Nutrition plans are often expensive or from dubious coaches on the internet. However, it can be enough to create your own nutrition plan, especially at the beginning. You can adapt it to your individual needs and achieve your goals on your own. Whether you want to lose weight or build muscle, we have the most important tips for you.

These 9 steps will help you create your perfect diet plan

When you first set out to write your own nutrition plan, it can be overwhelming. We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you create your own personalised nutrition plan. Let’s get started!

1. Get to know yourself and your body

The first step is to get to know your own body. What are your strengths? What would you like to change? What is your attitude towards nutrition?

It doesn’t make sense to sit out every little thing about yourself and want to change everything. Instead, it makes much more sense to first look at your self-image and reflect on yourself and your attitudes towards nutrition and your body.

This will help you to recognise whether your desires and ideas are driven from the outside or come from within. Wanting to lose weight just to please someone else is not a good place to start.

Really think about what you want for yourself – as independently as possible from what others might think about it. 2.

2. Calculate your BMI

If you find this difficult, it’s not a problem. You can easily use a BMI calculator for an initial assessment. This will tell you very quickly whether you are within the normal range for your height or whether you are below or above it.

Keep in mind, however, that the BMI calculator does not take a lot of things into account. The result of the calculation is therefore not incontrovertible. Just because you are slightly above the “normal range” does not mean that your body weight is unhealthy.

There are simply too many factors involved to draw such conclusions. But at least the BMI calculator gives you a first reference value that can serve as a starting point. 3.

3. Calculate your calorie needs

Another important step is to calculate your personal calorie needs. You can either do complicated calculations from nutrition books or simply use our Verival calorie calculator.

Based on some data about your age, height, weight and activity level, the calorie calculator will calculate your personal needs. Again, the value that comes out is a good reference for now.

No calculation in this context is 100 per cent accurate. However, you can use the calculated requirement as a basis and then adapt it step by step to your individual requirements.

Ein Ernährungstagebuch zu führen hilft, das eigene Verhalten besser einzuschätzen

4. Familiarise yourself with your current diet

Before you start with your goals and the specific diet plan, you should first familiarise yourself with your current diet. The best way to do this is to keep a food diary, for example over a period of two weeks.

Use an app or write down what you eat and drink by hand – this way you can quickly see how balanced and varied your diet is. But also how many calories you eat every day.

These findings will help you later to adapt your habits to your new goals.

5. Set clear goals and adjust your calorie needs

After you have worked on the first four points, you should now be clear about what you want to achieve.

For example, if you want to build muscle mass and gain weight, you should eat a little more calories than the calorie calculator has given you. 200 to 500 calories have proven to be suitable.

If the calorie calculator says you need 2,500 calories, you should eat between 2,700 and 3,000 calories to gain weight healthily and build muscle effectively.

If, on the other hand, you want to lose weight with your healthy diet, you do exactly the opposite. Instead of adding the 200 to 500 calories to the calculated calorie requirement, you simply subtract them. The example requirement is now 2,000 to 2,300 calories per day for healthy weight loss.

If, on the other hand, you are not pursuing either of these goals, but simply want to eat a more balanced and healthy diet, it is best to eat the amount of calories presented to you by the calculator. 6.

6. Choose the right macronutrient distribution

In line with your goal setting, you should now set about choosing the appropriate macronutrient composition.

As a reminder, macronutrients are those nutrients that provide you with energy, i.e. fat, carbohydrates and proteins.

There are different ways to do this for each goal, as long as you are getting the optimal amount of calories. If you want to build muscle and therefore need more calories, you can increase your intake of healthy fats – they are full of calories, so you don’t need to eat as much.

The other way round is also possible. If you feel like you want to eat a lot but don’t want to eat too many calories, it’s a good idea to reduce the amount of fat you consume.

Remember, macronutrients have different energy densities:

1 gram carbohydrate 4 kilocalories (kcal)
1 gram protein 4 kilocalories (kcal)
1 gram fat 9 kilocalories (kcal)

7. Create your personal repertoire of foods.

Now you can set about choosing foods that match your calorie and nutrient goals. Below is a selection of products, categorised by calorie content.

Higher calorie foodsLower calorie foods
nuts and and seedsLow-fat curd cheese and low-fat natural yoghurt
pasta, rice and pseudocereals (quinoa, buckwheat, etc.)water-rich fruit and vegetables, e.g. berries, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
fish and fatty meatlow-fat meat, such as chicken or turkey
chips, soft drinks, ice cream and other sackscertain pulses, such as beans

Many of the high-calorie products contain valuable nutrients that you would otherwise miss out on. As always, the same applies here: The dose makes the poison.

