Meal planning can be a great tool if you are serious about losing weight. When done right, it can help create the calorie deficit required for weight loss while also providing your body nutritious foods it needs to function and remain healthy.
When it comes to weight loss, most people know the benefits of meal prep (we'll dive deeper into these after). However, people with the best healthy-eating intentions are frequently tripped up when they try to put up those decision-making principles into action without a plan. The main idea for meal planning for weight loss is to have a specific goal and a specific plan. I love being organized. I love writing in my notepad and writing down goals (I always create goals using the S.M.A.R.T. goal method) and how I want to achieve them. Yes, writing them down is all great, it gets you excited. But if you also don't take action, nothing is going to happen. End of story.
Getting back to meal planning, making meals ahead in batches for your week is the key to meeting your goals and healthy-eating aspirations. Having a healthy dinner waiting for you in your fridge makes it far easier to pass on ordering takeout for the night. Knowing you spend time prepping nutrient-packed ingredients makes grabbing takeout far less enticing.
Before we get into the benefits of how meal planning for weight loss works, I wanted to give you some helpful tips to make meal planning work for you. Let's get into it.
Helpful Meal Planning Tips For Your Success
1) Pick A Meal Planning Method That Fit Into Your Routine
There are various ways to meal plan, so be sure to pick the method that best fits your routine.
You may decide to batch-cook all of your meals over the weekend, so you can easily grab individual portions throughout the week. Alternatively, you may prefer to cook daily, or twice a week, in which case, opting to prep all of your ingredients ahead of time might work best for you.
Batch shopping for groceries is another great strategy that helps save time while keeping your refrigerator and pantry filled with nutrient-dense food.
2) Pick Enough Recipes
Picking an adequate number of recipes ensures that you have enough variety when meal planning for weight loss that doesn't require you to spend all of your free time in the kitchen.
When selecting how many meals to make, look at your calendar to determine the number of times you're likely to eat out - whether for a date, client dinner, or brunch with friends.
Divide the remaining number of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners by the number of meals that you can realistically cook or prepare for the week. This helps you determine the portions of each meal you'll need to prepare.
Choose Some Of Our Top Recipes Here - Enjoy
3) Speed Up Your Meal Prep Time
Meal Prepping doesn't have to mean long hours in the kitchen. Here are a few ways to speed up your meal prep time.
Stick to a routine: Picking specific times to plan the week's meal, grocery shop, and cook can simplify your decision-making process and make your meal-prepping process more efficient.
Grocery shop with a list: detailed grocery lists can reduce your shopping time. Try organizing your list by supermarket departments to prevent doubling back to a previously visited section. Check out this grocery list planner that I use.
Pick compatible recipes: When batch cooking, select recipes that use the same variety of food groups. Use the same vegetable or the same meat. Select recipes that use the same appliances or dishware so that clean-up is easier.
Schedule Your Cook Times: Organize your workflow by starting with the recipe requiring the longest cooking time, then focus on the rest.
Inexperienced cooks or those simply wanting to reduce the time spent in the kitchen may want to pick recipes that can be prepared in 15-20 minutes from start to finish.
4) Storing And Reheating Your Meals Safely
Storing and reheating your meals safely can preserve their flavor and minimize your risk of food poisoning.
Here are some government-approved food safety guidelines to keep in mind.
Cook Food Thoroughly. Most meats should reach an internal temperature of at least 165F (75C) while cooking, as this kills most bacteria. This is a thermometer that I use for my cooking.
Thaw Food In The Refrigerator. Thawing frozen foods or meals on your countertop can encourage bacteria to multiply. If you're short on time, submerge foods in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes.
Reheat food safely. Make sure to reheat your meals to at least 165F (75C) before eating. Frozen meals should be eaten within 24 hours of defrosting.
Dispose Of Old Food. Refrigerated meals should be eaten within 3-4 days of being made, and frozen meals should be consumed within 3-6 months.
Summary
To achieve the best results for meal planning for weight loss, consider the above tips to maximize your results.
Pick a meal planning time specifically according to what will work in your schedule.
Pick enough food and different varieties that will not make you sick of eating the same thing every day and be sure you're getting enough nutrients that your body needs.
