How do you create a meal plan for a client?
In short: Start by understanding the client's nutritional needs, goals, food preferences and practical circumstances. Where appropriate, establish energy and macronutrient targets or other relevant dietary requirements. Choose a realistic meal structure, select suitable recipes and check that the plan meets its intended nutritional goals. Provide a grocery list and practical guidance, then review how the plan worked for the client and adjust it as needed.
1 min 16 s videoCaptions onUpdated 12 October 2026
Before you plan anything
A meal plan should reflect the client's nutritional needs, health goals and individual circumstances. Depending on the purpose of the plan, this may involve setting energy and macronutrient targets, meeting specific nutrient requirements or focusing on dietary patterns and food groups. Establish any relevant allergies, intolerances, medical dietary restrictions, food preferences and cultural or religious considerations before selecting recipes. How to calculate macros for a client covers setting macronutrient targets where appropriate.
Practical considerations are just as important. Ask who prepares meals, how many people eat together, what cooking facilities and time are available, and what the client's food budget allows. Work schedules, caring responsibilities and access to ingredients can all influence whether a plan is realistic. Two clients with similar nutritional requirements may need very different meal structures.
Most of this belongs on your intake form. What a nutrition intake form should include has the questions worth asking.
Choose the structure first
Decide how meals will be organised before selecting recipes. Consider the client's preferred meal frequency, daily routine, appetite, cooking ability and whether they would benefit from repeating meals or using leftovers. A plan with fewer unique recipes may be easier to prepare and shop for, while others may prefer greater variety.
| Client | Possible approach |
|---|---|
| New to meal planning or limited cooking time | Rotate a smaller selection of meals, repeat preferred breakfasts and use suitable leftovers for lunches |
| Confident cook who enjoys variety | Include a wider range of recipes, with batch cooking where useful |
| Training multiple times a day | Plan sufficient overall energy and carbohydrate intake, with meal and snack timing adapted to training demands |
| Small appetite or early satiety | Consider smaller, more frequent meals or snacks where appropriate, with attention to overall energy and nutrient adequacy |
Start with a structure the client feels able to follow and adjust it based on their feedback. Meal frequency, variety and repetition should reflect individual needs rather than a fixed template.
Fill the days in a sensible order
- Start with the meals that need the most planning. For many clients, these are evening meals, but the order can depend on their routine.
- Use leftovers where practical. Plan suitable batch-cooked meals that can be safely stored and eaten later.
- Add breakfasts and other regular meals. Include familiar options that suit the client's preferences and schedule.
- Check protein and other key nutrients. Consider whether the plan provides sufficient protein across the day, alongside any other nutrients relevant to the client's needs and goals.
- Include snacks where useful. Snacks can help meet energy and nutrient requirements or accommodate appetite and activity patterns, but aren't essential for everyone.
- Adjust portions and review nutritional adequacy. Where targets have been set, check the planned intake against them while considering overall dietary quality.
Using ingredients across several recipes can simplify shopping and help reduce food waste. However, the plan should still provide sufficient variety to support nutritional adequacy and the client's preferences.
Check it before you send it
Review each day of the plan as well as the overall weekly pattern. Where daily energy or macronutrient targets have been set, check whether planned intake is reasonably aligned with them. Large differences between days may need reviewing, particularly when consistent daily intake is important for the client's goals or clinical needs. However, a fixed percentage tolerance is not necessary for every client, and some variation between days may be appropriate. How to make a meal plan hit macro targets explains how to assess and adjust targets.
Review the plan from the client's perspective. Are recipes manageable within their available time, budget and cooking skills? Are the ingredients accessible? Have allergies, dietary restrictions and strong dislikes been accounted for? Where food allergies are involved, ingredient selection, labelling and cross-contact precautions require particular care. Planning around allergies and foods to avoid covers these considerations.
Hand it over, then follow up
Provide the meal plan alongside a grocery list and clear instructions for using it. Explain which meals can be exchanged, how to adjust the plan when routines change and how to accommodate meals eaten outside the home. Encourage flexibility where appropriate so the plan supports the client's routine rather than becoming unnecessarily restrictive.
At the next consultation, explore which meals worked well, which were difficult to prepare or eat, and what the client chose instead. Ask about barriers such as time, cost, appetite, preferences or access to ingredients. Use this feedback to make collaborative adjustments so the next version better reflects the client's needs. There's more on supporting dietary changes in boosting dietary adherence.
How to do it in Foodzilla
Foodzilla can build the first draft from the client's targets and preferences, then you edit it in the planner and send it to their app. The video walks through one plan from start to finish.
- 1Go to Meal Plans, stay on the Client Plans tab and choose your client. You can also open the client's dashboard and choose Meal Plans.
- 2Press Auto-Generate. Set the Start date, How many days? (1 to 7) and Which meals? (at least two). The daily energy target and macro split come from the client's goals. For a blank plan instead, choose New Plan, then New Empty Plan.
- 3Open Dietary needs & ingredients to check the Health & allergy preferences, Exclude ingredients and Favourite foods taken from the client's profile, then press Generate plan.
- 4In the Planner, compare the Daily Average card with the Client targets card, and check each day's Nutrition row. To change a meal, open the recipe's menu and choose Auto-Swap (Professional plan and above) or Manual Swap.
- 5Press Save. Add guidance for the client on the Notes tab, then open the Grocery List tab and press Generate List.
- 6If the client has more than one plan, choose Sync To Client App on the one they should see. Then use More, then Notify Client App or Email To Client, to let them know it's ready.
Good to know
- Start with a manageable structureA shorter rotation of meals may be easier for some clients to shop for and prepare than seven completely different days. Add variety or adjust the structure based on the client's feedback.
- Save dietary preferences to the client profileRecord allergies, foods to avoid and favourite foods in the client's Diet Preferences tab (Professional plan and above). These preferences can then be used by Auto-Generate when creating meal plans for that client. Always review the generated plan for suitability, particularly where allergies or medical dietary restrictions are involved.
- Use notes for practical instructionsShort guidance such as 'Swap any two lunches' or 'Wednesday's dinner freezes well' can help clients understand how to use the plan. Only recommend swapping meals when the alternatives are suitable for the client's nutritional requirements.