The Definitive Guide to Effective Meal Planning
Whether you’re looking to lose weight or build muscle, your meal planning is going to be a major factor in whether you achieve your goals or not.
There are quite a few downsides to improper meal planning, such as…
You fail to lose or gain weight as desired.
You gain weight too quickly, or lose weight too quickly, resulting in either excessive fat storage or muscle loss.
You get sick of bland foods, making compliance harder and harder as time goes on.
You have to battle hunger and cravings.
You have trouble following a prescribed pattern of meal frequency.
You fail to use nutrient timing to your advantage.
And more…
The bottom line is a poor meal plan will stick you in a frustrating rut, and keep you spinning your wheels until you finally give up.
On the other hand, effective meal planning makes building muscle or losing fat consistently enjoyable, and more importantly, sustainable. That is, you’re able to make a true long-term lifestyle change, not a burdensome quick fix that will lead to yo-yo dieting and other aggravations.
In this article, I’m going to share with you various meal planning tips that have served me well in my own meal planning as well as the custom meal plans me and my team make for others.
Meal Planning Made Easy Tip #1:
Calculate Your Daily Calorie Intake Correctly
If you get this wrong, nothing else matters. You will not lose weight or build muscle effectively.
And unfortunately, thanks to all kinds of bad advice out there, many people find this vital first step confusing. But it doesn’t have to be.
Total Calorie Intake and Weight Loss
If you want to focus on losing fat, you need to feed your body less energy (via food) than it burns every day, as measured in calories (which represent the energy potential of food).
This is known is creating a “calorie deficit,” and when you do this, your body will dip into its fat stores to obtain the extra energy it needs.
Maintaining a daily or weekly calorie deficit will, over time, result in an overall reduction of body fat percentage, and is the only way to do this. (Click here to tweet this!)
Now, you may be wondering how large this deficit should be. How much less energy should you be feeding your body compared to what it needs?
Well, while many weight loss diets rely on large calorie restrictions (eating very little every day), this is not the smart way to go about it. Such an approach has quite a few negative side effects, such as metabolic damage, excessive muscle loss, extreme irritableness, and more.
Instead, you want to put your body in a mild calorie deficit.
Specifically, you want to feed your body about 20% less calories than it burns every day. If you do this, you will lose 1 – 2 pounds per week, every week, while preserving your metabolic health, energy levels, mental balance, and mood.
Calculating Daily Calorie Intake for Weight Loss
The first step of calculating your calorie needs for weight loss is determining, with some accuracy, how much energy you’re burning every day.
Some methods of doing this involve tracking and inputting types of physical activity ranging from sitting idle to intense exercise. While this works, I’ve found it unnecessarily complicated.
Instead, I recommend you use a simple, three-step method:
1. Use the Katch McArdle formula to determine how much energy your body burns every day excluding physical activity.
This is known as your basal metabolic rate or BMR.
2. Multiply that number as follows:
By 1.2 if you exercise 1-3 hours per week.
By 1.35 if you exercise 4-6 hours per week.
By 1.5 if you exercise 6+ hours per week.
The resulting number will be a fairly accurate measurement of the total amount of energy your body is burning every day, generally known as your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE.
Oh and in case your’e wondering why those multipliers are lower than the standard Katch McArdle multipliers and other similar models elsewhere on the Net, it’s simply because the standard Katch McArdle multipliers are too high.
Unless you have an abnormally fast metabolism, your TDEE will come out high using the standard multipliers and you’ll wonder why you can’t lose weight.
3. Multiply your TDEE by .8 to create a 20% calorie deficit.
By eating 80% of your TDEE, you are creating the mild calorie deficit required for consistent, healthy weight loss.
Total Calorie Intake and Building Muscle
Many people don’t know that total calorie intake has just as much to do with building muscle as losing fat.
How many calories you eat every day has a profound effect on your body’s ability to build muscle efficiently. (Click here to tweet this!)
You see, the biological factor known as “energy balance” is vitally important to the physiological processes that result in muscle growth.
When your body is in a “negative energy balance,” this means you’re feeding it less energy than it burns. This results in weight loss. But it also impairs the body’s ability to synthesize muscle proteins.
The body simply can’t build muscle efficiently when it’s in a calorie deficit, and this is why it’s commonly accepted that you can’t build muscle and lose fat. (Although under the right circumstances, some people can.)
Now, when you want to focus on building muscle, the first rule you must obey is you can’t be in a calorie deficit. (Click here to tweet this!)You want your body in a slight calorie surplus, or in a state of “positive energy balance.”
