Creating Your Own Meals Plans

The value of customizable meal plans is how the major health plan programs work. They make money giving you weight loss advice and by on supplying portion-controlled food to you. Most people who do these food programs lose weight. But do they keep it off? Generally, no, because the weight losers are having someone do the portions and he/she is not learning to choose portions.

Our recommendations for creating your own meal plans are:

Diet-blog is one of our top 5 best reocmmendations for all diet/weight loss information. The site has a rundown on all the pros and cons for each diet plan that they research. The link for meal planning is here.

USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has a chart the will tell you the amount of each food group that you need daily inorder to maintain your present weight. This gives you the basic starting point for what you need to begin tracking your food intake.

WikiAnswers suggests:

"In establishing a meal plan first ensure why you want to do this in the first place. Is it an attempt at healthier eating or as a weight loss tool?"

"You should also get help in determining your body fat percentage. This will guide you in the amount of calories you can consume without storing excess unused calories as fat. The less bodyfat means that your body will be more efficient at using any excess calories and conversely a higher body fat percentage results in a slower rate of burning calories (metabolic rate)."

"Plan your meals around your activity level. If you lead a more sedentary lifestyle you should try to consume fewer calories and the more active your lifestyle the number of calories consumed can be higher. Be sure to include complex carbs in your meals as your body burns them more efficiently. To use the old adage 'Eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince for Lunch and a Pauper for dinner' ."

"Plan smaller meals as the day progresses. This is because your body will have less time to burn the calories consumed. An average of 5 meals a day should be fine, a small bowl of fruit can be considered a meal so too , a bowl of vegetables."

"Avoid: Cheese, fruits at night, oily foods (trans fat or not)and high carb meals (you don't need to have a lot of carbs at every meal)."

The current fad today (Feb. 2008) is toward mini-meals. Get some tips from Refrigerator Raid.

Changing Shape has suggestions to create your own low fat healthy meal plan.

The state of Vermont has a pdf chart to build your own meal plan.