# Meal planning

How to turn the nutrition intake into a weekly plan. Read `programming.md` §8 first for
how the calorie and protein targets are set; this file covers turning those into food.

> [!warning] Boundary
> This is general nutrition guidance, not dietetic or medical advice. Anyone with
> diabetes, kidney disease, an eating disorder history, who is pregnant, or on medication
> affected by diet should take their targets to a professional before following them. Say
> so plainly once, in the plan, and do not repeat it every week.

---

## 1. The two modes

The intake picked one. They behave quite differently.

### Simple

The point is that **they never count anything**. The plan is built to land on the phase
target, and their only job is to eat what is on it.

- Same calorie target every day, training or not.
- Show no macros on the meal cards. Show the day's total once, quietly, at the foot.
- Portions are given in real units: "150 g chicken", "a fist of rice", not "40 g protein".
- Keep the week repetitive. Two breakfasts, three lunches, five dinners is plenty.

### Precise

Same weekly average, distributed to match the training week.

- **Protein stays flat every day.** It is the one that must not move.
- **Carbohydrate moves.** Training days get more, rest days get less.
- **Fat fills the remainder** and moves opposite to carbohydrate.
- Show macros on every meal card and a running day total.

Carbohydrate split, as a share of the weekly carbohydrate budget:

| Day type | Carbohydrate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy session (lower body, or the highest-volume day) | ~130% of average | The day that earns the food |
| Normal training day | ~110% of average | |
| Rest day | ~75% of average | Fat rises to keep calories level |

Keep total calories within about 10% day to day even in precise mode. Swinging calories
hard makes people hungry and non-compliant, and buys very little.

## 2. Building the day

Work in this order. It fails when done in any other.

1. **Protein first.** Divide the daily protein target across the meals, roughly evenly,
   25–45 g per meal. Protein anchors every meal; build the rest around it.
2. **Carbohydrate around training.** In precise mode put the largest carbohydrate meal
   in the two or three hours either side of the session. In simple mode ignore timing;
   it matters far less than the daily total.
3. **Vegetables next.** Two portions minimum at lunch and dinner. This is the part every
   plan skips and every person needs.
4. **Fat last, to close the gap.** Cooking oil, nuts, dairy, oily fish.
5. **Check the cooking time** against what they said in intake section 5. If a weekday
   dinner exceeds it, the recipe is wrong, not their schedule.

## 3. Respecting the intake

- **Cooking time is a hard limit**, not a target. If they said 20 minutes, no weekday
  meal takes 25.
- **Batch cooking**, if they said yes: build one or two cook-ahead components and reuse
  them across the week. Say explicitly what to cook on the prep day.
- **Repetition tolerance**: if they are happy repeating, repeat. It is cheaper, faster,
  and the shopping list is shorter. Only build variety for people who asked for it.
- **Portions for others**: give the trained person's portion and the household portion
  separately when they differ. Only the trained person gets macros.
- **Fixed meals** they asked to keep stay in, and the rest of the day is built around them.

## 4. Supplements

Ask in the intake, and include a supplements panel in the plan whenever they take
anything or their protein target is hard to reach. Be honest rather than promotional.

**Worth taking, if it helps them:**

- **Protein powder.** Not magic, just a convenient way to hit a protein target that is
  awkward from food alone. Calculate the actual gap: daily protein target minus what the
  food in the plan provides. If the gap is over about 25 g, one shake closes it. Over
  50 g, two. If there is no gap, say so and do not sell them a tub they do not need.
- **Creatine monohydrate, 3–5 g daily.** The one supplement with genuinely strong
  evidence for strength and lean mass. Cheap, no loading phase needed, timing irrelevant.
- **Vitamin D** in UK winter, roughly October to March, where sunlight is genuinely scarce.

**Say plainly it is not needed:** BCAAs when protein is adequate, testosterone boosters,
fat burners, most pre-workout beyond the caffeine in it.

**Especially in a surplus**, the protein gap is usually the real problem, because eating
enough total food is already hard. Lead with shakes and calorie-dense whole foods (oats,
nut butters, olive oil, full-fat dairy, dried fruit) rather than adding more volume.

**Especially in a deficit**, protein rises as a share of a smaller intake, so the gap is
often bigger even though the target is the same. Flag this rather than letting them
quietly miss it.

## 5. The output

Build `assets/meal-plan-template.html` into `<name>-meal-plan.html` in the working
directory. Fill in its marked block. Everything else is done.

The template gives you: day tabs, meal cards with expandable methods, a training badge on
training days, a shopping list grouped by aisle, a prep guide, and the supplements panel.
It matches the training app's Brass identity so the two read as one product.

If they also have the workout app, set `app` in the PLAN block to its filename (for example
`ben-iron-os.html`) so the plan shows a Workouts button back to it. Leave it `''` for a
food only customer. The app's `nutrition.plan` points the other way; keep both files in one folder.

Write the shopping list from the actual quantities in the plan, grouped by supermarket
section, with quantities combined across the week. A list you have to re-derive by hand
is worse than no list.

## 6. Regenerating

A meal plan is weekly and disposable; the training programme is not. When they ask for
next week:

- Keep the same targets unless the phase changed or their weight moved enough to matter.
- Vary the meals only as much as their repetition answer wants.
- If their weight is not moving as expected after two weeks, the maintenance figure was
  wrong. Revise it before changing anything else, and say that is what you are doing.
