What is a Meal Plan? (With Free Meal Plan Checklist for Meal Prep)

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Over the past few years, meal planning has grown exponentially in popularity — but if you’ve never used a meal plan before, you might not be entirely sure of what it is or how to create one. So, what is a meal plan, and how can meal planning help you save more time and effort at home? In this short guide, we’ll explain what meal plans are, including how people use them and how to create your own meal plan for meal prep (with a free checklist).

Jump To:

• What is a meal plan?
• Why do people use meal plans?
• What’s the difference between a meal plan and meal planning?
• Meal plan checklist for meal prep

What is a meal plan?

A meal plan is a tool that allows you to plan out what you’re going to eat during a specific period of time, such as a day, week, or month. When you make a meal plan, you’re essentially creating your daily, weekly, or monthly menu ahead of time so that you don’t have to spend extra time and effort each day deciding what to cook and eat.

Why do people use meal plans?

People use meal plans for various reasons, usually to help them meet specific goals. For example, as someone who has been meal prepping regularly for years, meal plans are an important part of my meal prepping process. However, meal plans can also be useful for other reasons outside of meal prep — as you’ll see below.

People who meal prep

When we think of meal plans, one of the first things that comes to mind is meal prep. Meal prep is the method of pre-planning and prepping your meals for a certain period of time, such as a week or a month.

Meal planning is an essential step in the meal prep process because it allows you to plan out all of the meals you want to prep ahead of time. Whether you decide to create your own meal plan from scratch, or save time by purchasing a premade meal plan, meal plans are an essential part of meal prepping that can’t be overlooked.

People with dietary restrictions

Meal plans can also be a nutrition counseling tool for dietitians or nutritionists to help clients who want or need to adhere to a certain diet.

Meal plans created by nutrition specialists can be entirely medical — such as for someone who has a health condition that requires them to cut out or eat certain foods. But nutritionists can also create meal plans for clients as a way to help them achieve certain nutrition or health goals, like eating more vegetables or managing their weight.

People with on-campus dining

If you’re a college student, you’re probably familiar with another definition for a “meal plan” — a pre-paid account that allows students to gain access to on-campus dining services.

A college meal plan is not the same as a meal plan that you would create or buy for, let’s say, meal prep. With that said, one beneficial thing about having a college meal plan is that you can still create your own weekly or monthly meal plan using the dining that’s available on campus. In fact, depending on what kind of dining services your school offers, you can also meal prep using on-campus dining options, as well.

What’s the difference between a meal plan and meal planning?

While the terms meal plan and meal planning are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle difference between the two phrases:

• A meal plan usually refers to the actual plan or menu that you create or purchase. Meal plans allow you to plan out all of the meals you want to eat that day, week, or month.
• Meal planning refers to the process of creating your own meal plan. Meal planning generally involves a series of steps, such as browsing and choosing recipes and creating grocery lists.

As you can see, a meal plan is the end-result of the meal planning process — a process that you can either do yourself, or have someone else do for you. By the way, just like there are many different types of meal plans out there, there are also multiple types of meal planning methods that can be used to fit your needs.

Meal plan checklist for meal prep

When you’re new to the world of meal prep, taking that first step into meal planning can feel a little overwhelming — which is why I’ve created a meal planning checklist that covers all the basic steps needed to create your first meal plan for meal prep! Simply download and print the checklist below before your next meal planning session.

By the way, if this is your first time meal planning, don’t forget to check out my full beginner’s guide on how to create your first weekly meal plan.