How To Create Your Own Easy Meal Planner For Weight Loss

Some popular diets come with their own meal planners. But if you are going it alone and attempting to employ the best possible principles for good nutrition then your meal planner for weight loss can be considerably more challenging. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot create your own planner.

In assembling your meal planner you should first consider your diet requirements. In the following example we will be building a healthy diet that is low in calories and fat. The daily caloric intake will be in the 1200 – 1400 calorie range and fat grams will be held to around 15.

The nice thing about this system is that you can continue to add to it as you gain new insight into new foods and food combinations that you can have on your diet. The more variety the better. Also be certain to strive for recipes and meals that are super easy…that is unless you are Gordon Ramsey or Paula Dean.

Your Meal Planner for Weight Loss will consist of 2 charts: the Recipe Guide and the Master Meal Planner.

Step 1 – Create the Recipe Guide

You will need 5 columns across the top of your page as follows:

Meal # | Meal Type | Preparation | Calories | Fat

As you create meals for your diet they are assigned a number and go under the heading, Meal #. Following the Meal # you will enter the Meal Type.

For the purpose of this exercise we are using 4 different Meal Types: Wake Up Meals, Energy Meals, Power Meals, and Wind Down Meals.

And then in the Preparation column you will enter notes that you need to remember for the preparation of each meal.

In the calories and fat columns you will enter restrictions based on Meal Types. Totals don’t have to be exact but should be as close as you can get them to those represented below:

Wake Up Meals = 200 Calories and 2 Fat Grams (Healthy meals to get your day started without coffee. Invest in a good juicer.)

Energy Meals = 200 Calories and 2 Fat Grams (Healthy high energy fruits to be eaten raw.)

Power Meals = 400 Calories and 5 Fat Grams (This is lunch. Go for fresh, high fiber, vegetables, and nuts. If you eat meat make it white. No white bread or white rice.)

Wind Down Meals = 300 Calories and 2 Fat Grams (Stick to your vegetables. Again if you must have meat… make it white. Once in a while treat yourself to a small serving of red meat but leave it alone if you can.

One more note on these meals. At no time should you consume soft drinks of any kind.

Step 2 – Create the Master Planner Action Cards

Master Planner Action Cards are actually very simple to create. You are simply taking the information that you entered in the Recipe Guide and plugging it into the Master Planner Action Cards.

Master Planner Action Cards help us regulate the foundational principles of our diet. In this case we are building our restrictions around calories and fat which were planned out in the Recipe Guide. Further, those restrictions will be based on healthy food choices. Finally, we will build our diet on 6 small meals per day instead of 3 big meals.

As far as how many cards you will need I recommend a minimum of 14. However, the more cards you construct the more variety you will have built into your diet.

Across the top of the each card create 3 columns and use the following headings:

Time | Meal Type | Meal #

In the Time column you will want to enter times that work best in your daily schedule. I use the times: 7AM, 9AM, 11:30AM, 1:30PM, 3:30PM, and 6:00PM.

In the second column called Meal Type you will select from the 4 Meal Types that you used to create your Recipe Planner. (Only one Power Meal and one Wind Down Meal per day.) And in the 3rd column, Meal #, you will enter the corresponding meal from you’re Recipe Planner. So each card will look something like this:

7AM | Wake Up Meal | #1
9AM | Energy Meal | #10
11:30AM | Power Meal | #15
1:30PM | Energy Meal | #11
3:30PM | Energy Meal | #12
6:00PM | Wind Down Meal #20

Finally, use a marker to number each card. And then align your cards to suit your mood. Change it up, shuffle the cards, and add new ones.
Now, this may seem like a lot of trouble…but actually it is quite simple. After years of trying everybody elses diets I decided that I could put together my own based on all that I had learned about healthy eating and that best suited my palate. Remarkably, mine actually took the weight off and kept it off.

Put together your own meal planner for weight loss. And after you have had success, write a book about it, and sell your diet. You will have already created it by using this system. Let me know how it works out for you.

By: Richard Weirich

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Richard Weirich co-hosts the internationally popular Health at Last Radio and has written numerous publications on weight loss, health, and wellness. To find out more about the meal planner for weight loss you can visit the author's website here.