MyPlate Meal Planner — Free Personalized Weekly Plan (2026)
Plan your MyPlate meals free: get personalized daily food-group targets, pick a calorie-level plan from 1,200–2,500 calories, and cook from 1,072 USDA recipes. No account needed.
How to plan your MyPlate meals
A week you build by dragging
Pick a card up and drop it into any meal on any day. Each card is a real USDA recipe, each day tallies its calories and five food groups as you build, and the whole week saves itself as you go.
Sample: One day on this plan
- Breakfast: Banana Pancakes with Apple Topping, French Spinach Frittata — 492 kcal
- Lunch: Food Group Funny Face, Smothered Greens — 601 kcal
- Dinner: Zingy Lemon Chicken Pasta, Orange Cow — 643 kcal
- Snack: Old Fashioned Bread Pudding — 244 kcal
Ready for the full week? Browse all six ready-made weekly plans
1. Get your MyPlate Plan targets
Use the free MyPlate Plan calculator to find your daily calorie goal and the cups and ounces you need from each of the five food groups. Open the calculator
2. Pick a calorie-level plan
Choose a ready-made daily meal plan at your calorie level, from 1,200 to 2,500 calories a day. Browse meal plans
3. Pick recipes you'll actually cook
Every meal links to its full USDA recipe — and if one doesn't appeal, the MyPlate Kitchen library has 1,072 to choose from within the same food groups. Browse recipes
Is there a free MyPlate meal planner?
Yes — several planning tools, all free. The MyPlate Plan calculator, six ready-made calorie-level plans, and a printable weekly template need no account. The interactive drag-and-drop planner — where you build your week on a board and log a day to your tracker — is a free feature of a free MyPlan account.
Is there a drag-and-drop meal planner?
Yes. Build your week on an interactive board: drag recipes from the 1,072-recipe MyPlate Kitchen library onto a seven-day grid, or start from a ready-made week and swap dishes in. Each day tallies its calories and five food groups against your MyPlate targets, and you can send any planned day to your tracker's food log. It's a free feature of a free MyPlan account.
How do I plan meals with MyPlate?
Three steps: (1) get your daily targets — calories and cups/ounces for each of the five food groups — from the free MyPlate Plan calculator; (2) choose a ready-made daily plan at your calorie level; (3) cook from each meal's linked USDA recipe — and if one doesn't appeal, pick a comparable recipe from the same food groups in the MyPlate Kitchen library. Every day stays balanced across fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy.
What happened to the USDA MyPlate meal planning tools?
The USDA retired the MyPlate.gov website, including its plan and daily-checklist tools, in January 2026. MyPlate.food is an independent project that preserves the MyPlate-format calculator and meal plans, grounded in the public-domain USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020–2025). It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USDA.
How many calories should my meal plan be?
It depends on your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level. The MyPlate Plan calculator estimates your daily calorie target using the National Academies' Estimated Energy Requirement equations, then maps it to food-group amounts. Ready-made plans are available from 1,200 to 2,500 calories a day.
Can I plan vegetarian or Mediterranean-style meals?
Yes. The MyPlate Plan calculator supports the USDA's three healthy eating patterns — US-Style, Mediterranean-Style, and Vegetarian — so your food-group targets match the pattern you choose.
Do I need an account to use the meal planner?
It depends which tool. The MyPlate Plan calculator, the ready-made calorie-level plans, and the printable weekly template are free and need no account. The interactive drag-and-drop planner — which saves your week and logs to your tracker — is free with a MyPlan account, since it needs somewhere to keep your board.
Can I print my meal plan or save it as a PDF?
Yes, two ways. For a blank grid to fill in by hand, print the free weekly template — no account needed. Once you've built a week on the interactive board (free with a MyPlan account), use "Print week" to print the filled plan — each day's recipes, servings, and calorie totals — or choose "Save as PDF" in your browser's print dialog.