Meal Prep For Weight Loss: A Beginner’s Guide

Meal prepping is a gamechanger for losing weight. By prepping nutritious, tasty meals in advance, you’ll have food ready to go throughout the week. So you’ll be less likely to reach for something unhealthy after a long day.

If you’re using using weight loss mediation, like Mounjaro or Wegovy, meal prepping your favourite, healthy foods and snacks can help you reach your goals.

Bonus: it can save you time and money – and a lot of mid-week washing up.

Not sure where to start? If you want to give it a try, this article tells you how to meal prep. And we give you tips and ideas on what to cook.

 

How To Meal Prep: 6 Steps

Meal prepping is essentially cooking in large batches to build a stock of quick and easy meals to have at any time in the coming week (or even month).

To successfully cook in batches, we recommend you follow these six steps: 

1. Plan your meals in advance. This will help you create a shopping list and decide on the quantities you need.

2. Shop for the ingredients. It’s important you stick to your list and avoid impulse purchases.

3. Prep your ingredients. Wash, chop, and portion out your ingredients in advance to save time when you’re ready to cook.  

4. Make large batches of your meals. Use your slow cooker or oven to cook several meals at once. You can then use Tupperware containers to store your prepared meals, or components of your meals. 

5. Store your meals. Once your meals are cooked, let them cool down before storing them in the fridge or freezer. Label and date your containers so you know when they were made. If you freeze your meals, bear in mind that you may not be able to defrost elements separately, so when in doubt, freeze separately.

6. When you’re ready to eat, simply reheat your pre-made meals in the microwave or oven. This will save you time and make it easier to stick to your healthy eating plan. 

 

Let’s use the example of a Mexican-themed night. You can make up a spiced mince and vegetable mix and salsa to be frozen. So when you next want tacos, fajitas or burritos you have the filling (the most time-consuming part to cook) ready in minutes.

Identify which parts of the meal will still taste good when reheated and which should be made fresh. If you like having cereal in the morning for instance, then don’t add the milk the night before. You’ll end up with soggy, mushy cereal and lose its texture (an important part of taste). 

It can also be a good idea to add a bit of variety when cooking one ingredient. For example, if you want to have chicken and vegetables for lunch, you can roast and steam a selection of different vegetables. Or you could spice each portion of the chicken differently.

Essential Equipment

To help make meal prep easier, we recommend buying or sourcing the following equipment if you don’t already have them:

• Blender or Food Processor: Great for smooth sauces and making quick work of a lot of chopping of vegetables and fruit.

• Oven/Grill: A go-to in many kitchens. A healthier option than frying for your meat selections, and a great way to add additional flavour to fruit and vegetables.

• Microwave: Ideal for quick and easy reheating of meals and quicker cooking of certain options (e.g., eggs). 

• Old Sauce Jars, Takeaway Containers: These make ideal containers for portioning and storing your various meals. Would only really recommend purchase of more solid containers if you feel that the meal is at risk of spillage during transport.
  
  

Meal Prep Quick Tips

It’s recommended you steam vegetables if you want to get the most nutrition from them. However, just focus on including a variety of vegetables and fruit using any cooking method (or eating them raw). It can really add some diversity to your meals.

A quick rule of thumb when it comes to meal prep for yourself is to cook four portions of the desired meal, so scale up your recipes. Remember that this may affect cooking time for the likes of stews, soups and anything that requires meat to be cooked surrounded by other food. 

Identify the foods you have regularly, and take note of any way you can prepare these meals in advance. Scale the recipe up by two or four, and give batch cooking a try.

Meal Prep Ideas

Some basic meals which are suitable for meal prep include: 

• Chilli con carne
• Soups (vegetable or pulses)
• Casseroles
• Stir-fry
• Stews
• Sauces (with or without meat)
• Curry

 

And if you’re stuck on dinner ideas, check out these six healthy recipes, chosen to help with Mounjaro and Wegovy diets.

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Updated 25/06/2025