15 Ways Meal Prepping Can Help You Lose Weight

Got some extra weight you want to lose?

Me too. And I know exactly how to do it.

No iffy pills, fad diets, extreme exercise or tasteless diet meals required.

In fact, I don’t even need to count calories.

My secret to shedding pounds quickly and effortlessly when I need to is so simple anyone can do it …

… Just meal prep!

meal prep containers with tape measureI know it sounds too good to be true, but I assure you simply prepping healthy, satisfying, reasonably-portioned meals really does work.

Now before you freak out thinking you’ll need to cook and contain every single meal in advance for the next month – relax. That’s not necessary.

You can start with just one easy prepped meal each day, something simple, like a healthy lunch you prepare the night before. Of course, you’ll need to eat sensibly at every meal whether it’s a meal prep or not for this plan to work.

Just stick with it and you should start to see results – which will inspire you to add even more make-ahead meals to your meal prep routine!

So how exactly can meal prepping tip the scales in your favor?

I’ve come up with 15 ways meal prepping can naturally help you lose weight.

Before I share, please note I’m not a schooled nutritionist or certified dietician; I’m just a regular person giving you my observations based on years of experience meal prepping for myself and my family. Everybody’s different and your weight loss results may be too. This is just what works for me.

So if you want to get fired-up about using meal prepping as a weight-loss tool, run through these 15 reasons to dig out the Tupperware today and give meal prepping a try …

#1 Make your Meal Preps as Close to Paleo as Possible

Ok, this one’s a big, fat “Duh!” to you long-time Paleo Newbie readers. Most of you already know you can instantly eliminate somewhere around 70% of the empty carbs and other useless junk in the typical American diet just by staying away from processed foods, refined sugars, grains, vegetable oils, and dairy products.2 meal preps of tuna fish

#2 Meal Prepping Reduces Stress To Help You Eat Less

The clock’s ticking and you’re all stressed out about what to make for dinner tonight. Well, thanks to your stress hormones, when you finally figure it out chances are you’re going to eat too much. And worse, you’ll likely store those extra calories in your fat cells. A delicious pre-made paleo meal waiting for you in the fridge or freezer ready to heat and eat is about as stress-free as you can get.

#3 With Meal Prepping You Don’t Need “Willpower”

So many diets rely on you to resist overeating, or eating only certain foods in limited amounts, or expect you to ignore the nearly constant hunger pangs. You can take all those out of the equation when you stick to healthy, well-balanced, and satisfying make-ahead paleo meals. You’ll always have plenty of delicious food to eat that fills you up with nourishing protein, good carbs, and healthy fats.

meal prep chicken leg dinner#4 Skip the Calorie Counting with Paleo Meal Preps

You rarely need to count calories with prepped paleo meals. Following a well-balanced paleo diet automatically provides all the satisfying nutrients you’ll need while eliminating the highly processed and refined carbs that cause most people to gain weight. As long as you’re not dipping into “paleo-fied” foods like paleo pancakes, muffins and cookies – or overdoing the fruits and nuts – you can put your calculator back in the drawer.

#5 Meal Prepping Eliminates the Drive-Thru Detour

This is what got me started meal prepping when my kids were small. After a long day at work, stopping for a dinner-in-a-bag from the nearest fast food joint seemed a whole lot easier than coming home to hungry kids and trying to whip up a decent home-cooked meal on the fly. A little easy meal prepping on the weekends got us all eating healthy and stress-free during the workweek.

#6 Meal Preps Help Ensure Portion Control

If you’re worried about eating too much, dividing your meal preps into individual servings will go a long way toward reaching your weight loss goals. You may want to experiment with different portion sizes, and let your body tell you how large or small your meals should be to keep you satisfied and your energy levels high while still helping you lose weight.

