Running a nutrition coaching practice without the right meal planner app is like trying to meal prep steaks with a butter knife. Sure, it’ll work eventually. But why make it so hard on yourself?!

Successful nutrition coaches aren’t just macro masters. They’re also smart about using tech to save time, boost adherence, and deliver super-personalized experiences to their awesome clients.

Best of all? This tech helps them scale their businesses WITHOUT burning out. 💯

According to ABC Fitness’s latest Wellness Watch Report, 76% of consumers claim to be physically active—a 10% increase since 2021!

• But here’s what’s really cool: 40% of active consumers have shifted to a more holistic approach to fitness over the past few years, with 53% prioritizing general health and overall wellness over specific physical goals.

This shift has created a MASSIVE opportunity for nutrition coaches who can deliver comprehensive support. The right meal planner app can help you leverage this opportunity so you can help even more people fall in love with healthy eating for life! 💪

Let’s explore the top options and find out which one gives nutrition coaches the biggest advantage.

Comparing the Top Meal Planner Apps on the Market

With so many meal planning apps out there, it’s easy to assume they’re all built the same way (spoiler alert: they’re not).

🥗 Free Resource: The Foolproof Guide to Adding Nutrition Coaching to Your Services

We’ve broken down the most popular options on the market to show you exactly what works and what doesn’t so you can make the best choice for your biz. 👇

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal has been around since 2005 with over 200 million users. It’s known for having the world’s largest food database of 14+ million foods! It nails basic food logging with barcode scanning and detailed nutrient breakdowns. Plus, your clients probably already know how to use it. 

What you might find, though, is that MyFitnessPal is built for everyday individual use rather than for nutrition pros. You could end up needing to piece together multiple tools to deliver a complete nutrition coaching experience… This means that managing several clients at once can get pretty dang overwhelming without purpose-built features. 🥕

Eat This Much

Eat This Much is all about meal planning automation. You can simply load your goals and preferences, and the app generates full meal plans with recipes and grocery lists. The automation is definitely helpful for basic meal planning needs.

That said, it’s really more of a meal planning tool than a full nutrition coaching platform. You’ll quickly realize you need way more than basic meal suggestions—like actual client management tools, progress tracking that goes deeper than “ate salad today,” and the kind of personalization features that turn one-time clients into long-term success stories. 

Cronometer

If you love diving deep into nutrition data, Cronometer might catch your eye. This app is all about accuracy and micronutrient tracking with verified food data and seriously detailed nutrient breakdowns. 

The challenge? Most clients don’t actually need (or want!) to track every single micronutrient. 

They’re usually looking for meal plans they can actually follow without feeling like they need to be a registered dietitian to understand what’s happening. Like the other two apps mentioned above, Cronometer also works best for individuals rather than as a nutrition coaching platform. 

 

Here’s what all these apps have in common: they’re consumer apps trying to work for professionals, not platforms built for nutrition coaches running businesses.  That’s exactly why we built something different! 🙌

 

Meet the Smart Meal Planner by ABC Trainerize

ABC Trainerize serves 400,000+ personal trainers and coaches worldwide.

After helping all these fitness professionals, we noticed every coach struggled with the same problem: existing meal planner apps made them work around limitations instead of empowering them to do their best work.

That’s why we built the Smart Meal Planner—a nutrition coaching powerhouse designed specifically for health and wellness professionals who refuse to settle for “good enough.”

Our Wellness Watch data shows that 49% of active consumers have used nutrition and meal planning apps. But there’s clearly a gap between what individual apps offer and what professional coaches need to deliver results.

Unlike other apps that bolt on coaching features as an afterthought, our Smart Meal Planner is fully integrated with the complete ABC Trainerize platform. That means meal planning, progress tracking, client communication, and business management all live under one roof! 💪

Pro feature #1: Auto-generated meal plans based on client macros

Remember spending entire Sundays manually calculating meals and macros for each client? 

Those days are OVER. 👏

Our Smart Meal Planner automatically generates personalized meal plans based on your clients’ exact caloric goals, macro targets, dietary preferences, and real-life constraints. 

• This is KEY because our research shows Gen Z places higher emphasis on nutritional counseling and meal tracking compared to other generations. 

