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Meal planning – why should you plan?


TL;DR:

  • Meal planning promotes healthier eating, saves time, money, and reduces food waste.
  • Balanced meals reduce unhealthy snacking and ensure proper nutrients for better well-being.
  • Start small: introduce gradual changes and focus on familiar foods.
  • Calculate daily caloric needs using BMR (based on gender, age, height, etc.) and physical activity.
  • Distribute macronutrients (carbs, fats, protein) and calories across 5 daily meals: breakfast (20-25%), lunch (35-40%), etc.
  • Choose minimally processed foods, low in sugars, and rich in vitamins/minerals.
  • Exclusion/medical condition diets (e.g., gluten-free, thyroid-support) should always be specialist-approved to avoid health risks.
  • Nutritionists tailor diets based on health, lifestyle, and preferences, ensuring accuracy and dietary education.
  • Regular nutritionist visits help maintain a balanced diet aligned with goals and health needs.

Nowadays, we quite often live in a hurry, and as a result, we happen to reach for random food. The products we choose when we are already feeling hungry are usually unhealthy choices, with a lot of simple sugars, or are ready-made meals that can be prepared very quickly. Meal planning allows us to take more control over what we eat and, as a result, switch to a healthier lifestyle, take care of our figure, or increase consumer awareness. Meal planning takes effort at first, but over time it becomes a habit and we stop noticing. We explain why it's important to plan your meals sensibly throughout the day.

What is worth knowing about?

Meal planning and healthy eating, although it seems difficult to some, is not so at all, as long as we have information related to why and how to do it. Meal planning not only saves time and health, but also saves money, as we do not make random and often inappropriate shopping choices. Although the beginnings can sometimes be difficult, as time passes, any activity related to planning and executing plans becomes a habit. Then we begin to perform it automatically. Meal planning is intended to make our lives easier, not harder. So it is worthwhile to familiarize ourselves with some of the regularities that are associated with the proper composition of the diet:

  • Properly composed, balanced meals reduce the need for snacking and make it easier to refrain from reaching for unhealthy snacks.
  • Meal planning saves money not only on store visits, but also minimizes the amount of food thrown away.
  • By being in control of what you eat, you have the ability to achieve your chosen goals, whether related to weight, fitness, or body shape.
  • By planning your meals, you can ensure that you eat a variety of foods and provide all the necessary micro and macronutrients, and consequently significantly improve your well-being.
  • Planned shopping and meals mean less time spent in the store and minimizing the time spent in the kitchen.
  • Composing attractive meals will make following a diet a pleasure instead of a difficulty.

Where to start?

Any changes are best made gradually. Small, slowly introduced changes make it almost imperceptible to persevere from a difficult resolution. In composing appropriate meals, you should be guided mainly by what you like to eat. **Do not start composing a diet with ingredients that are completely new to you, as such an approach will make the task unnecessarily difficult. It is worth thinking about what we want our diet to look like – should it simply be healthy and balanced? Maybe we want to go on a thyroid support diet, diabetes, reflux disease, or other exclusion diet? A healthy and balanced diet can be composed on its own, while arranging a diet to address specific medical conditions or an exclusion diet is much better entrusted to a specialist. The steps to take when composing a diet on your own are:

  • Calculating your daily caloric needs,
  • Calculating the appropriate proportions of macronutrients to suit our needs,
  • Calculating the proportions that each meal will occupy in the daily requirement,
  • Recalculating the caloric and macronutrient distribution in each of the products we intend to use in planned meals and adjusting these values to the percentage distribution for each meal in the daily requirement,
  • Composing and arranging the meals.

Daily caloric requirements

Self-arranging a diet should start with calculating caloric requirements, along with taking into account our daily physical activity and basal metabolism (BMR). Basal metabolism determines the amount of calories the body needs to sustain vital functions. BMR is calculated based on gender, weight, height, and age. It is most often calculated using formulas or special BMR calculators. The overall caloric requirement also depends on other factors such as gender, weight, height, age, health status, activity level, medications taken, and many other individual and environmental factors. The calculated value is always only an approximate value and is different for people who plan to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight. If the expected results of the diet are not achieved, add or subtract about 200 kcal and observe the changes that occur.

Proportions of macronutrients and meals in the diet.

