How To Make Your Own Diet Plan
There are two ways you can track what you are eating; by establishing a plan (and sticking to it), or by journaling as you go.
Some people like using diet tracking software or websites. They just plug in the foods they've eaten during the day - and make sure they stick within a calorie limit.
I've always found this too time-consuming and prefer setting up a plan in advance. Sometimes it's handy to plan a bunch of different diet plans and simply rotate between them.
Who is this for?
This style of food planning can help if you are:
- The sort of person that plans your finances using a spreadsheet.
- Looking to maintain or lose weight. If you find that when you "wing it" (i.e. no food planning) you start gaining weight - then this approach can help. Having a plan to eyeball from time to time can help to gauge your daily eating.
- Fine with a calorie-controlled diet, are familiar with macro-nutrient ratios, and like repetition.
If you are a person that likes plenty of variety and gourmet meals - then this probably isn't for you.
Here's what you do.
- Load up your spreadsheet software of choice
- Choose some of your foods you are going to be eating and list down nutritional details from the label. For items that don't have a label -- consult an on-line reference such as Nutrition Data, CalorieLab or Diet Facts (good for harder to find items).
- List the grams of carbohydrate, protein and fat.
- At the bottom of the list -- sum the grams and create a new row called "Calories". In this row multiply total carbohydrate grams by 4, protein grams by 4 and fat grams by 9. This effectively gives you the total Calories for the day.
You can mix in different foods or delete them. Printout the plans and stick them on your fridge. It's not so much that you need to follow them to the letter -- but you get a handle on how much you are eating compared with a plan.
Problems
The biggest issue is eating out - whether restaurant, cafe, bakery, deli, or whatever. This type of plan suits if you are going to make or take your lunch to work.
Taking it Further
I've included a formula for calculating daily calories on the sample spreadsheet (note that this is a guideline only). This allows you to alter variables such as current weight or activity level and get a fresh daily calorie estimation.
Certainly there are many great sites out there for tracking food intake - but that doesn't suit everyone. I've found that having such a plan helps me to get a handle on portion sizes without having to obsessively record every single item of food I eat, sniff, or think about.
Download Sample Diet Plan (right-click, Save As..)
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i used to play sports but now i become a little bit fat i wish to become slim again to play again and i am wiling to becom a champ
ReplyPersonal Dietitian offers dieters a very simple way to make their own diet plans with skills as if you were a dietitian or nutritionist. The "Do-it- Yourself" create your own diet tool they use is fun - not laborious, is reliable (created by dietitians for any dieter) and doesn't involve the complications of knowing how to use spreadsheets. The tool used to plan and create your own diets is called aptly: Plan-A-Meal. This tool is both cost effective for dieters to lose weight or improve their health and more important it is proven to be 85% reliable as measured by unbiased online tracking.
ReplyI agree with mia - SparkPeople is GREAT! It isn't time-consuming at all if you use their features like copying a meal to a different day and having favorite "food groupings." It has been so eye-opening to learn not just about my calories, but about all my nutrients, macronutrient percentages, and how different levels make me feel.
Replyyou are crazy
ReplyI use the website http://www.aidiets.com, you enter in the calories, protein, fat, carbs, how many meals you want to eat in a day and a rough budget and it creates a diet plan for you.
It's also got the standard food logs and weight logs, etc, and it's all free so pretty useful.
Replyi want to loose 10 kg how i dont know im trying everythung its not working and i dont too much but im getting fat day by day pls i need help coz im feeling my self very down,this is not my body ,help
ReplyI know what you mean - I've been trying to lose 30kgs for the last 3years and it sux to be (me - overweight/obese).
Diet Plan Smiet Plan; Spew, barf, cough...cough on Calories, Kilo joules blah blah
What does diet mean to you? To me it means
1. Eating Health
2. Exercise
3. Motivation
4. Will Power
5. Energy
6. Confidence
7. Feeling and looking good
8. Food
But rather than look at the situation all at once, I break it down first (in no particular order). I have a heart-condition and evry time I visit my Cardiologist he always asks, have you been doing any exercise I answer with a sheepish laugh, or smile with "...uh...um chasing after the dog," yup but only for 5 mins then it back on the couch i go. But that was last years answer because now I can happily say, that I've been going to the pools 3 days a week and doing 10 laps (of walking at my own pace). EXERCISE is done, on to the next one.
Food/Eating. I can say no to sweets easier than to fast foods - but I try to find a reason not eat it like 'maybe it fell on the floor' or 'the portion is too big, so if I buy it or eat it half of it will go to waste' or something like that (and yes I am known to waste a lot of food) :O
I do hope this helps you ... and oh u must not forget to smile (consider it your good deed for the day) and recieving a smile is like a silent compliment and you can take it however you like it (Flirting, Politness, or Just Feeling Good)
8) B) :) :D
ReplyI think dieting is like crossing the road - sort of.
1. On the road: You Stop, look both ways and If its safe then you cross.
2. Food-outlets: Stop, you look (and think 'should I or shouldn't I?') If it is safe, then you buy or eat it.
Or door #3 (RISK IT) Run across the street and hope u won't get hit or Vege out and hope u won't gain too much weight. :)
Replyi am 10 and weigh 79kgs and i wanna be 50 or 60 kilos by christmas . i wish that anyone with tips for me please email me with ANY tips thanks
your sincerly
ellie
ReplyI've resonated with many of the comments here.....especially that it is a pain to make a big list of food items and their fat protein carb content....and it can be a pain wading through 10,000 ingredients on the commercial websites.
I found a spreadsheet that does this for most healthy unprocessed foods, from an Australian physiologist. It is by far the most detailed xls I have seen and has worked beautifully for me. I dropped my weight from 102kg to 95 in 3 weeks. That's 7kg (15.4lb). I still have another 12kg (26lb) to go.
What I like about it is you can calculate your energy expenditure more accurately than with most internet calculators, you can choose a pre designed menu plan and personalize it, you can plot your actual vs predicted weight, you can count Cals for your daily intake.
It doesn't have a lot of processed and fast foods listed, just the healthier stuff. But you can add anything you want to its ingredients list...
The spreadsheet is on an Australian vegetarian forum (vegsoc.org.au) If you google "diet planner spreadsheet", it comes up as the 7th or 8th result.
Well worth a look at.
Reply