What You Need to Know About Custom Meal Plans

Nutrition is one of the most critical components to overall health and wellness, but no two bodies are alike. What works for one person may not work for someone else, which is why it can be challenging to find a diet plan that works. While conventional wisdom says that your body type determines what foods you should eat, this isn’t true. Healthy food choices can help people on any diet achieve their fitness goals faster and easier. Here are few tips that will help you get started:

Keep Food Records

If you feel like you aren’t getting the results that you want even though you’re following your food plan precisely as written, there’s a good chance that you’ve hit a plateau. Rather than thinking about what you’re going to cut out next, try tracking your daily food intake with different fitness apps for a week. Keeping detailed records will allow you to spot patterns in your eating habits that might be sabotaging your efforts. For example, if you eat a 400 calorie snack every day at 3 pm when you get hungry from studying, this could be why you aren’t losing weight, even though the rest of your diet is perfect.

Focus on High-Volume Foods

High-calorie foods can help people gain muscle mass quickly, but low-calorie foods won’t make it more challenging to lose weight. That being said, focusing on high-volume, low-calorie foods can help you feel fuller longer and keep your grocery shopping list simple. You can also make high-calorie dishes if you tend to get hungry between meals (like a protein smoothie packed with fruit and veggies), but be sure to pair them with one of your lower-calorie meals. The total number of calories for the day remains balanced. A meal delivery program such as Sunbasket can assist you with high-volume foods.

Don’t Count Calories

Many people spend hours poring over their food labels trying to figure out how many calories they’re eating every day, but this isn’t necessary at all! So long as you’re sticking to healthy food choices and exercising regularly, your energy intake will naturally fall into place. Eating a steady stream of small snacks throughout the day can help you avoid getting too hungry and overindulging, which is another excellent strategy for anyone looking to stay within a healthy calorie range.

Make it a Point to Get 8 Hours of Quality Sleep

Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things that you can do to maintain your health, and this includes making sure that you’re eating right. When you don’t get enough sleep, your cortisol and ghrelin levels will rise (two hormones that stimulate hunger) and make it difficult for you to resist the temptation of junk food.

Be Active Every Day

In addition to following a customary meal, being physically active daily is one of the best things you can do for your health. It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you choose to do (although resistance training and high-intensity interval training are often the most effective); find something that you enjoy and try to make it part of your daily routine. Not only will exercising every day make it easier for you to eat well, but it will also make it easier for you to stick with your diet in the long term.

Custom meal plans are created by nutritionists, personal trainers, and health coaches to achieve specific goals like weight loss, gaining muscle mass, or increasing energy. Though they often require unique ingredients (to maximize results) or supplements (such as protein powders), custom meal plans can suit almost anyone’s needs.