Diet / food planning software?

So..I've been searching for hours but haven't come up with anything that looks useful.  I'd like to find software that would help me customize a diet based on my food preferences, preferably based on exchange lists.  I haven't ever been able to find a pre-made diet that I can follow, and I think it might help if I could load a program with the foods I want to eat, and have it come up with a meal plan.  If anyone knows about some kind of tool, software, app, whatever that can help me do that, I'd sure appreciate it.

I've been looking around for a long time now and can't find anything that suits my purposes. If you find something, please share. Good luck.

Misty8723 said:

So..I've been searching for hours but haven't come up with anything that looks useful.  I'd like to find software that would help me customize a diet based on my food preferences, preferably based on exchange lists.  I haven't ever been able to find a pre-made diet that I can follow, and I think it might help if I could load a program with the foods I want to eat, and have it come up with a meal plan.  If anyone knows about some kind of tool, software, app, whatever that can help me do that, I'd sure appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Here you go  

http://lofty-designs.net/menuplan.htm

Under the first column in the table you will see "Basic Meal Plan".  That plan is 1200 calories.  And it shows how much of what food list to eat for each meal.   Each food group is known as an "Exchange"

The second column shows an example of foods based on that 1200 calorie plan on the left.

The column on the far right called "Special Instructions" shows how to adjust the plan to add or take away calories by adjusting the number of food groups (exchanges) you have in a day.   You can make the adjustment anywhere in your daily plan.

Under "Substitution List" you will foods grouped into "Exchanges".

The nice thing about counting food groups (exchanges) is that each food in a particular exchange has about the same number of calories when properly portioned. 

For example:

1 ounce of chicken  =  1/4 cup 2% cottage cheese

1 slice of bread = 1/2 cup pasta  or 1 cup of creamed soup

It is actually based on the diabetic way of eating, which is the ideal way to eat.

I consider it dieting for dummies.  

I tend to stick with the basic menu plan for the most part. But at times I feel like having extra snacks or am extra hungry,  I'll tweak it to 1500 or even 1800 calories on those days.  

1800 calories is the ideal calorie amount for those wanting to lose weight, or to maintain their weight.

Thanks for the link.

I would actually like to find a software program that I could enter all of the foods I like and see what kind of plan it could come up with (based on the exchange lists).  I haven't seen anything that looks like it could actually do that, so far, but I'll keep looking.

Misty8723 said:

Thanks for the link.

I would actually like to find a software program that I could enter all of the foods I like and see what kind of plan it could come up with (based on the exchange lists).  I haven't seen anything that looks like it could actually do that, so far, but I'll keep looking.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what the menu plan does.  But you have to put some effort into it and do it manually.