Why I Don’t Give Out Meal Plans

Most new clients who are contemplating working with me always ask if my nutrition programs come with meal plans. 

And the answer is no.

There’s of course nothing wrong with this question but it tells me that following a meal plan is still considered the norm when it comes to hiring a coach. Not that there is anything wrong with coaches who do decide to give out meal plans. But there is a fine line that not a lot of coaches are aware of when it comes to when we actually should or are even allowed to give out meal plans based on our qualifications.

Today I want to go over why as a nutritionist I’m technically not allowed to give out meal plans under certain circumstances but more importantly why I don’t like giving out meal plans regardless of my qualifications. I also want to discuss what I have found to be a sustainable method for not only me but the athletes I have coached for the last 7 years.

As I mentioned, I am a nutritionist. I obtained my sports nutrition certification in 2014 and have many years of experience on the nutrition side of things. However, I am not a registered dietician. While I am qualified to give out nutrition advice, there’s a big difference between nutritionists and registered dieticians. One of the main differences being that I can’t legally prescribe diets, supplements or meal plans that treat a medical condition. So, if someone came to me wanting to work with me to treat their diabetes, that would be outside of my scope of practice and that individual would need to seek out professional help from a registered dietician. The same scenario exists for those who are technically obese. Nutritionists are not allowed to prescribe a meal plan to treat their obesity. You can see how there’s a bit of a grey area here.

To become a registered dietician, you have to complete a four degree, along with the completion of an internship. Registered dieticians specialize in the treatment of medical conditions and mostly work with patients in hospitals or other clinical settings. 

Whereas nutritionists typically work with individual clients looking to improve their overall health and lifestyle. However, there are no regulations as a nutritionist. Even though myself and many others have certifications that validate this title, technically anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. This is because there are no regulatory bodies governing titles. 

Even though nutritionists aren’t regulated, it doesn’t mean that they don’t offer good advice. Some nutritionists may actually have extensive education in diet and nutrition. However, for individuals to call themselves a nutritionist, mandatory education is not required most of the time. Hopefully having an understanding of this helps you maintain caution when you are selecting a coach to work with. Even though many nutritionists (such as myself) are more than qualified, some are not. If you would like to learn more about how you can make an educated decision when deciding who to hire, be sure to listen to episode 23, where I discuss how to pick a fitness coach. 

Now that we understand the difference between a nutritionist and registered dietician, I think it’s safe to say that most of you likely will end up working with a nutritionist versus a registered dietician. Like I mentioned, most registered dieticians work with patients in need of assistance with medical conditions. Most of you who are here are likely looking to achieve your fitness goals of learning how to change your body composition, how to feel confident in your own skin and how to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

With that in mind, it’s important to note that there’s a grey area where nutritionists can get away with giving out meal plans to their clients if they are doing so in a way that’s not to treat a medical condition. Again, there’s nothing wrong with coaches who choose to do that. For me though, the liability risk of this grey area is just not worth it.

When I first started coaching in 2014, I actually used to give out meal plans to all of my clients. I would spend hours upon hours creating what I thought to be the perfect meal plan for the week. I would put countless hours into creating yummy recipes and giving my clients variety – unlike the cookie cutter boring chicken and rice meal plan I received from my previous coach at the time.

Funny story actually, Kyle and I hired the same coach right as I was finishing my CA designation. A week later we decided to go on a trip to Whistler. I had just finished a 4-year grueling article position and we desperately needed a trip together. We also had plans of competing the following year and decided to hire a coach. We were given the same meal plans and told to stick to it even on our trip. We lugged a cooler around with us and Tupperware when we went out and about exploring the city. I am not going to lie, but it put a real damper on our trip. Let’s just say we didn’t experience Whistler the way you should experience Whistler. We were too afraid to eat out and actually just enjoy ourselves.

Another funny story is when the grocery stores stopped making our brand of oatmeal that was on the meal plan. Kyle found another brand with the same macronutrient profile, but nope, we were told we needed the old brand and ended up ordering it online. This was back when ordering your food online wasn’t really a thing.

