Build a Weekly Meal Plan for Your Calorie Target

Step 1: set the calorie number

Your daily need is an estimate built from age, sex, height, weight and activity. The Mifflin and St Jeor equation, published in 1990, is the one most online calculators use for resting energy, and it is multiplied by an activity factor to get a daily figure. The NHS gives a general guide of about 2,000 kcal a day for women and 2,500 for men, but individuals vary a lot around those figures.

Use a calculator to get a starting point, then eat to it for two or three weeks and watch your weight trend. If it moves the wrong way, change the target by about 100 to 200 kcal and look again. The equation describes groups of people, and you are one person.

Step 2: split the day into meal budgets

Before choosing any food, divide the target into slots. A common split is about 25 percent breakfast, 30 percent lunch, 30 percent dinner and 15 percent snacks. It is a convention rather than a rule, so shift it to match when you are hungry.

The table shows what that looks like at three targets, with protein set at 25 percent of calories as an example. At 4 kcal per gram, that is 100 g at 1600 kcal, 125 g at 2000 and 150 g at 2400.

Step 3: choose fewer dishes, repeat them

A week has 21 main meals, but you do not need 21 recipes. Pick three breakfasts, three lunches and four dinners and rotate them. Cook a dinner in a double batch and eat the second portion as lunch the next day.

Repetition does more than save time. It makes the calories predictable, because a dish you have weighed once stays the same every time. If you are unsure about portions, weigh the food the first time you cook it and write the number down.

Keep a few adjustable parts: rice, potatoes, bread, olive oil and nuts are easy to scale up or down by 50 to 100 kcal without changing the dish.

Step 4: check the totals, then the protein

Add up each day. A day within roughly 5 percent of the target is a good result. Then check protein: if you are aiming for a number, make sure each main meal has a clear protein source, such as eggs, yogurt, fish, poultry, tofu or legumes.

Look at the whole week as well. One day that is 300 kcal high and another 300 kcal low averages out, and that is usually fine.

A quick check on a 2000 kcal Monday: oats with milk and berries 480, chicken and rice bowl 620, baked fish with potatoes 590, fruit and nuts 290. The total is 1,980 kcal, 20 under the target, which is a hit.

Step 5: build one shopping list from the whole week

The shopping list is a sum. It is never a copy. Add up each ingredient across all seven days, then group the result by where you find it in the shop: produce, meat and fish, dairy and eggs, dry goods, frozen, other.

Three habits keep the list short. Buy a staple once in the right total, such as 700 g of rice for the week. Reuse ingredients across dishes, for example the same spinach in an omelette and a pasta. And check the cupboard before you add an item.

Plan six dinners instead of seven. Leave one night open for leftovers or eating out, and the list shrinks by about a seventh without making the week any less organised.

Mealyno does this arithmetic: it builds a 7-day plan for your calories, merges duplicate ingredients, groups the list by section and lets you copy it. You can also use the free plans as a reference for how a finished week looks.

A short example of a rotation

For a 2000 kcal day, a three-breakfast, three-lunch, four-dinner rotation might look like this. Each line is a budget and nothing more.

• Breakfast (about 500 kcal): oats with milk and berries; eggs on toast with fruit; yogurt with granola and banana.
• Lunch (about 600 kcal): chicken and rice bowl; lentil soup with bread and cheese; tuna pasta salad.
• Dinner (about 600 kcal): baked fish with potatoes; chilli with rice; stir-fried tofu with noodles; roast vegetables with sausages or beans.
• Snacks (about 300 kcal): fruit and nuts; cottage cheese; a slice of bread with peanut butter.

What this approach does not do

A calorie-based plan is a tool for organising meals. It does not tell you what your body needs on a given day, and it does not replace advice from a doctor or a dietitian if you have a health condition, are pregnant, are under 18 or have a history of disordered eating.

Calorie values for food are estimates. Labels allow a margin, home cooking varies and portions drift. If your results do not match the plan after a few weeks, adjust the number rather than blaming yourself.