Creating Meal Plans

The meal plan builder lets you set daily macro targets, structure meals, and add foods from your library. Plans live as templates by default and become an active assignment once you give them to a client.

Opening the builder

From Coach → Meal Plans, click New to start a blank plan, or open an existing plan to edit it. The library has list and grid views and filters for sharing status, owner, and assigned client.

A new plan starts with a template picker. You can dismiss it and build from scratch, or pick one of the six starting structures (see Templates).

Choosing a template

Six built-in templates ship with the app:

3-Meal Day — breakfast, lunch, dinner
4-Meal + Snack — adds an afternoon snack
6-Meal IIFYM — frequent smaller meals for consistent energy
Intermittent Fasting (16:8) — two meals inside the eating window
Pre & Post Workout — meals timed around training
Start from Scratch — empty structure, you add meals manually

Templates only define the meal structure — the meal names and types. Foods are added afterward.

Heads up: picking a template after you’ve already added foods will replace the meal list. The builder shows a confirmation dialog before discarding existing content.

Setting macro targets

Macro targets live in the right rail of the builder. The behavior is intentional and slightly unusual:

You enter Protein and Carbs in grams.
Fat is auto-calculated from a fat percentage (default 25%).
Calories are auto-calculated from the macros using (P × 4) + (C × 4) + (F × 9).

Both fat and calories show as read-only fields in the builder — they recalculate as you change protein, carbs, or the fat percentage.

Fat percentage

Each coach has their own default fat percentage, set once in your coach settings. New plans you create start at that default.

You can override the percentage on any individual plan — adjusting fat % on one plan doesn’t change your default and doesn’t affect other plans.

Calculate from Client

When the builder is open in the context of a specific client, a Calculate from Client button appears next to the macro targets. It opens a calculator that derives macro targets from the client’s biometrics, activity level, and goal. The calculator returns its own protein/carb/fat split, which you can apply to the plan or override manually.

Building meals

Each meal in the plan has a name, a type (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack), and a list of foods.

Add a meal — bottom of the meal list
Add a food to a meal — opens the food search modal (see Food Library)
Reorder meals — drag the meal cards
Duplicate a meal — copies the meal and its foods
Remove a meal — destructive, no undo

Per-food adjustments (serving size, quantity) are made in the food search modal when adding, or by clicking a food row inside a meal.

Macro feedback

Above the meal list, a feedback panel shows the plan’s current macros vs. the targets in real time. As you add or remove foods, the totals update immediately so you can see how close the plan is to the targets.

Client dietary info

When the builder is open for a specific client, their dietary restrictions and health conditions display as chips at the top of the builder. These come from the client’s profile and are display-only here — to edit them, open the client’s profile from the Clients tab.

Saving and assigning

Save — disabled until the plan has a name and at least one meal. Saves changes; you stay in the builder.
Cancel with unsaved changes — the builder warns before discarding. The same warning fires on browser back/refresh.

A new plan is saved as a template (isTemplate: true). Templates live in your library and don’t belong to any client. Use Assign in the library to give a template to one or more clients — the assignment creates the active plan they see in their portal.

Duplicating a plan

From the library, Duplicate copies the plan (with all meals and foods) as a new template, leaving the original untouched. Useful when you want to use one plan as a starting point for a variant — different calorie level, training-day vs. rest-day, etc.

Plans can be Shared so other coaches in your workspace can use them. Sharing makes the plan visible in their library; they can assign it to their clients but can’t edit the original. Use Unshare to revoke.