Besides, intuitively you don’t consume very much of some foods anyway. This also applies to nuts, for example, which are very filling due to their high fat and protein content. The only dangerous foods are salted and roasted nuts and crisps – because these are the most

Moreover, intuitively one does not consume very much of some foods anyway. This also applies to nuts, for example, which are very filling due to their high fat and protein content. The only dangerous foods are salted and roasted nuts and crisps, which trick the taste buds and the reward centre into eating more and more if you are not careful.

Eine Planung im Voraus und entsprechende Meal Preps sind oft hilfreich

8. Plan your week in advance

To avoid unnecessary traps when losing weight or building muscle, it is advisable to have a plan that is tailored to your goals. This does not necessarily mean the diet plan itself, but rather whether you eat out or at home.

If you know that you will be spending three days in the office and two days at home, you will have to plan your meals differently. For example, you could have a small meal for lunch in the office during the day and then cook a big meal in the evening.

Or you could prepare your meals in advance. This saves you from going to the canteen or going hungry during the day, and you can simply take your delicious food from home to the office prepared for you.

9. Find your favourite meal prepping recipes

If you often eat outside the home, it’s best to gather your favourite recipes and analyse them to see if they are suitable for meal prep.

Depending on what kitchen utensils you have at work, different dishes will be suitable to prepare.

For example, if you eat your breakfast in the office, you can prepare delicious overnight oats. You can enjoy them cold and simply prepare them the day before.

Kakao-Banane Overnight Oats
Print Recipe
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Cocoa Banana Overnight Oats without sugar

Prep Time5 mins
Servings: 1

Ingredients

  • 80 g Cocoa Banana Sport Porridge
  • 140 ml milk or plant drink
  • 1 tsp agave syrup or similar to sweeten (optional)
  • Toppings of your choice: bananas, berries, nuts, nut puree, cocoa nibs, dried fruits

Instructions

  • Pour water, milk or a plant-based alternative into a glass with the Verival Sport Porridge and stir well.
  • Put your mixture in the fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours. This will soak the mixture properly and give it its delicious consistency.
  • The next day, take your Overnight Oats out of the fridge and give them another good stir.
  • If desired, you can refine your Overnight Oats with toppings of your choice.

The big advantage: prepared food is not only cheaper than buying it in the canteen, cafeteria or restaurant; it often tastes better and is also tailored to your nutritional preferences.

4 tips and tricks for even more individuality in your diet plan

After you have worked through all the steps, you now have the perfect basis for your diet plan. Ideally, this will already allow you to achieve your goals, but we would still like to share the following tips for even more individuality in your diet plan with you.

1. Have a wide variety of foods.

A wide range of foods helps you to bring variety into your daily diet and avoid monotony. This way you can stick to your diet in the long run and avoid the dreaded yo-yo effect.

It’s especially easy to choose from when you look through different recipes from all over the world. Since every culture has its own must-haves in the kitchen, you can put everything together exactly according to your taste and needs.

2. Healthy eating starts with breakfast

While we’re on the subject of choice and variety. Especially at breakfast, the list of possible recipes is endless. You can combine countless flavours in a porridge alone to give yourself a perfect start to the day.

In general, you shouldn’t do without breakfast. Because the way you start the day is often the way it goes. If you are hungry in the morning, there is a high risk that you will reach for a snack or a hearty meal in the morning or at noon at the latest, which was not planned in this way.

3. Meal timing: Intermittent or without restriction?

In addition to breakfast, meal timing is a good variable that you can manipulate according to your needs. For example, intermittent fasting may work well for some people.

This could mean eating only during a certain window of time between ten and four o’clock. For others, regular meals are important to get through the day.

Especially if you want to gain muscle mass, intermittent fasting can be an obstacle. Because if you want to build muscle, you need sufficient calories and energy during training.

Once again, the details depend on your goals.

4. Document your progress

Last but not least, we encourage you to document your progress. This will not only help you to see if your nutrition plan is leading you to your goals. Documenting your progress can also help you stay motivated during difficult times.

Whether you take photos of yourself, write down numbers or enter the weights you lift at the gym into an app, there is no clear right or wrong. So it’s best to do what feels right for you and brings you closer to your goals in a healthy way!

Nicolas Dworak

Sportwissenschafter

Ich bin studierter Sportwissenschafter und angehender Journalist. Neben meiner Faszination für Sport und das Schreiben blättere ich gerne durch die Fachbücher der Ernährungswissenschaft. Sport und Ernährung gehen für mich Hand in Hand, wenn es um einen gesunden Lebensstil geht.

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