How do you send paying clients a new meal plan every week automatically?
In short: Set the rules once: build each plan from the client's own energy and macro targets and food preferences, or rotate through templates you've already written, and choose how often a new plan goes out. Link the schedule to the client's subscription so plans start when they pay and stop when they cancel. Keep a review window before each plan reaches the client, so automation saves you the building and not the checking.
1 min 4 s videoCaptions onUpdated 28 September 2026
What automatic should mean
Sending every subscriber the same PDF each Monday is automatic, but it isn't personalised nutrition, and clients notice by week three. A useful automatic plan does four things.
- It's built for the individual: their energy target, macro split, number of meals and foods to avoid.
- It arrives on a predictable day, in the place the client already looks.
- It starts and stops with payment, with nobody updating a spreadsheet.
- It leaves you time to look at it before the client does.
Two ways to build the plans
| Generated from targets | Your templates in order | |
|---|---|---|
| How each plan is made | Recipes chosen to fit the client's own targets and preferences | Plans you wrote in advance, sent one after another |
| Personalisation | High. Every plan is built for that client's numbers | Lower. Everyone on the template gets the same food |
| Your control over recipes | You control the recipe pool, not each pick | Complete |
| Best for | Ongoing subscriptions with varied clients | A structured programme, e.g. a 6-week reset |
Templates feel safer, but they can't respect one client's nut allergy and another's 2,600 kcal target in the same plan. For a mixed group of subscribers, generation from targets is usually the better fit, as long as the targets are right. How to calculate macros for a client covers that part.
Guardrails before you switch it on
- Targets first. A plan can only be as good as the energy target behind it. Don't automate for a client with no goals set.
- Allergies and foods to avoid. Record them on the client's profile, not in a message thread. See planning around allergies.
- A review window. Plans should be ready a few days before the client sees them, so you can check or rebuild one.
- Clinical clients. For kidney disease, pregnancy with complications, eating disorders or anything with a tight medical target, review every plan by hand or don't automate.
- Silence. If a client has stopped logging and replying, more plans rarely help. Pause and get in touch.
Changing targets as the weeks go by
A fixed target for twelve weeks suits maintenance, but most goals move. For a fat-loss phase, a common approach is to start at maintenance minus 300 to 500 kcal and step down by around 100 kcal every few weeks if progress stalls, keeping protein steady. For muscle gain, step up slowly and watch the waistline.
Keep protein in grams per kilogram of body weight rather than a fixed percentage when calories drop. A 30% protein split of 1,600 kcal is 120 g, but the same 30% of 1,300 kcal is under 100 g, which may be too little for a client trying to keep muscle.
Plan those steps at the start so the plans follow them, then check the client's weight trend at each review and adjust if reality disagrees.
Selling it as a service
Be plain about what a meal plan subscription includes. If there's no messaging or check-in, say so on the sales page, and offer an upgrade to coaching for people who want it. Clients are happy to pay less for less when they know that's the deal. Selling nutrition packages online covers the store side.
How to do it in Foodzilla
Auto Plans sends a client a new meal plan every week or month, and can be switched on for everyone who buys a store plan. It's on the Professional plan and above, and each plan it sends counts towards your Autopilot allowance.
- 1For one client, go to Clients, open the client's menu and choose Meal Plans, then open the Auto Plans tab and press Turn on Auto Plans.
- 2Choose new plans from their targets, or your templates in order (up to 6). Set every week or every month, a start date and how long it runs, up to 12 weeks or 3 months at a time. When plans come from targets, tick the box to confirm you're responsible for the plans it sends.
- 3To move targets over time, open Change week by week. Lose weight and Build muscle step the calories down or up each week and keep the client's macro split, and My own lets you set each week's calories and split yourself.
- 4Each plan is ready 3 days before it opens. Press Check plan to review it, or Build it again for a different one. It then opens in the client's app on its day and they get a notification.
- 5For paying clients, go to Store & Payments, then Plans & Pricing, and edit a plan. In the Auto Plans section, switch on Turn it on for everyone who buys this plan and choose Their targets or My templates. Plans start the day a client pays, stop when the subscription ends, and wait if a payment fails.
- 6To start a whole group on the same date, tick them on the Clients list and press Turn on Auto Plans.
Good to know
- Quiet clients get pausedIf a client logs nothing for 14 days, Foodzilla pauses their Auto Plans and says so on the Auto Plans tab. Treat that as a prompt to check in, then press Resume.
- Let buyers choose their mealsStore buyers pick how many meals a day they want when they sign up. Until they do, plans use breakfast, lunch and dinner.