Learn the ways how you can speed up your meal planning so you don't waste hours in the kitchen.
Learn the proper ways how to store and reheat your meals.
Now that we have some helpful hints for meal planning for weight loss. Let's learn how meal planning can benefit us in the long term.
5 Benefits Of Meal Planning For Weight Loss
You're More Likely To Reach Health Goals
You've probably heard that meals cooked at home are typically lower in calories compared to eating out from restaurants. But did you know that they also tend to have more fiber and vegetables, fewer carbohydrates, and less sodium, sugar, and saturated fat? Overall diet quality increases as the number of weekly meals prepared at home go up. This is why individuals who regularly prepare meals at home have an increased length of lifespan.
Cooking meals at home increases your chance of reaching health goals, no matter if those are to lose weight, improve heart health, or keep blood sugar in check. And meal planning is what gives you the ingredients and resources to make this happen daily.
It Saves You LOTS Of Money
It's a no-brainer that cooking at home saves money, but I was shocked to discover just exactly how much. A 2018 Forbes article compared the average cost per serving of preparing over 80 popular dinner recipes at home to the cost per serving of that same dish purchased from a restaurant or a delivered meal kit. The study found that it costs five times more to order that dish from a restaurant than it does to cook at home, while meal kits were a little less expensive at around three times the cost. The savings are substantial when you add this up over a month. Meal planning makes it easier to cook more consistently at home, and savvy shoppers can save even more by incorporating weekly sales into planning. So the next time you're budgeting for a trip or expense, consider meal planning to help save you money month over month. I use this budgeting planning book for my expenses. Check it out here!
It Enables Variety And Gives You Control
Meal planning is associated with increased food variety, a key component of a healthy diet that increases the likelihood of meeting nutrient needs and making healthy eating a lot less dull. Perhaps even more importantly, cooking at home also gives you control and choice over ingredients. It's easier to avoid problematic food allergens and to incorporate ingredients that support diets for your specific health, such as low-carb, vegetarian, and dairy-free or gluten-free diets. You also can work in seasonal, local produce, or ingredients farmed with certain practices. In short, the applications for menu variety are limitless when you're the one doing the mean planning.
Meal Planning Streamlines Shopping And Decreases Food Waste
It wasn't unusual for me to make a grocery run two or three times per week pre-coronavirus. Either I forgot items, or I didn't get enough on my initial trip to make it through a week. But things changed in 2020. Now, creating a grocery list based on a meal plan is the only way I manage to get everything I need in a single trip. Not only does that reduce the time I spend risking potential exposure to coronavirus at the grocery, but it saves me money I'd otherwise use on gas to make all the extra trips back and forth to the store.
An additional benefit to meal planning is that I've found I'm more likely to use what I have on hand, like canned goods, dry grains, and other forgotten pantry items. I'm also more cognizant about using up perishables before they go bad, as well as finding creative ways to use open condiments in my refrigerator, like pesto. Rather than spending money on food I don't have, meal planning helps me reduce food waste and mitigate needless shopping trips by utilizing what's already on hand. Bonus! Planning and cooking my meals at home also means I have leftovers, so I don't always need to purchase as many lunch ingredients.
Meal Planning Prevents Decision Fatigues
Want to know what I consider the biggest perk of meal planning for my life? I don't have that nagging, late-afternoon stress associated with deciding what to do for dinner. I know that may sound silly—especially when comparing that to the health, financial, and food waste benefits—but decision fatigue is a real thing. And for this working parent, it's something that adds stress and anxiety to my day, which I most definitely do not need more of. But meal planning helps me alleviate that fatigue. So when I'm not particularly motivated on Sunday to take 30 minutes to meal plan before I shop, I stop to think about how much easier afternoons are when I already have ingredients stocked with a plan on how I'll use them up. It also keeps me from having to repeatedly answer the "Mom, what's for dinner?!" question since our weekly menu is posted on the fridge.
Save yourself a lot of stress, time, and money by adapting a meal plan to your weekly routine in 2023. The results will surprise you.
To Sum It All Up For You.
Meal Planning for weight loss is a very beneficial tool anyone can use if their serious about losing weight. Set a specific time to do your grocery shopping, and meal preparation, and just enjoy the countless benefits you can gain from it.
Comments