Whether you’re counting calories or just looking to make healthier choices with your eating habits, it’s a good idea to keep the MyPlate model in mind.

I’ve seen so much success from adopting the MyPlate model among my clients—and even for myself. It’s so easy to follow, providing an at-a-glance reference that you can use any time you’re preparing or ordering food. It enables you to establish a healthy eating pattern without requiring you to meticulously calculate calories or macronutrients.

The MyPlate model is a visualization of what your plate should look like at every meal. It’s a great guide to help you eat the right variety and proportion of food to support health and fitness. It’s also a good model of what your total diet should look like.

Rather than a one-size-fits all approach to diet, the MyPlate model encourages the consumer to “plug and play”—building their own unique eating patterns for healthy eating

I encourage everyone to have a print-out of the MyPlate graphic on the refrigerator to reference while meal prepping. You could also keep a picture of it on your phone to reference while ordering food at restaurants. Memorize the picture, and try to re-create it on your plate at every meal. The more you make the MyPlate model a habit, the closer you will be to eating a healthy and sustainable diet to support your fitness and wellness goals.

Here are the main points:

• Vegetables & Fruit: Half of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables. Because of their high sugar content, fruit shouldn’t be on the plate all the time. Read more on vegetables and fruit at ChooseMyPlate.gov.

• Protein: About a quarter of what you eat should be lean protein. Good examples of this are white meat (chicken and turkey), fish, tofu, and other soy products (like tempeh). Some beans and legumes are also protein-rich (like white beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, and others). Read more.

• Grains: Grains should make up a little over a quarter of what you eat, and at least half of the grains you eat should be whole grains. Whole grains such as whole wheat, barley, oatmeal, brown rice, etc. are an excellent source of dietary fiber, B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folate) and minerals (iron, magnesium and selenium). Read more.

• Dairy: It is recommended that you include a serving of calcium-rich products at every meal. Low-fat dairy products are an excellent source of calcium, as is calcium-enriched soy milk. Include a single serving (8 oz. of milk, 1 regular container of low-fat yogurt, or 8 oz. of calcium-enriched soy milk). Note that this does not include dairy products that are low in calcium content. Read more.

If you are counting calories, then you can modify the MyPlate model by creating a MyPlate Plan online at https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlatePlan. This will allow you to adapt the MyPlate model to get the precise amount of the different food groups you should eat in a day to meet your calorie and nutrient requirements. Follow the steps below for creating your own MyPlate plan on at ChooseMyPlate.gov:

• Step 1: On the page https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlatePlan, enter your age, height, sex, and activity level, etc. in the section Get Your MyPlate Plan. Afterwards click on “Calculate food plan.” Record the given number of calories calculated for maintaining your current body weight.

• Step 2: In the second section Already know your plan?, select the number of calories that you’re targeting for your nutrition plan:

  • If your goal is to maintain your current weight, select the number of calories given in Step 1 in the chart.

  • If your goal is to burn fat and lose weight, choose a calorie amount between 200-600 calories less than the number produced in Step 1.

  • If your goal is to to gain weight (e.g., for bulking), choose a calorie amount that is greater than the number produced in Step 1.

• Step 3: Follow the guidelines for each food group daily.

Further Reading:

2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Read online.

2015 - 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Eight Edition). Read online.

ChooseMyPlate.gov Access online

About the Author

Jayd Harrison is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media.