​ How to Meal Prep for the Week for Beginners

In this quick article, I am going to show you how to meal prep and more importantly, become a pro at meal prepping.

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How Most People Meal Prep:

The most basic go-to meal that everyone is familiar with is :

Protein

Brown Rice

Broccoli

It’s simple.

It works and works well.

However, if you’re like me (fat boy at heart), this type of meal structure will get old quick, and frankly:

All jokes aside, the hardest part of any diet is sticking to it.

Vince Delmonte once said:

“The best diet is the one you follow.”

Any diet will work, so long as you stick to it.

Eating brown rice, chicken, and broccoli out of Tupperware every day will make your diet so much tougher than it has to be.

I prefer eating 2-3 big meals per day using intermittent fasting, but that’s beyond the scope of this article.

Instead, you should find 3-4 meals that you like and are easy to make for meal prepping purposes.

That is how you succeed at meal prepping and getting lean.

So, if you’re brand new to meal prep, sit back and watch how it’s done 🙂

The Basic Necessities Of Meal Prep For Beginners

Step 1: Get a Digital food scale.

This step is straightforward.

Go to your local grocery store or Amazon and get yourself a nice electronic food scale.

I use this one.

It comes with a detachable bowl so you could measure foods easier and so that you can eat out of 🙂

Step 2: Get Measuring Cups for Oils, Dressings, etc.

Measuring cups aren’t necessary for everything.

However, they’re necessary for measuring out your oil, if you use it for cooking.

A whopping 140 calories can be found in a tablespoon of olive oil so make sure to measure out your oil.

These can be found at our local grocery store and should be less than 5$.

Step 3: Get the Essentials for Each Food Type

To make each meal count, each meal should contain protein, carbs, and fat, as well as some treats to keep you sane 🙂

Choose 2-3 foods from the following lists for each food type and stick with them:

Protein:

• Chicken Breast
• Ground Turkey (99% fat-free works best)
• Ground Beef (96% Lean, 4% fat works best)
• Cod
• Salmon
• Steak

For protein, I like to mix it up.

For example, I would have a chicken breast for every first meal of each day of the week.

Then, I would have salmon for every second meal and Ground Beef for every third meal of the day every three days (not too much red meat :)).

Mixing it up like this will not only get you a variety of nutrients and protein but also keeps it from being boring every day.

Carbohydrates:

• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Brown/White/Wild Rice
• Black/Pinto Beans

For carbs, I like to stick with either sweet potatoes or rice.

I can’t get enough of either so whatever you like more, go with that.

Again, mix it up every day at your leisure.

I find that sweet potatoes fill me up more, but if you don’t like sweet potatoes, opt for just regular red/Yukon potatoes.

When Making Your Meals – Think of Chipotle (Yummmm)

Why think of chipotle?

Because it’s the perfect example of the ideal meal for meal prep.

You got your veggies (lettuce) your carbs (brown/white rice), and your protein (chicken, steak, etc.) and that’s it.

It’s simple.

Add the right seasoning and some salsa, and you’re on your way to meal prep success.

Another way to look at it is by imagining a plate that you have.

Half of this plate should be your low-calories vegetables.

The other two-quarters should be your carbs and proteins.

I believe Carter Good’s Instagram picture dictates this well:

Note: Just because you prep your meals does not mean that you will automatically lose weight. You still need to be in a caloric deficit.

How to Actually “Meal Prep”

For the actual “Meal Prep” part, I’d advise you to take either 1 or 2 days out of the week to prep all your meals.

For example, I take two days out of the week to do my meals whenever I decide to meal prep.

Sunday and Wednesday are my “prep” days.

On Sunday, you would take 1-3 hours out of your day to cook an enormous amount of your protein and carbs of choice and spread them out into the containers for however many meals you plan on having for each day, up until Wednesday.

Don’t forget to weigh out all of your food to get accurate calories and macros for your meals.

Meal Prep tip: Use a slow cooker for your chicken breast. This tip is a quick and easy way to prep a huge amount of chicken for the week.

The reason I only do it up till Wednesday and not for the whole week is that usually, the food doesn’t taste as good if it’s in the fridge for more than three days and the vegetables get stinky.

On Wednesday I repeat the process and prep my meals up until Friday.

Don’t Prep Meals For The Weekend (Unless You Have Too)

Weekends I don’t Meal Prep because I’m usually home or eating out at a restaurant.

Meal Prep tip: Leave one meal for the day that you do not prep.

Every meal should not be meal prepped in my opinion.

For the first couple of meals, sure, but for the last meal of the day, eat something fresh and treat yourself.

Make it something that you look forward to every day.

The main reason most people meal prep is due to work, family, business, etc.

Meal Prepping is just an easy way to make things easier for you, but you should still treat yourself every night to keep you sane, and so you don’t fall off of your diet.

I recommended HALOTOP because, well, it’s fu***** amazing.

It’s a great snack to end the day on plus it’s packed with protein and low calories… great for weight loss!

Example Day of All Your Meals

Meal 1: Salmon, Brown rice, Spinach, bell-peppers (last three mixed all together)

Meal 2: Ground Beef (96%/4%), Sweet potatoes, lettuce

Meal 3: Shredded chicken breast, brown rice, black beans, broccoli (mixed all together).

Meal 4 (NOT prepped): Whatever you’d like as long as it fits your caloric deficit. I’d choose some treat like HALOTOP or Greek yogurt with fruit.

Every day of the week should look somewhat like this.

It’s not necessarily a meal plan, but find what works best for your lifestyle and stick to it.

Don’t make it more complicated than it has to be.

Find 2-3 meals that you like and stick with them.

How Big Should Your Meals Be?

This all depends on how many calories you have to deal with.

If you have 2000 calories, for example, your meals should be either evenly dispersed (calorie wise) or dispersed in a way that compliments your style of eating.

If you want to evenly disperse your meals, it would look something like this:

Meal 1: 500 calories

Meal 2: 500 calories

Meal 3: 500 calories

Meal 4: Unprepared meal, 500 calories

If you want to distribute your calories in a way that compliments your style of eating (let’s say you like having a big lunch), it would look something like this:

Meal 1: 350 calories

Meal 2: 1000 calories

Meal 3: Unprepared meal, 650 calories

It all honestly depends on your style of eating.

Personally, I like the second method better.

I like big meals 🙂

It’s why I love intermittent fasting so much.

However, meal prepping does have its benefits.

With whatever method you choose, I hope this article helped you in your fat loss efforts 🙂

Let me know if you need any more help by leaving a comment below.

I’d love to help!

Thanks,

Christian