Once you have determined the calories, you should establish the proportions of macronutrients and, optionally, micronutrients that are appropriate for you. Macronutrients are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Each of these components has a separate and very important function in the proper functioning of the body. There are some universal values of macronutrients that you can start with, but if you plan to reduce or gain mass, you need to modify them slightly, according to your needs. Some people also include micronutrients in their calculations, but this is a bit more difficult and requires a lot more time and work. Next, it is necessary to calculate the proportion that each meal will occupy in the daily caloric intake. It is assumed that it is best to eat 5 meals a day. In this case, it is assumed that we should allocate about 20-25% of the daily requirement to breakfast, about 5-10% to second breakfast, 35-40% to lunch, another 5-10% to afternoon tea, and 15-20% to dinner.

Meal planning

Once the calculations are complete, you can move on to meal planning. When planning each meal, it is necessary to take into account the previously calculated values for calories and macronutrients, in individual products and meals, so that the meals of the whole day correspond to the caloric requirements we calculated and the distribution of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. To do this, pay attention to the values we find on the packages of purchased products. The distribution and caloric content are usually given by suggested servings of the product or per 100g/100ml. Thus, it is necessary to convert the grammage of the product to its amount that we intend to use in a meal, and then the percentage of each composed meal in the daily requirement. It is worth remembering that the products selected, in addition to the caloric adequacy, percentage distribution, and macronutrient distribution, should be:

  • Rich in all necessary minerals and vitamins,
  • As little processed as possible,
  • Should contain as little simple sugars as possible,
  • And focus on unsaturated fats.

Exclusion diets and diets tailored to medical conditions

Exclusion diets may involve eliminating particular food groups in the diet for worldview reasons (vegetarianism, veganism, etc.) or for reasons related to food sensitivities to certain food groups, e.g., products containing lactose or gluten. Diets tailored to medical conditions also often exclude certain groups of products that may interact with medications taken or adversely affect, for example, the endocrine or cardiovascular systems. Depending on the condition, there are entire lists of products to avoid, as well as products recommended for a particular ailment. Matching the right diet to the needs of each condition is incredibly important, as it allows you to reduce unpleasant gastrointestinal and skin discomforts, as well as aid in healing. Following the right dietary recommendations can also delay the development of many diseases in their early stages. Such diseases include, for example, diabetes or Hashimoto's. Thus, it is worth following a healthy diet for preventive purposes, as well as for delaying aging and staying in the best shape possible. Keep in mind that all exclusion diets and diets that are designed to address the specifics of a particular condition should always be consulted with a specialist!

Diet vs. visiting a specialist

If doing the appropriate calculations and arranging meals seems too time-consuming or complicated, you can entrust this task to a nutritionist, who will take into account the patient's preferences and eating habits, as well as all other relevant individual factors. Exclusion diets, or diets to support the treatment of diseases, should always be consulted with a specialist! Failure to consult in such a case can lead to deficiencies, anemia, malnutrition, the development of concomitant diseases, or other, often dangerous ailments. Attempts to arrange such diets on one's own can be particularly dangerous, as information found on the Internet is often inaccurate or unreliable. A nutritionist has the necessary qualifications and skills in this area and has much more experience and knowledge. Visit OT.CO Clinic for professional nutritional advice and personalized diet plans.

What does a visit to a nutritionist look like?

For a dietetic consultation, you should bring current blood test results for review and prepare information about our health status, medications taken, level of physical activity, eating habits, and preferences. The dietitian performs all the calculations for us and will adjust the diet according to all the factors related to the state of health, as well as other important practical issues and preferences of the patient. The nutritionist conducts a thorough interview with the patient and then proceeds to construct a perfectly tailored diet. Visits to the nutritionist should initially be regular. Later, only significant changes in the diet or a complete change in its profile should be consulted. In addition to presenting the patient with a specific menu, the dietician's main task is to teach the patient how to eat properly, how to change his lifestyle, what supplementation to introduce, and to answer all nagging questions.

Conclusion

Meal planning is the key to eating healthier, saving time, and spending less. While it may seem overwhelming at first, small, gradual changes can make it manageable. By balancing nutrients, planning meals thoughtfully, and reducing food waste, you gain better control over your health and goals. For specific conditions or exclusion diets, consulting a nutritionist ensures safety and success. Planning meals isn't just about food; it's about creating a sustainable lifestyle that works for you. Start simple, stay consistent, and let meal planning transform the way you eat for the better.