This is true regardless of the dietary protocol you use. If you’re in a calorie deficit several days per week, you will build little-to-no muscle unless you’re brand new to weightlifting.
Calculating Daily Calorie Intake for Building Muscle
As you’ve probably guessed, this a simple matter of multiplying your TDEE by a number greater than 1 to create a slight calorie surplus.
This is known as “bulking,” and while many calculation methods prescribe sky-high intake numbers, I don’t recommend this.
Large calorie surpluses will not help you build muscle faster–they will simply make you fatter faster. (Click here to tweet this!)
This additional fat storage is not only sore to eyes, it will mean slower muscle growth while bulking, and and ultimately more time spent cutting, which further slows down total muscle growth over time.
Instead, I recommend you start with a slight surplus and see how your body responds (tip #5). You can always adjust upward if necessary.
Meal Planning Made Easy Tip #2:
Calculate Your Macronutrient Ratios Correctly
Once you’ve got your total calorie needs worked out, the next thing to look at is macronutrient ratios.
The reason why is while calories eaten vs. calories burned is the fundamental rule of weight loss or weight gain, how you get those calories is very important as well.
First, let’s look at the definition of macronutrient, or “macro” as it’s often called:
A macronutrient is any of the nutritional components of the diet that are required in relatively large amounts: protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous.
The macronutrients we’re concerned with in particular here are protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
One gram of protein and one gram of carbohydrate contain about 4 calories, and one gram of fat contains about 9, and you must use these numbers to turn your daily calorie target into daily macronutrient targets.
There are way too many theories on optimal macronutrient ratios out there, so let’s stick to clinical research. Here are the facts:
A high-protein diet is extremely effective for maintaining muscle while in a calorie deficit and maximizing muscle growth while in a calorie surplus.
This shouldn’t come as any big surprise. As you’ll see, however, you don’t necessarily need to eat as much protein as some people think.
Carbohydrates don’t make you fat–they too help you preserve and build muscle.
Whether you want to lose or gain weight, carbohydrates are your friend. Why? There are two reasons:
The first reason relates to a substance known as glycogen, which is a form of energy our body produces from carbohydrate, and which is stored primarily in the liver and muscles.
Weightlifting rapidly drains your muscles’ glycogen stores, and replenishing those stores to ensure your muscles remain “full” of glycogen improves performance and reduces exercise-induced muscle breakdown.
The second reason relates to the hormone insulin, which is released by the pancreas when you eat food, and which shuttles nutrients from your blood to your cells.
When you eat a good portion of carbs, this stimulates a relatively long and sustained release of insulin. Insulin doesn’t directly induce protein synthesis like amino acids do, it does have anti-catabolic properties.
What that means is it decreases the rate of protein breakdown, which creates a more anabolic environment in which muscle can grow faster.
This isn’t just theory–it’s been proven in clinical research. One study, conducted by McMaster University, compared high- and low-carbohydrate dieting with subjects engaging in regular exercise. The result? Subjects following the low-carb diet experienced increased protein breakdown rates and reduced protein synthesis rates, resulting in less overall muscle growth.
Eat enough dietary fat to support basic health, but high-fat dieting isn’t the way of the future.
This probably warrants its own article, but I’ll keep it brief here.
Your body needs a certain amount of dietary fat to support various physiological processes related to cell maintenance, hormone production, insulin sensitivity, and more.
According to the Institute of Medicine, adults should get 20 – 35% of their daily calories from dietary fat.
That said, these recommendations are based on the calorie needs of the average, sedentary person. Regular exercise can allow you to eat a lot more than the average person without gaining fat. Furthermore, if you’re increasing your calories for muscle-building purposes,you’re going to be eating far more than the numbers assumed for the IOM’s recommendations.
The point this is: your body only needs so many grams of fats per day, and based on the research I’ve seen, if you exercise regularly, dietary fat can comprise 20 – 35% of your BMR calories and you’ll be fine.
Now, let’s talk a moment about high-fat dieting. (By the way, a diet that has you getting 20% or less of your daily calories from fat is a low-fat diet, and a diet that has you getting 30% or more is a high-fat diet.)
Many high-fat advocates will say that it provides significant hormonal benefits which in turn help you build muscle faster, but this isn’t exactly true.
Yes, research has shown that switching from a low-fat diet to a high-fat diet can increase anabolic hormone levels…but not by much.
For example, one study showed that men getting 41% of daily calories from fat had 13% more free testosterone than man getting just 18% of daily calories from fat. The findings were similar to those of another study conducted a decade earlier.
But wait, you might be thinking…more testosterone means more muscle growth, right? Ironically the answer is no.
