How to create a meal plan for weight loss, muscle gain, or any fitness goal

Planning your meals is perhaps the most critical component of stabilizing your weight and establishing a solid foundation for any weight loss and fitness goals.

These are the necessary and critical steps in setting up a solid, actionable, and timely Meal Plan for any weight or fitness related goal.

Planning ahead in general is a great practice and cuts out a lot of trial and error and frustration.

With this in mind, those who are allergic to any foods should always seek the direction and guidance of a professional allergist and a professional nutritionist to properly formulate a specific and custom plan of action for healthy and effective weight loss.

There are a number of items and pieces of information you need before you begin to create your meal plan.

1) How many hours during the course of the day are you awake

This information will help you determine how many feedings or meals you will be able to consume overall during the course of a day. IF you sleep for 9 hours, then you will have about 15 hours worth of time that you are awake. If you eat every 5 hours, then you have enough time during the course of the day to eat three times per day.

2) How active will you be with regard to exercise during the course of the week

This information will help you determine the calorie density and consistency of meals for the day. When you exercise, your metabolic rate increases, as do your caloric requirements. This is because of the elevated state of activity and metabolism, and the need for your body to utilize calories to complete the activity and the recovery related to the activity. The more active you are, the higher the caloric requirements to complete the activities and the more calories are required to complete the recovery process. You will, in effect, need to eat a little bit more to accomplish your recovery post workout, usually in the form of a snack or small meal which will immediately follow your exercise.

3) What is your current weight

This information is important in order to determine a baseline for nutrient for three categories: i. For weight maintenance – we will determine how many calories you need at your current activity level for active days and rest days, in order to maintain your weight. ii. For weight loss – we will determine the number of necessary calories at your current activity level for active and rest days necessary for weight loss. iii. For weight gain – we will determine the required number of calories relative to your current activity level for active and rest days necessary for weight gain.

4) What is your current weight loss goal, and over how long of a period of time are you looking to lose this weight

As important as planning is, goal setting is equally as important. Setting a measurable, actionable goal or series of timed goals is critical for your ultimate success. When you set your sights on a goal, and put actionable steps into practice, you can physically see yourself accomplishing these goals one step at a time. Once you begin achieving these goals, you build momentum, confidence, and self-esteem, and you thus enable yourself to set slightly more challenging goals with the same type of actionable steps. As it concerns weight loss, once you have defined and outlined your planning and action steps, all that is really left is to set achievable, timely goals, and then put the action steps into practice. You can then gauge your progress against the timed goals, say 2 lbs per week for the first month, until you achieve your goal for that 1st month, which would be a weight loss goal of 8 lbs.

5) What foods do you like and finding appropriate substitutes for “bad foods”

Knowing the types of foods you like is important in assuring that you will keep to your meal plans. As mentioned above, there should be meal plans for days that you workout, and days that you do not workout. This is for reasons of caloric necessity and expenditure, as you expend less calories on non-workout days and thus you will also be consuming less calories, whereas the purposes for consuming more calories on workout day is to fuel your workout and post workout recovery. Knowing the foods you like will help you make healthy substitutions and will allow you to more properly balance and fill out your meal plan. For instance, if you like sweet tasting foods, you can substitute out the processed and refined sugars with healthier and appropriate fruit alternatives. IF you like dressings and sauces, you can find healthier, less calorie dense alternatives without sacrificing too much on texture and taste.

There are nearly limitless alternatives and possibilities with regard to substitutions and choices regarding creating a meal plan for your fitness goals. Make sure you are decisive and committed to the goals. Ultimately, what will determine your success is not the savings or cost of 10 calories here or there, it is the sum total of your cumulative efforts over the long term – your commitment and courage to “see it through,” getting to the ultimate goal – that is your ultimate success. Once you have achieved that, the lessons that you have learned from along the way will empower you to long lasting success, whether that be maintenance of your newer health weight and lifestyle, or other challenges that you decide to tackle, like climbing a mountain or entering a fitness competition, or marathon. That is for you to decide – you make your ultimate success and you determine destiny your ultimate destiny.

I hope this was helpful in your fitness endeavors! To your ultimate success.

Warmest Regards,

- John Tzor, Spartanfitness.com, Spartan Fitness, LLC.

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