurants
  • Since we’re on the topic of eating out a restaurants, something you might be interested in reading: 10 things you can do to eat smarter when eating out at restaurants.
• From a holistic health standpoint, It’s not a simple as we’ve described above; there are more things we look to incorporate into the meal plans we make for clients, such as: sufficient vegetable intake, fiber, etc. But, from a simplistic starting point for weight loss, it is effective.

Are you lost or confused? Feel free to contact us and we can help.

Till next time,

-Mike