When it comes to overall health and fitness, nutrition is key. That’s why we’re inviting you to use our free diet planning spreadsheet! It’s basically free, low-tech nutrition software that you can use in a variety of ways:
- To calculate your daily calorie needs based on lean body mass and activity level
- To convert your desired macronutrient intake from percentage of calories (for example, 15/70/15) to grams
- To make sure your diet is nutritionally balanced
- For weight loss or weight gain
- As a food journal, by saving each day’s record
- To calculate nutrition data for your recipes
Marcella created this sheet years ago and we’ve been using it on a daily basis since, for ourselves and for our clients. It’s the exact same tool that we use to create the custom meal plans we offer through our online personal training. This tool is freely available because our ultimate goal is NOT to amass as many personal training clients as possible but to have as many successful vegan role models out there as possible. Anyone who is able to create their own goals, their own healthful vegan meals, their own workout routines, and is familiar with Excel should be able to use this planner successfully to achieve those goals. If accountability is needed, if guidance is needed in those areas, or if a kick-start is necessary then we have your back there too, although for a fee because we need to make a living too, and crafting plans and tracking details such as these is hard work!
Here’s a screenshot of the diet planner:
This tool is available as an Excel spreadsheet that you can save to your computer.
Marcella developed the sheet to be as simple as possible in order to avoid any security or broken code issues, and because of this using it is a little more involved than some nutrition software. Please note that many of the ingredients listed are in US units of measurement, so you may need to change the existing ingredients list accordingly or add your own. Please read the instructions page! If you have any technical questions, comment on this page and Marcella will try to respond as soon as possible.
Download the Diet Planner.
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Cant seem to get the Recipes in the Recipe tab to work, says the “user has restricted values that can be entered into this cell”. I have added some ingredients and wanted to create a new recipe so I could get the values.
Thanks!
Sorry for such a long delay in responding – for some reason we don’t get notified anymore when there are new comments…I just uploaded a new, improved version of the diet planner at the same link above. The recipe tab now works. Again, sorry!
Hello. Thank you so much. Former builder in my forties now and went full vegan just over a year ago at the convincing of my wife and watching “Forks Over Knives”. Recently started going back to the gym with fantastic plant based results (much better results than before when I fell for the meat is needed to be strong stuff) and have been teaching my wife about fitness and diet needs with tracking (she’s already down two sizes in a month) and this is perfect for helping us BOTH with our journals. Look forward to future posts and communications. Again thank you!!
Thank you for sharing this, my husband had a stroke last Friday and has to totally change the way he eats. Every calorie, all fat, sodium,cholesterol, and carb must be accounted for and this will be a HUGE help to me in keeping him on track!
Hello,
Thank you so much for posting this. Your workbook is truely amazing and super helpful. I’m on a typical competitor diet with regard to macros, high protein, fiberous carbs, minimal starchy carbs and only with breakfast and before I lift. I would really like to try to eat Vegan even just 80% of the time. But I am worried about the rebound I might experience going from a highly protein based diet (about a 120g a day) to a mostly carb and fat based diet, and potential muscle loss. Did you experience any of this? Did you transition slowly?
Good question! If you base your diet on unprocessed whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes you shouldn’t have any problem keeping your body fat in check. The trouble comes when you get too much processed food or eat too much fat (nuts,avocados, etc). Try to get the same amount of total calories or even a little more, and get nearly the same amount of protein by eating plenty of green vegetables, legumes, and even supplementing (minimally) and you shouldn’t experience any muscle loss. Go for it!
I am a few weeks into the vegan diet and have to thank you greatly for the diet planner, this is a tremendous help!!! Thank you!!
Yay – you’re welcome!
Thank you for the free Diet Planner! It is amazing. Did you make this? It must have been a LOT of work to put it together. In any case its amazing and appreciated! 🙂
Yup – those years working in Excel as an actuary came in handy – thank you!
This site definitely has all the information and facts I needed concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
Thank You for the great planner! Are the nutrition facts on these items cooked or uncooked? From what i can tell so far it is uncooked (ex quninoa cal is set to 626 which is about 3 times the cal in cooked quinoa)…will a cooked option be available in the future?
Update it in the excel spreadsheet. You can add or subtract whatever foods you choose or even make custom recipes.
Thanks for posting this out in the web. Love what you both are doing. Most of my family eats fruits and vegetables along with “grass-fed” meat – organic. After I started that trek, I then found I still had things needing improvement. Then, I saw Forks Over Knives, Fat Sick & Nearly Dead, then Joel Fuhrman, M.D., on PBS one afternoon. Then, I researched on the net, found Fuhrman’s book, Eat to Live, read it and still refer to it. Starting 6 months back to a month ago, I lost over 50% of my goal loss for the year based on Fuhrman’s diet recommendations but I hadn’t cut out ALL of the meat, dairy and allergens, though they were minorities at this point. It took awhile, but I finally did it. Then, I wondered, could a vegan build muscle? Pow. Found your site(s). Been stoked ever since! I am at 55% of my year’s goal after a few weeks’ vacation. In the first two weeks after having gone completely vegan and started phase two of my program for the year, I have dropped weight so EASILY by Fuhrman’s data and your examples, along with others’, that I do believe what I see is happening before I realize it. …. That is incredibly awesome. Plus, even my airborne allergies to dust, pollen and the like are so reduced that I no longer take ANY allergy nor any other drug daily! People think I am younger by about 10 years….. I have more work to do, and I look FORWARD to it. Keep up the work! Thanks again!!
Hi there,
I just submitted a question but I see that there are options for activity level. What would you say my activity level is if I work at a desk job and do three hours of cardio (step and cardio kickboxing) and three hours of weight lifting (BodyPump).
Thanks – just trying to dial it all in!
Hi!
Just wondering how often one would be working out with this plan (cardio and weights).
Thanks!
Hi guys. Thanks a lot fot the planner. It is really usefull and it is working very well.
@Daniela_Iakopa
Thanks for the Excel spreadsheet. It is exactly what I was looking for.
I was just curios, can someone email me the link for the workout log… ? thanks
Great. Looking to calculate and track more nutrient items per entry (about 40). Can this be modified? Thanks
Sure, go ahead and modify the spreadsheet as you like.
Very COOL Derek, thanks for the link, and I look forward to the “planner” !
Thanks for commenting, we’re glad you like it! Marcella actually built this from scratch – she’s the excel wiz of the family. I keep a copy as my personal diet journal and update it daily! Enjoy!
thank you thank you! this diet planner is EXACTLY what i have been seeking!
Thanks! Hope you find it helpful!