Research has shown that small fluctuations of testosterone within physiological normal ranges doesn’t help or hinder your gains in the gym. Increasing your testosterone above the ranges of physiological normal definitely does accelerate muscle and strength growth, however (this is what certain steroids accomplish).
So, with that now under our belts, let’s look at what you’re losing when you increase fat intake to 30%+ of your daily calories: carbohydrate. You have to reduce your carbohydrate intake to make room for those fats. And you have to reduce it quite a bit because, as you know, a gram of fat contains over double the calories of a gram of carbohydrate.
For example, if you’re eating 2,500 calories per day with 30% of calories from protein, 50% from carbohydrate, and 20% from fat, that looks like this (approximately):
190 grams of protein
310 grams of carbohydrate
55 grams of fat
If you switched to 30% of calories from protein, 40% from fat, and 30% from carbohydrate, it would look like this:
190 grams of protein
190 grams of carbohydrate
110 grams of fat
I can guarantee you that you will feel stronger in and have more energy for your workouts on the first, higher-carb diet. This, in turn, means you will be able to push more weight in those workouts, and thus build more muscle and strength (which is exactly what the study I cited earlier by McMaster University found).
On the other hand, all the high-fat diet would get you in a small increase in testosterone, which you may slightly feel in terms of vitality and sex drive, but which will most definitely not benefit your training.
Calculating Proper Macronutrient Ratios
Alright then, let’s get to the goods: how should you set up your macronturient ratios in your meal planning? My recommendations are very simple.
When you’re in a calorie deficit, get 40% of daily calories from protein, 40% from carbohydrate, and 20% from fat.
This gives you the benefits of a high-protein diet, it gives you plenty of carbs to help maintain your strength, and enough dietary fat to support basic physiological needs.
When you’re in a calorie surplus, limit your protein intake to 1 gram per pound of body weight, get 20% of your daily calories from fat, and get the rest from carbohydrate.
This provides plenty of protein for muscle growth, more than enough fat for basic physiological needs, and a lot of carbs to help you push heavy weights and stimulate growth.
Meal Planning Made Easy Tip #3:
Eat Foods You Like
There are far too many myths regarding foods you “can and can’t” eat when you’re trying to lose or gain weight. Instead of trying to address them one by one, I’m going to keep it simple for you:
When it comes to gaining or losing weight, HOW MUCH you eat is what matters most–not WHAT. (Click here to tweet this!)
So long as you stick to your daily macronutrient targets, regardless of the foods you eat to get there, your body will respond by gaining or losing weight accordingly.
Now, that isn’t to say that you should try to eat as much junk food as possible. Remember that our bodies don’t need food just for protein, carbohydrate, and fat–food also provides vital micronutrients that keep us healthy, vital, and disease-free.
For instance, the majority of my calories come from nutrient-dense foods, like the following:
Avocados
Greens (chard, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach)
Bell peppers
Brussels sprouts
Mushrooms
Baked potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Berries
Low-fat yogurt
Eggs
Seeds (flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower)
Beans (garbanzo, kidney, navy, pinto)
Lentils, peas
Almonds, cashews, peanuts
Barley, oats, quinoa, brown rice
Salmon, halibut, cod, scallops, shrimp, tuna
Lean beef, lamb, venison
Chicken, turkey
As you can see, that’s a lot of yummy options. I’m not trying to suffer through 5 servings of boiled chicken and steamed broccoli every day.
So, do yourself a favor when you’re creating your meal plan and stick to healthy foods you actually like to eat. Use a website like CalorieKing to research their macronutrient profiles, and piece your meal plan together meal by meal.
And don’t be afraid to include little indulgences–they’re just calories you work in. For instance, I really like chocolate, so I often include about 100 – 150 calories’ worth of it as a dinner dessert.
Meal Planning Made Easy Tip #4:
Meal Scheduling 101
I have good news for you:
You don’t have to eat meals on any set schedule to lose weight or build muscle efficiently. A proper meal schedule is one that fits your schedule. (Click here to tweet this!)
You see, meal frequency has little relevance on actual results. You can eat 3 meals per day or 9 and achieve the same thing if you’re doing everything else right in terms of your calorie intake, macronutrient ratios, and exercise regimen.
That said, unless you definitely prefer fewer meals, or must eat fewer due to your schedule/lifestyle, I actually do recommend you plan to eat every 3 – 4 hours. Why? Because in my experience, most people find this easiest in terms of overall enjoyment, and staving off hunger when cutting and getting in enough food when bulking.
