About Meal Planner

Plan weekly meals with shopping lists and nutrition tracking. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Calculators collection.

Use Cases

• Plan a week of meals aligned with specific macro targets for a fitness goal.
• Generate a family meal plan that accommodates multiple dietary preferences or restrictions.
• Create a meal prep schedule that minimizes unique ingredients to reduce grocery cost.
• Plan meals for a special diet (vegan, gluten-free, diabetic) with nutritional validation.

Tips

• Plan meals around proteins first, then build carbohydrates and vegetables around them — protein sourcing is the most time-consuming planning step.
• Batch-cook grains and legumes on Sunday to use across 3-4 meals during the week — they store for 5 days and reduce daily cooking time by 20-30 minutes.
• Export the shopping list grouped by store section (produce, dairy, protein, pantry) to minimize in-store navigation time.

Fun Facts

• The average American household wastes approximately 31.9% of the food it purchases (ReFED, 2021) — meal planning has been shown to reduce household food waste by 30-40% by aligning purchases to planned consumption.
• Meal kit delivery services (HelloFresh, Blue Apron) grew from a $1.5B industry in 2019 to $19.9B globally by 2023, largely by solving the 'what's for dinner' decision fatigue that meal planning addresses.
• Nutrition labeling requirements for grocery products were first mandated in the US by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, taking effect in 1994 — making detailed home meal planning with nutritional data a post-1994 capability.

FAQ

Does it generate a shopping list?

Yes — the shopping list aggregates all ingredients across the week's meals, combining quantities for identical items and organized by category.

Can it account for dietary restrictions?

Yes — set dietary preferences (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free) and the planner filters meal suggestions to compliant options.

Does it calculate nutritional totals?

Daily and weekly totals for calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, and fiber are shown. Per-meal breakdown is available for detailed tracking.