Six Steps To Better Nutrition And Fat Loss

When we think meal preparation, its easy to think of obsessive bodybuilders and fitness models who go home meticulously spending hours weighing lettuce leaves whilst counting how many ounces of chicken they need tomorrow for that perfect body.

The truth is that at it’s most basic level, food prep is about taking back control of what goes into your body when you eat and drink.

So many people have absolutely no idea the amount of calories or chemicals they consume on a daily basis because they naively assume that food companies are doing what their name suggests – providing food.

The reality is very different, they DO NOT care about you, only how much money they can make. With most packaged foods containing shocking levels of sugar, sweeteners and preservatives.

At the most basic level, preparing most of the food you eat is about sticking a finger up to the companies who control you through unnatural tastes, sugar addictions and the allure of ‘convenience’.

The crazy thing is, preparing your own food really doesn’t take much longer than constantly having to walk to the shop, stand in line and walk back to work, or even sit for 90 minutes in a restaurant.

There is of course a time and place for hanging out with friends and socialising or entertaining clients at a business meal.

However, if you are sick and tired of feeling…sick and tired (and fat) then the most life-changing thing you can do (besides changing your thought patterns around health and fitness) is to learn how to prep your own food.

Here is a 6 Step Guide to prepping your own food. I am going to include figuring out how many calories you need on a daily basis but at first, simply focusing on rough amounts of quality, whole food in your three meals per day, will do 90% of the work. If you form your meals from lean proteins, vegetables and healthy fats with a little starchy carbs (like rice, potatoes etc) and throw some fruit in here and there, you will be much leaner in 4,12, 24, 52 weeks.

If you slow down and eat at a steady pace instead of out of convenience, it’s hard to overeat on those things.

However, for completeness I will lay out your simple steps including calculating calories.

It is also not my intention to analyse every popular diet and what levels of carbs etc are best. The cold (and yet simplifying) truth is that whatever healthy diet enables you to sustain a reasonable calorie deficit over weeks and months whilst training with intensity, is the best diet for losing fat.

Finally, remember that every step closer to 100% food prep is a big step – don’t assume because you can only do it 50% of the time that it’s not worth starting. It really is and as your energy increases, body fat drops and clarity of thought improves, you will likely WANT to make the other 50% happen! 

Ensure you read the whole article as I will explain how to make things even easier with certain free resources.

STEP 1: ESTABLISH YOUR GOAL

Do you want to gain weight, maintain weight or lose weight?

STEP 2: CALCULATE YOUR CALORIES AND MACRO NUTRIENTS

It is essential to know your calorie target and your protein requirements.

The rest (carbohydrates and fats) is really a matter of trial and error. The more and harder you train, the more carbs you’ll want to maintain training intensity.

I want to keep this article as simple to understand as possible, so no long winded calculations here.

There are numerous calorie calculators on the internet that will give you an accurate guide to your calorie needs.

You can also pop in the macro nutrient percentages you want to work with.

I suggest at least 30% protein, 40% carbs, 30% fat if you are training regularly.

For instance, if you need 2000 calories, 600 calories will come from protein, 800 calories from carbs and 600 calories from fats.

The calculator will then tell you exactly what grams you need but this is how it works.

1 gram of protein = 4 calories.

1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories.

1 gram of fat = 9 calories.

In the example above this means we need the following on a daily basis:

Protein: 600 / 4 = 150 grams

Carbs: 800 / 4 = 200 grams

Fats: 600 / 9 = 67 grams

STEP 3: SPLIT CALORIE AND MACRO NUTRIENT NEEDS ACROSS MEALS

The number of meals you eat per day doesn’t really matter much beyond getting your calorie needs in without missing meals, feeling stuffed or being hungry.

Assume you want to eat three meals per day. Now we simply split the requirements as equally as we can without being too anal!