Let’s just say that this lifestyle did not work for me (nor Kyle if I am speaking for him as well).

I knew how boring and unsatisfying it was and I wanted my clients to actually enjoy what they were eating and not feel the same way I felt. I also developed a really bad relationship with food after eating the same thing each day that I didn’t even like, and I thought by giving my clients yummy variety while they were able to see results it would help them still eat what they liked while seeing results. 

I thought it was a full proof plan. 

Boy did I have a lot to learn

Each day I had someone asking me if they could swap out the banana for strawberries. “But I don’t like pasta for dinner, can I have something else? What about cashews instead of almonds, is that allowed?”

It was a nightmare, and I was beyond frustrated. Not with my clients but with the fact that I felt like they weren’t learning anything. We were spending more time swapping out meals every single day than actually focusing on building healthy lifestyle habits that would help them achieve their long-term goals.

The biggest thing that I didn’t like with giving out meal plans was that my clients had to constantly ask me for permission if they could eat something. And the whole time knowing that they can eat whatever the hell they want. Me telling my athletes what to eat is no different than me telling them what car to buy. I may like Porsches and you may like Ferraris. Both great cars but both are going to get you from A to B when you are driving. Not one is wrong and the other is right. It comes down simply to preference. You should be entitled to make these decisions on your own.

The meal plan option within my coaching program ended quickly. 

I couldn’t help but ask myself, how is me spoon feeding my clients like they are children, telling them to “eat this, not that” every single day ever going to set them up for success? I knew that I would never be able to make my client the perfect meal plan and if I did, it wouldn’t last long because their preferences would change – and why shouldn’t they change? Heck, mine change all the time.

Now some people prefer to have a meal plan and some coaches do just fine with giving out meal plans. I am not saying my way is the right way, but after coaching for 7 years I can say that my clients have way more success and actually have the skills to maintain their results after our time together. And that right there is my biggest goal.

So, what do I do differently now? 

My goal is to teach my athletes flexible dieting principles. Flexible dieting is the process of consuming foods that you love within moderation. It allows foods that fit within your specific daily macronutrient targets. This way of eating provides dieters freedom in their food choices, which may help keep weight off over time and create a positive and healthy relationship with food. I have definitely found this to be the case and the most sustainable method for my clients.

I have a step-by-step process to teach my athletes how to implement this new lifestyle. Now I do provide in the beginning what I like to call a sample meal plan. This is provided as a way to teach my athletes how to track their macronutrients. The sample meal plan is still based around foods they love but it’s only meant to be a training wheel steppingstone, if you will, to learn how to make their own independent food choices.  

Now there are often reservations with flexible dieting because it does involve the process of counting your macronutrients. 

Often the same individuals wonder why not just follow a meal plan? 

“It’s less work.” 

But a meal plan doesn’t teach you how to make adaptable decisions when it comes to your food choices and preferences. 

For example, say the meal plan allows you to have a banana, 2 rice cakes and 30g of peanut butter for lunch but your work brings in pizza and it smells so good that you are dying for a slice. You limit yourself to one slice but feel awful afterwards, when in actuality the calorie profile for 1 slice of pizza may have been similar to your lunch on your meal plan. People often see it as “I’m on the meal plan” or “I’m off the meal plan” It causes us to create a black and white mentality that we followed the meal plan, therefore I did go or I didn’t follow the meal plan, therefore I did bad. Which often isn’t the cause at all. 

I have yet to see this scenario play out for those practicing flexible dieting. 

Often people get turned off from flexible dieting, thinking it’s an unhealthy way of consuming whatever you want – if it fits your macros, that’s all that matters. That’s why I think it’s so important to remember that flexible dieting and IIFYM (If it fits your macros) are two very difference things

Remember, we defined flexible dieting as the process of consuming foods that you love within moderation. Whereas IIFYM typically means what it means – if it fits your macros – then call it a day. 

