By: Chris Gates

One of the most crucial aspects of any successful weight loss journey is your meal plan. So let’s talk about how to meal plan to lose weight!

In almost every facet of life, your ability to plan for the days and weeks ahead will determine your level of success.

Losing weight is no different.

If you go into each week without a plan, you’re going to struggle.

If you’re banking on the idea that you’ll cook each day throughout the week and figure it out as you go, you’ll end up in the fast food drive thru more often than not.

And that’s not going to help you lose weight.

So let’s talk about how to meal plan to lose weight! Here’s what you’ll learn in this article:

• How to find foods that support your goal of losing weight.
• The best way to plan your meals for the week.
• How to build meals that get you in a calorie deficit.
• What foods are best for meal planning?

Let’s dive in!

How to Meal Plan to Lose Weight: The Goal is Sustainability

As you start to build out your meal plan, make sure you’re focused on the concept of sustainability.

The goal should be to find nutritious foods you enjoy eating, and then find a way to prepare those foods within your busy schedule.

Because if you decide to build a meal plan to lose weight and fill it with foods you hate eating — or you’d never otherwise choose to eat — you’re most likely not going to stick to that meal plan.

And you’ll fail.

Or quit.

Don’t get me wrong. There are foods you may need to eat that are new, or that you’re not thrilled with. We’ll dive into some of the specifics regarding what your meals should look like in a minute.

But you shouldn’t hate the majority of your diet.

If you hate eating vegetables, it’s OK. I get it. Eating vegetables isn’t always a thrilling nutritional experience.

But you’re an adult. You have to eat them.

So eat your damn vegetables, but add them to a meal that you enjoy.

The entire meal doesn’t have to be miserable.

This logic applies to all facets of how to meal plan to lose weight. Sustainability is crucial.

How to Meal Plan to Lose Weight: Meal Prep is Key

Another important piece to creating a sustainable meal plan is figuring out how to be consistent with it.

Really, it all comes down to how well you’re able to plan.

You can have the most perfect plan in the world on paper, but if you don’t actually take the time to prep your meals…

Well then that perfect meal plan doesn’t matter.

One of the biggest challenges I see people deal with is not building meal prep into their calendars.

And yes, I mean physically block off time just like you’d do for your workouts, or your meetings at work, or your doctor appointments, or anything else that’s important to you.

It’s really not hard to carve out an hour or two to prepare food in bulk.

You just need to do it.

If you’ve got a busy schedule, think about ways you can consolidate your time or your tasks to make sure your meal prep happens.

For instance, you could do grocery pick up instead of spending an hour walking around the grocery store. Then take all of that time you saved, and allocate it to meal prep.

Or… And I’m making a wild guess here (not really)…

I bet you watch your favorite movies or shows at least a few times each week. Instead of sitting on the couch the whole time, prep some food and put it in the oven.

It’s not hard to let food cook while you’re doing something else.

When You Plan, Plan For Every Scenario

There are always going to be unexpected things that pop up each week, but for the most part you know what your schedule will be.

• You know when you’ll be working.
• Your meetings are already scheduled.
• If you have to travel, you’ve already booked it.
• You know when the kids have soccer practice.
• And your weekend plans are already in place.

None of these things are reasons to abandon your meal plan.

Instead, these are opportunities for you to plan ahead and take into account what each day looks like, and how your meals can best fit each situation.

This is an absolutely crucial element of how to meal plan to lose weight.

I see it all the time. You know you’ve got a work trip coming up, but you do nothing to plan for it.

Then you head to that work trip and expect everything to work out perfectly, and it doesn’t. Because you did nothing to plan ahead.

You’re not going to be able to make every situation work out perfectly, but you can make each situation go as well as possible.

Don’t plan to eat food that needs a microwave if you won’t have access to a microwave.

Don’t prep food that requires a fork and knife if you’re going to be driving all day.

That lack of proper planning is going to send you right to the fast food drive thru window more often than not, and that’s not going to support your goal to lose weight at all.

How to Meal Plan to Lose Weight: Calorie Deficit is King

At the end of the day, your meal plan needs to get you in a calorie deficit. And I’ll walk you through some of the food choices to help you do that in a minute.

But let’s make sure we’re on the same page first.

A calorie deficit is how your body loses body fat, and in turn it’s how you lose weight. There’s quite literally no other way to make weight loss happen.

And a calorie deficit means you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming from food.

There are a number of ways you can figure out how to get into a calorie deficit.

