How to start - the admin of weight loss

[ChinFluff46]

I want to eat just below my maintenance calories which would be 1650 calories a day.

Generally speaking I always have the same breakfast. I need a rethink on lunches because it needs to be something I can easily prep on the weekend. Also I always fall astray on a Thurs / Fri lunchtime (work full time) as I've run out of fresh stuff or not prepped due to work being mental.

Dinners aren't too tricky but it's the variety (and speed) I need. Some dinners just need to be heat and eat (so frozen meals like bean stew are good).

My point is its so much prep time.

I've got to work out the meals, enter onto My Fitness Pal and save as meals and make sure they are macro and nutritionally balanced (as this helps satiate my appetite and stops cravings) which takes a bit of tweaking, add in any snacks to make the 1650 cals, and write out the full shopping list.

I want to work in 12 week blocks, can't eat the same for 12 weeks, so reckon 1 menu for 6 weeks then another menu for 6 weeks.

It's the only way I know how to be successful (I stuck 100% to it for 6 months doing it this way last time).

I just can't be arsed to do the admin involved.

Then I think well why not just eat less, doesn't really work as I get distracted and forget, don't have things in, get caught hangry and make bad choices etc.

I'd love to pay someone to do all the admin for me and just present me with the shopping list. Maybe I should pay myself, take myself somewhere as a treat and do the f'ing admin 😂

This is pretty much what ChatGPT or similar will do for you. Give clear detailed prompts and off you go - once you've
got the first draft of your meal plan you can adapt based on foods you do or don’t like, your goal etc and ask for shopping lists.

i would have thought 2 or 3 one week plans on rotation would make more sense but you can decide what you need and what words for you.

1650 seems quite high for a calories deficit. Most online TDEE use current weight instead of adjusted weight and your excess fat doesn’t have high metabolic needs.

I eat the same lunch each day when on a diet (which I am) and cook it on Sunday and it’s fine all week (not died yet!). I cook some chicken with Harissa paste then casserecce pasta, spinach, chilli flakes bit more paste and a dash of milk & pasta water. It’s so good. I have it with a salad followed by melon. Its only 120g cooked weight so not that many calories and it means I stick to it as lunch is ready and in the fridge. I can never be bothered to cook lots of different things so eat pretty much same most days. Sometimes make a chilli and have it with half a jacket and salad. I am only on 1200 cals though.

Is it just you you're feeding or children etc?

I think you're slightly over-egging things (sorry). I lost 2.something stone last year. Sometimes I used calorie counted high quality ready meals (Field Doctor etc), but I also just ate repetitively and tried to work to my strengths - eg if I knew that things were likely to go off the rails on a Friday then I'd eat less early in the week to bank calories for Friday, or make sure I had a "fakeaway" in the fridge for when I got home. A simple meal for myself might be a tin of baked beans with a heap of broccoli next to it, or an omelette. Nothing requiring the balancing of macros and so on.

Obviously there are many ways to spin "calories in v calories out" - but it can be as simple or as complicated as you like.

Just ask ai then tell it what it gets wrong until you get a selection you like. You could then ask it to plan the month, create a weekly shopping list and step by step timed cooking guides.