Patent ID: 6872077

Claim:
In a computerized meal planning system having a communications device, a data storage device, and a processing unit in communication with both the data storage device and the communications device, a method of meal planning comprising: receiving client information via electronic transmission to the communications device, the client information including designators denoting weight, gender, goal, activity level, and lean body mass; executing computer-readable instructions by the processing unit for assigning a plurality of nutritional allowances, including nutritional allowances for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, the plurality of nutritional allowance based on the client information; executing computer-readable instructions by the processing unit for selecting a recipe template from a database on the data storage device, the recipe template having, a plurality of ingredient designators, and a plurality of recipe rule factors assigned to each ingredient designator to include, at least one contribution value per unit measurement of ingredient for at least one of the plurality of nutrients, a minimum allocatable amount of ingredient, a maximum allocatable amount of ingredient, and a nutritional priority value assigned to each ingredient designator annotating priority of use in satisfying one of the plurality of nutritional allowances; executing computer-readable instructions by the processing limit for setting a recipe allocation amount for each ingredient within a range bounded by the minimum allocatable amount and a maximum allocatable amount for each ingredient to satisfy the plurality of nutritional allowances within a predetermined range for each nutritional allowance, the computer-readable instructions further including instructions that sequentially determine amounts for each ingredient based upon the nutritional priority values, wherein the nutritional priority value assigned to each ingredient denotes priority along an ordinal range having a first priority and subsequent priorities through to a lowest priority for at least one of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, thereby resulting in a recipe having nutritional contributions of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats within the predetermined range for each of the plurality nutritional allowances; and delivering a recipe with each ingredient and corresponding recipe allocation amount to the client device via electronic transmission.