Lose weight? Build muscle? Meal Prep! The way to reach your goal and save time.

No time? Stressed? Tired? Empty fridge? These are just a few of the reasons why people turn to supermarket ready meals or stop at fast food restaurants on their way home.

Perhaps you are already familiar with meal prep and have tried it for yourself. Or maybe the term is completely new to you. One thing’s certain, it is the answer for anyone who is short on time. It will free up time in your day and help you to meet your goals. In the following article you will discover what meal prep is. Furthermore, you will find tips, inspiration and meal prep recipes.

Meal Prep refers to the process of planning and preparing your meals in advance. This is no radical new discovery or complicated science. It is however a very interesting and above all very practical concept, once you know how it works.

The principle behind classic meal prep is to set aside time one day a week and to cook ahead for the following days – usually with a very clear goal in mind. It is up to you whether you cook ahead for three days, for five days or follow a completely different pattern. It should however fit into your life rather than being an annoying chore. You could for example precook just your breakfasts, lunches or dinners, or prepare a double portion of your dinner in the evening and eat the rest for lunch the following day.

In summary, you decide what you want to eat and in what quantites, you make a shopping list and then buy all the ingredients you need. Then decide on your cooking days – no more excuses.

• Are you short on time but still want to eat a healthy, balanced diet, or build muscle mass?
• Do you hate having to think about what you are allowed to eat, when to cook and when to go shopping?

Body builders, in preparation for competitions, have long been using the meal prep method with rice, broccoli and chicken. More recently meal prep has made its way into the main stream. With meal prep you have an overview of the nutrients you are getting and can avoid all of the hidden, unhealthy ingredients you find in shop bought meals. On that note, the Upfit BMI calculator also helps you to determine your optimal nutritional needs.

Does the following situation sound familiar to you? You rush out of the house in the morning and to save time you pick up something from the bakery for breakfast. At work you are sitting endlessly, are stressed from meetings and calls and in the evening you just want your peace. Or are you a shiftworker and are just happy when you know which day it is? Alongside your job, family and friends you forget to take care of yourself. You rely on ready meals or order take away from your trusty takeaway shop? Rolls from the supermarket, pizzas, kebabs, and sandwiches not only lack nutritional value but they are also money and calorie traps.

Meal prep is the perfect solution for anyone who wants to avoid these traps. Who doesn’t want to save time and stress in their every day life whilst eating well? Sportspeople, the healthconscious, parents, shift workers, body builders, students, those trying to lose weight etc. – there is the perfect meal prep option for everyone.

You’re probably wondering whether meal prep would work for you and how exactly it can help you to reach your goals. Here a summary of the advantages:

• precooked meals prevent cravings and mindless snacking
• you save time on cooking (cooking one big meal is quicker than cooking several small meals)
• you know exactly what you are consuming (no hidden sugar, additives etc.)
• you can take into account any intolerances (gluten, fructose, lactose etc.)
• you just need to warm up your meal during your lunch break, or when you get home from work or from the gym
• you save money, because you use all of the products you buy, aren’t ordering take out or buying marked-up convenience foods
• you are not dictated by what is on offer in the cantine
• you no longer need to ask yourself “what should I eat today?”

Broadly speaking meal prep consists of two phases: planning and cooking. Here is a breakdown of each stage.

Before you can begin cooking your meals, you need a good plan. Thorough planning is half the work and an absolute must for every meal prepper.

Get an overview of everything that you have ahead of you for the following week. This way you can work out how many days you need to cook for, and see which days your calorie requirements are going to be higher because, for example you are going to the gym.

It is important to work out which days you actually require precooked food. If you have planned to go out for dinner with friends on Friday say, then you don’t need to precook for that day. If you eat breakfast at home each day, then you only need to pre-cook your lunches and dinners. You can design your plan to fit in around your life.

Before you go shopping you need to pick out your recipes and check which ingredients you already have at home. Take into account the sell-by date of the various foods. It would be pointless to cook a meal consisting of chicken with fresh fruit, and low-fat quark on Friday for the following Sunday as it will just go bad. Meal prep works on the principle of overlap. You will get no benefit if on Sunday you precook Spaghette bolognese for Monday, Potato soup for Tuesday, Curry with rice for Wednesday, baked potatoes for Thursday and a couscous salad for Friday. It is better to base your meals for the week around some common elements and then add variety from there. If you have a particular goal, such as weight loss, then it is important that you keep an eye on your calories. Here you can find delicious low carb recipes for weight loss.

With all of this in mind, you can create your shopping list. Make sure you only buy what you really need and are sure you will use. That way you will not end up throwing away food and will not be tempted to deviate from your carefully organised plan.

An Upfit Nutrition Plan saves you all of this planning, so that all you need to do is the shopping and cooking.

Once you have done the shopping, you can begin cooking.

Lay out everything you need on your workspace. This gives you a good overview.

Required kitchen utensils:

• Large pots and pans for the preparation of large quantities
• Chopping boards
• various knives
• Tupperware boxes
• If necessary, a mixer, food processor, soup blender etc.

