Dieting is not easy. After all, you suddenly have to think carefully with every choice you make. Do you really want to eat this? What can or can you not scoop up with dinner? Can you ‘afford’ another snack, or do you eat too much? Not surprising if that quickly gets you down after a while! Fortunately, you can save yourself a lot of thinking by putting together a good weight loss eating plan. Then you only have to follow your plan.

But how do you make a good diet plan for weight loss? We share our best tips with you in this blog!

Why a weight loss eating plan?

Not everyone is happy with the idea of ​​an eating schedule. Many people think that with such a schedule you have lost all your freedom in terms of your food. From now on, a piece of paper will determine for you what you feel like tonight! Of course you are not going to jump over that …

But that problem only arises when you see your eating schedule as an absolute law. And that is not necessary for anything! It is easier to see your schedule as a tool that leaves you with as little thinking as possible.

Many people find losing weight difficult because they don’t have the time or desire to always have to be sensible. Sometimes you just want to be able to cook something quickly, instead of doing the math with macros and calories first ! You can always make a diet plan for weight loss. The calculations have already been done, so you can just get started!

And do you really not feel like the meal that was on the menu one evening? No problem – then you just cook something else, right? Just search for another recipe with comparable nutritional values, and you’re done. But don’t you feel like thinking about your food? Then you always have the eating schedule to fall back on.

How do you make a weight loss eating plan?

If you notice that you do not lose weight that easily, we really recommend that you make an eating schedule. Or make a few right away, so that you eat something different every week! If you take a few hours for it once, it will save you a lot of calculations and uninspired evenings afterwards.

But how do you make an eating schedule? We give you a step-by-step plan below!

Step 1: calculate your calories

To create a weight loss nutrition plan, you must first have an idea of ​​your daily calorie requirement. Fortunately, that is not difficult!

Keep in mind that your actual calorie consumption may differ slightly from the calculated amount. Every body is different, which unfortunately can never be perfectly captured in a formula. That is why the result of the above method is mainly a good estimate, not an infallible result!

How do you know what your exact consumption is? The best way to find out is to just get started. Eat the recommended amount for a while and see what happens. Are you not losing weight? Then eat a little less. Is it going too fast? Then something more healthier. That way you end up well.

Step 2: calculate your macros

If you want to lose weight, you will have to eat the right amount of calories. That much is clear. But it is also important where exactly you get those calories. A good balance between proteins, fats and carbohydrates ensures that you not only become slimmer, but also stay healthy.

These three nutrients are known as macro nutrients, or macros. Do you use the calculator? Then you will also immediately see which amount of macros is ideal for you. Do you prefer to calculate it yourself? Then follow the next steps:

• You need about 1 gram of fat per kilogram of body weight.
• Every gram of fat provides 9 kcal. Calculate how much kcal you get from fat.
• Calculate how much protein you need. We recommend 1.6 grams per kilo of body weight for non-athletes, 1.8 grams for endurance athletes and 2 grams for strength athletes.
• Every gram of protein provides 4 kcal. Calculate how much kcal you get from proteins.
• Subtract the calories from fats and proteins from your daily calorie requirement.
• Divide the remaining amount of calories by 4. That is how many grams of carbohydrates you should eat (because every gram of carbohydrates provides 4 kcal).

A calculation example: Daan, who runs regularly, wants to lose weight and has to eat 2500 kcal daily. It weighs 85 kilos.

• Daan eats 80 grams of fat. Those are 720 kcal from fat.
• Daan eats 1.8 x 80 = 144 grams of proteins. That is 576 kcal from proteins.
• Then Daan still has to come from 2500 – 720 – 576 = 1204 kcal from carbohydrates. That is equal to 1204/4 = 301 grams of carbohydrates.

Step 3: determine eating times

Based on the above steps you have calculated what you should eat approximately. But how do you convert that into an actual eating schedule for weight loss?

The next step is to think about how you’re going to distribute all that food throughout the day. The default is for many people to split it over three main meals. However, that is not always ideal. You quickly get hungry between meals, and then you have no more calories for snacks. That makes losing weight a lot more difficult…

That is why many people choose to eat a little less with their main meals, and also reserve some calories for snacks. Alternatively, you can choose to eat more meals, for example with an early and a late lunch.

In this step, you choose what is most convenient for you. Keep an eye on your daily schedule. If you only have one lunch break at work, you may want to plan a lot of healthy snacks instead of two large lunches.

Have you chosen the meal times? Then see how much you want to eat approximately per eating moment. Take your personal preference into account: for example, plan extra calories in the morning if you like to eat a large breakfast.

Step 4: choose recipes

Then comes the best step: looking for recipes! Grab all your cookbooks, Allerhandes and favorite recipe blogs and look for dishes that roughly match your planned meals in terms of calories.

It is best to use sources that have the nutritional values ​​in their recipes as standard. That way you don’t have to calculate it yourself. Some cookbooks and blogs do this by default. Supermarket magazines usually also have the nutritional values ​​listed.

Better to find too many than too few recipes. This way you avoid eating unilaterally. And in the next step it is useful if you have a wide choice, so that you have something at hand for all proportions of macros. So put everything together that you would like to eat once!

Step 5: start puzzling!

Then the next step, which unfortunately takes the longest: putting your eating schedule together. You want to combine the recipes from the previous step in such a way that you create daily menus with approximately the amount of calories and macros you want to consume daily.

Of course you do not have to come to the exact calorie – that would be impossible. But you better not deviate too much! Does that ever happen for a day? Then make sure you deviate the other way on another day. That way you will end up fine again on average over the week.

And otherwise there is nothing else to do than just try out a lot of combinations! If you don’t like mental arithmetic, you can also create a spreadsheet that automatically adds up different recipes. But even with that helping hand you often spend a while before you find a menu that you are completely satisfied with.

Step 6: the home stretch

Have you found a menu together! Congratulations, you are almost there! Fortunately, the last step is a lot easier. Now is the time for the final tweaks to perfect your weight loss eating plan.

For example, you can often save money (and food waste) by adjusting some recipes. This especially applies to fresh products such as fruit and vegetables. Do you use many different types? You can often choose other vegetables in some recipes, so that you have less leftovers.

And also check whether you get two pieces of fruit and at least 250 grams of vegetables every day. Is that not quite successful yet? Fortunately, vegetables hardly add any calories to your meal, so be sure to add a few extra tomatoes in your salad, or an extra handful of spinach for the pasta.

It is also good to vary enough with your proteins. The Nutrition Center recommends getting at least half of your protein from vegetable sources, so legumes, soy or nuts. Do you now eat meat or fish every day? Replace it with tofu, chickpeas or a good meat substitute.

Thanks to these kinds of details you can be sure that you will not only lose weight, but that you also eat healthy and cheap!

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Abbas Jahangir

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