On this page I will share how I set up my weekly meal plan based on my fitness goals and my age, weight, and activity level. It is important to keep in mind that every person has different needs and it will take trial and error to figure out how much food your body requires to meet your goals (losing weight, maintaining weight, gaining weight). 

First, determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You can google search plenty of free calculators. TDEE calculators factor your age, weight, height, and activity level to determine how many calories your body uses on a daily basis. Keep in mind this is a generalized calculator, if you are not seeing results and you are truly tracking your calories, you will need to adjust your daily caloric intake.

Speaking of tracking calories, I use a free app called Cronometer. In the app you can enter recipes and divide them into servings, scan barcodes, and more. Cronometer can also help you set calorie and macronutrient goals. Tracking calories is critical to meet your goals. You will not reach your goal weight loss or gain if you are not tracking calories. Use a food scale when you are meal prepping.

Now that we know how much we need to eat in a given day we can hunt for recipes and plug them into Cronometer for planning. Given my goal fitness goals, I am currently aiming for 2,800-3,000 calories per day. I often eat 3 regular meals per day and 3-4 snacks per day. Let’s look at a recent week for me:

Breakfast – breakfast smoothie

Snack – homemade granola bar

Lunch – teriyaki beef and rice

Snack – bagel and cream cheese

Snack – chobani protein yogurt

Dinner – chicken parmesan bake

Snack – apple and peanut butter

Daily macro totals: 2853 calories, 183g protein, 306g carbs, 92g fat

I’m happy with these numbers and my energy level and output in the gym this week. If I could eat these same foods every week without tiring I really would. For better or worse, that is not the case. Hence the creation of this website. Posting recipes that I can realistically meal prep that help me meet my fitness goals. Exercising has never been the difficult part of the equation for me; I have always struggled to consistently hit my macro targets. Hopefully this website will help both of us hit our goals.