FREE 19+ Meal Plan Templates in PDF

We prepare for the days to come or for future events by planning the things that that we need to do. Planning has been an important part of our daily lives. A plan is defined as the process of thinking about the tasks or activities needed in order for one’s specific goals and objectives are met.

We prepare for the days to come or for future events by planning the things that that we need to do. Planning has been an important part of our daily lives. A plan is defined as the process of thinking about the tasks or activities needed in order for one’s specific goals and objectives are met.

There are various types of plans available today and they are used in many industries, businesses or for one’s personal needs. Featured in this article is a meal plan, which is a one of the many types of plans that are available to use today. Discussed here are its uses, advantages and tips on how to effective use them. We have also included meal plan templates for your reference.

Daily Meal Plan Template

Gluten Free Diet Plan

2000 Calorie Gestational Meal Plan

Meal Plan Template with Shopping List

Alkaline Meal Plan

Meal Plan for Weight Loss

Recommended Meal Plan for Women

Daily Diabetes Meal Plan Template and Guide

Weekly Meal Plan Template

21-day Meal Plan Template

What Is a Meal Plan?

A meal plan is a plan that is created for varying purposes and focuses on a specific goal that the user or creator wants to achieve. Meals plans generally refers to planning for the proper allocation of resources or budget so that one can have a healthy or balanced meal regularly. Through a well-planned meal, individuals can enjoy a delicious and nutritious meal that is budget friendly.

Meal planning is currently becoming a trend. This is because of the influence of health enthusiasts and diet conscious people, giving do-it-yourself tutorials on blogs and vlogs about how one can be fit and healthy, and achieve a sexy body. In addition, meal plans can now be easily created through the use of various meal planning templates that are available online. These templates often provide tips and tricks for preparing healthy meals, nutrition guides and some meal planning hacks.

Other related articles you may be interested in are Printable Meal Planner Samples & Templates and Sample Weekly Meal Plans.

Uses of a Meal Plan Template

When it comes to meal planning, the best tool to use is a meal plan template. What is a meal plan template? It is a template specifically designed to help you easily and conveniently create a meal plan. It comes in different variations and other also created for a specific type of diet. There are many uses of a meal plan template and we have made a list of them below.

• Meal planing is never an easy task, especially for busy people. Using a meal plan template allows one to be able to create healthy and affordable meals that can be prepared easily.
• Meal plan templates are used so that one can allot just the necessary budget and resources for daily meals, as well have enough time to for meal preparation.
• Through meal planning and meal plan templates, you can create a budget friendly meal that is healthy and delicious.
• Meal plan templates can be used as a guide by beginners who want to start their meal planning journey and organize their own meal planning activity at their own pace.
• Using a meal plan template allows one to save time and energy.
• You can choose plan for the same meals for a specific period of time or plan for different meal sets on a daily basis.
• Meal plan templates help individuals to easily organize their meals and plan them in advance.

What other uses of a meal plan template do you know of? A meal plan can be easily done if you what it is used for. You may check out other related articles on our website, like Healthy Meal Plan Samples and Meal Plans Samples & Templates.

Why You Should Be Planning Your Meals

Is there really a reason for you to plan your meals? While a lot of people are currently infatuated with the thought of basking glory for meal planning, there are actually serious and important reasons on why you should plan your meals. What are these reasons and why meal planning is important? Let’s go ahead and find that out.

• Plan in advance – When you plan for something, it is always about something that you want to do in advance so that you can utilize the time that you have available to do those things. Planning your meals in advance is very beneficial as it allows you to maximize your time and use it wisely.
• Achieve goals – If you want to lose weight within a specific period of time or follow a specific diet your dietitian has recommended, then the best way to achieve this goal is to plan your meals accordingly.
• Positive changes – Meal planning allows you to be conscious about the meals you prepare and helps you with how to prepare healthy and nutritious meals. Eating healthy has a lot of benefits and one of them is feeling good about yourself and experiencing positive changes.
• Manage portions – Through meal planning guides, you can tell how much of something you need to prepare and how you can properly portion out your meals.
• Less food waste – If you plan your meals, you will surely know the ingredients you need and how much you need. You can purchase and prepare the exact amount of ingredients so there will definitely less food waste to none.
• Prepare nutritious meals – The beauty of meal planning is that you can look up the food you want to prepare and tell whether they are healthy or not. This includes the right portioning of every ingredient.
• Budget friendly – Because you have plan you will be able to purchase just the right ingredients and because are preparing your own meals, this means you eat out less. This is how home cooked and well-planned meals can help with budgeting.
• Less stress –Planning meals in advance rids of you of the trouble of thinking about what to cook for dinner or what to prepare. This can be energy draining and frustrating so you would want to plan your meal and be stress free.
• Food varieties – And because you have enough time for planning, you will be able to think of and come up with different varieties of dishes that you and your family will surely love.
• Time saver – As they say, haste makes waste. When you plan for your meals you will not be in a hurry to do them. You will be able to think clearly and do things right.

