In this article, I’ll break down everything you need to know about creating your own weight loss meal plan and how to make it work for you.

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When you get that dose of motivation to take control of your health and fitness and launch into a new fat loss program, it’s exciting … and overwhelming.

You’ve got tons of knowledge at your fingertips to develop the perfect plan of action for losing weight, looking your best and feeling great.

On the flip side, there’s just so much information that it can be daunting trying to discern which approach is right for you … or which diet is the most effective … or what workout program is the perfect fit for your goals.

Information overload can lead to lack of overall action. This is called paralysis by analysis. You simply get stuck in neutral trying to determine the best path to take because there are so many paths.

But here’s what you know, since you follow me and have been equipped with only the most important nuggets of knowledge. In order to lose weight, you must:

• Establish a calorie deficit (i.e., eat fewer calories than you burn)
• Practice some kind of resistance training based on getting stronger
• Try to get an ample amount of protein to preserve that hard-earned lean muscle tissue
• Aim to move around and walk a little more throughout your day
• Prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods for most of your meals

That last bullet point––the one about prioritizing the right foods––that’s the one that can be overwhelming to the new dieter. What foods? When should you eat them? Are there foods that are off limits?

“Can’t you just create a meal plan for me and tell me what to eat?”

Welp, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. I’m going to break down how to create a weight loss meal plan for yourself. One that is sustainable and effective and adaptable to your goals and lifestyle.

We’ll cover:

• Who benefits most from a meal plan
• The pros and cons of following a weight loss meal plan
• How to get started with your own meal plan
• My 3 x 3 method for creating your own fat loss meal plan

Let’s get into it.

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The Pros and Cons of creating a weight loss meal plan

Alright, I’m going to put this bluntly, I’m just not a big fan of the meal plan idea. It’s not something I offer to my online coaching clients. And despite not offering weight loss meal plans for my fat loss clients, they still see amazing results.

However there are times when creating a weight loss meal plan might be the best option. And that’s what I want to talk about today.

In the most generic sense, a meal plan is typically a roadmap that tells you exactly what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat it.

Let’s get into the pros and cons of this.

Who can benefit from a weight loss meal plan? Great question. And the answer is if you check one of the following, you might be a perfect fit if you are …

• Brand new to dieting and have no clue where to start
• Just getting started tracking calories and macros for the first time
• Trying to break away from the chains of consistent yo-yo dieting
• Looking for a structured routine

I do think there can be a place for a meal plan as a way to help give you the training wheels to get started on your weight loss journey. If you are new to this and are choosing to work without the help of a coach to really make those necessary tweaks in your programming and provide consistent guidance, you’d probably benefit from a weight loss meal plan.

Likewise if the idea of calorie counting or dialing in your macros by tracking proteins, carbs and fats every day is too daunting and a non starter for you and your fat loss program. A meal plan would be a decent place to start.

It is the ultimate structured plan and easiest to implement and execute.

Which is why I’m not the biggest fan of the fat loss meal plan for most of my one on one coaching clients.

When your kid brings home a pile of common core math homework, you might sit down and help them work through the problems (okay, more realistically, you think you’re going to help, but the kid ends up explaining it all to you, but I digress).

You don’t go in there with the intent on doing all of her homework for her. You go in there to guide her to find the right answers through the correct methods.

Taking on a meal plan is more like doing your kids’ homework for them. It takes out the little nuances of learning how to manipulate meals and foods to make it work for you. It removes the need to problem solve at the grocery store for the right foods.

This is all a skill, not unlike math. And skills take time and practice to master. You must try and fail and try again to get it right.

Meal plans also don’t really take into consideration your specific tastes and preferences. A major part of staying consistent with a fat loss plan is to take on a nutritional or diet program that can be enjoyable and sustainable. That includes leaving room for foods you like to eat (even the fun foods like donuts or pizzas or wine).

Weight loss meal plans are well-intentioned, but many fall short of providing the most bang for your dietary adherence buck.

So rather than tell you that meal plans suck altogether, I’m actually going to help you out here. Because I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to stop searching for a random “meal plan online for someone eating 1200 calories” and to actually make your own weight loss meal plan.

When you do that, it takes into account your tastes and preferences and adds back that layer of cognitive problem solving where you are putting in the work and practicing this newfound skill. It’s the best of both worlds.

How much food can you eat and still lose weight?

Before you can even start with determining what to eat throughout your day, you’ve got to factor in how much you can eat.

In my article about the perfect weight loss diet, I shared the easy method to calculate method for establishing a calorie deficit. You should go read that if you haven’t already.

