Meal Plan Under $X/Day Optimizer

The calculator builds candidate daily plans by selecting exactly “Meals per Day” standard servings from the catalog. For each candidate it totals cost, protein, and fiber, then checks three hard requirements: total_cost ≤ Daily Budget, total_protein ≥ Protein Target, and total_fiber ≥ Fiber Target. Among all feasible plans, it chooses the lowest cost; if multiple plans tie, it prefers the one with better variety (fewer repeated meals/categories).

Because servings are treated as fixed “one entry = one serving,” changing Meals per Day doesn’t scale nutrition—rather, it changes how many fixed servings your day includes. Variety is enforced using repetition of the same meal entry and (for Moderate/Strict) tighter limits on category repetition, so two plans with the same nutrition can rank differently. Also note that costs are catalog-estimated—real store prices and sales may shift which plan is actually cheapest for you.

If no plan can meet budget plus both nutrition targets (or fails the strict variety rule), the tool returns a “Budget too low for targets” result and identifies the cheapest plan that fails the smallest number of constraints. It also estimates the minimum additional budget needed to pass, based on the closest feasible direction (usually cost shortfalls versus protein/fiber deficits). If any meal in the catalog is missing required nutrition fields, that meal is excluded from consideration, which can also affect feasibility.

Use a positive Daily Budget—bunching it at $0 or negative will block computation. Be careful combining a very high Protein Target (e.g., above ~170 g/day) with only 1–2 meals/day; the optimizer may correctly flag infeasibility because there aren’t enough protein-dense servings available. Finally, remember “variety” here is rule-based (repetition/category overlap), not taste, allergens, or cooking preferences—so you may still want to review your plan for real-world fit.