The overlooked reason that MEAL PREP is crucial to WEIGHT LOSS…

Even if you’re already making healthy food choices.

 

It’s all about the numbers, baby!

First of all, great job choosing healthier foods! Quality of your food is one of our three pillars of good nutrition. Eating real food (as opposed to processed foods) will provide your body with loads of nutrients it needs to ensure your thyroid, adrenals, hormones, and everything else that makes up your metabolism, is revving for you – and helps your body know how to use food as energy, instead of storing it as fat.

If your primary goal is improved health, then keep on focusing on eating nutritious real food 🍏

But if you’re also trying to lose weight (shed body fat) or build some muscle, food quantity matters too.

It’s just math, my friend. If you’re eating 3000 calories a day, but only burning 2000 calories a day – you will struggle to loss weight. Plain and simple – even if all of those 3000 calories are from great quality real food!

So back to the topic of MEAL PREP.

If you go about your day, eating intuitively to your natural hunger cues – even if it’s good quality food – you will most likely eat about the same amount as you’re burning in the day. Our bodies have this crazy effective way of wanting to maintain balance. So your natural hunger will often have you eating your maintenance calories. No caloric deficit, no fat loss.

Okay Yvette, so how about I just drastically cut my serving sizes, skip meals, and make sure I’m really hungry – that must mean I’m in a calorie deficit?!

Well, if you’ve been hanging around awhile, you’ve heard me emphasizing again and again NOT to starve!

Too drastic of a calorie deficit may get those lbs falling off, but:

1. it’s so freakin unpleasant and difficult to comply long term with starving, and often just leads to binging every few days
2. before too long your metabolism will begin to down regulate to protect itself, and that means a whole lotta trouble for you for a long time trying to restore balance (and weight).

Please DO NOT starve!

Instead, get expert support in calculating what the right amount of calories and macronutrients you need to support your goals in a safe, effective, and sustainable way.  Get in touch with us for help, whether that’s 1:1 in Rx Macros or a DIY Macros Workbook that we include in Rx Habits.

Right, back to MEAL PREP.

 

MEAL PREPping in advance means you can portion out all your food for the day (meals, snacks, and any drinks), tally up the total calories and macros for everything to make sure it hits the ranges you’re aiming for to support your goals. If you leave it to chance, that probably won’t happen and you’ll end up eating enough to maintain your current weight.

STEP 1: know your numbers (we can help!)

STEP 2: meal prep to consistently hit those numbers. Plan and prep all meals and snacks in advance if you want to dial in and make sure you stay within the target ranges you need to support your goals.

 

In Rx HABITS, the only online gamified nutrition challenge series for the fitness & Crossfit community, we focus on MEAL PREP for an entire month!!!  Loads of tips, tricks, recipes, and support to help you master this crucial strategy so optimal nutrition feels effortless (and dare we say, even fun!)  👊🏼