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Are Meal Plans Effective?

Well, it depends on the person. Meal plans are a great way to ensure you're reaching your calorie and macro nutrient goal each day with planned meals. They are often not too successful for the average gym goer in the long-run. I'm looking for a long-term flexible approach that yields results. For those who can be consistent on eating similar macro-dense foods on a daily basis, go for meal plans. My thoughts on the subject are to ditch your meal plan and develop a diet that combines sound nutrition with the foods you enjoy. One should eat what you see fit in the portions that allow you to achieve your macro nutrient and caloric needs while providing sufficient micro nutrients, energy, and satiety. We shall dive into flexible dieting also known as if it fits your macros in my next post.



Posted: February 4th, 2018. 7:27pm.
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  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2018 at 10:32 AM

    What is the difference between meal planning and just simply counting your macros? Is the difference in the strictness of diet for meal plans? I don't know much about counting macros so I am interested to figure out whether that pertains to flexible dieting.

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    1. GarrachaFebruary 13, 2018 at 10:55 AM

      Particular meal plans are generally given by some coach in a set meal plan or followed in a way that is mostly all clean foods with maybe one cheat day a week. It's usually a cookie cutter plan that lists the foods laid out in a certain order that you can only eat. Flexible dieting includes counting your macros and eating in a way that allows you to have foods you like while reaching your macro nutrient and caloric goals.

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Second Step: Macro Calculator

Continuing on in our journey to calculate what our body needs, click the link below to get started on finding your macro nutrient targets. I have decided to choose the "maintenance" calorie option as I'd like to maintain my current body weight. With this in mind, I calculated 2,400 calories that I should consume each day to maintain my size. By using this Macro calculator, my results came out to 270g Carbohydrates, 180g Protein, and 66g Fat per day that I need to eat. How I get to those numbers is up to me, based on the foods I consume. A general rule of thumb is to keep "junk" foods to about 20-30% of your daily caloric intake. In the case of flexible dieting, "junk foods" consist of foods that offer little or no macro nutrient benefit to your body. This is where it gets the name "flexible dieting" because most of the foods you consume each day should be of a higher macro nutrient dense foods and the rest can be up to your choosing. Down bel...
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Sixth Step: Macro Cheat Sheet

To get an idea of macro-nutrient foods that can help you reach your targets, here is a cheat sheet. The cheat sheet provides examples of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Now remember, these aren't necessarily "clean foods" per say, but foods that are macro-nutrient dense. These macro-nutrient dense foods will keep you fuller for longer. For example, a poptart won't keep you as full due to the fast digesting carbohydrates (sugars) in it versus oatmeal, rice or potatoes. The overall principle is that you can choose to eat the poptart, as long as it fits into your macro-nutrient targets that we calculated. Keep in mind though, that poptart won't keep you as full for the rest of the day or night and once you hit your targets for the day, you won't be consuming any other food. Included in the diagram below are general food timing suggestions that can help boost your workouts. http://www.truehealthtrifecta.com/macronutrient-cheat-sheet/  Posted: March ...
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