Every weight loss and get in shape diet plan or program has meal plans - but how do you judge whether a meal plan will work for you? Here are some ideas captured from a review of the Diet Solution Program by Isabel.

First - let's look at some approaches used across many diet and weight loss programs :

• Prescribed meals for every day without any variation
• Prepackaged, often frozen, entrees you purchase at a premium price for all meals
• Point based systems requiring charts and calculators to be used every day
• Strict portion control of a limited list of foods
• Unwavering list of single food choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner , each day, for months without any explanation

I Many experts recommend strongly that you have to ensure whatever program you choose to follow for weight loss has solid science behind it . The program, and the meal plans themselves, should have solid credentials behind them - not only medical doctors but also experienced nutritionists . Furthermore, there should be evidence of a solid track record tracking thousands of uses of the program and meal plans. Why?

Simple - just as with any science experiment, there must be live trials with real data on real people , you want to test effectiveness, and you want to see variance across the population of humans that actually try and follow the program The only way to truly get valid results is to run a double blind, placebo based test. However, this will never happen in the real world as these type of trials are reserved for medical studies that have millions of dollars at stake, and available, to fund large controlled studies. However, you CAN restrict your evaluation of weight loss plans to programs that do have a track record - several years, records of results, and the credentials behind the development of the approach .

Programs such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and other mainstream programs meet this criteria. Furthermore, many popular diets followed by thousands of people also meet this results - e.g. the Atkins diet being one of these for example.

There are many other factors involved in deciding on a fat loss and healthy eating program, however - I won't go into them in this article as you can find these type of selection criteria in multiple places online and in your local library. I do, however, want to discuss the meal plan approach in the Diet Solution, which is the program I chose, and it does meet the above "Credibility" criteria in terms of effectiveness, no known side effects, years of experience across thousands of people, and the certifications behind the creator who is a certified nutritionist along with other credentials.

In this program, the meal plans are not presented as a simple list of exact meals to follow although some people might like to be directed to that degree . The meal plan approach in this program explains the "why" behind the types of foods your body needs and is optimized to function on - proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Then, once you gain that comprehension, you are provided with a set of options to choose from for each meal based on some specific food options and servings you should target for each meal.

As an example, one initial "get started quick" meal plan based on one metabolic type includes choices including:

• Eggs, spinach, onions, bread, fruit, nuts, and meats such as turkey, chicken, halibut and other fish choices, potatoes, and rice.
• Breakdown as to how many services out of each major nutrient group you should target for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner
• Ability to select from almost a limitless group of foods you probably already eat - although now based on the proportions of nutrients you need
• Online tools to help you quickly create personalized meal plans
• Tools to develop grocery shopping lists - making it super easy to craft your own set of meals
• Tons of recipes including the plan that will upgrade your current meals into a gourmet experience - while enabling weight loss

Don't underestimate the factors involved in meal plans when looking at various weight loss diets. The structure, approach, variety, and ability to customize easily a meal plan can make all the difference between you following a diet - and you throwing money away.