How AI Helped Me Write a Weekly Menu

Meal planning can feel like a puzzle: how do you balance nutrition, preferences, time, and joy at the table? This week I experimented with ChatGPT-5 to design a full menu for two people with different needs:

• Elena (55 kg) — aiming for fat loss and muscle support, ~1200 kcal on rest days, ~1350 kcal on workout days.
• Andreas (82 kg) — aiming for lean muscle growth, ~2000 kcal on rest days, ~2200–2350 kcal on workout days.

The restrictions:

• No cow dairy, gluten, or legumes.
• Elena avoids most nuts (except Brazil & macadamia).
• Both like berries, goat milk, fish, and dark chocolate.

The result was not just a plan — but a full system of menus, nutrient tables, batch cooking flows, and colourful PDFs that made the kitchen run like a well-oiled steamer.

Example Prompts

Here are some of the prompts I used and the outputs ChatGPT-5 created:

1. Ask for a basic weekly menu

Could you please create a food menu with a maximum daily calorie intake of 1,200 and 2000 
for two people who want to lose fat and gain muscle? The female's weight is 55kg, and the 
male's weight is 82kg. They exclude cow dairy, gluten, and legumes. 

➡️ Output: A synchronised weekly menu with breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner for both, respecting macros and restrictions.

2. Add preferences and favourite foods

Elena loves eggs, berries and sweet fruits such as mango. Could you please update both the meal plan and the calendar?

➡️ Output: Mangoes appeared at breakfast, eggs folded into omelettes, and berries crowned the yoghurt bowls.

3. Build nutrient calculations

Yes, and please mention the diet and nutrient changes for workout days, including Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, for both persons.

➡️ Output: A nutrient intake chapter with side-by-side macros for rest vs workout days.

4. Make it practical with meal prep

I plan to prepare my meals ahead for two or three days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to save time. 
The prepared meals can be stored in the fridge or freezer. What do you think?

➡️ Output: A Meal Prep Edition with batch-cooking instructions, fridge vs freezer notes, and portion sizes.

5. Add cooking flows and timelines

Yes, let's do it!

➡️ Output: A Quick Cooking Flow Cheat Sheet with grams and cooking times, and even a visual Gantt-style timeline to show oven, stove, and steamer tasks in parallel.

Why ChatGPT-5 Works So Well for Menu Planning

1. Context memory — I didn’t need to repeat the rules each time. “Add goat cheese” or “include whey protein” slotted right into the existing plan.
2. Adaptability — from nutrient tables to laminated checklists, the model shifted formats effortlessly.
3. Clarity — portion sizes, cooking times, macros, and shopping lists were explained in simple terms.
4. Creativity — the menus were practical but also colourful and fun, with icons like 🧀, 🍫, 🌰 and 🥛 in the fridge calendars.

How to Use This Yourself

Here’s a structure you can try with any advanced chatbot:

1. Start broad → “Create a weekly menu for X calories with Y restrictions.”
2. Refine → Add preferences (e.g. “include mango and eggs”).
3. Adjust macros → “Explain workout day vs rest day macros.”
4. Make it practical → “Turn this into a batch-cooking schedule for 3 prep days.”
5. Polish the output → Ask for tables, checklists, PDFs, or calendars.

Closing Thoughts

What struck me most is how AI becomes a sous-chef: not cooking the food, but doing all the planning, math, and structuring. It frees you to focus on flavour, family, and the joy of eating.

Next time I’m in the kitchen, I’ll have not just recipes but a laminated, tick-box guide designed with ChatGPT-5. And that, I think, is the kind of quiet efficiency AI can bring into daily life.

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Would you like me to also add some **screenshots of the prep timeline chart and the laminated checklist** into the blog post (so readers see the visuals)?