Choosing a Meal Plan: How to Avoid Information Overload

In this day and age it often feels like we have an unlimited amount of information at our fingertips via the Internet.  On one hand all of this information can be a good thing.  The Internet can provide us with diet tips, workout ideas, and plenty of healthy recipes.  On the other hand this unlimited information can be really confusing to someone looking for basic diet advice.

Lets face it, there are a lot of different views on nutrition and just as many meal plan recommendations!  For the average person this can be pretty frustrating and cause them to remain on an unhealthy path.

Choosing a healthy meal plan might seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.  Here are a few guidelines that you should be following to have a healthy meal plan that fits your needs:

• The first thing you need to do is look into the Dietary Guidelines set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.  This guide is going to tell you how much macro and micronutrients you will need to consume in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  The Dietary Guidelines should be your base when picking out a sound meal plan.

• The next step is to evaluate any meal plan you might be thinking about following.  Things you need to look out for include:

-Does the meal plan suggest that you consume a significantly low or high amount of calories, protein, fat, or

carbohydrates?

- Does the meal plan suggest that you should only consume foods from one or two food groups (e.g. meat and

dairy) while avoiding other food groups (e.g. breads and fruit)?

- Does the meal plan promise that you will lose a large amount of weight in a small amount of time?

These are just a few questions you need to ask when picking out the best meal plan for you.  If you find that the meal plan requires you to starve yourself, avoid certain food groups, or promise that you will lose an extremely large amount of weight in a small amount of time then it’s best to avoid this plan!