Now you can get started. Pasta, rice and potatoes can be cooking whilst you are opening food packets, draining tins or chopping vegetables.

Once you have cooked something, place it next to the window to cool it down. When everything is finished, you can portion up your meals into your tupperware boxes.

Once everything has cooled down completely you can close the boxes and organise them in the fridge. If you are preparing all your lunches and dinners for 5 days, then you should factor in around 2 hours of cooking time.

• Due to their shelf life, dairy products (quark, joghurt etc.) can only be prepared one day in advance.
• If you eat a lot of veggie stir-fries etc. spend time on one day cutting up a large amount of vegetables in one go and freezing them. This saves you the chopping on the individual cooking days and instead you just need to defrost the veg.
• Frozen vegetables are no less healthy than fresh vegetables. They may taste less crunchy after defrosting but this doesn’t effect their nutritional value at all.
• Find parallels between recipes. It is helpful for meal prep beginners to note down the preparation methods of meals in as much detail as possible including any intermediary stages. This way they can start drawing parallels between recipes
• For the sake of food safety it is important that everything has cooled down properly before being sealed in an air tight container. Not everything will finish cooking at the same time. Each time an individual component has finished cooking, put it next to the window to cool it down. This will speed up the cooling down process.
• If you are pre-cooking for several days, you can quickly fill up those tuppers. Label your boxes with Post-Its in order to avoid any confusion.
• Sometimes meals lose some of their flavour due to their storage. It is therefore a good idea to keep some salt and pepper handy at work or in your rucksack.
• By varying your spices and sauces you can keep your meals interesting. Even if you are having chicken two days in a row, it will taste completely different, if the first day you marinate it with soy sauce and curry powder and the next day you eat it with classic salt and pepper.

It is essential that your meal prep boxes are:

• airtight
• leak-proof
• free of toxins

The following qualities are a bonus:

• suitable for the microwave
• freezer-safe
• dishwasher-safe

You can also get boxes containing several compartments. These keep your foods separate allowing you to combine them just before eating. These also keep your snacks organized. Whether you buy plastic or glass containers is down to personal preference (plastic has the advantage that it is lighter to carry around in your bag). You should however avoid aluminium-, foam- or cardboard boxes, as they create unecessary waste.

• Cooked vegetables last for 3-4 days.
• With fresh fruit and vegetables, you should rely on your senses. Some types of fruit and veg will still taste flawless after a week.
• Vegetable varieties which are well suited to meal prep cooking are:
• Tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, aubergines, courgettes, sweetcorn, pumpkin, Sugar snap peas, asparagus
• Carrots, cucumbers and radishes are great for snacking on raw

• Good snack for inbetween meals are:

Nuts, trail mix, olives, mixed pickles, pickled gherkins, beef jerky

Everybody has days when they just don’t have the time or energy to go shopping. In order that you can still follow your meal prep plan, there are a few basic foods that you should always have at home.

These foods will be a saving grace when your fridge is empty and you can’t get to the supermarket.

• Wholegrain products

Wholegrain products such as brown rice, quinoa and wholegrain pasta are easy to store and have a long shelf-life. They are quick to prepare and are the perfect addition to many dishes. What’s more they deliver essential nutrients such as vitamin B, protein and fibre.

• Frozen vegetables

If you don’t have time to buy fresh vegetables or you find your veg often tends to go bad, then frozen veg can be a real life saver. You avoid throwing away food and frozen veg is also much easier to portion. It is a perfect last minute addition to just about any meal and delivers vitamins, minerals and fibre. It is a myth that nutrients are lost during the freezing process!

• Pulses (from a can)

Beans are nutrient rich: They are a good source of plant-based protein (about 20g per 100g). They have a long shelf-life and are very versatile. Buy them in large quantities so that you always have them in your cupboard when you need them. You can mix them into salads, make veggie burgers out of them, or use them in chilli’s or curries.

• Oats

Oats are relatively high in calories, but are also a great source of complex carbohydrates and fibre. They help regulate blood sugar levels and keep food cravings at bay. They are extremely good value (500g only cost around 40p), making them the perfect basis for a healthy breakfast or snack. Note: they are not suitable for a low carb diet but are great for those trying to build muscle.

• Eggs

Eggs are extremely versatile. They have a relatively long shelf-life and you can quickly turn them into a tasty meal. You could make an omelette, a fried egg sandwich or simply a boiled egg and you have 3 completely different meals. They are also a protein rich addition to salads and bowls.

• A variety of spices

Spices are essential for anyone doing meal prep. Since meal prep centres around overlaps, spices are necessary to bring in variety, aroma and taste.

• Broth

Regardless of whether it’s chicken, beef or vegetable, broth is not only great for the winter months or a bout of flu, but for all year around. You can either prepare your broth from scratch and freeze it in batches or buy it already prepared. Broth is the basis for many recipes and you should always have some to hand.

• Buying too early

So you are motivated to carry out your plan and eager to carry out your big shop for the week? You need to remember that certain ingredients don’t stay fresh for long. For that reason it is best if you do your shopping either the day before, or better still, on the same day that you do your cooking.

