Like the idea of never going on a diet again? You have come to the right place. It will certainly give you the best chance of becoming a successful slimmer in the longer term. Diet's are often only a temporary fix. You need to find an eating plan that offers you something different. Well now you have.
 
So why not try our unique approach to everyday meal planning. Choose foods you want to eat, not what you feel you should or shouldn't be eating. This is so important and if you take just one thing away from this website today, I would like it to be this:
 

You can lose weight steadily, maintain weight loss & improve your general health & well-being without doing anything drastic & we can show you how.
 

So Why Choose Menusforlife?

Our menus are Tasty, Filling, Sustainable and Practical. 
They provide Real Food, for Real People, living in the Real World.
We offer a Whole diet approach, based on a Mediterranean style diet- shown to be the smartest & healthiest way to eat.
For flexibility, all our meals are Interchangeable and there is plenty of choice to suit individual tastes & lifestyles. An added bonus is that they can be used in conjunction with the popular 5:2 diet, if you wish, for your non-restricted days.
You can forget Calorie counting as daily intake is set within a maximum 1500 calorie daily limit.
All meals are Portion controlled, which is something a lot of people struggle with.  Mfl meals have good portion sizes too, so you definitely won’t go hungry!
And most importantly, you will eat our food because you want to. That is your first successful step to losing weight.
We follow the World Cancer Research Fund Cancer prevention Recommendations.
 

We offer something very different.

What you eat over the entire day has been carefully constructed to sit with UK daily Adult Reference Intakes for the average size woman undertaking an average amount of physical activity.

The recommended limits per day are:
Total fats:	70g
Saturated fats:	20g
Total sugars:	90g
Free sugars:	30g
Salt:	6g

We appreciate that intake requirements are individual and we can't be specific for everyone's individual needs. However, it does give a very useful indication of the average person & how particular nutrients best fit into your daily diet as a whole. These are guideline limits & not a target. You may need to adapt your portion sizes or increase your exercise if you need less calories than the average person in order the lose the expected weight.

Mfl menus contain a minimum 7 fruit & vegetables a day, known to be additionally beneficial to eating 5 a day.
All breakfasts contain a minimum 1 portion fruit. 2nd fruit portion is chosen by you to eat at any time throughout the day.
All lunches contain a minimum 2 portions vegetables.
All evening meals contain a minimum 3 portions vegetables
 

Nutritional Values

All nutritional values can be found on our recipe cards with a more detailed version available on the recipe index page, which gives you red meat & oily fish content per person so you can meet minimum & maximum weekly guidelines for these should you wish.

The recommendations for these are:
A minimum 2 portions of fish a week: 1 Oily (140g) & 1 other fish portion (140g).
A maximum 700-750g Red meat (raw weight) per week (equivalent to 500g cooked weight).

The recipe index also provides values for "Free sugars". These are more difficult to calculate as in the UK, nutritional information on food labels & other means of obtaining nutritional values only state the Total sugar content. It does not provide a breakdown of how much of that sugar is Free sugar. Free sugar is any sugar that is added to foods by the manufacturer, plus that naturally present in honey, syrups & fruit juices. It does not include sugar naturally present in whole fruit, vegetables & milk. This is therefore how we have based our calculations. One other key tip is to look at the ingredients list which has to detail any free sugars present.  The main ingredients always come first so the higher up the ingredients list, the more likely to be high in free sugars.
 

How are our nutritional values calculated?

The nutritional value of foods has played a key role in developing our menus, primarily because in order to fulfill our undertaking to sit within UK daily Adult reference Intakes for key nutrients, we needed to know exactly what nutrients are in every one of the food items & quantities used.

The nutrient information was calculated using the USDA National nutrient database for standard references, along with other sources of product information. These include a combination of published analysis, supermarket product information, manufacturers' data & food labels.
It is important to note that individual food items can vary in their precise nutrient content for a number of reasons, & branded food made by different manufacturers will have some variations. Where a specific food item has been used, this has been detailed in our recipes. Overall, the menu plans provide the best possible indication of its key nutrients, rather than an absolute value. The nutritional values of our menus were correct as of May 2016.
 

How often should i follow the menus?

Following the menus at least 80% of the time, for your normal routine everday meal planning, will give you the benefits & the flexibility to enjoy treats, holidays & other social occasions without beating yourself up or feeling guilty. We call this the 80/20 rule. This is important if you are following these menus for the purpose of losing weight. You will have even more flexibility when using them for weight maintenance or using them as part of a healthier diet.