Meal Plan or Flexible Dieting?
- Carla Bolstridge
- Sep 29, 2017
- 5 min read
Whether you want to cut body fat, maintain a healthy weight or build some serious gains there are many ways you can switch up your nutrition to meet your goals. Two of the most popular approaches you may have seen over social media are “Meal Plans” and “Flexible Dieting.” In this blog I will outline what the two actually entail and give you a little overview of the pros and cons that will hopefully help you decide which one would be best for you if you're looking to go down the routine of implementing some sort of programme.
Side note: I will use the term macros a lot. This is short for macronutrients, which are protein, fats and carbohydrates. All foods have macros in different ratios and variations.
Meal Plans
These are very rigid in structure, you will be given a set amount of meals a day and what to eat in those meals and this will be eaten 7 days a week. It it is common to also have one “free meal” or “cheat meal” a week with this particular plan. The meal plan may change weekly, for example the amount of food might be increased or decreased or a particular food might be taken out all together but the idea is that your meals are set each day for every day of the week.
Pros
If you stick to the plan, you know that every day you are hitting your daily calorie and macro goals. This is why meal plans are very common with bodybuilders or fighters, as they know exactly what they are eating.
Makes food prep much easier, for example, if you know that you are eating chicken for two meals every day, then you can just batch cook a load of chicken. This also applies to other foods such as rice, sweet potato, veggies…etc.
Can also make shopping easier and save you money. Since you more or less will be eating the same thing every day you can bulk buy and know that nothing will go to waste because it’s in your plan.
This approach can be very good for some people who do well with structure and need a focus. It also works well as a short-term approach.
Cons
Can be very rigid and monotonous.
As it's very rigid by eating the same meals every day, it could make some people snap and go completely off the rails, in other words…f*ck this I’m just going to eat everything that’s not in this meal plan.
Depending on how your meal plan is set up it could be restricting of micronutrients (fibre, vitamins and minerals). If your plan only has 3 varieties of vegetables in the whole thing then you could be missing out on all the nutritional variety food has to offer.
Although this approach can be maintained for a short period of time, when you come off this kind of plan, you become a little lost. What I mean is: once the plan is finished then what? Do you go back to how you were eating before? If so, you may end up right back to where you started, therefore becoming reliant on a meal plan and possibly start a yo-yo dieting process.
Flexible Dieting
This may also be referred to as IIFYM (If it fits your macros), however, I am going to use the term flexible dieting because I feel that it is a much more mindful approach. So, when I say flexible dieting, I simply mean the foods you eat can come from a variety of sources to meet your daily calorie and macro goals.
Pros
CHOICES! You have the choice of a whole variety of foods. You don’t have to eat the same thing every day to hit your calorie and macro goals. Fancy chicken Friday night but cod Saturday night? Fine, do it. A slice of pizza on Sunday? Go for it.
Makes eating out and about easier. As long as you’re pretty clued up about reading nutrition labels and know how to track food then you can still enjoy a social life without having to sneak your pre-made meal into a restaurant or miss out completely on a social event.
If this approach is used correctly, you will end up consuming a whole variety of nutritious dense foods, meaning that you'll boost your vitamin and mineral intake!
No foods are off limits, so you can add what I call soul food into your diet, for example a piece of lindt chocolate or full fat cheddar cheese.
Cons
No foods are off limits….yeah I know, I just stated that as a pro. However, for some people a flexible dieting approach is an excuse to fit as much processed crap into their diet as long as it fits their calorie and macro goals, therefore lack fibre and nutrients. They may still lose weight but their bodies won’t be functioning optimally.
Wanting different foods every single day or chop and changing your mind could end up quite costly or even worse, wasting food.
If you’re not clued up or well educated about tracking calories and macros you could end up consuming too much or too little. You also need to be aware that with flexible dieting you may not always get it spot on. A lot of estimating is required when eating out because let’s not be that person who brings food scales to a restaurant!
Can you get the best of both worlds?
Yes absolutely. You could marry the two approaches and still get great results whilst staying on track. One way of doing this might be that you have your set calories and macros for the day and a list of carb, protein and fat sources to choose from. Or, it may work well if you follow a meal plan Monday to Friday, when you have work commitments so making food prep easier, and then at weekends follow a flexible dieting approach. However, be mindful that “flexible dieting” at weekends doesn’t become a weekend binge fest.
It is also worth me mentioning that I would try to stay way from “trigger foods” when flexible dieting as this can easily lead to unhealthy habits, mentally not just physically.
So which approach is best?
Bottom line is, the one that works best for you! One approach might work really well to start with but then isn’t sustainable for you, so a new approach is worth being put in place. When I work with clients on a nutrition programme my aims are: to help them reach their body composition goals through food choices that are enjoyable and sustainable whilst educating them about what food does for their bodies. A coach, personal trainer or nutritionist shouldn’t be trying to conform you to do things through one set approach. Yes they will encourage you to choose nutritious dense foods but they also need to work around you.
Did you find this blog helpful? Are you still thinking what the hell are macros exactly? And would you like me to explain more? Or would you like to know more about trigger foods and how to work around them? If so, or if there is anything else you’d like me to cover then feel free to drop me a message to carla.louise.bolstridge@gmail.com or write a comment in the box below.
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