Please could anyone explain how to begin planning a meal plan of 1700 calories. I don't know where to start.

[Chaotic45]

I am not good at knowing approximate calories in foods and I would really like to be able to pull together a meal plan.

Now I realise why I've stuck with SW in the past as left to my own devices I don't know where to start.

I plan to log my food on MFP, but I really need to make a plan ahead of each day so I know what I'm supposed to be eating each day, and also what to shop for.

I'm really not sure how to start!

mfp is great
scales are a must to weigh out portions.

it's great to do that once in a while to get a feel for portion sizes.
cheese, oil/butter and nuts are surprisingly calorific. weigh or measure out those for a bit.

@redcandlelight thank you!

MFP looks brilliant for logging food daily, I'm struggling with planning ahead though. I just have so little clue about how many calories are in food that I'm not sure what to put in my plan!

How did you decide on 1700?

Decide how you want to divide your calories up and then Google for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack ideas for that number of calories.

That’s quite a lot of calories, mfp sets mine at 1200?

Although my is set to help me lose 2lb a week.

Think about or list what you usually eat, or would find easy to shop for and prepare. Look up the calories.

I'd use MFP. 1700 seems a lot though

@FAQs and @Lemonpiano hmm maybe 1700 is wrong?

I'm very new to this.

MFP set my calories at 1590 to loose 2lb a week. However I noticed that it gives me an extra allowance for exercise and I walk at least 15k steps a day. Just 8k steps gives me 1790 calories a day.

Plus TBH I'm happy to loose 1.5lb a week. Slow, steady and doable feels like a sensible way to go.

But that's a big difference to 1200 calories- I wonder if I've done something wrong.

Thank you for all the advice, sounds like google is the way forward plus I need to see if I've done something wrong and ended up with a calorie allowance from MFP that's too large?

I lost weight on 1700+a day, fairly active. Would just try for a few weeks and adjust.

It depends a lot how big you are to start with. A lot of people try not to eat back exercise calories, but I would start on 1700 and if you don't lose, drop down after 2 or 3 weeks. Are you a 3 meals a day person or a snacker?

exercise level - always assume one level less that you think you do.
what's also useful is finding your tdee (total daily expenditure), the amount you need just to sit on your arse all day.

exercise is great but doesn't make much of a dent calorie wise.

Look up Syatt Fitness for more info on setting your calorie target for the day 👍

1700 sounds like a lot. I'm set at 1200 to lose 1lb a week.

I'd gain weight pretty quickly at 1700. I'm older though, and slim (for now). And I'm a relative shortarse at 5.4.

MFP is great for meal planning, but make sure you count everything in. Accountability is key, I find.

15k steps will make a bit difference, I think. Mainly because it's not really exercise (i.e. a short, sharp high intensity activity) and more like being active/on your feet for a large chunk of the day.

I do about that number of steps and it changes my TDEE from about 1800 to about 2600. I have also been eating an average of 1950 calories a day for the last 8 months and lost about 60lbs over that time.

OP, to balance my cals I first spent about a week just eating normally and logging everything, plus time of day. It allowed me to review and see how my eating was naturally spread through the day so I could allocate cals in similar propertions. i.e. it was clear I ate little at breakfast, moderate at lunch and lots for dinner. Then more in the evening for snacks.

In short, I could see that removing/greatly reducing the evening snacking plus doing some smaller calorie swap outs for the meals would bring me in line with target.

I did that and it's been both successful plus easy to keep at.

I strongly recmmend worrying less about how others do it and instead looking at how to achieve the target within your own lifestyle and preferences. It makes it much easier to stick at.

1700 is easy enough with fairly normal menu planning. Perhaps try salad or soup instead of butties for lunch and a smaller portion of carbs at dinner

many people will lose weight on 1700

What do you normally eat?

Put in what you fancy eating then amend the portion size to get the calories down to if need be.

As a general rule, meat/ fish a piece about the size of the palm or your hand, non starchy veg/salad half your plate, starchy carb laden foods about an eighth of your plate or less would work well for losing weight.

How tall are you OP? I'm 178cm and was losing weight steadily on 1500-1600 per day, and now maintaining at 1900 per day. Extra inches of height do appear to make a significant difference in how many calories you can consume.

This online calculator is good for working out the calories in your homemade recipes.

www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076

The Fast800 diet
The Blood Sugar Diet
Both by Dr Michael Mosely

OP you don't have to follow their calorie restrictions but it tells you good meals, which are filling.

Download My fitness Pal app it's a great calorie counter you just scan barcodes of food you eat xx

I'm 1,350 on MFP. My "regular" breakfast is around 350 so two slices of toast, butter and peanut butter. Weekday lunch is a salad (50g chicken or ham) salad bits and a yoghurt (100 cals) so 350 to 400. I have a 100 cal snack (KitKat or choccy biscuit) or I quite like a kid's bear roll for something sweet and a sugar hit. That gives me 550ish for dinner.

You NEED TO weigh/measure your portions. I was putting twice the "portion size" of cereal in a bowl and then adding raisins/tangerine slices or having 3 fish fingers when 2 was a portion size.

I'm losing weight on 1650 calories. I use Yazio and it has a huge exercise allowance so today I've burned an extra 400 calories which I could technically eat and still be green on the chart. It works for me, 1lb a week give or take but I'm happy with that.

I'm also quite happy if I don't eat dinner so I'm not really meal-planning. I add in my breakfast and lunch, some days I don't have much left for dinner so I just won't eat any. So I guess I'm combining calorie-counting with 16:8 some days

I am on lower, but in reality hobble around 1600-1700. I log but don't really bother with little bits like wasabi sauce or milk in a coffee. I just put 150-200 extra on negligables like that.

Everyone saying to 1700 "that's a lot". Not if you weight certain weight. I know someone on much more and losing kilo a week.

Op, I pre make things. Like having portions of rice (150g) in a freezer. Pre made homemade ready meals (chili with rice, curry with rice, "spanish" chicken with potatoes, lemon chicken, etc.). It helps massively.

You need to go and see how much what weights for yourself. So from my experience, first week is really not as well planned out. I know I underestimated some things so had to change next day's meal plan to implement rest of the fresh stuff. It settles after a week or two.

Scales to weigh everything.

For shopping planning purposes: chicken, fish, turkey plan roughly 100g per person. Mince and bacon 50g. Pasta 50-60g. Veg 100g. Hit at least 5 of your 5 a day. Supplement calcium.