The most basic way to get an accurate caloric deficit target for yourself is to utilize your bodyweight and find an appropriate multiplier based on how active you are on a daily basis.

Multiply your CURRENT bodyweight (IN POUNDS) by 10-12

• 10 = completely sedentary (i.e., and office desk job or just sitting on the couch watching way too much Netflix)
• 11 = somewhat active
• 12 = moderately active

Let’s play this out in action.

Rebecca is a mom to two young boys, works an office job and after years of yo-yo dieting, she wants to take back control of her diet and health and lose weight for good. She’s currently 150 pounds and hopes to lose 20 pounds eventually.

Despite the hectic mornings of rushing two kids off to school before she runs to work, Rebecca works a desk job and does not get much movement throughout her day. She’d fall under the sedentary multiplier of our calorie calculator example.

In which case, a caloric deficit can be achieved by taking Rebecca’s current weight in pounds (150) and multiplying that by 10. This gives her a daily target of 1,500 calories.

A good rule of thumb is to allow for a bit of flexibility with this calorie number, that’s why it’s always important to include a bit of a range of about 100-150 calories for Rebecca to hit. So we can set her calorie range at 1,400-1,600 calories per day.

This takes the rigid structure out of the daily battle. Makes things a tad easier knowing there’s a bit of flexibility for days when you’re a little more full than normal, or if you have an oops and go over your target by 50-60 calories, it’s still all good.

Next, you’ve got to find how much protein you need throughout the day.

My lowest protein recommendation is a range of 0.7 to 1.0 grams per pound of your current bodyweight.

More protein (up to about 1.2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight) is okay and won’t cause any issues. Anything more than that is probably not really worth your time.

So going back to our friend, Rebecca, she will track her calories to a 1,500 caloric deficit and her protein with a goal of about 105-120 grams per day (0.7 x 150).

She now has 1,080 calories at her disposal (after her 420 calories of protein) that she can play with on a daily basis.

It doesn’t matter if she fills that up with carbs, fats or some variation of her choosing. As long as she is consistently hitting her calorie target of 1,500 calories per day, she will lose weight.

And as long as she hits that minimum protein goal, Rebecca will keep her hard-earned muscle while still burning fat.

What foods should you include in your weight loss meal plan?

After protein is covered, here’s what you need to eat in order to make this weight loss meal plan as successful and sustainable as possible

Sure, you could just eat like a total asshole and devour cookies, donuts and pizza as the staples of your diet. And as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn (aka, a caloric deficit), you’d still lose weight.

But, I’d wager you wouldn’t look or feel all that awesome.

That’s why it’s important to focus the majority of your diet (80-90 percent) on whole, nutrient-dense, natural foods like vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the occasional sweet treat, glass of wine or random burger. It just means you have to do it in moderation.

Your body will perform best when you choose to eat a diet looks more like this:

• Tons of nutrient-dense, fibrous veggies
• Lean proteins like poultry, tofu, fish and lean beef or pork
• Fruits don’t make you fat, so eat them
• Complex starches like potatoes or winter squashes
• Healthy fat sources like avocado or nuts

Focus on these core foods 80 percent of the time.

Then with the remaining 10-20 percent of your diet/calories, you can enjoy the occasional treat of cookies, wine or chocolate.

You don’t have to be perfect every single day. You just need to be consistent. And when you have a day that’s a tad more flexible than you’d like, just make sure the next day is on point again.

That doesn’t mean trying to make up for the indulgence by completely restricting yourself, or fasting all day, or punishing yourself in the gym. It simply means getting back to your normal way of eating.

When should you eat?

Great question and the answer is that from a pure fat loss perspective, it doesn’t really matter.

If you are a breakfast person and enjoy a big meal to start the day, awesome. Load up on that meal––as long as every fits within your calories and protein.

Alternatively, if breakfast is not really your cup of tea, no worries. You can aim for lighter options to start your day or just skip breakfast altogether and aim for slightly bigger meals with the rest of your options.

You get to make this call, which is why I’m a bigger fan of creating your own weight loss meal plan than having a coach do the work for you.

Here’s the truth: The most optimal, fat loss approved, scientifically-proven time to eat is … whenever it makes sense for your schedule.

Like breakfast? Awesome. Eat up.

Don’t feel like eating until lunch … or even dinner? Cool. You won’t wreck your metabolism because you didn’t eat every 67 minutes and 32 seconds.