Our system creates up to 7 days of delicious meal combinations from over 1,000 verified recipes—all perfectly calculated to hit your clients’ macro targets while actually tasting good and fitting their lifestyle. 🙌

The personalization goes beyond macros alone. Instead, it considers cooking skill level, time constraints, family size, and budget.

When meal plans fit real life instead of some fantasy version of perfect eating, client compliance goes through the roof.

📝 Read More: Up and Adam: How a Taco-Loving Trainer Is Helping His Clients Stay Active While Staying Home

Pro feature #2: Easy grocery lists

Ever had a client text you from the grocery store asking “What exactly am I supposed to buy again?” 😅

Enter our Smart Meal Planner. It automatically generates custom grocery shopping lists based on each client’s meal plan. One tap, and they’ve got everything organized by food category for efficient shopping trips. 🥩

This simple feature eliminates one of the BIGGEST barriers to sticking with a meal plan: knowing what to buy! When shopping becomes easier, clients are *way* more likely to stay committed to hitting their nutrition goals.

Pro feature #3: Built-in food logging and progress tracking

Our Smart Meal Planner has built-in food logging that plays nicely with the meal plans you create. Considering that 56% of active consumers use wearables like Fitbit, Whoop, or Apple Watch to track their activity, this feature helps your clients easily fit proper nutrition into their lifestyles. 

Clients can log meals using barcode scanning, photo journaling, or our USDA-verified food database. Our platform automatically calculates daily compliance scores so you can see EXACTLY how they’re doing at a glance.

You get detailed progress graphs, weekly compliance reports, and trend analysis that help you spot patterns and make smart adjustments. Plus, clients earn achievement badges and habit streaks that turn nutrition into a fun game instead of a chore! 🏆

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Pro feature #4: Time-saving tools for managing multiple clients

Finally, our Smart Meal Planner includes powerful client management tools designed for busy fitness pros!

Stay on top of all your clients’ weekly nutrition compliance with one quick dashboard. You can also set up automated check-ins and habit assignments that keep your clients engaged between sessions.

You can even create template meal plans and nutrition protocols that are easy to customize for new clients. This dramatically cuts down onboarding time while maintaining your personalized coaching style.

More clients, better results, less stress. That’s what we call a win-win-win! 🚀

FAQs: Meal Planner App

How do I help my clients organize their weekly meal plans?Start by setting their macro targets based on their goals, then build around their actual schedule and food preferences! 

Using our Smart Meal Planner, simply input each client’s caloric goals and dietary preferences, then let our system generate a FULL WEEK of balanced meals tailored to them. Help your clients plan for consistent meal timing each week and guide them on what they can prep in advance. 👍

Is there an AI tool that can make a meal plan?

While there are a bunch of different AI-powered meal planning tools entering the market, ABC Trainerize’s Smart Meal Planner focuses on automated customization that actually works in real life. 

Our system tailors meal plans to your clients’ caloric goals, macros, schedule, and dietary preferences, creating up to 7 days of meal combinations from over 1,000 verified recipes! 🤖

What is the best meal planner app for nutrition coaches?

Our Smart Meal Planner is purpose-built for nutrition professionals, not just individual users! Unlike consumer apps like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer, our platform includes client management tools, automated meal planning, progress tracking, and business scaling features in one convenient place. 🙌

Can meal planner apps help with client compliance?

Absolutely! Our Smart Meal Planner boosts compliance through personalized meal plans that fit your clients’ real lives. Features like automated grocery lists, easy food logging with barcode scanning, and gamification features like achievement badges and habit streaks make compliance even easier (and more fun!). 

When following a nutrition plan feels simple and engaging, your clients stick with it way longer!

ABC Trainerize: The Smart Choice for Nutrition Coaches 

The nutrition coaching game has evolved WAY beyond basic food tracking and cookie-cutter meal plans. 

With 40% of consumers shifting to a more holistic wellness approach—and all generations using more tech than ever before—successful nutrition coaches use platforms that amplify their expertise while still delivering hyper-personalized experiences.

We built our Smart Meal Planner for nutrition professionals who know that sustainable results require both precision AND practicality.

So if you’re wondering, “what is the best meal planner app?” Wonder no more!

Transform your nutrition coaching practice with a meal planner designed specifically for nutrition pros who mean business. Start your 30-day free trial today! 🚀