Smart meal planning can make the difference between short-lived weight loss and long-term weight management. Although it's possible to stay within your daily calorie goal without planning ahead, choices made on the fly may leave you feeling hungry and deprived. Planning ahead gives you the edge you need to succeed, ensuring a healthy, balanced eating plan that not only keeps you within your calorie target, but also helps you get the most from those calories.
Master Food List
When you sit down to write a weekly or monthly menu, it helps to have a list of healthful foods you enjoy from each food group. Making a master list of foods by food group not only simplifies menu planning, but also saves time when writing out your shopping lists. Your master list should include selections of dark green, orange and starchy vegetables, as well as legumes and other vegetable varieties, such as okra, eggplant, artichokes and beets. Include a section for fruits, grains, lean proteins, dairy and healthy fats.
Menu Breakdown
A menu template makes it easy to transfer selections from each food group on your master list to fulfill your 1,200-calorie target. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that 1,200-calorie menus include 1 cup of fruit, 1.5 cups of vegetables, four servings of grains, 3 oz. of lean protein, 2 servings of reduced-fat dairy and up to 4 tsp. of healthy fats. Divide these suggested servings into meals and snacks according to your preferences. To avoid hunger spikes that can sabotage your calorie and weight goals by encouraging you to overeat, plan to eat at least three balanced meals a day.
Shopping List
Create your shopping list using your weekly or monthly menu. If you have your master list saved on your computer, for example, highlight the selections incorporated into the current menu, and shop from that list. The USDA 1,200-calorie meal pattern allows for 171 discretionary calories per day, not accounted for in the serving suggestions. Use these additional calories on beverages, favorite foods or treats. Add these extras to your shopping list, but buy only enough to last until your next grocery outing.
Considerations
Even when you shop from a list, there are decisions to be made at the grocery store. Read labels and consider the saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium content the foods you consume. The American Heart Association recommends limiting sodium to 1,500 mg a day. Saturated fat should provide no more than 7 percent of your overall calories and trans fat no more than 1 percent. In a 1,200-calorie diet, that means no more than 9.3 g of saturated fat and no more than 1.3 g of trans fat per day. Choose whole, natural products with minimal processing as often as possible to help you maximize nutrition and minimize unhealthy additives in your diet.
References
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: What Foods Are in the Vegetables Group?
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: MyPyramid Food Intake Patterns
- American Heart Association: Health Diet Goals
- American Heart Association: Knowing Your Fats
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Menus and Menu Planner
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Tipsheet: Healthy Eating Starts With Healthy Food Shopping
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