Meal plans sound good on paper, and they work for a while, but before committing to a list of cookie cutters, here's a better option: a flexible diet for sticking results!
As a fan of gymnasts, coaches and health addicts, I am often asked about the concept of meal plans: "What meal plan do you use?" or "Can you give me a meal plan to follow?"
A meal plan is a step-by-step summary of what a person's diet "should" consist of a day or a week or at any time, the designation. A plan typically details the types of foods, the portions, and the time of day that each meal is eaten.
A planned meal can look something like this:
lunch
1/4 cup of brown rice
3 oz. chicken breast
1 cup of spinach
6 raw almonds
1 cup of dandelion tea
Now, I have some problems with this style of diet. Let me take you through them.
Problem 1: There is no Variety
Some people like the idea of a structured plan because they believe that it will hold them accountable and that they will also eliminate the guesswork of eating. Of course, it helps in that way, during the first two or three weeks, but that does not take into account the long term.
What happens when you want to go out to eat with friends? When your husband surprises you with breakfast in bed? When traveling for work? When your children get sick, when it's someone's birthday, or simply, do not you feel like taking a protein shake as your snack?
That is life happening. In a world of dreams, structured meal plans are excellent, but in reality (the world in which I live), meal plans can be extremely rigid, restrictive and, simply, difficult to maintain if you are trying to live a life complete and balanced. . That leads to the next problem.
Problem 2: It is not sustainable
Maybe this sounds familiar: you follow a plan to a T for a while, but you end up hating it. You may see some short-term results, but you are discouraged by the lack of variety and deviate from the plan. So, when you eat something that is not in your plan, you feel like a failure because you could not keep it.
The main problem here is that you aim for perfection, demanding 100% adherence of yourself, until you feel so restricted that you break. And we're not talking about french fries. Do not be surprised if you find yourself deep in a bag of Costco-sized candy and chocolate popcorn with a trail of Oreo crumbs behind you and peanut butter in your hair. Introducing the problem 3.
Problem 3: The Risk of Developing a Messy Food
How many times have you heard someone say (or maybe it's you), "I'm so good during the week, but then I blow them on the weekends". Well, it's not entirely your fault.
Psychologically, the more you deprive yourself, the more you want what you can not have, and when you are too strict for too long, a rigid meal plan can cause some very disordered eating habits and things can get out of control. quickly. When you wake up from those blackouts, you feel guilty, fatigued and disappointed in yourself. Then what do you do? Jump back to the plan that led you to everything in the first place.
"I'll start my meal plan again on Monday and I'll be perfect this time!" And so the cycle continues: diet, abandonment, diet, abandonment, for months or even years until you really learn something about healthy eating. But you will not get that from a meal plan.
Problem 4: Meal Plans Do not Teach You Anything About Nutrition
Nothing is learned about the importance of the macronutrients, micronutrients, fiber, portion control, moderation or caloric balance of a meal plan. At best, a meal plan teaches you how to follow the instructions.
What happens when the meal plan ends or the 4 week challenge ends? What have you learned? You probably do not eat the same five foods for the rest of your life. Did you learn what types of foods or food groups improve your workouts? Did you learn what types of foods help you recover? Did you learn how to read a nutrition label or how to stay on track when your prepared food is not available? Did you learn what foods offer what vitamins and minerals?
In order for your nutrition program to guarantee lifelong success, it must be educational and sustainable.
Program For All Life
If you can not do it for the rest of your life, it's probably not a good idea. That's what I tell my clients, followers or friends when someone asks about the next fad diet. Before submerging yourself in keto, intermittent fasting, paleo or any other nutrition protocol, ask yourself if you can follow it forever. If your answer is not "hell, yes," you probably will not see the lasting results you want.
You need a backup plan, one with which you can support yourself. Introduce the notion of flexible diet.
A flexible diet is not necessarily a "diet", at least not in the way you think. Most people associate diets with food restriction, hunger and misery. That is not what this is.
A flexible diet is an assessment of your caloric needs broken down into appropriate macronutrient targets. These are the amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins needed to optimize the composition and performance of your body. Basically, you have a daily amount of calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins that suit your body, goals, diet history and activity level. You can calculate these numbers using a macro calculator and trace them in a food tracking application.
The diets end, but this will allow you to eat and live in balance. Will you have to track macros for the rest of your life? Of course, no. The idea is to learn the basic but essential principles of nutrition as it progresses.
The Basics of Flexible Diet
Variety. You must eat a variety of foods from each food group to get all the nutrients your body needs. Your daily food selection should include carbohydrates, proteins and fats, as they are essential for your health. You must get them from your diet because the human body can not produce them.
Moderation. You've probably heard before that diet is all about portion control. Flexible diets teach you how to do this, since there are no restrictions on your food choices: everything can and should be eaten in moderation.
Balance. In terms of nutrition, the balance refers to your caloric intake versus your caloric expenditure. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Flexible diets allow you to learn the amount of food you need to reach your goals.
This is not free for everyone, but it will allow you to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. I do not suggest eating junk all the time, but I encourage you to concentrate on eating whatever you want within reason, as long as it fits your daily allowance of calories and macronutrients. A good starting point is the 80/20 rule. Try that at least 80 percent of your food choices come from healthy and nutrient-rich sources, and the other 20 percent of the fun things you crave or those you would eat on special occasions.
A flexible diet means you can go out to dinner with friends and know how to make informed choices about menu options. This means that you can travel for work and find something to eat at the airport without worrying about your food list. It means going to your child's birthday party and being able to enjoy a piece of cake without "ruining" your diet or feeling like you've failed.
Everyone wants to look good, feel good and have a good performance. A flexible diet could be the missing link you need to maximize your results while enjoying life.
For many, there is no part of life more confusing than nutrition! It does not have to be like that. In Fundamentals of Physical Nutrition, two Ph.D. Dietitians tell you everything you really need to know about calories, macronutrients, nutrition for exercise, and how to eat to lose or gain weight!