What I need is one that can tell me the macros for bulking/cutting in the quantity of meals per day that can be set (5-7).
If with these macros restrictions it can give you tasty recipes then that's the one app.
Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
61–70 of 141 posts
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#62Try out https://letscooktime.com . I built this to help track recipes, create aggregated shopping lists, show you nutrition facts, and it all works desktop and mobile.
If you find any issues or have a feature request, I can make it happen.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#63For me cooking and eating is very spontaneous. I also believe this is what separates people who can cook from those who cannot. I can cook because I can mix and match my current appetite, with what I have available in the fridge and figure out something out of that.
I know the general idea behind many recipes and cooking techniques but I do not aim to reproduce them to the letter. Nor do I have some kind of meal plan for the whole week written down somewhere, because that would conflict with my daily appetite changes and whatever I have lying around in my fridge or what I stumble upon in the supermarket.
So to answer your question: I don't. I keep myself open and let myself be guided by my current appetite and my instinct.
I tried having a meal plan in the past and that just proved to be more of a hassle and incredibly boring.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#64It's not an app, but I'm a huge fan of Struggle Meals. It helps reduce analysis paralysis in the kitchen, focusing on keeping important staples in the house and working with whatever you have on hand.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#65I use Grocery on iOS for recipes and shopping lists. It does inventory management, but I don't use that so can't tell you how well it works. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grocery-smart-shopping-list/id...
I use Grocery too, it has a nice markdown based format.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#66This is something I'm super interested in and have been working on building something for some time.
I work out a lot and dabble in powerlifting / bodybuilding so I try to track my diet and workouts pretty closely. I haven't found any single app / tool that does everything I want it to.
I struggle with meal variety, shopping lists, and making sure N meals fit xyz macros.
I'm working on a tool where you can basically start from a super basic meal plan / grocery list and then expand the meal variety over time.
I'm also working on various methods of workout / goal tracking.
It's pretty far off from something I can release, even in MVP form, but if anybody is interested feel free to shoot me an email and I can add you to my list of potential early access / testers.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#67Do you want the app to be able to tell when your ingredients are likely to run out? The creation of a shopping list minus pre-existing ingredients seems to be the trouble spot there.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#68For me cooking and eating is very spontaneous. I also believe this is what separates people who can cook from those who cannot. I can cook because I can mix and match my current appetite, with what I have available in the fridge and figure out something out of that. I know the general idea behind many recipes and cooking techniques but I do not aim to reproduce them to the letter. Nor do I have some kind of meal plan…
I'm similar, so when I go back to the store its to pick up what looks fresh, and use that in conjunction with what I have in the pantry or freezer. But I grew up where it wasn't possible to shop every day like you can in a city, so cooking must be a survival skill learnt under certain conditions?
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#69For me cooking and eating is very spontaneous. I also believe this is what separates people who can cook from those who cannot. I can cook because I can mix and match my current appetite, with what I have available in the fridge and figure out something out of that. I know the general idea behind many recipes and cooking techniques but I do not aim to reproduce them to the letter. Nor do I have some kind of meal plan…
I used to be similar, but now when we have a child and both me and my wife work, things change. Life is much easier to handle when we have an idea of what to eat for the week and a shared shopping list.
This way, as the chaos of life occurs we can quickly alter who purchases what.
Re: Ask HN: Meal Planning App?
#70A plain old Google Doc (or Notion, Dropbox Paper, even Apple Notes would do). I have two sections.
1. Table of cooking for the next week or so
2. Checklist for groceries
That's it.
I poked around at apps or building something and eventually concluded it just added complexity, and the classic, generalist tools are actually fantastic and less work than something tailor-made for the job.