• Shopping ‘according to mood’

To minimise food wastage and to make your shop as cheap and efficient as possible, it is essential to plan properly. Write down which meals you are going to prepare that week and create your shopping list accordingly.

• Overly complex recipes

This mistake is particularly applicable to beginners: Don’t pick out overly complex recipes with many, unfamiliar ingredients. If the recipe doesn’t work, you will be disappointed, and you run the risk of ruining more than just one meal. This wastes time and is demotivating. Start with simple, familiar recipes, until you have become accustomed to the meal prep process and are used to cooking in larger quantities. That is the time to begin challenging yourself with more and more complicated recipes.

• Too little preparation time

Don’t start preparing your meals if you are in a rush or in the middle of another task. If you are under time pressure you will create unnecessary stress for yourself and probably make mistakes, so anticipate this in advance and make sure you pick a day for cooking when you have sufficient time.

• Untidy kitchen

Avoid chaos! You will be quicker and more relaxed if you have all utensils ready and in easy reach. This saves you needing to look around whilst you are cooking. Additionally, it is essential that your knives and chopping boards etc. are clean. If you use the same board to chop meats and foods you eat raw, you are aiding the growth of bacteria. The bacteria that find themselves on the unheated ingredients can make you unwell.

As a rule, meal prep is perfectly suited to achieving weight loss. As we have already alluded towards, the failure to lose weight often arises from eating too many unplanned snacks to the point that you completely lose the overview of how many calories you have consumed. Regardless of whether you are picking something up from the bakery, snacking on a chocolate bar or ordering your favourite takeaway: At the end of the day you will no longer have an overview. This is fatal since a negative calorie balance is essential for weight loss. Conversely, if you know your calorie requirements and stick to your plan, you are less likely to be tempted by any unplanned meals and snacks.

If combining meal prep with weight loss, you should follow the following tips:

• Include plenty of vegetable dishes, get your protein from lean meats and low-fat fish.
• If, for example, you always pick something up on the way to work, you could try preparing just your breakfasts in advance for the week. If, on the otherhand, you often order takeaway in the evening, because you are too tired to cook, you can prepare only your dinners ahead for the week.
• You don’t need to completely cut out treats and can allow yourself something sweet now and again. Leave yourself a few calories spare each day, to allow yourself a few pieces of chocolate or similar. Here it’s the quantity that counts. It doesn’t matter if you eat the occasional chocolate bar or ice cream – as long as this is in moderation and your overall calorie balance is still negative.

Low carb denotes a nutrition form, which keeps your daily carbohyydrate intake to a minimum. It makes sense to build low carb meals into your meal prep if you are trying to lose weight. The following is a list of low carb foods:

In our detailed Low Carb Guide you can learn more about the basics of low carb nutrition and how you can implement it into your own diet.

Professional body builders have long been using meal prep with broccoli, rice and chicken with successful results. This is the best example to show that meal prep is ideally suited to building muscle.

The same principle applies whether you are a hobby athlete, body builder, or you simply want to gain weight. To increase muscle mass it is essential that, alongside the correct training, you eat enough calories. The rule is simple: no calorie surplus, no muscle increase. With our calorie calculator, you can easily compute your calorie requirements for building muscle. There are many reasons why you may not be able to meet these calorie demands over the day. For example during the day you don’t have enough time, don’t have enough food with you or you simply can’t manage the volumes because the calorie density of the foods you have chosen are simply too low. It is almost impossible to shovel all the remaining calories down in the evening. Meal prep is the ideal tool for spreading your calories evenly and manageably over the day. You can be safe in the knowledge that if you have eaten your prepared meals, then you have consumed enough calories.

Pay attention to these tips when combining meal prep with muscle building:

1. Don’t skip breakfast! As already mentioned, the greatest challenge when trying to gain muscle is to get your calories as cleanly as possible. If you skip breakfast, you would need to eat huge portions for lunch and dinner.
2. Plan healthy snacks such as nuts, fruit or smaller meals for inbetween your main meals.
3. (Protein) shakes are a good addition to your diet. You can add ingredients such as oats, nuts or bananas. These shakes are high in calories and therefore good for building muscle.
4. Plan larger meals with quick release carbohydrates and high quality protein for after your training sessions. After an intensive training session you are not only hungry but your muscles are particularly good at absorbing nutrients.
5. Muscles are made of protein, so it is important that you consume adequate protein if you are trying to build muscle. The normal recommendation is to consume 1g protein per Kg of body weight per day. However this should be doubled if you are trying to build muscle.

That was a lot of theory. For inspiration and to get an idea of what such a plan looks like in reality, you can find recipes geared towards various goals and diets available for free download here. Are you interested in getting information and inspiration regarding your drinks? Then our drink guide is exactly the right thing for you!

The nutritional breakdown and calories are of course not adapted to your body and goal, since everyone has completely unique requirements. You can use the nutrient calculator and calorie calculator to adapt the quantities to your own needs.