In terms of meal timing, there are only two meals I recommend you “time”:
Unless you’re training fasted, have 30 grams of protein and 30 – 50 grams of carbohydrate before your weightlifting. This will not only give you a nice boost of energy for your workouts, it can help you build more muscle over time. You don’t necessarily need food before cardio, but 20 grams of protein isn’t a bad idea as it will help minimize muscle loss.
Have 30 – 50 grams of protein and about 30% of your daily carbs in your post-workout meal. This will help your body replenish depleted glycogen stores and can also help you build more muscle over time.
That’s it. The rest of your meals can be timed however you please, so just work it around your preferences and schedule. Again, you will probably find a smaller meal every few hours most enjoyable, but feel free to experiment.
You can also play with when you start eating for the day.If you like eating breakfast, eat one. If you don’t, and would prefer to wait until lunch before you start eating, you can do that too. Sometimes skipping that first meal (which will not “make you fat,” like some people claim) helps with overall compliance as it allows you to eat larger meals and still stick to your numbers.
Meal Planning Made Easy Tip #5:
Adjust Based on Your Results
The bottom line of meal planning is this: is your body responding as you desire or not?
To be specific, here is what you want to see:
If you’re dieting to lose weight, you want to lose 1 – 2 pounds per week. Unless you’re very overweight, consistently losing more than this every week means you’re probably losing muscle too.
If you’re dieting to build muscle, you want to gain .5 – 1 pounds per week. If you’re consistently gaining more than this every week, you’re gaining more fat than is necessary.
One thing you should know with weight measurements, however, is they can fluctuate on a daily basis, mainly due to water retention. This is more of an issue for women, but your body can retain or shed quite a bit of water throughout the day, and this can sometimes obscure your fat loss or exaggerate your weight gain.
One way around this is to weigh yourself every day, and then average it once every 7 – 10 days (total your weights for those days and divide by the number of days).
What you see in the mirror will also tell you if you’re making progress, but this can be deceptive as you tend to miss the small changes in your body when you look at yourself every day. Weekly pictures are more reliable.
Yet another way to check progress is to take key measurements.
When it comes to weight loss, the waist measurement (around the navel) is most important and indicative of progress.
When it comes to muscle building, there are several measurements you can take, which are explained in my article on how to build the ideal male body.
Now, if your body is progressing as desired, you keep doing what you’re doing. If, however, your weight is stuck or going up too quickly, you need to make a change.
If you’re not losing weight, and you’ve taken measures to ensure it’s not an issue of water retention, then you have to move more or eat less.
The most exercise I recommend when dieting for weight loss is about 5 hours of weightlifting and 2 – 3 hours of cardio per week. You can increase activity to this level, but if you’re already there, you need to shave off some calories.
I like to do this in 100 – 150-calorie increments. That is, I increase or decrease my daily calorie intake by 100 – 150, and see how my body responds over the next 7 – 10 days. If that corrects the problem, great; if it doesn’t, I increase or decrease again until I’ve got it.
If you’re not gaining weight, and you’re training properly (focusing on heavy, compound weightlifting), then you need to eat more food.
It’s really that simple. And I recommend you increase your calories in the same 100 – 150-calorie increments until you find your body’s “sweet spot” that allows for .5 – 1 pounds gained per week.
Remember that part of this game is learning your body, and your metabolism in particular. Some people need to eat quite a bit more or less food than others to gain muscle or lose fat consistently.
Examples of Good Meal Planning
If your head is hurting at this point and you want to see what a good meal plan looks like, I’ve got you covered.
Here are a few examples of meal plans we make for people. They should help you:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4Jm09OF3tkYNjQwaTJTUTQ1NUU/edit?usp=sharing
Making your own meal plan make take a little time at first, but once you get the hang of it, it gets very easy and is something you can even learn to do on the fly using an application like My Fitness Pal.
Would You Rather Have a Meal Plan Made For You?
If you’d rather just have a perfect meal plan made for you–one that will help you build muscle or lose fat while actually enjoying the foods you eat–then I and my team can help.
We’ve done hundreds of meal plans for people all over the world, and make them completely custom to you and your preferences, schedule, and lifestyle (no copy and paste junk plans here).
What did you think of this guide on meal planning? Have anything else you’d like to add? Let me know in the comments below!
How to get lean and build serious muscle and strength, faster than you ever thought possible…
Depending on how you eat, train, and rest, building muscle and losing fat can be incredibly easy or incredibly hard. Unfortunately, most people make many different mistakes that leave them stuck in a rut.
And that’s why I wrote Bigger Leaner Stronger for men, and Thinner Leaner Stronger for women: they lay out EVERYTHING you need to know about diet and training to build muscle and lose fat effectively…
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