The Meal Planner to Help You Lose Weight and Build Muscle Strategies For Meal Planning and Nutrition Tracking
You can read my brief tutorial on meal planning and nutrition tracking as well as download the free Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle Meal Planning spreadsheet from this page. I'd like to get you started on the subject by introducing you to the two most effective methods for meal planning. I'll go over the powerful advantages of each method and the difference between them that most people aren't aware of...
Method 1: The spreadsheet meal plan
I've been using this approach for years. I either use the online equivalent of Microsoft Excel or a spreadsheet to create the template for my meal plan. There are spaces (cells) for food, quantity, protein, carbohydrates, fat, and calories in the spreadsheet. It also has rows divided out into the number of meals I want to eat.
The "Atwater factors," or multipliers for the energy content of the macronutrients, are then entered into the spreadsheet software. Protein = 4 calories per gram
Carbs = 4 calories per gram
9 calories per gram of fat) I also use the built-in math functions on the sheet to add up the daily and meal subtotals. Along with the daily totals, the macronutrient ratios for the entire day are also tabulated.
Why would you bother creating such numerical meal plans? Well, it's a proven fact that people who guess at their calorie intake are not only almost always wrong - they miss by a country mile! When they only guessed and didn't have a tool or method to keep track of their numbers, even registered dieticians couldn't estimate their calorie intake with even 85 percent accuracy, according to one study. If you don't have a plan written down in numbers and on paper (or online, digitally), you probably won't get the right nutrition. Having goals is only one aspect of success. Having a goal and a PLAN to achieve it, as well as immediately beginning to implement your plan, are the keys to success. The workout is only half of the plan if your objective is to improve fitness or body composition; the meal plan is the other half. Every day, millions of people wake up without a food-planning strategy... THEY "WING IT!"
It's possible that they have an idea of what they want to eat "in their head," but even if they have good intentions, they won't lead anywhere. The fact is, people without a plan usually eat whatever is convenient, available and accessible. They eat on impulse.
Method 2: The Food Journal / Diary Method
The diet diary or food journal method is the second approach. This is where you eat something, and then write it down.
This was done using a notebook long before the internet or software existed, and some people still do it. Today more people use mobile apps, software and online tools.
Most people don't understand that this is a totally different method than creating a meal plan in advance and I believe it does not take the place of having a meal plan in hand, before you start your day.
However, tracking food intake in a nutrition journal or diet diary DOES have many benefits.
For example, the moment you start tracking and writing down food intake, you have created self-accountability. The simple act of writing down what you eat - by itself-can change your behavior. The things that are measured and tracked get better. Writing down what you eat is also another way to be sure you are eating the correct amount of calories and macronutrients for each day. As long as you have a calorie and macronutrient goal for the day, if you're journaling in real time, you can adjust your food intake in real time based on how many calories you have left for the day.
Additionally, food journals can provide an unparalleled nutrition education experience. Tracking food, calories, and macronutrients over an extended period of time is the best way to learn about nutrition. It's like taking a nutrition class - except you come away with street-level learning not just book learning.
Just like you go through school for a period of time at least once in your life, I consider keeping a nutrition journal an absolutely mandatory experience to go through at least once in your life for at least 4 - 12 weeks. Otherwise, you go through life uneducated.
Some people make it a habit and it becomes a part of their healthy lifestyle. Some people only start keeping a food journal when they first start a body transformation because they find it difficult to do so over time. Anyone can come back to it in the future if they find they've started to slip or if they have a big new goal they want to pursue with more precision.
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