#7 Got A Meal You Tend To Overeat? Turn It Into A Healthy Meal Prep

Is there one particular meal in your day that may be keeping you from reaching their weight loss goals? It could be running out for a quick lunch and picking up something less than healthy. Or it might be overdoing it at the dinner table after a long day. If so, start your meal prepping routine with your most problematic meal first. Turn it into a healthy, well-balanced, and delicious meal prep you’ll enjoy and watch the weight start to peel off.

asian chicken meal prep for weight loss

# 8 Prep Your Snacks To Avoid Mindless Munching

Healthy snacking is a good thing for most people. It can help you control your hunger and decrease sugar cravings. But be careful — snacking is also one of the easiest ways to let excess carbs get in the way of your weight loss goals. That’s why you should portion out your higher-carb snacks for the day into one or two individual servings. Enjoy sliced veggies all you want, but put some healthy limits on the nuts, seeds, and sliced fruits you consume between meals each day.

# 9 Put A Lid On Weight Gain With Salad Jar Lunchesmason jar paleo salad to help with weight loss

One of the best things you can enjoy for lunch is a healthy salad. But how do you prep it ahead of time and keep it fresh and crisp until you’re ready to enjoy it? Try “Mason Jar Salads” using a screw-top, airtight jar. Start with the dressing on the bottom, make the next layer your protein, add any veggies or fruit next, and then finally fill the jar with leafy greens. Jar salads will stay fresh for days in your fridge. Put a dry paper towel on top before sealing to absorb excess moisture.

#10 Skip The Store Brands and Make Your Own Healthy Salad Dressings

You’d be amazed how many supposedly “healthy” salad dressings on grocery store shelves are loaded up with sugars, artificial flavors, preservatives, and mystery chemicals. Not what you want topping your healthy salad when you’re trying to lose weight. The good news is you can whip up an awesome dressing or vinaigrette quickly at home using simple ingredients you probably have in your fridge or cupboard right now.

#11 Enjoy Food You Actually Like And Still Lose Weight

What a concept! Instead of forcing yourself to eat the latest trendy “diet” food you may not like or that doesn’t keep you satisfied and energized, you can easily prep paleo dishes for every meal of the day that are healthy, nutrient-dense, and taste fantastic. You’ll actually look forward to enjoying meal preps like this instead of dreading your next meal.

orange chicken bowl for weight loss

#12 Meal Prepping Pays You Back With More Free Time

For many people trying to eat healthy and lose weight, the daily cooking grind can be time-consuming and exhausting. With meal prepping, you just spend a couple of hours on the weekend (and maybe another hour or so midweek) preparing some or all of your meals for the busy work week ahead. A little quick assembly or reheating right before each mealtime and you’re ready to eat. You’ll have more energy to do something else – like spend more time with your family, exercise, and yes, even get more rejuvenating sleep. (see #13)

#13 Meal Prepping Gives You More Snooze Time

Good quality sleep is so important when you want to lose weight. Countless studies have shown poor sleep habits can increase food cravings and make you eat more than you should the next day. When you meal prep, you can put the time you’ll save not cooking ever day into hitting the sack earlier and waking up refreshed and ready to go.

#14 Meal Prep + Exercise = Fat Lossmeal prep for weight loss salad with avocado dressing

Combining regular exercise with your meal prep routine creates a powerful one-two punch to knock out those fat cells faster than anything I know. When you get your body revved up and your hormones in sync, you’ll be burning calories for fuel instead of storing them as fat. Both meal prepping and exercise require a little discipline, but the combined results are well worth it.

#15 The Meal Prep Buddy System

Grab a family member or friend who also wants to lose weight, and either cook your meal preps together or have a little friendly competition to see who can pre-make the best meals. You could even trade prepped dishes to add more variety to your meals. Of course, the real advantage of conspiring with a friend is to support and inspire each other to reach your individual weight loss goals.


If you’d like to learn a whole lot more about meal prepping and how it can be a real time-saver in your busy life, check out my new Kindle ebook: The Big Guide To Fresh & Fast Meal Preps. Not only is it chock-full of great meal prepping advice and tips, it includes over 75 easy and delicious meal-prep-ready paleo recipes. And it’s still priced ridiculously low for 340 jam-packed pages you’ll refer to often. Now available exclusively on Amazon.com: The Big Guide To Fresh & Fast Meal Preps

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  1. We love your recipes more than anyone else’s! They are always delicious…a true answer to pray. ?❤️???

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