Breakfast: Protein 50g, Carbs 67 grams, Fat 22 grams

Lunch: Protein 50g, Carbs 67 grams, Fat 22 grams

Dinner: Protein 50g, Carbs 67 grams, Fat 22 grams

STEP 4: CREATE MEALS TO HIT THESE NUMBERS

Go to something like MyFitnessPal.

You can have play around with your favourite (natural) foods to find out how much you need of each to hit your numbers.

Breakfast:

Choose your favourite protein source and adjust the amount until you get close to 50g in the meal.

Choose your favourite carb source and adjust the amount until you get close to 67 grams in the meal.

Choose your favourite fats source and adjust the amount until you get close to 22 grams in the meal.

Lunch:

Choose your favourite protein source and adjust the amount until you get close to 50g in the meal.

Choose your favourite carb source and adjust the amount until you get close to 67 grams in the meal.

Choose your favourite fats source and adjust the amount until you get close to 22 grams in the meal.

Dinner:

Choose your favourite protein source and adjust the amount until you get close to 50g in the meal.

Choose your favourite carb source and adjust the amount until you get close to 67 grams in the meal.

Choose your favourite fats source and adjust the amount until you get close to 22 grams in the meal.

THIS WILL BE WHAT YOU EAT ON MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY.

REPEAT THE PROCESS WITH DIFFERENT FOODS TO GIVE YOU THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY.

NB You can also use www.eatthismuch.com which will throw out meals to match your preferences.

You now have a meal plan for six days.

Day 7 can be a ‘free day’ but ensure you are still getting plenty of protein and roughly getting the right amount of calories in – just be controlled.

At this point it is worth pointing out that of course, you don’t have to eat the same thing for three days straight but it makes life a lot easier!

You can eat different things every day if you’re hitting your numbers!

STEP 5: GO SHOPPING

You now have totals for how much chicken you need, how much beef, how many carrots, how much olive oil and so on.

Simply go buy this stuff and nothing else. DO NOT buy your ‘free day’ food now – we don’t want it lying around during the week!

It is important to buy plenty of herbs and spices and even things like lemons and limes in water to keep giving you new flavours.

Remember to buy Tupperware boxes as well. How many depends on how many meals you want boxed up. For instance, if you want to prep scrambled eggs every morning you’ll only need boxes for lunch and dinner. The answer for this stage is “It’s up to you”.

I suggest if you are using oils for your fats that you add those when you are ready to eat to prevent food going soggy and spoiling.

STEP 6: PREP THE FOOD!

for example you can prep on Sunday for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday then prep on Wednesday for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

This will take you about 45-60 minutes.

That really isn’t that long – you likely spend WAY more than that on social media and it will save you time walking to shops for every meal during your working week or worrying about making the right choices. Just bust out your box for that day and you’re off!

SUMMARY

That really is all there is to it.

As you move forward there are a few things to consider so I will try to answer your questions before you have them!

• • It may seem a bit of a chore at first, but once you’ve done it, you’re set to shred body fat consistently. Over time you will need to check in and readjust calories as you lose (or gain) weight but things won’t change much.
  • If you are implementing fasting, nothing really changes other than the number of meals you eat – you will simply split your calories over fewer meals.
  • If you are eating out, it’s not a problem. All good restaurants have a protein-based salad option. The key is to avoid meal choices with lots of cheese, fried food, sauces, gravy, croutons, mayonnaise etc…and of course alcohol!
  • If you get bored easily don’t worry! You simply need to spend a bit more time creating different meals that hit your numbers. You can also use www.eatthismuch.com which will throw out meals to match your preferences.
  • Eating the same every day is fine provided you are okay with it! Ensure you vary your proteins and vegetables across meals so you get variety of micro nutrients and don’t get bored!
  • If you can’t follow the plan all the time don’t worry. Once you’ve done it for long enough you will start to get better at matching your needs by sight and won’t have to count everything. If this keeps your body fat where you want it to be then great – carry on! If things stall or you want to really dial in again, start the process again remembering that your requirements will change with any change in muscle mass, body fat, activity levels etc