Thinking of starting your meal plan? Well, you should! It’s never too late to start one now. We have templates available on our website that you may find useful. Need a different plan template? We also have other plan templates available, like Meal Planner Samples & Templates and Diet Plan Templates.

How to Make a Meal Plan Template

If you can’t find the meal plan template that you like or the the template that you need, then why not make one? It is pretty easy to create your very own meal plan template. We have here simple and easy-to-follow steps that you can use as your guide.

• Gather meal plan samples and templates for this project. You will need them as your reference in case you need some inspiration or some ideas for your own meal plan template.
• Create a draft or outline of the contents and layout of your meal plan template. There are no rules and no limit as to how you want your meal plan template to be. Your imagination is the only limit.
• Now, decide on what how you want to make your template. There are many application online that you can use to help you create a meal plan template. You may also have it handwritten. Whichever you prefer is okay.
• When you have decided on how to make your template, the next thing you would want to do is prepare the materials and equipment that you will need for the project. These materials could be a laptop or computer and a printer, or it could some paper, pencil, ruler, eraser and pens.
• Then you will need to set the paper or sheet that you will be working on. Set the correct paper size, paper orientation and paper margin. This should always be the first thing you do on your working sheet before typing in anything.
• On the center top part of your screen, type in the title of your template which will indicate what it is going to be used for. This will also make it easy for you to find it if put in a pile of other papers or templates.
• Get the draft or outline that you made earlier. Do first the layout of your working sheet. Insert the table if you have one on your outline and other shapes or lines that you have planned to add.
• Next, type in the necessary labels for your meal plan template. Use a font style and font size that is easy to read and nice to look at.
• Transfer everything else that is left on the draft. Do it one item at a time so that you won’t miss any detail.
• After that, review your work and make changes or revisions if you find the need. Check for grammar erros, spelling errors or formatting errors.
•  When you are satisfied with your work, you may save the document on your laptop or computer and have it printed. If you had handwritten your template, thicken the lines and titles using a marker and then erase the pencil lines. You can create more copies by having it photocopied.

At first, it may take you some time to finish your template but once you get a grip of it you will be able to get one done in no time. You can also use these steps as guide to create your own steps that way you don’t have to look at it again. Aside from meal plan templates, we also have other plan templates available for free download.  Some examples you may find useful are Sales Plan Templates, Sample Professional Business Plan Templates, and Workout Planner Template.

Personal Diet Plan Template

Diet Plan for Weight Loss

Weekly Diet Plan Template

Meal Plan or Low Carb Diet

Meal Plan for Toddlers

Meal Plan for the Family

Counting Carbs and Meal Plan

Meal Plans for Gestational Diabetes

Meal Plan for Adult Males

Crossfit Meal Plan Template

Advantages of Using Meal Plan Templates

Why do people use meal plan templates and why does it exist? The answer is pretty simple. It is because they find a use for it and using them has its own advantages. A list of the advantages of using a meal plan template is provided below.

• Easy – You definitely don’t have to be a genius to be able to use a meal plan template. All you need is knowledge about meal plan and different meals that you plan on making.
• Convenient – It is obvious how convenient a meal plan template is. You just search one online, download it and the write down all of the meals you plan to make or have over a period of time. It is nowhere near difficult.
• Simple – Meal plan templates are very simple tools. They don’t require you to do complex computations or ask you to answer riddles.
• Readily available – There are a number of meal plan templates that you can download online and they come in different varieties so scarcity is never an issue with it. Most especially now that meal planning and meal prepping is trending.
• Free – What could be better than free templates? I love free templates. You can do a lot of things with these free templates and you can download different styles and contents withing shelling out any amount.
• Saves time and energy – With a meal plan template, the only thing you need to do is write the list of meals that you plan to make, its ingredients and how you want to make it. No more thinking of the design, layout and details to include. That is just a lot of work.
• Provides a food guide – Most meal plan templates provides a guide on the best type of meal to prepare for a certain goal. Say for example you want to lose weight. Meal plans for weight loss provide you with a list of food that are good for weight loss.
• Offers tips – There are also a number of different tips and hacks available and you will surely find them useful. They make your meal planning adventure enjoyable.
• Customizable and editable – If you can’t find the meal plan template that you need, then you need not worry as these templates can be be edited and customized according your preferences and needs. Isn’t that amazing? This way you won’t have to start from scratch or give up the thought of using a meal plan.

There are so many ways on how you can take advantage of a meal plan. Whether you are trying to lose wright, keeping yourself fit, practicing a healthy lifestyle or maintaining a diet prescribed by your doctor, a meal plan template can be of help to you.

We hope that you were able to learn about meal planning and meal plan templates in this article. If you would like learn about other plan templates that we offer, you can simply go to our website. Some of the titles we have available are Site Plan Templates Sample, Birth Plan Templates, and Project Operational Plan Samples.