• My article on how to know you’re in a calorie deficit maps out all of the details.
• Tracking calories is going to be the most efficient way to get into a calorie deficit.
• But you don’t HAVE to track. You can read my article on getting in a calorie deficit without tracking if that suits you better.
• And if you want to make your calorie deficit as easy as possible, I’ve got an article explaining how to do that as well.

Nutritious foods that are high in protein or high in fiber are typically the best options to lose weight.

So let’s dive into how to build your meals!

How to Meal Plan to Lose Weight: How to Build Your Meals!

The best place to start with building your meals is with a protein source.

We talked about sustainability already, so… What protein sources do you like? Or at the very least, what protein sources can you tolerate?

I’ve got a list of my nine favorite options if you need some inspiration to get started. And if you prefer a plant-based approach, I’ve got another seven options that should help you start to build your meals.

Protein is the most satiating macronutrient there is, which means it’s going to fill you up. It will also help you improve your body composition through the process of losing weight by retaining muscle mass, or even building new muscle mass.

Start with protein, and then complement it with a whole, nutritious carb source that you enjoy. This could be anything, but a few of my favorite options are:

• Quinoa
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Oats

All of those options are extremely versatile, and you can cook them up in bulk and store them easily.

The last piece to the puzzle is making sure you add a fruit or vegetable to each meal. Fruits and vegetables will provide you with micronutrients that are crucial to your growth, development, and overall health.

They’re also high in fiber, which has been shown to increase the feeling of fullness after meals, along with protein.

Once again, choose from the fruits and vegetables you enjoy. There’s no reason to make this complicated.

If you hate broccoli, but love green beans — eat green beans!

If you hate citrus fruits but love honeycrisp apples… I think you know what the right answer is.

Cook this food up in big batches so that you’re not cooking every day. And you can store it in one of two ways…

1. Store each bulk item in a separate container, and pull food from it throughout the week.
2. Portion out each meal right after you cook the food, and have those meals ready to go in individual containers.

Do whatever makes the most sense to you, and whatever works best for your lifestyle.

But make sure you do it. That’s the most important thing!

Easy Foods to Prep and Store

Alright, I promised you a list of foods that are ideal for meal prepping, so let’s dive in!

I’m not a big fan of prescribing meal plans, to be honest. So I’m not going to tell you that you HAVE to eat these foods.

The best way for you to build a meal plan for yourself is through your own experimentation, trial and error.

I can’t tell you what’s most sustainable for you. Only you can do that.

But some of these foods may get you off to a good start…

• Lean Meats like chicken, turkey or fish are great options to focus each meal around. And they’ll provide you with a ton of protein per serving.
• Rice and/or quinoa is easy to prep, and it’s super versatile. It can fit almost any meal.
• Most grocery stores sell plastic bins of salad, which are easy to pull from throughout the week and add veggies to your meals.
• Frozen foods like vegetable bags, breakfast sandwiches, chicken sausage, shrimp, chicken or salmon burgers, and many more are quick and easy options.

How to Meal Prep for Weight Loss: Some Final Strategies

One last thing worth mentioning is that it’s OK to eat some of the same foods throughout the week. In fact, it’s something I encourage my clients to do on a regular basis.

If you can find 3-5 meals that you enjoy eating on a regular basis, and they work you towards your weight loss goals, then by all means — keep eating them!

Having some standardization to your diet will make managing your meal plan so much easier.

You don’t have to eat ONLY those 3-5 meals. But if you eat them on a regular basis, they’ll make figuring out the rest of your diet each day a lot easier.

And it may also allow you to have an indulgence or two throughout the week, which is also something I’d highly encourage you to do.

To be clear, by “an indulgence or two” I don’t mean letting your diet spin off the rails completely. A lot of people do really well Monday-Friday, but they never see progress because Saturday and Sunday turn into a total shit show.

I mean an indulgence or two. Like one or two.

You can fit in a craft beer, or an ice cream bar, or a nice juicy steak throughout the week when the rest of your meal plan is dialed in.

It won’t ruin your progress.

In fact, it will probably help you make more progress, because you’re giving yourself some of the things you enjoy.

That’s what I mean when I talk about sustainability. You need some of that in your meal plan to lose weight.

I Hope This Helps!

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading this article! I hope you found it helpful 🙂

If you have any questions at all about what you read here, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to help.

And if you feel like you need additional help on your weight loss journey, check out my coaching page! I work with clients all over the world and help them lose weight, build muscle, and develop healthy habits through fitness and nutrition.

I’d love to help you achieve your goals as well!

~ Chris