At least one nutrition and fitness software package supports the creation and organization of Personal Food Items, Recipes, Meals, and Meal Plans. Each of these units sit in a hierarchy that culminates into a "Meal Plan."

Here is a systematic approach to building meal plans:
1) Create Personal Food Items. These are the food items you use over and over. Storing them as PFI's and organizing them in your PFI Manager makes it faster to access these frequently used items. They can be used in recipes, meals, or meal plans.
2) Create Recipes by combining food items from the nutrient database and from your Personal Food Items, if desired. You can also use recipes-within-recipes (as ingredients for other recipes).
3) Create Meals by combining food items, PFI's, and recipes. Meals use all the other components mentioned previously. A Meal could contain a beverage from the database, a salad from a nearby restaurant, and a recipe that you've created for use in your Meals.
4) Create Meal Plans by using your Meals as the building blocks for your Meal Plans.

Example
Suppose you want to create a four-week low fat meal plan for weight loss clients. Here's how you would tackle this in one nutrition and fitness software program:

Create, say, a dozen low fat Breakfasts that all have, say, 400 calories. Organize them in your Meal Manager under the Breakfast Tab.

Create a dozen low fat Lunches that each have, say, 500 calories. Organize them in your Meal Manager under the Lunch Tab.

Create a dozen low fat Dinners that each have 600 calories. Organize them in your Meal Manager under the Dinner Tab.

Create a dozen sets of snacks at 100, 200, and 300 calories and organize them in your Meal Manager under the Snacks Tab.

Once you've created these meals and snacks, use them as the modular building blocks for your new Meal Plans. For instance, combine any Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner to create Day One of a 1500 calorie Meal Plan. If you are looking for an 1800 calorie Meal Plan, add three 100 calorie snacks to Day One.

With this repertoire of meals and snacks at your fingertips, you can create "on-the-fly" Meal Plans that satisfy the personal needs (and tastes) of any client. "Mix and match" them to create a wide variety of Meal Plans at a wide variety of calorie levels.

Note: This description is a feature that is available in at least one nutrition and fitness software product. In some cases, this feature may be available in a variety of nutrition software products. When this feature is available, it will be implemented in different ways by different products. The description provided here is an accurate description of how this feature works in at least one of these products.