Should you do meal plans to lose weight?
Believe it or not – meal plans are the most commonly requested support that my clients want in the beginning of our sessions. In this article, I’m going to talk about the PROS and CONS or a meal plan. I’m also going to talk about whether or not it will help you or NOT help you.
What are meal plans? Meal plans are pre planned meals that you schedule ahead of time. Meal plans can be anywhere from 3 days in advance or 7 days in advance. The basic principle of meal planning is that you know what you are going to eat for your meals – which means less thinking and more consistency – at least in theory.
You would basically schedule the meals ahead of time so you know what to eat on a certain day or week. While there is some degree of flexibility with meal plans, the concept of meal planning is pretty much the same – plan your meals ahead of time.
What is good about meal planning?
As I mentioned above, meal planning minimizes the effort you need to think and prepare meals by preparing them in batches or at least making it easy for you to prepare them during the day that you eat them.
By having an idea on what to eat and for some how much to eat, it helps you control what and how much you eat – which means more balanced meals – which overall leads to better eating habits. This leads to more energy, weight loss, more control of your health.
When you succeed in planning ahead, you also succeed in making sure you develop good habits and also increase your chance of eating better overall.
Cons of meal plans
While planning your meal ahead seems the obvious reason to eat better and to develop good habits to help you with your nutrition habits, there are some drawbacks to them that some just don’t like.
One of the drawbacks are the pre-planned meals. We’re all human and we’re driven by emotions.
At times, we probably just don’t feel like eating the meals we planned and we want to eat what is comforting or what we “feel”.
As a result, there’s a chance you could waste food because you wanted to eat something else.
Another con for meal planning is likely the repetitive nature of meal planning. Some people just don’t like leftovers and others don’t feel like eating leftovers – that is totally ok but do keep in mind that it will take more planning ahead of time to ensure that you eat consistently (the MOST important thing in weight loss!)
Is Meal Planning For You?
Meal planning certainly has lots of benefits. But with nutrition, just like how nutrition is, NEEDS to be individualized.
If you are a planner and like to plan meals ahead, I recommend picking a day or two to make meals ahead of time. Get your groceries and cook meals that you find delicious and tasty and store them in your fridge.
It can be a combination of simple to more complicated meals. There is no right or wrong ratio of simple and complicated meals. The most important thing is that you stick to it – so whether your meals are ALL simple or ALL complicated – is up to you.
If you are not a planner and would like some flexibility with meal planning, I recommend having items in your house that make it easy for you to make meals. This means stocking up with cooked items (chicken, deli slices, canned items), carb sources (fruits, wraps, sandwich bread), convenience items (yogurt, string cheese, cottage cheese, protein shake), and pre-made vegetables (think salads, cut up veggies, frozen ones).
This also means being flexible in giving yourself permission to do take out meals – within reason! This could mean eating just half of the portions of your food and take the rest home or getting lower calorie option at the restaurant. This could also mean that if you do eat more than what you thought you needed when going out to eat, you could also eat less for the rest of the day to “compensate” for them.
One of the things I help with my clients is creating a roadmap for clients to get them feel great, have more energy, and end the cycle of dieting. If this is for you, send me a message and let’s chat!
