In the fitness and nutrition world, meal plans are abundant. It seems anyone and everyone have meal plans for sale. Whether it’s self-proclaimed fitness models on Instagram, or that ripped guy at the gym who survives on chicken breast and rice cakes.
I’m going to be honest. I hate meal plans… Okay, hate is a strong word (so my mum says), It’s more that I dislike the use of them in most scenarios for the majority of individuals.
I’m not a registered dietician, so it’s not within my (nor anyone other than a registered dieticians) scope of practice to provide specific meal plans. I may provide a few example days of meals for clients to provide them with ideas of how they may like to match foods to their nutrient targets especially when starting out but that’s it.
In saying that, I can understand the allure of a meal plan.
They’re easy and straightforward to follow.
It reduces much of the stress of thinking about food, you don’t have to spend time planning or thinking about your upcoming meals and you’re not required to learn about the nutrient profiles of foods.
It can also be nice to be told “if you consume this, it will result in this”. Basically, it simplifies what can be a daunting subject for many.
However, I hardly feel that the above reasons justify the many negative issues that surround meal plans.
Here are my top 5 reasons are sabotaging your long term success:
1) Meal plans encourage an ‘all or nothing’ approach.
On the meal plan or off the meal plan. It’s one or the other.
This tends to result in us gauging success in black and white terms.
For example;
“James followed his meal plan, James did good” or “ James ate something not on his meal plan, James feels bad…and guilty , and says ‘ahhh f*ck it’ and eats a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s while the occasional tear rolls down his face, vowing to start fresh tomorrow ”.
Intense I know.
The point is meal plans are often viewed as a rigid plan that MUST be followed. When you screw up, you beat yourself up about it and feel like you’ve failed.
We want to avoid this mindset. It results in a mental game of pong where one paddle is overly restrictive dieting and the other is bingeing, with your dietary approach bouncing between the two.
2) Meal plans are socially isolating.
What are you going to do if you go on vacation? God help you if you answered “follow my meal plan” because no one likes travelling with someone like that…Except maybe one of those anal couples that travels together wearing colour matching outfits like they’re on the Amazing Race.
Or what about a weekend away?
A dinner out with friends?
Situations outside of your meal plan leave you with two probable choices.
1) Avoid the social meal and make an excuse so you can stay at home eating your white fish and asparagus. Or…
2) Decide ‘f*ck it’ eat outside of your plan and spend most of the night feeling guilty. Often after this you feel like the whole week is for naught and decide you should attempt to fit in every food you’ve been craving before starting fresh tomorrow.
Both of these suck…
And both are setting you up for a poor relationship with food.
Your goal shouldn’t be to just get to your desired body composition. It should be to do so in a sustainable method that has the least impact on other important areas of your life such as family, friends and career.
It’s entirely possible to progress towards your goals without alienating those close to you who deserve the best ‘you’.
While a small amount of stress may be saved by not having to make ‘smart’ meal choices when you’re following your meal plan, often the stress felt of not knowing what to do when you’re in a situation such as above or when you’re off the meal plan outweighs this.
3) Meal plans are a short-term solution.
“Success is never owned, only rented. And the rent’s due everyday”
Rory Vaden.
One of the biggest contributors to long term success is consistency. When we lack consistency it results in a lack of progress.
Think about this.
Whatever you do to get to your improved/ideal body is what you will have to continue to do to maintain it. You can’t go back to what you were doing before and expect the body comp changes to stay.
Years of evolution have engineered our bodies to be weight regain specialists. Most people typically revert back to their old habits and as a result their fitness and body composition deteriorate.
Meaning all the time, effort, wasted social occasions and delicious meals you missed to achieve your results via a restrictive short-term solution is for naught. You’re back to where you began and unfortunately none the wiser!
While that 1200 kcal restrictive meal plan may result in rapid weight loss do you really feel that you will be able to maintain it for the rest of your life?
Are you really going to restrict your food choices to those on ‘your’ plan for the next 30 years?
Why not think long term?
Why are you in a hurry?
Would you prefer to look good for a couple of weeks/months following a restrictive plan or take the time to form habits, learn to love the process and become educated on how to build a better body without restrictive or extreme regimes so you have the knowledge and power to build and maintain a great physique.
