Step 4
Plan the week ahead
So now it is time to get started with building a meal plan. A meal plan is personalized menu that enables you to hit your calorie and macro targets each day.
Think of it as a bit of a puzzle or game... you need to choose meals and foods for each mealtime that will hit your goals.
Set mealtime goals
Before you create a plan, you need to allocate your calories in the day across mealtimes and then choose foods for each meal that will hit your goals.
We recommend allocation 10% of your daily calories for a "treat" each day so that you can eat foods you enjoy whilst losing weight.
Create a menu
Now you have targets for each meal, you need to choose meals and snacks for each day.
And when it comes to making your menu, there are three options.
Home Cooked Food
Cooking your meals from scratch is the best way to hit your macro targets because you have complete control over the ingredients and serving size that you use. You can also choose the cooking method such as opting to grill foods instead of fry them.
On-The-Go Food
Unfortunately, most of us do not have the luxury of time to be able to cook all your own meals and so we eat food on-the-go. If you are purchasing food on the go, read the labels of everything you buy to work out what combination of food and serving sizes you need (and do not be afraid to only eat half of what you buy!).
Eating Out
Finally, if you are eating out at a restaurant then you have very little control over the nutrition. Try to check the menu in advance for nutrition data, otherwise log onto a food database to see what meals and serving sizes you need. Again, don’t be afraid to ask the server to put sauces on the side or leave some of your food if it is a big portion.
Build a healthy plate
For each meal, you should to try and build ingredients based around your macro goals (protein, fat and carbs). Follow our four step process below.
