Help with calculations in a meal plan!

**TASan** · 06-16-2012, 12:46 PM

I need some help with some stuff I find rather complicated. I am not good at Excel whatsoever.

I have an Excel workbook with Sheet1 as a mealplan with five meals a day for a week. I want Excel to do the calculations for me, but I cannot seem to get it to do that. Here is the workbook I am currently working on so you can see how I think.

Ukentlig Måltidskalender NY FOR Å TESTE UTREGNING.xls

I want to be able to write lets the things that is written. 4 eggs, 100 grams of broccoli and so on (it's norwegian). Then I want the spreadsheet to know what nutritional data is in an egg (that will of course be stated, lets say in another spreadsheet), and fill in that accordingly in the protein, fat, carb and calories cells underneath. When I add broccoli on the next line and state 100 grams, or 200, I want it to know what the nutrition data is, and add that to the protein for the eggs and so on. If I remove the eggs I want the nutritional data from only the eggs to be subtracted. This way it will be easy for me to make meals and add and remove foods as I like, without have to calculate. I have had the problem that when I am finished with a meal and has manually calculated it, I want to make just a litte change and I have to calculate everything over again...

I want it to be clean and look pretty much like in the picture (actual spreadsheet much bigger, will post picture if needed).

**dilipandey** · 06-16-2012, 12:53 PM

Hi TASan,

Welcome to the forum.

Suggest you to change the thread title to reflect the query being asked... see the forum rules:-
http://www.excelforum.com/forum-rule...rum-rules.html

Also, it would be better if you could upload a sample workbook.. thanks.

Regards,
DILIPandey

<click on below 'star' if this helps>

**TASan** · 06-16-2012, 06:16 PM

I have changed the attachement now to a workbook, thank you

**jeffreybrown** · 06-16-2012, 06:35 PM

I'm not quite sure I can follow exactly where some of the info on your sheet comes from, but I think you need a vlookup.

Here is a sample spreadsheet that may give you an idea.

**TASan** · 06-17-2012, 07:27 AM

I took a look and I see that it is way of of my league, it's way too complicated for me.

If I can try to explain a little better what I want to do (I will upload a sample workbook with only one day and just in English so you will understand better). You see what I am thinking as far as design goes. I want it to look like this, and Tuesday should be right under Monday with the same layout.

But I kind of want the sheet to "know" how much protein is in one egg, and when I write egg, it will fill inn the right amounts below. If I change the amount, the information below will change accordingly. If I add some broccoli, that will be added inn. If I remove one egg, the nutritional data of just one egg will be removed. All the data can be added in another sheet like the example you showed me, but for me I did not see what was done, it was just too complicated.

I just want it to be calculated for me, so that I don't have to use hours each time the meal plan is going to be changed. Thank you!

Attachment 162491

**jeffreybrown** · 06-17-2012, 09:29 AM

All you have to do is fill out the cells in yellow.

You need to fill out the Nutrition info tab and then the Monday tab in column B, how many servings, column D, what food item did you eat. Column D also has a drop down with the food choices and is dynamic. That means, when you add a food item to the Nutritional tab that food item will be in the drop down.

Now just make copy of the Monday tab and rename it Tuesday. With this setup you can also make a totals tab quite easily.

**TASan** · 06-21-2012, 09:47 AM

Thank you incredibly much!!

This has helped me in ways you would not imagine. Saved me hours of work and calculations!
I wanted to have the layout as I presented it first, but now I see that one day per sheet probably is best. Thank you very much. Repped.

**jeffreybrown** · 06-21-2012, 09:53 AM

You are very welcome.

Yes I understand about the layout and sorry for changing it on you, but sometimes a change can make things a little easier to work with in the now and maybe the future.

Glad you now have something to work with and thanks for the feedback and rep