How to Meal Prep 101
Meal prepping can play a vital part in losing weight because oftentimes, it can be really hard to truly know what you’re putting in your mouth.
And being able to plan out meals and portion them out to meet your nutritional needs can make losing weight or even gaining weight so much easier!
Meal prepping by itself is where you plan and portion out a batch of food so you have multiple quick & easy meals for the week.
The neat thing about meal prepping is that if in a fat-loss phase, it can make it easier to stick with your calories as you’re in control of what goes into the food. It can also save you money as due to inflation, restaurants/fast food spots are no longer the cheap go-to’s they used to be.
And if you have a busy schedule, being able to simply grab a container of food and have it ready to eat is truly a blessing.
In this article, we’ll be going over meal prepping 101. How to measure ingredients, how to portion things out, how to store prepared food, prepping for a cut, prepping for a bulk, and more!
How to Meal Prep 101
In order to portion out several meals ready to eat throughout the week, first you're gonna have to make one big batch of food first in order to divide out.
Any recipe you have in mind, you can make in bulk. I love utilizing food apps such as MyFitnessPal or Cronometer to help with calculating macros and micros.
In this example, I’m going with a super basic chicken & pasta dish that’ll serve 6 individual meals.
RECIPE:
1 Container (8oz) Banza Chickpea Rotini
1 package (16oz) 93% lean Ground Turkey
1 package (16oz) Frozen Mixed Vegetables - I used market basket brand
Recipe makes: 6 small meals or 3 larger meals
Note that the type of pasta, meat, and choice of vegetables you choose may result in differing nutritional information.
STEP 1:
Go into your app of choice (I’m using MyfitnessPal) and head into your recipe’s section.
Select “create new recipe” and manually enter each ingredient. If using MFP, look for the green checkmark to ensure the nutrition data is accurate. You may need to enter the food’s full name including the brand name in order to get the results you’re looking for (I used Banza chickpea rotini, so I typed in “Banza Chickpea Rotini”).
After entering each ingredient and its weight, the app is then going to ask you to enter how many servings the recipe makes. For this example, we’ll stick with 6.
After reviewing your ingredients to make sure everythings accounted for, select “next” and view the complete summary of your recipe. Here you can see with the ingredients I put in, each serving comes to
284 calories
32g Carbs
8g Fat
26g Protein
Now all I gotta do is hit save and the recipe is now added to my account, ready to be included in my diary.
And If I wanted to add this meal to let’s say lunch, I’ll just head over to my diary, select “add food”, then add 1 serving of my pasta dish.
And just like that, the meal is now added to my diary.
But it is important to include written instructions on more complex recipes. While creating a recipe, there will be a section where you can add your own instructions. Or at the very least, write them down in a note app on your phone.
To make sure every portion of this recipe is equal, I recommend getting some tupperware. This recipe yields 6 small meals, so a small container should suffice. And if you don’t perfectly even out your portions (one container having slightly more pasta than another), don’t worry about it! Over the week, you’re going to be eating all the food collectively anyway and your body reacts more to total weekly calories as opposed to just daily calories.
We only think about daily calories when conscious because it's easier to track. But even then, an extra 4 pieces of pasta isn’t going to make any real difference calorie wise.
How to Store Prepared Food
The way you store your food is going to be determined by the type of recipe you’re making, the number of batches being made, and ingredients used.
Most recipes you’ll end up making can be simply thrown in the fridge as they’ll be eaten within the week. Though larger batches such as soups, casseroles, and baked goods can be stored in the freezer. If freezing baked goods, make sure to use an air-tight seal such as an airtight bag to maintain their freshness.
Here is a little cheat-sheet on storage times for different ingredients.
Meat-based ingredients
Beef, pork, lamb, or veal steaks = 3-5 days
Ground meats = 1-2 days
Hard boiled eggs = 1-7 days
Egg salad = 3-4 days
Sausages = 1-2 days
Leftovers = 3-4 days
Plant-based ingredients
Broccoli = 3-5 days
Berries - 2-3 days
Cabbage = 1-14 days
Beets & Carrots = 1-14 days
Leafy greens = 1-3 days
Potatoes = (room temp) 1-14 days
Tomatoes (Cut) = 2-3 days
Squash = 2-3 days
Peppers = 1-14 days
When storing cuts of meat, extra precaution should be taken to ensure there’s no cross contamination with other food. Ideally, meat should be wrapped in either aluminum foil or plastic wrap and then stored in air tight containers to avoid additional moisture exposure.
And keep in mind that after cooking, food can be stored for longer in the fridge than if they were still in their raw state.
Meal Prepping for a Cut
Like I mentioned earlier, the main benefit to meal prepping when trying to reduce bodyfat is that you’re in complete control of the ingredients, therefore, the calories you’re consuming.
There’s nothing really special about what you need to do with your food when on a cut. Though I do recommend opting for leaner cuts of meat to save on calories without sacrificing volume, and to include a wide variety of different vegetables to emphasize said food volume, and to promote a higher fiber intake that’ll promote fullness.
Do you need to opt for leaner meats? Not really. You can still achieve a deficit on a high-fat diet, it's just that for most people, having smaller portion sizes may not be preferable when already hungry due to being in a deficit.
Meal Prepping for a Bulk
The way you meal prep for a bulk is the exact same as you’d meal prep for a deficit. The only difference being the food composition.
If I’m going on a deficit, I may opt for a leaner cut of meat, let's say 94% lean ground turkey.
94% Ground Turkey = 120 cals per 4oz
But if I’m intentionally trying to gain weight, then I might go for a more calorie-dense option. Let’s say 85% ground beef instead.
85% Ground Beef = 240 cal per 4oz
As you can see, you don’t need to go crazy with changing up the way you eat in order to be in a surplus. Just from swapping the type of meat I used, I gained an extra 120 calories for that one serving of food. That’s not even taking into account other simple swaps I could make.
Instead of veggies, I could opt for pasta or rice, or even potatoes.
You really only need about a 200-300 calorie surplus anyway to maximize muscle gain, so there’s really not a lot of change required..
Or you know, you could just go old-school and put peanut butter on everything you eat.
I guarantee you WILL gain weight if you do that :)
