There are many reasons why you should plan your meals, from meeting your nutrition goals to saving time. When done properly, meal planning can transform your health, and using meal planning apps is one of the simplest ways to do this.
These are some of the best meal planning apps for Android and iOS.
1. Food
Mealime is a simple but useful app. If you’re looking for specially curated recipes, an intuitive shopping list planner, and an easy-to-use meal organizer, Mealime is for you. When you sign up, you can choose dietary preferences, such as keto, gluten-free, vegan, and more. Check any food allergies, and the app will eliminate recipes accordingly.
It houses a vast library of healthy recipes curated by five professional chefs. When you choose a recipe, you can also view the required cookware, ingredients list, instructions, and cooking time. Based on the recipes you select, the app automatically generates a grocery list.
The premium version gives you access to additional features, such as exclusive recipes, a nutrition tracker, advanced recipe filters, and more. The free version of Mealime is efficient for basic meal planning. However, if you want more control over your recipes along with nutritional information, a premium upgrade is the way to go.
2. Paprika Recipe Manager 3
Paprika Recipe Manager 3 is a lightweight meal and recipe planner. There are a lot of customization options available in the free version of the app which other apps offer at premium. This meal planner and recipe organizer has an integrated browser that lets you search for recipes directly online without leaving the app.
You can download recipes, add ingredients to a shopping list, and then add recipes to a meal calendar. Additionally, there’s a handy feature for creating menus if you want to repeat a group of dishes.
However, you can only add a limited number of recipes in the free version. If you want to sync your meal plans and recipes across mobile and desktop and get access to unlimited recipes, you’ll need to pay to unlock the premium version.
3. Eat So Much
Eat This Much (ETM) is a feature-rich meal planner used by many nutritionists. One example is the calorie and nutrition tracking feature that makes it easy to choose healthier options.
You can enter your dietary needs, goals, and other details, search hundreds of recipes, and quickly create a meal plan for each day.
With the premium version, you gain access to more recipes and additional features, such as leftover settings, customizable meal plans for the entire week, grocery lists you can export to Amazon Fresh, and more.
4. Eating Plan
Meal Plan is a fun meal planner for the DIY enthusiast. Unlike other apps, Plan to Eat doesn’t have a database of foods and recipes. You can enter recipes three ways: manually, by browsing the web, or by pasting a URL. Without the facility to choose recipes within the app, this app is more limited than some of the other options. While you can create a shopping list on the app, it doesn’t have robust nutrition tracking features.
5. Lifelong
Lifesum is an all-in-one calorie tracker and meal planner. However, the meal planning functionality of the app is only available in the premium version. You can use the app to track your water intake, carbs, protein and fat intake.
There are several types of meal plans, including vegetarian, climate-friendly, high-protein, and standard plans. The app will automatically generate a shopping list based on your selection from hundreds of available recipes.
6. Prepare
Prepear is an easy-to-use way to plan your meals for the day or week. You can create a meal plan either by choosing from the many recipes available on the app or by importing your own from a URL. There is also an option to buy a special meal plan created by experts. The app displays nutritional information for each recipe, so you can monitor your calories, fat, and protein at a glance.
7. Yummy
Yummly is one of the best free cooking apps available. If you love to cook, this app has some incredible recipes in a variety of cuisines that can be hard to come by in other apps. It also has solid meal plan features. Yummly can personalize recipes based on your dietary preferences and food choices.
Each recipe has a list of ingredients and includes ratings from other people. Reading reviews can help you quickly find the best recipes and learn how to cook them. And to boost your organization, you can create shopping lists as well as pantry lists.