Meal prepping gets a lot of attention whenever someone begins their health and fitness journey.
In this article we will look at reasons for meal prepping and when it should be implemented into clients' routine.
First of all, it is important to address the flawed thinking in many people’s mind that meal prepping is a must-do.
Approaching meal prepping with this attitude leads to most people not even beginning to make any changes to their nutrition.
They think that “nutrition is too difficult”, “I could never stick with that”, “It’s just not sustainable”.
The truth is, if your goal is fat loss, what is important is to attain a calorie deficit, and you don’t need meal prep to achieve the deficit or even fat loss.
That said, meal prepping is a tool in the toolbox that definitely helps.
REASONS FOR MEAL PREP 1. Eating out racks up a lot of calories fast
Anyone who has tried to hit a prescribed calorie and macro target would soon find out that eating all of your meals out causes you to bust your calorie allocation.
This is because meals out are usually fried and tend to contain more calorie dense cooking ingredients such as oils and sauces.
You may also find it challenging to meet your protein targets from meals out, and if you are training hard to build muscle in the gym, this should be a priority.
REASONS FOR MEAL PREP 2. Control over your food
For the above reason, you will find that cooking your own food gives you the most control compared to other alternatives like eating out and meal delivery companies.
You have complete control over the calories, macronutrients, micronutrients, food quality, freshness and taste of your food.
This is critical when you are in a cut and need to optimize every calorie and macro.
There is less leeway in this season of nutrition, and being able to make slight changes to meals will go a long way.
REASONS FOR MEAL PREP 3. Cooking is a skill that needs practice
Next, something that people fail to realize is that their seeming dislike for meal prepping could be due to them having not spent the time and energy to hone their cooking skills.
Cooking is a skill that needs practice, and the best time to start is now.
REASONS FOR MEAL PREP 4. Fat loss is for but a season
Last but not least, we cycle clients through different phases of nutrition as the amount they are eating needs to coincide with their goals for the period (build phase, cut phase, maintenance, reverse).
One thing clients need to understand is that fat loss is for a season.
So while meal prepping may become a lifestyle for some, for most of us, meal prepping is usually in support of your fat loss goals, where you are dialing things in more strictly, and this should be for a time-bound season only.
Further to this, part of holistic nutrition coaching includes educating clients how to eat better meals out.
Hopefully this article helped shed some light and calm some nerves around this topic.
Remember that your nutrition should be in sync with your physique and athletic goals.
And if you are just starting out don’t focus on making earth-shattering changes, instead focus on the little changes that you can implement right away and go from there.