The only thing that matters in the End Game of fat loss is calories in versus calories. Manage that balance (no matter what time of day it is) and you will win the war.

It doesn’t matter if you eat all of your 1,500 calories in one meal, or over the course of 15 meals.

As long as 1,500 calories is the number that keeps you in a calorie deficit, that’s all you need to worry about. The rest is just personal preference.

Now, a word of advice on this one: Once you settle into a schedule, it’s important to keep up with that setup and stay within the general timeframes that you choose.

It’s cliche, but our bodies really are creatures of habit. So when you set out to eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m. every single day, your body gets used to this. Even expects it. You’ll notice the hunger pangs kick in during this time if you haven’t eaten.

Hunger pangs are normal and they come with the fat loss journey package. But while being a little hungry is part of the process, your job is to do what you can to mitigate the impact of hunger and cravings and find a few ways to make this diet suck a little less.

Following a general pattern of when you’d like to eat helps the body settle into a circadian rhythm and will help you avoid those cravings.

It’s up to you when you’d like to eat, or how many times you’d like to eat. As long as everything is within the calories and protein that you’ve laid out.

To take this to the next level, it’s time to start breaking down the many foods that you can add to this plan. For that, we go with my special method that I share with online coaching clients.

My 3 x 3 Method for building your own weight loss meal plan

My favorite tip to help you get started on building a grocery list is to adopt the 3×3 Method. You’ll pick 3 Proteins … 3 Carbs … and 3 Veggies to provide the foundation of your meals.

Here are a few examples:

• Salmon -> Broccoli -> Couscous
• Chicken -> Kale -> Brown Rice
• Eggs -> Zucchini -> Oatmeal

Once you get really good at these three options, get creative and mix ’em up a bit. Then eventually add some more foods to your repertoire and you’ll have your own fat loss cookbook in no time. The options are almost endless.

Be sure to tackle your cravings on this list, too. Opt for snack choices that provide more bang for your fat loss buck. Fruit and greek yogurt are perfect. Sure, you can have some fun snack foods, but try to keep most of those trigger foods to a minimum.

And if you are cooking the majority of your meals, always have some extra help on hand in the form of lower calorie condiments (like hot sauce, non-fat spray).

Pro tip: If hitting your protein goals is a task, you might want to look into some protein powder to help.

Building your list this way ensures protein is playing a large role in your diet, along with nutrients from veggies and tons of fiber. It’s the perfect way to accompany a solid fat loss program.

Start small. No need in trying to conquer veal shank osso buco over saffron risotto if you have a hard time cooking pasta in boiling water to a perfect al dente.

Stick to a few recipes and learn them inside and out. Eventually, you get so comfortable in the kitchen with your handful of go-to meals that you won’t even need the instructions.

This is when the magic happens and you get to a Jedi Master level of awareness when you can play around with the ingredients to find even crazier takes on these dishes.

Then you can start playing around with spices. Adding some balsamic vinegar, squirting a pinch of lemon over a finished product or even adding the occasional exotic fruit or vegetable in place of the stapes can really take a dish to the next level.

Enjoy making scrambled eggs? Cool. Make the best scrambled eggs in town and know how to add the best seasoning and spices to turn simple breakfast into a brunch-worthy classic.

Consider chicken to be a palette for creation. A roasted chicken with some lemon and some fresh thyme, tossed with olive oil and thrown in a roasting pan with red potatoes is a dinner for an entire family in about an hour of time.

Once you’ve reached a level of comfort with your easy to prep meals, graduate to some more complex dishes for special occasions, like a romantic evening with your partner, or for when you’re entertaining guests.

The same rule applies here in terms of repetition. Make a culinary complex meal several times to get familiar with it before trotting out your veal shanks in front of company. Just like learning the intricacies of the perfect jump shot in basketball, it takes practice.

Additional tips:

• Whenever possible, buy in bulk to save on the ingredients you’ll need on a weekly basis.
• Take a day to cook several meals for the week that can be packed for lunches or reheated for dinners.
• Or look for larger meals that can create all kinds of leftover options. Roasting a full chicken on Sunday can lead to multiple meals like chicken soup, sandwiches or just pulled chicken over leafy greens for a protein-added punch to your lunch salad.

It’s then up to you to put it all together. And practice. Stop chasing perfection because it might take a while to really hit your groove on this fat loss thing.

But that’s okay, because as long as you are committed to the journey and just keep playing around with things to find what works best for you, that’s how you’ll set yourself up for long term success.

Let me help you create your own weight loss meal plan … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Weight loss meal plan” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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