Answer seems simple to me.
4) Meal plans keep you in the dark.
This is one of the main problems with meal plans. There is rarely any aspect of education, no requirement to learn and no need for understanding!
It’s like your math’s teacher giving you a trigonometry equation and saying “here are the questions and here’s the answers...enjoy”.
While we’d all be sharing fist bumps that day, when it comes to the test and the answers aren’t provided, we’re left fist bumping the table in frustration wondering how the hell do we work out the answer.
Do you know WHY you’re eating the way that’s laid out in your plan?
What nutrients are rich in the foods your consuming?
Are you meeting your nutrient requirements for health?
Why can’t you eat carbs past 6 PM and why the f*ck are you eating chicken breast 4 times a day!?
What meal plans do teach you is how to be inflexible with your diet. They place certain foods on a pedestal while shaming others. Don’t eat these “bad” foods or only eat these “clean” foods are a common place on meal planes.
Overall meal plans teach you is how to fit your life around your diet rather than making your diet work with your lifestyle.
5) Meal plans don’t respect the individual.
They don’t account for personal preferences!
“Oh you really love sushi!? Well too bad bro because that isn’t on your meal plan…”
The majority of meal plan providers are after a quick dollar. They don’t care about the person they’re selling it to. Otherwise they wouldn’t be providing restrictive meal plans.
Everyone is different and even within individuals our needs change on a day to day/ week to week basis. I may train 6 times this week, be stress free and fill in for a mate’s social sport team. Next week I’m swamped with work, only make it to the gym 3 times and spend most of my time in a sedentary state.
My energy needs over the two weeks may be vastly different!
Rigid meal plans don’t account for this. They don’t account for real life. Many are cookie cutter plans, even when they tell you they’re not.
The standard 'cookie cutter' meal plan approach. A few different programs for hundreds of people!
Have you had a consultation including an in depth conversation about your current lifestyle, goals, preferences, needs etc?
If not, then how can it be individualized?
Do you want to avoid foods you enjoy and eat foods you don’t enjoy just because they’re on the plan? Trust me on this one, if you’re eating a particular food everyday (or even numerous times a day on some plans) for a prolonged period of time, you’re eventually going to get over it…hard. I have a friend who gagged at the thought of eating asparagus for months after one such plan.
The exception is cheesecake…seriously. It’s science. But that’s probably not on your meal plan.
If your nutrition approach isn’t sustainable then it wont be easy to adhere to and consistency will suffer. As I mentioned previously, consistency is what brings results, not being ‘perfect’ 4 weeks out of a year.
So when are meal plans applicable and what’s a better choice?
When coaching and education is provided then there can be a time and place for meal plans.
In the majority of cases meal plans should be viewed as nutritional training wheels. A learning tool as such. They can play a role by giving you an idea of how to put together a balanced meal that fits with your goals.
But no one should be content riding around with training wheels, I mean you’re an adult now and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an adult trying to ride a child’s tricycle but it’s embarrassing.
Learning to diverge from the plan and make appropriate choices are lessons you must learn in order for long term health and success. Being aware of the underlying principles rather than the methods such as shifting your focus from particular foods and meal frequency to focusing on energy balance and a diet rich in a variety of whole foods is a great indicator you have a good grasp.
This is where flexible dieting comes into play. Flexible dieting is essentially an approach that means you won’t have to be obsessive about food. There’s no excluding particular foods or the lists of "clean" or "healthy" foods that you MUST eat. Flexible dieting recognizes that without context no foods are inherently bad and there is no reason to totally exclude any foods.
You eat in a way that allows you to meet your energy and nutrient needs while being flexible enough to fit with your lifestyle, goals and preferences.
It’s literally about having your cake and eating it too. In moderation of course and with a big side salad.
Increased flexibility equals more consistency, which in turn leads to better long term results.
Dieting is tough enough as is. Why make it harder then it needs to be. If you’re looking for help invest in a coach who you can consult with, who is willing to answer any questions and teaches you the why and how of a healthy diet.
If you're interested in moving away from rigid meal plans or would like to be educated on how to construct your own then hit the button below and book in for a FREE 15 min consultation.