With flexible dieting, we want to focus on having an inclusion mindset. This is where we are still intentional with having high quality nutrient dense foods each day. We still have micronutrient and fiber targets each day. If we just filled up on donuts and cookies, there would be no room left for us to fit our micronutrient targets.

Overall, flexible dieting isn’t an excuse to eat like an asshole as long as you don’t go over your macronutrients. The priority still needs to be the inclusion of high-quality nutrient dense foods with some of your treats sprinkled into the day.

By extensively teaching my athletes these principles it allows them to discover foods that used to like or foods they didn’t even know that they liked. It allows them to include more variety versus being limited to the same boring foods each day.

Fun fact, you can NOT eat broccoli and still be healthy. This is probably one of my other beefs with meal plans. It creates this false misconception that there are certain foods you should be eating and everything else you avoid like the plague. 

Please tell me, how is that sustainable? 

Are you really going to avoid pizza for the rest of your life? Come one, pizza is life. “But it’s not on the meal plan, so I can’t have it.” Wouldn’t you rather have the skills to enjoy a slice of GUILT free pizza every once in a while, and not have it throw you off course with your fitness goals versus you being so afraid of pizza and never having it until you reach your breaking point and binge on an entire large pizza to yourself? I used to do this when I was on my meal plan. I was lucky to get one cheat meal a week that each time I would stuff down a large pizza just to myself and always felt like shit the next day.

I really do feel that the language that we choose impacts our relationship with food. ”I can have these foods because they are good. I can’t have these foods because they are bad.” Instead of bad foods, I encourage you to call them treats. 

No food in isolation is inherently bad for you. The difference between these foods is how satiated you feel after. Some are more calorically dense, and others are more nutrient dense. That’s it. By avoiding these foods, you think are bad, is only doing more harm than good when it comes to having a healthy relationship with food.

Instead of focusing on foods to avoid, I recommend focusing more on including healthy nutrient dense options, as well as variety into your day and then sprinkle in some treats here and there. Instead of obsessing over the things you can’t have, with this approach, I want you to focus more on including healthy nutrient dense foods into your day and focus on eating a sufficient number of fruits, vegetables, fiber, protein and water.  Once these targets have been met, be ok with enjoying one of your go to treats each day. You heard me correctly, each day.

Why am I encouraging you to do this? 

Because it increases adherence. You can only restrict yourself from foods you enjoy for so long until your willpower runs out. It doesn’t refill at the start of each day. The more you restrict something from yourself, the more you want it. And we all only have so much willpower until it’s all gone. And what happens when it’s all gone? We cave and have an entire box of cookies when if we just had that one cookie 5 days ago when we first craved it maybe we wouldn’t have ended up having 12. Increasing adherence helps reduce those weekend binges that often happen when you are doing nothing but restricting all week and eating 100% of foods you don’t enjoy.

When I was dieting down for my first bodybuilding competition, I wanted to do an experiment where I ate one two bite brownie every single day. It’s pretty macronutrient friendly and was always a nice treat to look forward to during my afternoons. I barely felt restricted, I lost the amount of weight that I needed and actually came in first in my bodybuilding competition. Having one brownie a day kept my adherence levels 100% during a 30 week dieting period.

Not saying anyone needs to do anything this extreme. But I think it gets my point across. 

Overall, I want you to know that it’s so important to find a program or plan that works best for you. If following a meal plans works, then ignore everything I am saying. I am just sharing my experience as an athlete and a coach. But if you find when you follow a meal plan that it creates some of these misconceptions I am talking about and you see your fear of food go up and your relationship with food suffer, I encourage you to take another look into a different approach. Because food is our fuel and it’s also how we socialize. You don’t need to have one without the other. You can have both. You deserve to be able to go out, enjoy yourself in a guilt free manner, while still achieving your fitness goals. So, find a plan that allows you to easily accomplish this.

Hope this was helpful!

Coach Krysten